Our Lady of Trapani procession (Tunis)

Our Lady of Trapani procession is a traditional festival that the Tunisian Christian community celebrates on the 15th of August of each year at Saint-Augustin and Saint-Fidèle's church in the city of La Goulette in Tunis.

It used to begin with the exit of the Madonna from the church on the shoulders of believers, who make her cross the streets of La Goulette, walking up to Tunis, all accompanied by a musical troupes.

According to popular culture, the prostitutes of the city came in the evening, accompanied by their pimps, to prostrate themselves at the feet of the cross, thus performing the so-called rite of the Madeleine.

The festivities take place simultaneously in Trapani in the same way, but what distinguishes the Tunisian version is the diversity of the participants who, in addition to Christians, also include Muslims and Jews in Tunis.

The tradition of the procession was abandoned in the 1960s, due to the decrease in the number of Christians living in La Goulette, and until 2017, when the celebration resumed after Mass, but in a less visible way, in the interior courtyard of the church.