A Beautiful Return to the Festival of Sant’Anna

On July 26, Sorrento celebrated the Feast Day of Sant’Anna, the patron saint of mothers and women in labor. The celebration was held in the fishing village of Marina Grande where the church of Sant’Anna is located. The day started with a mass at 6 a.m., followed by early morning fireworks.

The celebration carried on for the rest of the day with stands selling food, locally handmade goods, and carnival games around the Marina. Beautiful hand embroidered handkerchiefs, jewelry and local sweets were just a few of the many items sold.

The festival is made up of many components that let people clearly see the local culture. It gives the community an opportunity to show off its identity and therefore every year gets to strengthen it. While the festival is attended largely by locals, tourists were also able to enjoy the festivities. This included a number of students studying at the Sant’Anna student thanks to the encouragement of the institute’s director, Olga Stinga.

In the last two years, the festival was not possible because of Covid. Last night the people crowding into the church and around the musicians and stands made it clear that the people in attendance were ready to put Covid behind them and have life go back to normal.

After plenty of great music, the day’s festivities came to a close with a final display of fireworks.