SANT'ANTONINO PROCESSION
On the first Sunday of May, Sorrento celebrates Sant’Antonino
with along procession in the streets led by the silver statue portraying
the Saint.
EASTER PROCESSIONS
Duringthe Easter period, there are two processions in Sorrento:
the 'White Procession' that takes place during the night between
Holy Thursday and Good Friday. The members of the archconfraternity
of 'Santa Monica' arrange and participate to the procession all
dressed in white and wearing white hoods covering the face, too.
White is the colour of Our Lady who is looking for her Son, betrayed
and in the hands of the priests of the Temple. The night of Good
Friday the 'Black Procession' takes place: the same people are
all dressed in black, with black hoods: they mourn for the death
of Jesus Christ. Very suggestive is the great silence and complete
darkness and the flickering of he torches.
PALMS MADE OF SUGARED ALMONDS
This is a typical tradition of the Sorrento Coast: palms made
of sugared almonds are blessed together with natural palms during
the Palm Sunday Mass, when Christians recalls the triumph of Jesus
entering Jerusalem. Women of Sorrento make these palms using sugared
almonds, which are then blessed and eaten. This tradition is very
ancient: it was probably brought by a Saracen woman that donated
this kind of palm to a local angler during one of the sieges by
the pirates.
There are two versions of the story: during one of the sieges
by the pirates, the inhabitants of Sorrento prayed Sant'Antonino
asking him to free them. The saint helped them and the pirates
shipwrecked. Only a woman, a slave of the pirates, did not die.
She was welcomed and helped by the inhabitants of Sorrento, so
she donated sugared almonds to thank them. Another version of this
story tells that during a Saracen siege, ships shipwrecked because
of a storm and a girl arrived to the coast. She was captured, but
not killed. To thank the population that had saver her life, she
donated sugared almonds to a local angler.
The storm that caused the shipwreck is mentioned in some documents
in Salerno and Amalfi. According to the tale known in Salerno,
the Saracen pirate Redbeard arrived to Salerno with many ships
in 1544. Other ships continued towards Amalfi. The inhabitants
of Salerno prayed their patron Saint Matthew, while the inhabitants
of Amalfi prayed their patron Saint Andrew. Suddenly, a storm hit
the Saracen ships, and they all shipwrecked.
Ettore Panella |
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