FriendBurst Blog

Christmas in Italy

During Christmas time, one readily observable difference between Italy and the United States, for instance, is

the lack of crass commercialism that threatens to swallow up and completely secularize the holiday. For

instance, instead of writing letters to Santa Claus asking for presents (or, in the digital age, e-mailing Santa

Claus), Italian children write letters to tell their parents how much they love them. The letter is normally placed

under their father’s plate and read after Christmas Eve dinner has been finished.

One of the most important ways of celebrating Christmas in Italy is the Nativity crib scene.

Using a crib to help tell the Christmas story was made very popular by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 (Assisi is in mid-Italy).

The previous year he had visited Bethlehem and saw where the stable, where it was thought that Jesus was born.

A lot of Italian families have a Nativity crib in their homes.  The city of Naples in Italy is world famous for its cribs and crib making.

These are known as ‘Presepe Napoletano’ (meaning Neapolitan Cribs). The first crib scene in Naples is thought to go back to 1025 and

was in the Church of S. Maria del presepe (Saint Mary of the Crib), this was even before St. Francis of Assisi had made cribs very

popular!  Having cribs in your own home became popular in the 16th century and it’s still popular today (before that only churches

and monasteries had cribs). Cribs are traditionally put out on the 8th December. But the figure of the baby Jesus isn’t put into the

crib until the evening/night of December 24th!  One special thing about Neapolitan cribs is that they have always been displayed not

only characters and figures from the Christmas Story, but also ‘every day’ people and objects (such as houses, waterfalls, food,

animals and even figures of famous people and politicians!). Naples is also the home to the largest crib scene in the world, which has

over 600 objects on it!  In Naples there is a still a street of the nativity makers called the ‘Via San Gregorio

Armeno’. In the street you can buy wonderful hand made crib decorations and figures – and of course whole cribs!

You can see some pictures of crib scenes and figures from Naples on this page:

www.foto.portanapoli.com/presepe.html like this one

One old Italian custom is that children go out Carol singing and playing songs on shepherds pipes, wearing

shepherds sandals and hats.

Christmas Eve, it’s common that no meat (and also sometimes all dairy) is eaten.

Often a light seafood meal is eaten people go to the Midnight Mass service. The types of fish and how they are

served vary between different regions in Italy. When people return from Mass, if it’s cold, you might have a slice

of Italian Christmas Cake called ‘Panettone’ which is like a dry fruity sponge cake and a cup of hot chocolate!

For many Italian-American families a big Christmas Eve meal of different fish dishes is now a very popular

tradition! It’s know as The Feast of the Seven Fishes (‘FEsta dei Sette Pesci’ in Italian). The feast seems to have

its root in southern Italy and was bought over to the USA by Italian immigrants in the 1800s. It now seems more

popular in American than it is in Italy!  Common types of fish eaten in the feast include

Baccala (salted Cod), Clams, Calamari, Sardines and Eel.  There are different theories as to why there are seven

fish dishes eaten. Some think that seven represent the seven days of creation in the Bible, other say it

represents the seven holy sacraments of the Catholic Church. But some families have more that seven dishes!

You might have nine (to represent the Christian trinity times three),

13 (to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples) or 11 (for the 11 disciples without Jesus or Judas!)!  In Italian

Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Buon Natale’ and in Sicilian it’s ‘Bon Natali’.

Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages.  Epiphany is also important in Italy.

On Epiphany night, children believe that an old lady called ‘Befana’ brings presents for them.

The story about Befana bringing presents is very similar to the story of Babouska told in Russia. Children put

stockings up by the fireplace for Befana to fill. On Christmas day ‘Babbo Natale’ (Santa Claus) might bring them

some small gifts, but the main day for present giving is on Epiphany.

Hope you all enjoyed some of my heritage , i really miss spending Christmas in Italy

Love Lil d. :love: