15 Dec AN ITALIAN CHRISTMAS
Sick of the commercialisation of Christmas? Well, perhaps think about heading to Italy, where although the trappings of commercialisation are creeping in, many Italian families still celebrate Christmas in traditional ways.
Christmas traditionally begins on 8 December, when the Christmas lights that festoon the streets of almost every Italian city are turned on. This date marks the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which celebrates the conception of Mary, mother of Jesus.
Presepi, or nativity scenes, are installed in churches and homes throughout the country, with an empty manger awaiting the arrival of the baby Jesus. Christmas markets begin in the piazze of major towns.
On Christmas Eve churches celebrate midnight mass, with the service beginning about an hour before midnight; as the clock strikes twelve, the Christ child is carried into the church by a procession of priests who bless the figure and then place it in the manger. The lights are turned on and the congregation celebrates.
Italian families celebrate Christmas Day with a family lunch. You won’t see turkey and the trimmings though! What families eat depends very much on where they live. Luca’s Friulian family would typically enjoy soup or risotto with porcini or radicchio and speck, Montasio cheese, boiled meats with horseradish or roasted stuffed guinea fowl, followed by a pinza, a cake made from polenta, with apples, fennel and dried fruit and nuts.
Our friend Anna in Arezzo sits down to tortellini in brodo, followed by pasta and then roasted meats and perhaps a panettone stuffed with custard.
Traditionally, gifts were not exchanged on Christmas Day but on 6 January, the Feast of the Epiphany, which is when the Magi visited the baby Jesus. On this day in some areas of Italy, a witch called La Befana visits the children and hands out sweets and gifts, or pieces of coal to the naughty ones. Luca tells us that some Italian confectionary entrepreneurs have developed a line of sweets shaped and coloured exactly like coal – a rather mixed message we think!
We’d like to wish all of our friends and clients a very happy holiday season for this year, a wonderful 2018 and we hope to see some of you next year on tour!