Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

My special guest today is Ms Menozzi, a fellow Romance Diva and an American who lives in Italy. I enjoy her Thursday Thirteen posts every week. Funnily enough, we’re off to Italy today. I’m not sure how cold it will be, so dress for all weathers and come and join us!

So, are you celebrating, today? No, not because it’s Shelley’s birthday, but for another reason?

Oh, wait… For most of you, this isn’t a holiday, is it? It is a national holiday here, in Italy, though. December 8th (as the Catholics should surely know) is L’Immacolata Concezione – the celebration of the Immaculate Conception. (That’s the conception of Mary, y’all…) Naturally, this is one of the many differences between Italy and my country of origin – the USA.

I feel the differences more than ever at this time of year. While in the US, the shopping extravaganza has gone into overdrive (usually – maybe not this year) with sometimes tragic results, things are much, much more low-key here. Heck, Christmas isn’t even the big gift-giving day! This, for example, is the main square in town, decked out for Christmas last year:

No, that honor goes first to La Festa di Santa Lucia – St. Lucy’s Day – on December 13th. It’s not done on a scale as grand as Christmas, but many Italians grew up with the tradition of gifts on this day. My hubby has fond memories of leaving his letter to Santa Lucia and of getting his gifts before having to dash off to school that same morning. (Can you imagine having to leave your Christmas gifts to go to school? I sure can’t.)

Then comes a cluster of holidays that pretty well shuts down a lot of Italy. Most folks are able to get two weeks’ holiday out of these, starting with the biggie: Christmas!

Although the Christmas holidays are celebrated, it’s more about having family time than about opening gifts. The Italians have a proverb that goes “Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi” or “Christmas with your family, Easter with who you want.” The Christmas trees are generally smaller (not a lot of room in most Italian homes), and Santa Claus is known here as Babbo Natale. He’s still the same old jolly elf, though my hubby had difficulty convincing him that he’d been good.

When Italians sit down to their traditional dinners on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, they enjoy decidedly different fare than what I’m accustomed to in the USA. Instead of turkey, ham or a fat goose, the main feature on many Italian tables is baccalà – dried, salted cod. There is also pasta, in the form of cappelletti in brodo, small half-moons of pasta folded over a meat-and-cheese filling which are said to resemble the navel of Venus. (See, Italians even make Christmas food sexy!) This is often followed by the traditional panettone – an eggy bread with raisins and candied fruit baked inside.

I can personally vouch for the fact that a Christmas dinner here can take longer than three or four hours. I lose track of how many courses we work our way through, but I know we have at least six or seven, usually. They always include several bottles of wine, at least three different desserts, fruit, cheese and bitters or some other digestive drink to finish up (before or after a cup of espresso).

And say, remember those “Twelve Days of Christmas”, famed of song and story? If you’ve ever wondered what that was all about, here’s how they break down – you start counting after Christmas Day:

The day after Christmas is a bit of a to-do here, as well. La Festa di Santo Stefano – St. Stephen’s Day – is a day to recover from the eating and drinking and gift-giving. It’s another nation-wide holiday, and two years ago, when Alle and I spent the holiday in the city of Lucca, in Tuscany, we found this lovely scene on St. Stephen’s Day.

Another few days will pass, and then New Year’s Eve is upon us. It took me a while to get used to being asked what I was doing for San Silvestro, and not what I was doing for “New Year’s Eve”, but that’s what Italians call it – La Festa di San Silvestro. The parties are the same as in the US, since Italians love to gather, party, and do things in unison – counting, clapping, kissing, cheering – it’s an Italian’s dream!

New Years Day, or Capodanno, is spent the same as in the US, too. Recovering. Frequently, if it falls during the week, a few shops might be open, and a few restaurants, too. But it’s not unusual for places to be closed until the next big day on the calendar, which is:

La Festa dell’Epifania – Epiphany – comes on January 6th. This is another favorite for the kids, because they get more presents! Yes, that’s right! And these presents aren’t brought by Babbo Natale, but by La Befana – the Christmas Witch!

The legend says that La Befana was an old woman visited by the three Wise Men as they sought the Christ Child. They asked her to come with them to see the Child, but she said she was too busy cleaning. (How Italian could she possibly get?) A shepherd passed by later and he, too, asked if she would come. Again, she refused.

She repented that evening when she saw the star in the East, and she set off with a bag full of gifts, but never found her way to the manger where the Child was. So, now she travels the world on January 5th, trying to find the baby Jesus and leaving gifts with all good children (and nasty coal for the bad kids, naturally).

Whew! By this time, I dare say that most Italians are ready to get back to work! And you’re probably more than ready to get going, eh?

Well, don’t rush off, just yet…

If you know my blog, Profoundly Shallow , you know I never leave without giving out a piece of eye candy. Even though I’m a guest, here, this time is no different. After all, ’tis the season for giving, right?

So here it is…Thanks to the gents at the blog for Dieux Du Stade 2009 (on blogspot)

Happy Holidays!

Ciao!
Ms Menozzi

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