Tony Alfieri noted that prior to World War II it was the custom in his hometown of Santa Croce di Magliano, Molise, to give young girls "Cestino" home-made sweets as presents on Easter Sunday. The three-dimensional basket-shaped Easter sweets [see photo] were made with sweet taralli dough. Many of these "cestino" sweets were beautifully decorated (Tony claims the one he made and which he took a picture of and is now shown in this entry is actually pale imitation of what was traditionally made in his hometown). The "cestino" Easter sweets required a great deal of skill; the dough was attached to small branches of olive trees that were carefully cleaned and prepared. Obviously, the olive branches were not edible, they were simply added to create the design of the basket, and enhance the beauty of the sweet. Each "cestino" Easter sweet came with a hard-boiled egg in it. Little girls often were given their "cestino" sweets at church or prior to church. After Sunday Mass they could be seen carrying their "cestino" by their handles all over town. The little girls were very proud of their cestino gifts and were quick to show them off to anyone who asked (Of course, everyone made a fuss over their gifts and told them how pretty they were etc.). Boys also got Easter sweets as presents, except theirs came in the form of a coiled braid. They were called "turtel" [For a photo see "Holiday Breads"]. In Santa Croce di Magliamo the "turtel" had a huge hole in the center (like a taralli, except bigger). Each "turtel" came with a hard-boiled egg. Larger "turteli" were also made for entire families -- often these larger braided Easter cakes had two or three eggs worked into dough. Prior to World War II households in Santa Croce like in many other places in Molise baked their cookies and cakes in a communal oven (a business run by the local baker). In smaller towns like Casacalenda, the communal ovens used wood as fuel, in Santa Croce, which was twice the size of Casacalenda in the 1950s, they used straw....

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