Porté a signé - The food blessing

One of the ancient traditions that is still alive in Val Badia is porté a signé - the food blessing. On Easter Sunday, lunch is brought to the church, usually in a beautifully decorated basket, to be blessed.

In the past, the food consisted of cioce - bacon, cern - meat, üs - eggs, trëcia - sweet pretzel, agnel da Pasca – a lard or butter loaf in the shape of an Easter lamb, farina - flour and ajet - horseradish. Some farmers also thought of the animals and brought hay flowers to be blessed, keeping some in case they fell ill.

There was a belief that food that was not eaten on Easter Day, such as flour that was kept in the pantry, transferred the blessing to all other food.

Another folk belief was that eating blessed horseradish would protect against snakes and their bites.