 A presepio, above, at the home of Francesca Di Meglio’s parents in Fort Lee, N.J., took a week to prepare to display. Her father Pasquale Di Meglio created it this year with the help of her mom, Regina Di Meglio. Photo provided By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
In comparing Christmas in Italy and the United States, one of the biggest differences is a lack of commercialism, making the true meaning of the holiday more prominent in Italian customs.
Instead of writing letters to Santa Claus or Babbo Natale, as he is known in Italy, and asking for presents, Italian children write letters to tell their parents how much they love them. The letters are placed under their father’s plate and read after Christmas Eve dinner has been finished.
While some Italians have adopted some of the northern European Christmas traditions, such as decorating an evergreen tree in their home, the holiday in general is more subdued with less lights and few, if any, outdoor decorations, said Francesca Di Meglio, an Italian American from Fort Lee, N.J., who is fluent in Italian and is an expert on Italian culture and lifestyle, writing for a number of publications including the official publication of the National Italian American Foundation.
Although there are no elaborate holiday decorations in Italy, one can expect to see the words, “Buon Natale” displayed in shop windows, wishing everyone a good Christmas.
“There’s not as much glitz and glam and gifts,” Di Meglio said. “I grew up outside of Rockefeller Center seeing all that, but in Italy, it’s much more focused on the birth of baby Jesus and the religious aspects of a predominately Catholic country.”
The 31-year-old who married a native Italian said while the spirit of the season may sometimes be lacking in the U.S., Christmas in Italy may not be as much fun for children as it is here.
Di Meglio said she cried for days the first time she went to the small island of Ischia, off the coast of Naples, for Christmas as a child.
The Italian Christmas isn’t as shiny as its American counterpart, but subdued, spiritual and uplifting, Di Meglio said.
The holiday calendar in Italy doesn’t observe Dec. 25 as the only special day, but observes several religious days throughout December and January.
La Festa di San Nicola, a festival in honor of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of shepherds, on Dec. 6, is celebrated in towns with the lighting of fires under enormous cauldrons, in which broad beans are cooked, then eaten ceremoniously.
Dec. 8 is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, L’Immacolata Concezione. Dec. 13 is La Festa di Santa Lucia, St. Lucy’s Day, followed by La Vigilia di Natale, Christmas Eve on Dec. 24, and Natale, Christmas on Dec. 25.
St. Stephen’s Day, La Festa di Santo Stefano, on Dec. 26 marks the announcement of the birth of Jesus and the arrival of the Three Wise Men and also is a national holiday.
Dec. 31 Italians observe La Festa di San Silvestro, New Year’s Eve, followed by Il Capodanno, New Year’s Day, on Jan. 1, and The Epiphany, La Festa dell’Epifania, on Jan. 6. The Epiphany is known as “Little Christmas” in the U.S., Di Meglio said.
Gifts are sometimes exchanged on Christmas day, and more families are doing so, but traditionally gifts were given for Epiphany.
Instead of caroling, children carry a large, lifesize doll baby Jesus from door to door for families
See ITALIAN, Page 8A
to greet the Savior at Christmas. The families kiss the baby and offer their visitors drinks and merriment, Di Meglio said.
“It’s considered a blessing,” she said.
Since Italy is a country with many ethnic and cultural influences, Christmas traditions are diverse and vary by region, according to a variety of sources from which information was gathered.
“For us, fish and the nativity scene have always been part of our life,” Di Meglio said.
Presepio
Handmade Nativity scenes are made as elaborate as families can afford. The manger scene is an important part of the Italian Christmas celebration. The three-dimensional representation of Jesus Christ’s birth is composed of mobile figures arranged according to the artistic sense of the builder as well as realistic elements such as houses, rocks and plants. Most of the presepios may stay up throughout January.
The Italians favor nativity scenes to the traditional Christmas tree and place Jesus into the scene when the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve.
Di Meglio said the youngest family member often places baby Jesus in the manger.
“My father creates these elaborate stories through his presepio,” Di Meglio said. “It’s pretty special, more important than the Christmas tree. Everyone has one.”
She said her father’s presepio has grown through the years and when she was first born, she was placed in it as the Baby Jesus.
“People you don’t see all year come and look forward to the changes each year,” Di Meglio said. “It’s a staple of the holiday, an important part of history.”
An entire room in their house is taken up each year by the presepio, which includes fountains, live plants, grass, trains and lights. It takes one week to set up and three weeks to take down.
Ceppo
Instead of an evergreen, many Italian families use a ceppo, a wooden frame several feet high designed in a pyramid shape that supports several tiers of shelves, often with a manger scene on the bottom followed by small gifts of fruit, candy and presents on the shelves above. The “Tree of Light,” as it is also known, is decorated with colored paper, pinecones and miniature colored pennants. Small candles are fastened to the tapering sides and a star or small doll hung at the pyramid’s peak.
This tradition is thought to have begun in the Naples region.
Some Italians also refer to a yule log as the Ceppo.
Feast of the
Seven Fishes
Italians fast all day on Christmas Eve and then break the fast with an elaborate Christmas Eve banquet. It’s a purification ritual of eating a meatless meal in preparation for the birth of Christ, with seven different seafood dishes, or multiples of seven, served. Popular dishes include baccala, linguine with clam sauce, octopus and even eel.
Typically margherita pizza and cheese calzones are served for those who don’t like fish.
The significance of the number seven has been suggested to have several meanings, varying from the number of days of the week to the seven sacraments.
After fasting most of the day, Italians eat the feast in the evening as they gather to wait until Midnight Mass.
Christmas day’s meal includes antipasti and pasta with walnut cream sauce, served with panettone or Christmas cake and espresso. Wine or spumante, Italian sparkling wine, are served in honor of this special day.
Tombola
While Italy’s decorations may be more subdued than America, Di Meglio says in homes across the European country, people come together to laugh, eat, drink and gamble.
Sometimes they are playing for beans or one or two euro.
The Italian version of bingo is far more colorful than regular bingo, with each number representing some sort of symbol. Number one is Italia and number 13 Saint Anthony, but there also are racier symbols.
“People are unfazed by those few naughty symbols standing next to the religious ones,” Di Meglio said. “It’s a perfect representation of the naughty and nice.”
Like bingo, the goal is to cover an entire row before anyone else does.
“Many people play for change and sometimes it gets heated,” Di Meglio said. “People really want to win.”
Tombola is often played while waiting for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and while waiting for the arrival of La Befana.
It’s also a popular choice for the older generation that tends to stay in and celebrate New Year’s Eve.
“It’s a simple game that unites generations and is a main stay over the holidays in Italy,” Di Meglio said.
People often play for hours and usually eat snacks and talk during the games.
La Befana
One of Italy’s oldest and most celebrated legends centers around a kindly witch, a more popular tradition there than Santa Claus, which is known to bring children toys on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6.
According to legend, the Three Wise Men stopped at the woman’s hut to ask directions on their way to Bethlehem and invited her to join them. A shepherd also stopped and asked her to join him in paying respect to the Christ Child, and she declined because she had housework to finish but later regretted her decision, so she gathered toys that had belonged to her own child who had died and tried to find the men or the stable. Each year she continues to go door-to-door looking for the Christ Child, hoping that if she gives each child a small treat, one would be the Christ child. Unable to find him, she leaves gifts for the children of Italy and pieces of coal for those who have been bad.
Each year children wake up that morning hoping La Befana has visited their house and left gifts in their own shoes or socks.
While there are those who dress up like Santa Claus in the U.S., in Italy they dress like the witch, Di Meglio said.
Information for this article was obtained from about.com, eHow.com and Italiansrus.com.
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