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Five Famous Italian Christmas Traditions
Italian Christmas traditions generally blend of classical Roman traditions. It derives from the ancient Roman heritage of the region with a holiday called
Saturnalia, a winter solstice festival, and ended with the Roman New Year, the Calends. Today it is celebrated December 24-January 6, or Christmas Eve through Epiphany. Many scholars believe that the date for Christmas was
decided upon to correlate with the solstice so that the people of the region would more easily adapt to the new faith. Until the calendar was adjusted in
1582 the winter solstice fell on December 25th.
1. Piping in the Holiday
While this particular Italian Christmas tradition is slowly fading, it's one that resonates with both spiritual traditions. Fifers open the holiday season as they
hike down neighboring mountains. This custom goes back to the time when bards would play and sing to heighten the celebratory feelings throughout the area.
2. Nativity Scenes
You will see a lot of manger scenes throughout Italy at this time of year.
Many are highly artistic (again a Romanesque influence).
Interestingly enough, some of the Churches have light-hearted contests with each other to see who can
create the best scenery complete with landscapes. Some regional
artists specialize in JUST making these elaborate panoramas.
3. Italian Yule Log Celebration
In Tuscany, one of the most important Italian Christmas
traditions is the celebration of Festa di Ceppo, or "Festival of the Log." This festival begins onChristmas Eve, when a huge log is set ablaze. Traditionally, this gets cut from the biggest
tree a person can find.
Pagan and Christian. In pagan customs, the lighting of the
log speaks of the power of life and the "reborn" sun of the winter solstice. To the pagans, each fire lit was meant to give the sun more strength. But the Yule Log is also a Christian
tradition in Italy. In the Christian version, it's before the Yule log that Mary warms her newborn child.
Traditions Surrounding the Yule Log. There has always been a great deal of ritual associated with the Yule log in many homes. In one, the head of the
household was to gather the family together and lay the log in a bed of juniper. Some coins were placed near the fire, and the flames received an offering of
wine while the family would sing Ave Maria del Ceppo. The log was to continue burning non-stop until New Years to bring good luck. Afterwards, ashes were
often used as charms to protect the home from lightning or hail damage.
4. Italian Festive Christmas Foods
Whether you're celebrating in Italy or creating your own little Italy all the way across the world, what would any Italian Christmas tradition be without a hearty meal? The food for Christmas Eve throughout the region is often fish be it
baked, fried, or roasted (Feast of 7 Fishes). Additionally, you may see pork sausage and turkey with stuffing, even as we see in some American, Canadian,
or English homes.
The entire holiday season is one in which sweet treats are a star. Nougat, gingerbread, fruit cake, sweet honey breads, and marzipan are a
few examples of the goodies you'll find in nearly any Italian home until well after New Years. The candies represent the earth's bounty and life's sweetness.
5. Mrs. Claus: She's Really Italian!
Although Babbo Natale (Father Christmas) and giving presents on Christmas are
becoming more common, the main day for gift giving is Epiphany on January 6, the 12th day of Christmas when the three Wise Men gave Baby Jesus their gifts.
In Italy, presents are brought by La Befana, who arrives in the night to fill children's stockings
One of the most beloved Italian Christmas traditions is the figure of La Befana, who is effectively the female
equivalent of Santa. It's customary for children to put out their shoes on January 6th to receive candies
along with a gift of wine and food so La Befana can continue on her way with a full stomach.
La Befana: La Befana appears as an elderly woman riding a broom. She's covered in soot because she enters the home through chimneys (sound familiar?).
Prior to candies, La Befana delivered honeyed figs and dates similar to an ancient pagan goddess Strenia,
who oversaw New Year's gift giving.
Cenone: La festa dei sette pesci
Vegetarians may not think of a seven-course
seafood dinner as abstinence, but that is
how many Italians around the world
celebrate Christmas Eve. The Feast of the
Seven Fishes, or cenone in Italian, is a
commemoration of the wait for the midnight
birth of Jesus. So where’s the abstinence?
Since its earliest days, the Catholic church has had a tradition of doing penance for
sins, often on vigil or the day before major feast days such as Christmas. The most
common form of penance was fasting (eating less) or abstinence, forgoing certain
foods, especially meat, fowl and sometimes dairy. But everything else was, you might
say, on the table.
