Among the several customs that take roots in a population there are certainly some that makes it unique, that tend to distinguish it from others. If we ask for the traditions that are a distinguishing sign of Sorrento and the Sorrentinian, we cannot avoid to refer to the traditions of the Easter time.
Besides the Holy Friday Processions, Sorrento is also characterized by a long series of religious manifestations who develop along the time span of the whole Major Week.

The first evocative date is the Palm Sunday, a day when we remember Jesus' entrance in Jerusalem, greeted by the joyful population of the Holy City, who used to pay honour to David's Son, waving, at his passing by, enormous branches of palms.

Here the palms are substituted by olive's twigs that are blessed during a solemn ceremony that takes place at the presence of hundreds of believers.
Traditionally, together at the simple olive's branches are also blessed more characteristic palms; such as the one adorned with little cheeses of local production (the "caciocavalli" ) or those prepared with comfits ("confetti"). And around the traditions of the comfits' palms an old legend has born. It is said in fact, that some centuries ago, we had an attempt of Saracen invasion just around these areas
.
The Sorrentinian sought the danger and took refuge in the Cathedral where with their prayers they 
Invoked the grace of being saved from the pillage.

It seems that this grace was conceded, in fact the Saracens ships were wrecked just off the Sorrentinian coasts.
Only a girl, a slave of the Saracens, managed to save herself and swam reaching Marina Grande, looked for refuge in town. Thus, she also got to the Cathedral, where she was lovingly welcomed by the Sorrentinian, and to thank them for the kind treatment received she untied a little sack she used to wear around her neck and deposited its content on the altar: they were coloured comfits.
That day, it is said, was the day of the Palm Sunday, and to remember this event, the Palms in Sorrento are gaily coloured as the comfits, still today.

But the most evocative religious rites are, without any doubt, those of the Holy Thursday, a day when the institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper, is celebrated; the day when Jesus washed the twelve Apostles' feet.

The memory of such event is renewed both with the ceremony of the "Lavanda dei piedi" ( "Washing of feet"), that takes place during the celebration of the Holy Mass in Coena Domini, where the Bishop "washes" twelve priests' feet; and with the sumptuous apparatus of the "Sepulchres", during which, the Holy Sacrament is worshipped, in a frame of rich drapings, of light, of wheat and ornamental plants.
To go for the "struscio", which means to visit the Sepulchres during the night between the Thursday and the Holy Friday, was once a pious tradition, especially of the women. 

The number of the Sepulchres to visit had to be necessarily uneven.
After the dramatic experience of the Processions of the "hooded" we get to the Easter Sunday that is announced by the sacred and solemn sound of the bells that had been "tied" during the previous two days.

The coming of Easter forewarns Spring and the Sorrentinian do not waste the opportunity for an healthy trip to the country on the Easter Monday.
In this way, thus, an intense and touching time is concluded, a time of sweet and dramatic tones during which we feel part of a Mystery bigger than us but that fascinate and unite because of the atmosphere of brotherhood that it creates.