Title: CHRISTMAS IN ITALY
1CHRISTMAS IN ITALY
2Christmas Eve
In 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.
3CHRISTMAS 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".
4A CHRISTMAS RECIPE
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.
5DECORATIONS
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.
6TOWNS AT CHRISTMAS TIME
In the cities there are also a lot of lights to
make the people that walk in the streets feel
happier.
7CHRISTMAS 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.
8CRIBS
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.
9CHRISTMAS 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 (Heavens 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!
10LINKSMU KALEDU!
BUON NATALE
11 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!