Italy Christmas Traditions
Wondering when and how to celebrate an Italian Christmas? Everything about Italy Christmas traditions are in store for you here. Right from the Christmas holidays in Italy, the traditions in detail along with information on the Christmas dinner... Find it all here.
Festivals are meant to bring the human kind together and spread love, peace and brotherhood amongst all. Christmas around the world is one festival that is hugely popular. With the father figure Santa Claus known to everybody for distributing Christmas gifts to all those have been good throughout the year is something which is common in all the Christmas traditions.
Christmas traditions in Italy are very picturesque and hence attract a lot of tourists for the festival resulting in increased number of Italy tours. In spite of Italy being tremendously cold during Christmas, people do visit the place and the famous churches like the St. Peter's Church, which is in the Vatican City, for the midnight mass. The Christmas calendar for Christmas traditions goes like this...
These dates clearly indicate the duration of celebration of Christmas in Italy. It start way before the actual day of the birth of Jesus Christ i.e. December 25th as per the Christmas history. The festival starts with the nine day long praying period which is called Novena.
This is when the actual Christmas vacations start in Italy and utilized for various preparations for Christmas. Decorating the Christmas tree is just a part one of the projects that people undertake in the Christmas holidays in Italy. We will see more details about the very interesting Italy Christmas traditions in the following section.
Presepio!
The foremost important and peculiar thing in Italy Christmas traditions is the nativity. It is the scene that is shown in the picture above. This particular scene made up with little statues that represents and depicts the actual scene when Jesus Christ was born. Naples is one of the cities in Italy to visit if you are interested in seeing various types of nativity.
Another peculiar tradition is what Italians do on spotting the first star in the night sky... They light candles which is again a symbolism of lighting the way for baby Jesus's i.e. Gesú Bambino arrival into their homes. Each one in the family then takes turns to hold the little statue of Jesus from the nativity and finally places it in the manger, because as we know, Jesus Christ was born in a barn.
Zampognari and Pifferai!
Plural forms of zampognaro and pifferaio, the words mean bagpiper and piper, respectively. As the name suggests, this is also one of the traditions where people, dressed as shepherds, depicting the ancient Christmas traditions, play these instruments in front of all the nativity scenes that they come across and also sing the Christmas songs or carols. This also forms a part of the entertainment during the festival.
Urn of Fate!
As the name suggests, this urn contains gifts as the Italian Christmas history and traditions has it. Each person has some gift inside this urn and also referred to as the lucky dip, this cauldron or an ornamental looking decorative bowl contains surprise gifts and even empty boxes! But nevertheless everyone has got a gift named after them. So each member of the family take their turns to draw out and see what's in store for them.
Letter Writing!
A very sweet, touching and beautiful custom of Christmas in Italy is this. Children write letters to their parents saying how they will change for good and behave properly. Promising them to abide by and follow the good path and express love for them too. The letters are placed below the dinner plates. This ritual takes place after the dinner is over.
La Befana!
Last but definitely not the least, this is one of the traditions which the kids surely love. The word Befana is referred to the old woman, as the Italian history of Christmas traditions goes, who goes around distributing gifts but actually is in search of the baby Jesus i.e. Gesú Bambino. There's a very interesting mythological story behind this lady figure who also happens to exist instead of the famous Santa Claus.
The story goes like this... When the three wise men came to ask her the whereabouts of the stable where Jesus was born (Bethlehem), she not only did not tell but also declined their invitation for coming along to see the son of Lord. Hence she now, every year, goes around distributing her dead son's toys as Christmas gifts in search of Jesus, thinking He might be in some or the other house. It is also said that she gives a piece of coal instead to children who behave badly. Well, this is just the traditions that I am talking about where he is not present in the mythologies. But nevertheless with modernizations, you do see people dressed up like him. :)
Christmas Feast!
The traditional Christmas recipe in Italy is vegetarian but just prior to the main Christmas day i.e. the eve of Christmas which is known as the La Vigilia di Natale, as mentioned in the list of Christmas holidays in Italy above, Italians eat pasta, special cakes, viz., panettone, pandoro, etc. along with fish and panforte which is a ginger bread. Yes, fish is allowed on the occasion and in the Southern Italy in some places, they serve seven kinds of fish.
On contrary to the eve, people go all over the board feasting to their delight in the Christmas dinner. With stuffed chicken to various other roasted meat preparations, all mouth-watering and lip smacking dishes are served on the dinner table on the day of Christmas.
Last Day!
