Also this year on Palm Sunday with #"Parmureli" of the Riviera di Ponente in the Vatican

For Easter on the occasion of the celebration of the liturgical rite of the Passion of the Lord, the traditional delivery of parmureli to the Holy Father Francis, to the cardinals and bishops, as well as to the faithful present in the churchyard of St. Peter, will be renewed. The parmureli artifacts are made one by one, according to tradition, by master weavers who work with great skill the young and white palm leaves.

Next Sunday, the day of ritual that begins the Holy Week, a special parmurelu will be delivered to His Holiness as precious wish, in memory of the privilege obtained from the Ligurian towns of Sanremo and Bordighera, which provide the Church of St. Peter the white palm leaves for Easter celebrations.

The parmurelu which will be donated to His Holiness was braided with three palm leaves together, symbolizing the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The work has been prepared in recent days in Sanremo at Il Cammino Coop. Soc, along with other 3,000 smaller specimens, all intertwined in the tradition of Western Liguria. The city of Sanremo contributes to supply .

The privilege of CAPTAIN BRESCA

Captain Benedetto Bresca was in Rome in St. Peter's Square on September 10, 1586, the day in which was raised the Egyptian obelisk, 26 meters high and weighing 350 tons, as provided by Pope Sixtus V. Given the delicacy of the operation, led by the architect Domenico Fontana, the Pope had ordered the many present faithful absolute silence, threatening severe penalties for anyone who should transgress the order.

Defying the ban, Bresca shouted "Aiga ae ropes" (water on the ropes, in the Ligurian dialect) when the ropes supporting the obelisk, overheated and too tense, seemed about to give way. Captain Bresca, a man of great seafaring tradition, knew that hemp ropes when wet, they cool and prevent fraying.

The warning of the sailor was caught and averted the collapse of the obelisk. Sixtus V instead of punishing the captain for the transgression, thanked him and offered him to choose his own compensation for the providential suggestion. Bresca asked and obtained the privilege, for himself and his descendants, to have the privilege of being the official supplier of the Easter palm leaves for the Pontiff.

He himself transported directly from Sanremo to Rome bundles of leaves aboard the 'boat of the palms'. When the boat reached the mouth of the Tiber, he rose up on the flagpole , the flag of the papal navy, papal banner which gave him the right to override the other boats, because of the importance of the obtained privilege .

The tradition lives on today with the delivery of parmureli

The ancient tradition had stopped in the 70s and up to that time had been delivered only not intertwined leaves. It was then in Rome that the Camaldolese nuns intertwined the white shoots for the Churches of Rome.

Instead today are delivered parmureli in the Vatican, palm leaves already intertwined in various art forms, according to the tradition of Western Liguria. An art that has transformed itself into a passion, a set of techniques and operations of weaves, that generations of families have passed down from father to son. The ancient knowledge is now taught and disseminated through schools of intertwining, which organize specific courses for learning the more traditional techniques.

The parmureli, have not only ornamental value, but also a deep religious significance. Continue, in fact, to bring a message of joy, peace and hope, recalling the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Promote the ancient tradition of the intertwining and sending palmureli to the Vatican, is also a task of great historical and cultural value. The delivery of parmureli and the representation of religious symbols dear to the faithful, is proposed as a tribute to the Holy Father and the Church institutions.