Italian School 🇮🇹

🎄Christmas in Italy🇮🇹

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 popular by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223. The previous year he had visited Bethlehem and saw where it was thought that Jesus was born. Many Italians display a Nativity crib. The city of Napoli is famous for its cribs and crib making. 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 had made them 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 them). Cribs are traditionally put out on the 8th of December. But the figure of the baby Jesus isn't put into the crib until the evening/night of Dec 24th. Sometimes the Nativity scene is displayed in the shape of pyramid. It's made of several tiers of shelves and is decorated with colored paper, gold covered pinecones, and small candles. A star is often hung on top. The shelves above the manger scene might also contain fruit, candy, and presents.

One special thing about Neapolitan cribs, is that they always have extra '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 street of nativity scene makers called the 'Via San Gregorio Armeno', where you can buy wonderful hand made crib decorations and figures - and of course whole cribs.

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

On Christmas Eve, it's common that no meat (and also sometimes no dairy) is eaten. Often a seafood meal is eaten and then people go to the Midnight Mass service. The types of fish and how they are served vary between the different regions. When people return from Mass, you might have a slice of Panettone, which is a dry fruity sponge cake and a cup of hot chocolate.

For many families a big Christmas Eve meal of different fish dishes is a popular tradition! It's known as The Feast of the Seven Fishes ('Esta dei Sette Pesci'). The feast seems to have its root in southern Italy and was bought to other countries by Italian immigrants in the 1800s. It now seems more popular in other countries than it is in Italy. Common types of fish eaten include Baccala (salt Cod), Clams, Calamari, Sardines, and Eel. There are different theories as to why there are 7 fish dishes eaten. Some think that seven represents the 7 days of creation in the Bible, others say it’s the 7 holy sacraments of the Catholic Church. But some families have more than 7 dishes! You might have 9 to represent the Christian trinity x3, 13 to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples), or 11 for the 11 disciples without Jesus or Judas.

The Christmas celebrations start 8 days before Christmas with special 'Novenas' or a series of prayers and church services. Some families have a 'Ceppo' or Yule Log which is burnt through the Christmas season.

In Italian Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Buon Natale', in Sicilian it's 'Bon Natali', in Ladin, spoken in parts of the north Italian region of South Tyrol), it's 'Bon/Bun Nadèl'.

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 is very similar to the story of Babushka. Children put stockings up by the fireplace for Befana to fill. In parts of northern Italy, the Three Kings might bring present rather than Befana. On Christmas day 'Babbo Natale' (Santa Claus) might bring some small gifts, but the main day for present giving is on Epiphany.