Transcript Document 7132753

Christmas Traditions
in Italy
2E Class
The advent
Advent is the season that marks
the beginning of the Christian
church year. It starts on Sunday
nearest to St. Andrew’s Day
(November 30th), and it continues
until Christmas Eve (December
24th). The term comes from the
Latin word “adventus”, which
means coming or arrival. The
season is thus one of preparation
for the celebration of the feast of
the Nativity of Jesus Christ on
Christmas Day.
During Advent, some people make or buy
Advent calendars as a way of counting the
days to Christmas. Usually these calendars
have twenty-four ‘windows’. Traditional
calendar windows open up to show a
picture of something linked with this time
of year. One may show an angel or one of
the shepherds who visited baby Jesus. The
last window to be opened usually shows
Jesus himself lying in a manger.
The Christmas crib
The first crib was made by St. Francis of Assisi, who, visiting
Betlehem on Christmas of 1222, was very impressed by the spirit
of simplicity, so far from the luxury of occidental Christmas. He
asked the pope for permission to celebrate the following
Christmas in a similar way. As it was prohibited by the Church to
represent drama with religious contents, the pope gave
permission only for celebrating the mass in a cavern instead of a
church. So St. Francis prepared a cave with straw, put a crib and
live animals there and celebrated the mass for the people arrived
from the neighbourhood.
The first real crib, as we mean it today, was made by Arnolfo di
Cambio of marble in 1283 and is exposed in Santa Maria Maggiore
in Rome. This example was followed by many churches, giving
way to a competition.
In the baroque age making cribs became a fashion, not only in
churches, but in houses as well, loosing much of the religious
content. New, secondary figures were added, their clothes
represented the actual fashion, their actions were connected to
everyday's life, etc. The original figures sometimes were quite
hidden by the big number of richly decorated, very life-like
secondary figures. Making cribs became a well-paid profession,
appreciated particularly in the centres of crib-making: Genova,
Naples and Sicily. The rich and the clerical people competed to
make the more expensive crib, often forgotting about good taste.
These cribs were made sometimes of gold and precious stones. In
the popolar versions less expensive materials were used: wood in
Genova, terracotta in Naples, terracotta, plaster, wax in Sicily.
Some works are real pieces of art.
The presepio (manger or crib) represents in miniature the
Holy Family in the stable and is the centre of Christmas for
families. Guests kneel before it and musicians sing before it .
The presepio figures are usually hand-carved and very
detailed in features and dress.
The scene is often set out in the shape of a triangle. This is a
wooden frame arranged to make a pyramid several feet high.
Several tiers of thin shelves are supported by this frame. It is
entirely decorated with colored paper, gilt pine cones, and
miniature colored pennants. Small candles are fastened to
the tapering sides. A star or small doll is hung at the apex of
the triangular sides. The shelves above the manger scene
have small gifts of fruit,candy, and presents.
Presepio vivente
The living Nativity
I re magi
The three wise men
Feast of Epiphany
Children in Italy hang up their stockings on the
Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. They celebrate
the visit of the Three Kings to Bethlehem.
Instead of Santa Claus, children are expecting
Befana.
She is a witch-like character who rides around
on a broom.
The legend is that the Three Wise Men, I re
magi, stopped at Befana's hut to ask directions
on their way to Bethlehem and asked her to join
them. She said no, she was too busy. Later a
shepherd asked her to join him in paying respect
to the Baby Jesus. Again, Befana said no. Later
when it was dark and she saw a great light in
the skies, she thought perhaps she should have
gone with the Wise Men. So, she gathered some
toys that had belonged to her own baby, who had
died, and ran to find the kings and the shepherd.
But Befana could not find them or the stable.
Now, each year she looks for the Christ Child.
And each year since she can not find him, she
leaves the gifts for the good children of Italy and
pieces of charcoal for the bad ones..
Christmas tree in Pesaro
Shop windows at
Christmas time in Pesaro
Italian Christmas cakes
Panettone
A high round cake, with raisin and
pieces of candied fruit. The story
tells that it was invented in the court
of Ludovico il Moro, by a servant,
named Toni, who improvising himself
as a cook, made this cake as a fruit
of his fantasy. The cake had a big
success, the guests were cheering
Toni's cake. It's name comes from
pane di Toni - bread of Toni.
Pandoro
A high cone-like cake, whose base is
a star. It comes from Verona and
gets its name (pandoro = golden
bread) from the vivid yellow color.
Others think that was named so
because in Venice in the houses of
the rich people it was decorated
with leaves of real gold.
Panforte
A large, low cake, very spicy
(that's why it is called forte =
strong). Was made the first time
in the monasteries of Siena in
the 12th century.
Torrone
A long and low, brick-like sweet: almonds
imbedded in sugar mass. There are more
variants, hard or soft ones; covered with
chocolate or very thin wafer; other type is
haselnuts imbedded in chocolate. The
legend says that is was made the first time
by the confectioners of Cremona as a
wedding present for Bianca Maria Visconti
and Francesco Sforza (1441). The name
comes from the tower of the city called
Torrazzo.
A traditional dish from Italy
"STRUFFOLI“
(Honey Balls)
2 cups water
1 cup margarine
4 cups sifted flour
¼ tsp. salt
10 large eggs
16 oz. honey
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 cup candied orange peels
½ cup (multicolored) cake-decorating sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two baking sheets lightly. Have eggs at
room temperature.
Place water, margarine, and salt in a saucepan and bring to boil.
Remove from range and cool for 3 minutes. Stir in flour and mix well.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture forms a ball
and leaves sides of pan--about 1 minute. Remove from range and cool
for 5 minutes. Add eggs to mixture, one at a time, beating hard for
approximately 1 minute after each addition. Fill pastry bag with batter
and pipe small rounds (the size of marbles) 1 inch apart onto baking
sheets. (Or you can drop by half teaspoons onto baking sheets.) Bake
until lightly browned--about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on
wire racks.
In a saucepan, heat honey until it comes to rolling boil. Boil for 5
minutes, being careful not to let it boil over. Dip puffs, approximately
12 at a time, into honey and roll around to coat evenly. Remove with
slotted spoon onto a plate. Continue until all puffs are dipped. Wet
hands with cold water and stick puffs together forming wreath rings,
pyramids, or dome shapes. Decorate with toasted pine nuts, candied
orange peel, and cake-decorating sprinkles.
Our Christmas at school
From the first days of December till the last
day before the Christmas holidays, the
students of all the classes of our school and
of the primary and infant schools were busy in
didactical activities referred to Christmas. In
the various classrooms, they put up trees, set
up cribs, decorated windows, made Christmas
cards and little gifts with their own hands for
their parents, sang Christmas carols, searched
information … everything to live all together,
in the most conscious and heartfelt way, this
particular time of the year.
Our Christmas at school
Our Christmas at school
Our Christmas at school
Our Christmas at school
Our Christmas at school