But as happened in the Vatican, these laws were not adhered to in daily practice. Siciliani sunu un populu pragmaticu. Typically, the time of the year Jews dreaded most was the Holy Week which culminated in the reenactment of the passion of Jesus, a reenactment that still takes place in costumes and with elaborate productions worthy of Hollywood in many Sicilian towns. Still, such outbreaks were sporadic, temporary and causally linked to outside agencies. They were momentary departures from the normal behavior of Sicilians.
Fanaticism is totally alien to the Sicilian modus vivendi.
Sicilians are very pragmatic people. They are extremely rationalistic and will not perform acts of brutality unless family honor is at stake. Sicilians, as Tomasi di Lampedusa observed, have a way of changing everything that comes to them from the outside and the hot wind of antisemitism in crossing the Mediterranean sea became much cooler when it reached Sicily and even then it was not easily tolerable. Racism, as Titta Lo Jacono wrote, is an imported plant, but unlike the prickly pears or orange, it has never taken roots in Sicily.