italy2

*Holidays*

    Italy has ten national holidays a year. Italians love festivals and local feasts days are held in honor of each town's patron saint. There is usually a procession where a statue of the saint is carried around the town or village.
     The traditional Pope's blessing is held every Easter Sunday in the Vatican, and in July the Noiantri (we others) festival is held in Trastevere, the old quarter of Rome. This is a street festival of music and fireworks by the Tiber River.
     The week before Ash Wednesday is known as Carnevale (goodbye to meat) or Carnival. People all over Italy wear fancy dress and there are fairs and processions. The Carnival in Venice is very famous and everyone dresses up in masks and eighteenth century costumes. There is also a procession of gondolas along the Grand Canal and many masked balls are held.
     In Florence on Easter Sunday morning, the Scoppio del Carro takes place in front of the cathedral. A highly decorated cart is filled with fireworks which are lit when a mechanical dove is freed from the altar of the cathedral. This festival commemorates the day on which knights returned to Florence after the First Crusade.
     The Palio in Siena is a horse race held on July 2 and August 15 each year. People from different quarters dress up in fifteenth century costume and form a procession to the main square. There is a display of flag-throwing and bareback horse riders from ten of the quarters race around the square. The winner gets a huge painted silk flag- the Palio.
     Christmas celebrations start on December 24 with a big evening meal and Midnight Mass. Presents are exchanged both on Christmas Day and on January 6, the Epiphany.
     In Naples on New Year's Day, fireworks are lit and people throw old things out of windows. All the ships in the harbor sound their horns.
     In the wine-producing areas, there is always a celebration at harvest time in the autumn. There are fairs and dancing when the new wine is tasted.

*Folklore*

Over their long past, Italians have learned much about the world. Until recent times, though, most workers and farmers could not read or write. Their wisdom was saved in tales known as folklore. These old stories about kings, fairies, magic animals, and ordinary people come from every part of the land.
Folk tales are still told today in Italy. Often an old woman in a village has learned them by heart, and she passes them on to the young children. Their clever twists and lessons make them hard to forget. Some folktales make fun of people who are lazy, stubborn, or proud. Other tales explain natural events.

*Food*

    In Italy, a good meal is an important part of the enjoyment of life. Italians like to use simple and fresh ingediants. There are few supermarkets in Italy, because the people prefer to shop at local markets, where the food is always fresh.
     Breakfast is a simple meal- usually just a roll and coffee or warm milk. The main meal is served around 1:00 P.M., although today, many working families have to wait until evening. On weekends and holidays, this afternoon dinner will last from two to four hours. The evening meal is usually a light snack.
     The first course of a family dinner is usually an antipasto- a platter of cold cuts, olives, and cheese. This is generally followed by a pasta dish. Pasta is simply dough made of eggs and wheat flour. Spaghetti is one form of pasta; there are at least 200 other forms. Some of the pasta shapes have colorful names, like cannelloni ("big pipes") or cappelletti ("little hats"). Those who like spaghetti and meatballs may be surprised to learn that the dish is rarely served in Italy, except around Naples!
     After pasta, the next course is meat or fish, along with vegetables. This is followed by a green salad and then dessert. The most common dessert is fresh fruit, often served with two or three kinds of cheese. On special occasions, the family may have a cake or pastries from a local bakery. Some people think that the Italian ice cream, or gelato, is the tastiest in the world.

*Language*

    In the days of the Roman Empire, Latin was the language of the entire peninsula. Roads connected the people. When the empire fell apart, communication between regions became difficult. As each region developed independently, the language that emerged from the original Latin formed into local dialects. Soon, people in one region could not understand people in another.
     In the 1300's, one of the best poets of the period, Dante Alighieri, wrote a masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. Rather than write in Latin like other scholars of the period, Dante wrote in his native Tuscan dialect. Boccaccio and other well-known Tuscan poets wrote in Tuscan Italian as well. Their writings were widely read and admired throughout the country and helped establish the Tuscan dialect as standard written language of Italy. Tuscan Italian did not become the standard conversational language, however, until the middle of the twentieth century.
     Today, though standard Italian is used in schools and in government, many people are beginning again to speak their local dialect at home or to mix it with the official language. For example, in standard Italian, the word "white" is bianco. But for people in Genoa, the word is giancu, while the people of Naples say iango, and those in the toe of Italy's boot use asipro.
     In addition to all the dialects, small numbers of people in some border areas speak non-Italian languages. These include German, French, Albanian, and Serbo-Croatian. The mixing of languages and dialects has made it hard to create a sense of national unity.
     Hand gestures, facial expression, and body language are all vital parts of Italian speech. Conversations are lively mini-dramas of movement. In the city of Naples, for example, there are thirteen ways of saying no through gestures and expressions. One reason for this animated speech is said to be the Italian love of drama. People try to bring out the feeling or emotion of every statement. Gestures are so important that there are even dictionaries of the many Italian movements and expressions!

For some folk tales from Italy go to the next page.

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