Discover Sicily’s Easter and “Arches of Bread” centuries old tradition!

Spring represents a rebirth of nature.
Sicily does not have very cold winters, so spring arrives and nature reawakens here earlier than in other parts of Italy.
For example, already in March the almond trees are blooming in Agrigento!

Even the beloved story of the seasons takes place in Sicily, the myth of Demeter, the goddess of grains and harvests, and her beautiful daughter Persephone.
While innocently picking flowers near Enna, in central Sicily, Persephone was kidnapped and carried to the depths of the underworld by Hades. Heartbroken, in her search for her daughter, Demeter forgot to make the world bloom, hence autumn and winter, and overjoyed at Persephone’s return, the advent, once again, of fertile spring and summer.
Spring is also a time for gathering herbs and wild plants in Sicily. The local markets are teeming with wild herb vendors called “fogliamari”, leaf collectors.
Spring is also the best time to savor creamy ricotta cheese, as the pastures and mountains are full of fresh plants and the sheep that graze on them produce the perfect milk.
There is a tradition that is still observed whereby local Sicilians visit shepherds early in the morning to taste the warm, just prepared, and delicious ricotta cheese!
Spring is also the season of broccoli or ‘ndaganati’ (tossed in a pan with oil) and added to pasta, a real farmer dish, while wild asparagus is gathered in the countryside and used in frittata.
Bunches of wild fennel are chopped fine and used in a delectable dish of spaghetti made with fresh sardines, dried currents, pine nuts, and topped with toasted bread crumbs.
Artichokes are another spring delight: roasted, marinated, or fried are all delicious.
Not by chance, every year on April 25th, the small town of Cerda outside of Palermo hosts the Festa del Carciofo (Artichoke Festival), where artichokes are served in more ways than you could possibly imagine!

Easter is one of the most important holidays here, and many cities and towns all over Italy are known for their celebrations.
Altars are decked with ornate floral sepulchers, while antique painted wooden statues of saints are paraded through the streets, palm leaves are intricately twisted and blessed, and hung next to the pictures of the Madonna in every home in Sicily.
Many cakes and sweets are made just this time of year, including beautifully decorated cakes in the shape of doves and marzipan lambs of all sizes.

Actually, each part of the Catholic world has a slightly different take on Easter tradition. In Spain, for example, celebrations last for days with dramatic penance processions held by Catholic confraternities during the “Semana Santa”, Holy Week while, in Ireland, it was considered good luck to sow grain on Good Friday. Meanwhile, somewhere in our Sicily, people celebrate Easter by creating “Arches of Bread.”
Each year, for a month, residents of San Biagio Platani, a village in southwest Sicily, team up to build life-size monumental structures made of local herbs, cereals, and bread.
This centuries old tradition is definitely one of Italy’s most fantastical one.

Its origins trace back to the establishment of the village itself, in feudal times.
Historically, in the 17th century, Sicily was ruled by Philip IV of Spain, who incentivised the establishment of rural fiefs to meet the Spanish Empire’s growing demand for wheat.
In 1635, local landowner Giovanni Battista Berardi bought a farming licence and charter for the pricey sum of 200 ounces and founded a new village called “Lands of San Biagio.”
At the time, It was custom throughout the empire to welcome visiting authorities by constructing sumptuously decorated arches of triumph, just like the Baroque-style “Porta Nuova” in Palermo.
But, unfortunately, San Biagio, a mere rural town in the Sicilian hinterland, was not Palermo.
They lacked marble or tapestries, so they made arches of bread.
And, around the mid-18th century, when new rulers no longer demanded ornate displays of welcome, the people of San Biagio adapted the concept for a religious context.
During Easter, in fact, the ruler is Jesus Christ, who defeats death and comes back to meet the Madonna and, as attested by a document kept in San Biagio’s main church, the Church declared that a portion of the village harvest should be used to make the Arches of Bread.

Since then, Every Easter, residents have teamed up to build towering structures made entirely of locally sourced, organic ingredients.
There men, women, and children build the arches with inlaid sugarcanes, willow, wild fennel, and asparagus under the supervision of local artisans.
On Good Friday, they decorate the arches with rosemary, which symbolizes grief while, on the night before Easter Sunday, they replace the rosemary twigs with round-shaped bread loaves, chandeliers decorated with dates, mosaics of made of rice and legumes, and “marmurata”, a sweet, unleavened bread glazed with white icing.

Each ingredient is not casual and takes on a symbolic meaning stemming from Christianity and local farming culture.
Bread, fornexample, symbolises farmers’ hard work, but it’s also the symbol of the body of Christ, and other decorations reflect a dual symbolism too: motifs from local folk traditions, such as the sun, moon, and stars, appear alongside Christian icons such as white doves.

Initially, townspeople built just a few arches. But as the tradition evolved, more and more structures were added, in a way, resembling the inside of San Biagio’s cathedral, which is made, not by chance, of three naves.
That’s when things changed and got more fun, with participants who started to intentionally position the arches in a way that resembled the inside of the cathedral: a central aisle surrounded by two lateral naves, one leading to the altar of the Virgin Mary, and another to the altar of Jesus Christ.
Historically, the altar of Mary was curated by the confraternity of Madunnara while Jesus’s was curated by the Signurara.
And the entire population of San Biagio belongs to one of the two teams.
So locals decided to play a game, with each confraternity would prepare arches for their respective side of the church, and then they would pick a winner.
A few months before Easter, each team nominates an artistic director whose job is to create an impressive food design.
Secrecy is essential, so the planning and building takes place in abandoned warehouses that become food-sculpting labs, where each team makes chandeliers from dates, mosaics from barley, legumes, and pasta, and, of course, a varied assortment of bread loaves, everything coated with a natural resin that make their creations absolutely rainproof.
And everyone, from children to grandmas, is involved.

On Easter Sunday, the two confraternities march along the towering food sculptures eventually meeting up in front of the main church where Mass is celebrated.
And, during the evening, the Arches of Bread are lit up giving the town a fairytale look in a celebration that stands as a powerful symbol of the triumph of life over death.