The patron saint of Gragnano is Saint Sebastian, celebrated on 20 January in the church dedicated to him, seat of the parish of San Giovanni Battista and also known as the church of the Rosary for the confraternity attached to it.
Gragnano is known throughout Europe as the Town of Pasta: it is the Italian town that produces and exports the largest quantity of pasta, macaroni above all, and since 2013 its production has held the European Protected Geographical Indication «Pasta di Gragnano». The quality of the so-called «white gold» was and is helped by particular climatic conditions, such as a light, humid air that allows the macaroni to dry slowly, and by the quality of the spring water that once fed as many as thirty water mills, whose ruins can still be admired in the Valley of the Mills. In this very valley, since 1969, local artisans have created every year a famous nativity scene, set in a rural context that reinforces its realism.
