Around this time of year, in the lead-up to Tots Sants (All Saints Day), you will find bakeries and patisseries offering a wide and colourful array of Rosarios (strings of beads for praying, or rosaries), albeit of the sweet variety. These Rosarios are for the little ones and are traditionally presented to them by their grandparents or their godparents. As far as I know, this is a typical tradition of Mallorca and not really seen in the rest of Spain, give or take the proverbial exception to the rule. It is said that this often highly elaborated sweets arrangement was first recorded during the 17th century. It is thought that it has to do with the customary visit of all the family to the cemetery on November 1st (All Saints Day), when the deceased family members are remembered and revered. The sweets were given to the little ones as a reward for their patience during the cemeterial visit or simply to keep them quiet and occupied. The best rosaries are handcrafted strings fashioned of handmade pralines, boiled sweets, candied fruit, chocolate, marzipan and such like. Prices are usually calculated by the weight of the stringed object and range from 9 to 50 € in a quality Pastissería or from 3.50 to 9.95 € in one of the supermarkets. Naturally, these cheaper varieties are not handmade and mostly consist of boiled sweets.

Good sources of artfully elaborated Rosarios are Pastisseries Pomar in Campos, Pastissería Ramís in Llucmajor or Pastissería Can Franquet in Palma.

The photo was taken in Campos, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: October 29th, 2011. The time was 14:46:59.