La granara d'orí - The palm bunch

In Val Badia, after laborious preparations, the young people used to display the granares d'orí or granares de giac - the palm bunches (in Ladin literally: brooms, so called because of their shape) - on Palm Sunday, and they still do so today. The palm bunches are proudly brought to the church to be blessed. Later they are placed in front of the house or in the field to ward off evil forces and to invoke God's protection.

The boys compete with each other and compare their palm bounches to see who had made the biggest and most richly decorated one. The central support is made from a trunk of red willow and to complete the work, junipers are tied to the branches of the willow, some olive branches are placed in the middle and finally coloured ribbons are hung on the composition.