An Italian Christmas
Christmas is celebrated in slightly different ways in Italy, depending upon whether you're in the cities or countryside, and how families have adapted the customs, but here's an idea of how Italians celebrate the holiday. My mother and her family are originally from Bari, where St. Nicholas is the patron saint.
- The Nativity scene originated in Italy and must be displayed throughout the Christmas season. The manger scene should be as elaborate as you can afford. Families meet in front of the Nativity scene every morning of "novena" - (a nine-day religious period that begins on December 6) to pray.
- The "ceppo" is the Italian version of the Christmas tree. Resembling a ladder with shelves, the ceppo is formed by linking two wooden sides with wooden shelves. A Nativity scene is placed on the bottom shelf, and decorations and gifts fill the other shelves. Some families in Italy have a Christmas tree like those commonly displayed in the US
- Christmas Eve is a fast day - fast all day and go to church in the evening, most times at midnight, to celebrate the hour of Christ's birth. There is always an elaborate Christmas Eve banquet, before or after church, or all day. The meals contains no meat, just fish prepared any way you like, seafood soup or stew, etc. We traditionally hold the Feast of Seven Fishes, but have done the Feast of 12 Fishes. A favorite fish offering at our house is the fried fishcake prepared from baccala - the salt-cured fish, soaked to remove most of the salt, then seasoned and fried nice and crispy. Most folks have cannoli for dessert along with other Italian pastries and cookies and espresso. Panettone was always offered - a semi-sweet fruit bread, anisette cookies and the honey pastry, the name of which i forget - a tall christmas tree-shaped sticky pastry treat consisting of deep fried balls of dough soaked to coat with honey, and then the tree is covered with sprinkles.
All of Christmas Eve is considered a Holy Day, fasting is optional, but abstaining from meat is mandatory. Many Italian families will not even cook meat ingredients for Christmas Day dinner until after midnight. Christmas is a totally Christian holiday celebration, and not a holiday of gift-giving or Santa Claus, but simply the feast of the birth of Jesus.
The
Feast of Seven Fishes
The number of actual dishes and what they consist of depends upon your
family's customs. We've had many that we call the Feast of 12 fishes
(representing the Apostles)
Some families serve 13 fish dishes - one representing each of the Apostles and
Jesus.
The custom is said to represent the seven days it took God to create the
universe.
The meal contains that many dishes, but not all the dishes need to be fish.
Most of the feasts start out with home made seafood or vegetable minestrone or bean and pasta soup, followed by a huge meatless salad, followed by as many seafood dishes that you can think of and afford, along with pasta, naturally!
Our fish dishes always included at least the baccala, flounder, other whitefish, crabs, shrimp served a few different ways, baked with or without sauce, sometimes in a stew of several types of fish. sometimes lobster.
- On Christmas Eve children give their parents a letter written on hand-decorated paper with their promises to behave during the coming year. Children in some areas of Italy believe that Jesus delivers presents.
Christmas Day is also an elaborate celebration and feast day for family and friends. Wine and spumante is served, families gather to play card games. Gifts are exchanged on Christmas Day by most, but some Italians exchange gifts during the feast day of Epiphany, on January 6th. My father's family celebrated a Russian Orthodox Christmas Day, which was also celebrated on January 6th. We feasted a lot!
Epiphany - the legend of the holiday is that a lady called La Befana (Epiphany) was sweeping her floor when the three wise men came to her door and asked her to accompany them to Bethlehem. She refused so that she could finish her chores, but later had an epiphany of what she had missed, is said to have wandered since then, from door to door, looking for the Christ Child. "Epiphany" is said to arrive at your house on Epiphany Day with gifts for the children if they were good all year. She arrives in the form of a fairy, witch or hag.
Besides
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, these holiday feast days are
important - there are quite a lot of feast days on the Italian calendar,in
keeping with the tradition of sitting down with family and friends and
celebrating by sharing food, and lots of it, whenever possible
December 6 - Feast of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of shepherds
December 8 - Celebration of the Immaculate Conception
December 13 - St. Lucy's Day
December 26 - St. Stephen's Day marks the announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ, and the arrival of the Three Wise Men.
December 31 - New Year's Eve
January 1 - New Year's Day
January 6 - Feast of The Epiphany