Though the seven fishes dinner is traditionally a
family meal, many Italian-American restaurant chefs
have gotten into the act. At Fiamma at the MGM
Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, chef Carlos Buscaglia’s
seven courses will include such dishes as tuna with
crispy cremini mushrooms and truffle vinaigrette;
clams with house-made linguini; baccala with spicy
pomodoro and grilled foccacia; and branzino with strawberry panzanella. Spezie
Restaurant in Washington, D.C, will have the likes of pasticcio, a baked seafood pie
(which chef and co-owner Cesare Lanfronconi likens to the timpano in the movie Big
Night); a seafood soup Lanfronconi calls capriccio di mare, and octopus stew over soft
polenta. “My family is from Sicily and my wife’s family is from Rome. Both celebrated
Christmas Eve with fish, though the Sicilians had more courses,” Lanfronconi says.
Southern Italy puts more focus on Christmas Eve
dinner, whereas in the North, Christmas Day is
more important. Naples, in particular, has a
reputation for having opulent Christmas Eve
meals. So much for abstinence.
Why the number seven was chosen is a matter of
dispute. Some suggest it represents the Seven
Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Others, the
seven deadly sins, or the seven wonders of the world or, well, just about anything with
seven. Then there is the argument over whether the seven means seven courses of fish
or just seven different fish or kinds of seafood, which would include shellfish. At Incanto
restaurant in San Francisco, chef Chris Cosentino will have seven fishes served in four
courses, with dishes such as grilled squid, seafood salad with seafood foam, skate
chop, and tagliarini with eel, capers, raisins and pine nuts.
Eel, a favorite (particularly among Romans)
going back to the time of the Etruscans, is one
of the obligatory fish for the meal.
Unfortunately, just the idea of eel can be off-
putting for some folks (like my wife). “People
eat it at sushi bars, but prepared the way
Italians do it is a different story,” Lanfronconi
says. Because eel is not popular with
Americans, you’ll need to order it special or
head for your nearest Chinese seafood store, where eel is more common. Fresh eel
needs to be skinned. Frozen eel is normally skinned. Not having eel would be a pity
because it is considerably less fishy tasting than many other fish and it has a firm,
meaty texture. This texture also allows eel to work well on the grill. Another good
method is deep frying, which I did in adapting a recipe from Mario Batali’s Holiday
Food (Clarkson Potter). The eel was served with a sweet and sour sauce.
Deep-frying is common on Italian Christmas Eve
menus. It could be a single fish or a frito
misto, combinations of fish and perhaps even a
vegetable or two. Though his Sicilian family
deep-fried smelts, whiting, and scallops, Tony
Marcello, chef at McCormick & Schmick’s
Seafood Restaurant in Bethesda, MD, will serve
deep fried calamari with three dipping sauces.
Marcello’s mother made squid a number of
ways. One involved stuffing squid bodies with nuts and spinach, then baking them in
tomato sauce
Baccala or salted cod is another staple on the Christmas Eve menu. Baccala requires a
little advance preparation because the preserved fish needs to be soaked for about 48
hours in water that has to be changed a least twice a day to remove the excess salt.
The typical preparation is to gently stew pieces of the fish in a tomato sauce with garlic
and onions and perhaps a few other embellishments such as basil, capers or white
wine.
A more inviting way to present salt cod (at least to non Italians) is to make a variation of
the French salt cod dish,brandade de morue, which calls for poaching the cod in milk
with potatoes, onion, garlic and rosemary, then pureeing the mixture and serving it on
polenta crostini. It’s delicious and not as heavy as some other versions ofbrandade.
Of course, what would an Italian meal be without pasta? The
most common pasta dish is a year round favorite, linguine with
clam sauce. However, Buscaglia will be serving gnocchi with
lobster and truffle crema and Mantuano black pasta with braised
scungilli. Whichever pasta course you choose, keep portions
small, no more than two ounces of dried pasta per person.
In some families a whole fish is the centerpiece of
the meal. Though he remembers his family having a
bluefish large enough to serve eight or more people,
Cosentino will serve individual branzino with
salmoriglio sauce, a warm Sicilian vinaigrette of olive
oil, lemon juice and herbs that I served at home on
grilled swordfish.
Dessert is often light, such as an assortment of Christmas cookies or biscotti. Fruit,
especially citrus fruit, is also common, as are nuts, particularly walnuts and hazelnuts.
With appetizers that included tuna carpaccio and anchovy crostini consider a good
sparkling wine from Sicily. An old vines, low-yield Verdicchio had enough oomph (more
than most Verdicchios) to stand up to the linguine dish whose recipe is below. Even
sturdier was a barrique-aged Slovenian blend of Ribolla, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon
Blanc that paired nicely with grilled swordfish. Red wine is
common for many cenones, particularly for dishes such as
baccala stewed in tomatoes, capers and hot pepper
flakes. In this instance, a medium-bodied red wine from
Lombardia made from the obscure Marzemino grape was
a first-rate match. Of course, there are dozens of other
Italian wines at your disposal from fizzy Prosecco to
Brunello. Just don’t choose to abstain from wine for this
meal.