CHIAVARI, Italy – Christmas in Chiavari is a very special time.
The streets of town are full of sparkly lights, red poinsettia decorate shop
windows, and you might even find a Christmas tree or two in the in some of the
small piazzas. It’s a time of family, food, music and the wonder of
miracles.
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| Christmas in Italy |
But pretty as the sparkly lights and poinsettia are, they are
not what Christmas in Italy is truly about. It is about celebrating the birth
of Christ. Most holidays in Italy center on church designated holy days, and
some of the holidays are re-worked versions of pagan holidays celebrated by the
ancient Romans.
While Christmas isn’t a re-worked pagan holiday, back in
the days of the Roman Empire the Romans did celebrate during the period we now
think of as our Christmas season. Their holiday was called Saturnalia and it
was celebrated from December 17th to the 24th. It
was a whoopee-doo time of feasting, drinking and dancing in the streets.
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| Sorrento, Italy |
We may not celebrate Saturnalia any more, but not all of the old
ways are lost. One really old tradition that still survives in some parts of
Italy is the burning of a Christmas log on Christmas Eve. At one time burning a
log or tree stump was a clever way to disguise an older pagan tradition, one that
symbolized the final ending of the old year by burning away whatever evil it
had had in it. Out with the old and in with the new.
The ritual went like this: the head of the household would put a
log in the family fireplace, say a prayer, put a coin on the log and set the
whole business on fire. The youngest member of the family would then have to
sing a song or recite a poem before being allowed to pick up the coin. The fire
was usually left to burn while the family went to midnight mass, symbolically
allowing the Virgin Mary to enter their home and warm the baby Jesus.
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| Zampognari in Rome |
Another very old Christmas tradition is that of the zampognari
(bagpipers). It too dates back to the ancient Romans. It is based
on a legend of shepherds visiting the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, and after seeing
the baby Jesus, they took out their bagpipes and played. Still today, in
remembrance of that moment, if pipers see a public nativity scene they will
stop in front of it for a few moments of quiet contemplation and respect before
they move on.
But perhaps the most famous of all Italian Christmas traditions
is the nativity crèche. The first manger, as we think of mangers today, was
created by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223. He used real people and live animals so
his illiterate congregation could understand the true meaning of Christmas.
Over the years the idea morphed into using figurines.
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| Christmas at the Vatican |
During the holidays Christian churches in Italy, as well as
banks, post offices, train stations and other public buildings used to all have
nativity crèches on display. Unfortunately there seem to be fewer of them these
days. Even kids used to work together to recreate a manger in the main
entrances of their schools, ready to greet visiting parents and relatives.
In the days leading up to Christmas many Italian families make
it point to visit the churches in their town as part of the late afternoon stroll,
the passeggiata. You often see grandparents
with their grandchildren standing in front of the crèches in local churches as
they tell them the story of Mary and Jesus. Even shoppers rushing around buying
gifts for the holidays will often take a break and pop into the closest church
to see its version of the baby Jesus and the stable in Bethlehem.
For Italians Christmas is a religious holiday much more than a
gift-giving holiday. The gifts come later on January 5th, the eve of
the Epiphany. I remember my father, who grew up in Italy,
talking about how thrilled he was to find an orange or some candies from the
Befana – the good witch in his Epiphany stocking.
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| La Befana |
Like Santa Claus, the Befana also flies from roof top to roof
top bringing gifts, but instead of riding in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, she
rides a broom, or a donkey, or maybe even a bike. But however those oranges got to my father’s
stocking, it must have been quite a trip getting them up to that hill town of Piansano
in northern Lazio in those early days of the 1900’s.
Many Italian Christmas traditions like gift bringing witches,
bag-piping shepherds, mangers large and small and tree burning ceremonies are a
mix of religious and popular customs that date back thousands of years. As the
years pass, each region develops its own special way of celebrating Christmas
that has a special meaning to the people who live there, but the focus is
always on the importance of the holiday – the celebration of the birth of
Christ.
The Italians know it’s different in other parts of the world
where a jolly old man, a guy with a simple one night mission, nine cute
reindeer and a single catchy tune has just about wiped out the religious aspect
of Christmas. They don’t want it to happen here and you often here them complain
about the foreign assault on their culture. If you think about it, even a
Christmas tree in the piazza is a big concession to non-Italian Christmas
traditions.
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| Buon Natale Everyone |
But traditions evolve and who knows if at some point we’ll start
to see pictures of old Santa twirling a forkful of spaghetti or spooning into a
bowl of minestrone soup. Italians being Italians will certainly figure
out some way to make him their own, part of the family – the most important
element of Italian life, and I’m pretty sure that is one thing that will never
change.
Buon Natale tutti. See you after the holidays.
