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The week before Easter is rich in surprises in the Peninsula of Sorrento. Palm Sunday is the day on which the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem is remembered and the inhabitants of Sorrento bring olive branches, blessed by a solemn ceremony.
Near to these palms, there are more particular ones realised with coloured sugared almonds which are present only in the Peninsula, since they are related to an ancient legend.
According to the legend, while the inhabitants of Sorrento were busy with their daily activities, the bells of the Peninsula’s churches started ringing on the 1551 of April in order to signal a danger. Numerous Turkish ships had been noticed sailing towards the coast. Even though they were used to their raids and were equipped with fortified walls and watchtowers, the citizens were frightened. However, they were lucky on this occasion: the winds rose, the sea became rough and the ships sunk. Only a young slave was found alive on the sea shore by a fisherman, who brought her in a church where the mass of Palm Sunday was taking place. He knelt in front of the altar and, to thank god, offered a sack of sugared almonds. In these times, sugared almonds were not known in the Peninsula and caught the curiosity of everyone. They were given to the bystanders and the Turkish girl taught them how to prepare the sweets.
It is also told that from that day on, families used to reunite to braid and manufacture the sugar almonds in the days before Palm Sunday. This tradition is still respected today and it has spread in other bordering towns in the last years.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)