Women weave them for the family members and for the closest friends. According to schemes consolidated over time, constantly enriched by the creation ideas of the creators.
The sugared almonds palms are brought on Palm Sunday to bless in the churches of Sorrento and of the coast including with the usual olive branches, embellished as well with paper flowers and small cheeses. Created with a thin iron wire twisted, the palms are actually compositions of colored sugared almonds, which take the shape of flowers in small baskets, branches or small trees.
The legend dates the origin back to 1558, in the occasion of one of the incursions with which the Barbary Pirates threatened for centuries the life of the Peninsula inhabitants. That time a sudden wind storm, raged precisely when the enemy fleet was getting close to the coast, swelled the sea so much that all the boats sank. Only a young Saracen slave survived, lead by the waves to the beach, where as fisherman saved her. He took her to the closest church where Palm Sunday mass was celebrated. As a sign of gratitude, the young women gave to her saviour the sugared almonds she was carrying with her and which were unknown in Sorrento before then. There, the young woman lived, teaching to the local women how to transform the sugared almonds into flowering branches.
Beyond the legend and the family uses, sugared almonds palms in the last decenies have become a form of typical craftsmanship from Sorrento. In fact, the happy and coloured creations, made at home by the expert hands of Sorrento women, are nowadays fully considered a typical characteristic of Easter shopping in the Sorrentine Peninsula.
