The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sicilian \Si*cil"i*an\, a. Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants.
Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.
Vespers \Ves"pers\, n. pl. [OF. vespres, F. v[^e]pres, LL. vesperae, fr. L. vespera evening. See Vesper, n.] (R. C. Ch.)
One of the little hours of the Breviary.
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The evening song or service.
Sicilian vespers. See under Sicilian, a.
Wikipedia
The Sicilian Vespers (; ) is the name given to the successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter, 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266. Within six weeks, three thousand French men and women were slain by the rebels, and the government of King Charles lost control of the island. It was the beginning of the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
Usage examples of "sicilian vespers".
Of the day of the Sicilian Vespers, when the people of Sicily had risen to slaughter the French occupying army so many hundreds of years ago.
But twenty years later, the French who had made themselves thoroughly unpopular in Sicily were all murdered during the so-called Sicilian Vespers, and so it went.
This occasion -- this monumental occasion -- was shaping up to be a veritable Sicilian Vespers for the seating equipment.