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CHRISTMAS IN ITALY

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CHRISTMAS IN ITALY

Christmas EveIn our country Christmas Eve is important almost

as Christmas Day; the most important part of the day is the evening, in fact you have a special dinner often based on fish, usually salmon and scallops, and never on meat. After dinner people play society games (like for example bingo), waiting for midnight to go to the midnight Mass. The tradition says that you should decorate the Christmas tree after the Christmas Eve dinner, but everyone makes it weeks before by now... After the midnight Mass people go back home and the children can start to open their presents. On Christmas Eve you should wear red and gold clothes, because it will bring you good luck for the next day.

CHRISTMAS DISHES

A typical Christmas Eve menu is:roast scallops, "tagliolini" with salmon, roast fish (often sea bream) and many cakes, like the "panettone", "pandoro" or "tronchetto".

A typical Christmas cake of our area is called Presnitz. It traces back its origins to the period when most of our region was part of the Austrian Empire. It was in fact made for the first time in the 19th century in order to celebrate the visit of Emperess Elizabeth of Austria and Hungary to Miramare Castle, near Trieste. It was given the name Preis Prinzessin, which, in the dialect of the town, became Presnitz. Here is how to make it. Prepare the dough kneading 500 g. flour, 250 g. melted butter, 90g. sugar , half a glass of rhum, some salt and three eggs, which must be added one by one. Put the dough in a napkin and prepare the filling. Chop 60g nuts, 60g hazelnuts, 30g pine kernels finely, then add 50g candied fruit and 60g raisins and 30g melted butter. Finally flatten the dough with a rolling pin, put the filling on it and close the dough in a shape of a spiral. Put it into the oven – 180° - for an hour.

A CHRISTMAS RECIPE

For Christmas we always have a lot of decorations in our houses. We use to put lights on our balconies with all sorts of colours. There are garlands to make lively and lovely our doors. In every house there are candles on the tables for a more peaceful atmosphere.

DECORATIONS

TOWNS AT CHRISTMAS TIME

In the cities there are also a lot of lights to make the people that walk in the streets feel happier.

CHRISTMAS TREES

The Christmas tree has a pagan origin but it was adopted by Christians. In Italy it became popular at the end of the nineteenth century. Nowadays the Christmas tree is a world-wide tradition. In our school we usually have a small Christmas tree in the hall. We usually decorate the Christmas tree on the 8th of December and we keep it till after Epiphany, on the 7th of January. If the trees are external they are decorated only with strings of lights, but in houses and in shops they are principally artificial, smaller and decorated with glasses balls, stars on their top, strings of lights, chains, bows and knick-knacks. Under the trees we usually put many presents and make a crib.

CRIBS

Cribs represent Jesus’ birth and we usually put Jesus’ statue in our cribs on the 25th December.The first crib was animated and was realized by St. Francis in 1224. Instead the first inanimate crib was made of wood and was made by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1280 in Rome. Cribs became very popular during the nineteenth century. Today for tradition every Christian family make a crib in their house. Every year in Monfalcone there is an exhibition of cribs that is organised by our municipality.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

In our country there are many Christmas carols. Some are international for example “Jingle bells”, “White Christmas” (Bianco Natal), “We wish you a merry Christmas” (Noi ti auguriamo un buon Natale); others are more typically Italian – or at least we think so- i.e. Tu scendi dalle stelle ( You come down from stars) and Astro del ciel (Heaven’s Star) Carols are usually sung during the Christmas period in school performances, in churches and also at home, above all on Christmas Eve, sometimes in front of the Christmas tree and the crib.Christmas carols are an important and essential component of our tradition because they contribute to create the serenity and the cheerfulness that make our Christmas really special!

LINKSMU KALEDU!

BUON NATALE

MERRY CHRISTMASAND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!