Well, coming to the last part of the Christmas traditions, it is a double bonanza... Showering gifts again! This is the best part I must admit and sure alluring too. Now what happens is, after you have taken your lucky dip inside the urn of fate, it is La Befana's turn for gifting you who is compensating for denying to see Lord Jesus. It is said, she travels through the chimneys and leaves gifts for the kids inside their shoes which they hang instead of Christmas stockings. But only thing is that the kids got to wait till the January 6th for this.
Other Italy Christian traditions include burning a bon fire in the main square of the city, decorating the Christmas tree, marching through torch-lit streets like in a mass and these are especially popular in the Northern Italy. Different cities have different ways and customs of celebrating. One of them is people getting dressed as Father Christmas or Babbo Natale along with their canoes full of lightings and Christmas decorations, travel to the middle of the river where there is a crib hanging over the water and they give gifts to all the children present in that crib. This ritual takes place in Cittŕ di Castello.
So these were most of the Italy Christmas traditions that the beautiful place has got to offer. For more information on Christmas traditions around the world you can refer to the links given in the article and now I take this opportunity to wish you... Buon Natale! (Merry Christmas). Hoping to learn more from you if you have any kind of inputs for enlightening me as well as others who read this article. God bless!
Christmas traditions in Italy are very picturesque and hence attract a lot of tourists for the festival resulting in increased number of Italy tours. In spite of Italy being tremendously cold during Christmas, people do visit the place and the famous churches like the St. Peter's Church, which is in the Vatican City, for the midnight mass. The Christmas calendar for Christmas traditions goes like this...
| Christmas Holidays in Italy | |
| December 6 | Festa di San Nicola |
| December 8 | L'Immacolata Concezione |
| December 13 | Festa di Santa Lucia |
| December 24 | La Vigilia di Natale |
| December 25 | Natale |
| December 26 | Festa di Santo Stefano |
| December 31 | Festa di San Silvestro |
| January 1 | Il Copadano |
| January 6 | La Festa dell'Epiphania |
These dates clearly indicate the duration of celebration of Christmas in Italy. It start way before the actual day of the birth of Jesus Christ i.e. December 25th as per the Christmas history. The festival starts with the nine day long praying period which is called Novena.
This is when the actual Christmas vacations start in Italy and utilized for various preparations for Christmas. Decorating the Christmas tree is just a part one of the projects that people undertake in the Christmas holidays in Italy. We will see more details about the very interesting Italy Christmas traditions in the following section.
Presepio!
The foremost important and peculiar thing in Italy Christmas traditions is the nativity. It is the scene that is shown in the picture above. This particular scene made up with little statues that represents and depicts the actual scene when Jesus Christ was born. Naples is one of the cities in Italy to visit if you are interested in seeing various types of nativity.
Another peculiar tradition is what Italians do on spotting the first star in the night sky... They light candles which is again a symbolism of lighting the way for baby Jesus's i.e. Gesú Bambino arrival into their homes. Each one in the family then takes turns to hold the little statue of Jesus from the nativity and finally places it in the manger, because as we know, Jesus Christ was born in a barn.
Zampognari and Pifferai!
Plural forms of zampognaro and pifferaio, the words mean bagpiper and piper, respectively. As the name suggests, this is also one of the traditions where people, dressed as shepherds, depicting the ancient Christmas traditions, play these instruments in front of all the nativity scenes that they come across and also sing the Christmas songs or carols. This also forms a part of the entertainment during the festival.
Urn of Fate!
As the name suggests, this urn contains gifts as the Italian Christmas history and traditions has it. Each person has some gift inside this urn and also referred to as the lucky dip, this cauldron or an ornamental looking decorative bowl contains surprise gifts and even empty boxes! But nevertheless everyone has got a gift named after them. So each member of the family take their turns to draw out and see what's in store for them.
Letter Writing!
A very sweet, touching and beautiful custom of Christmas in Italy is this. Children write letters to their parents saying how they will change for good and behave properly. Promising them to abide by and follow the good path and express love for them too. The letters are placed below the dinner plates. This ritual takes place after the dinner is over.
La Befana!
Last but definitely not the least, this is one of the traditions which the kids surely love. The word Befana is referred to the old woman, as the Italian history of Christmas traditions goes, who goes around distributing gifts but actually is in search of the baby Jesus i.e. Gesú Bambino. There's a very interesting mythological story behind this lady figure who also happens to exist instead of the famous Santa Claus.
The story goes like this... When the three wise men came to ask her the whereabouts of the stable where Jesus was born (Bethlehem), she not only did not tell but also declined their invitation for coming along to see the son of Lord. Hence she now, every year, goes around distributing her dead son's toys as Christmas gifts in search of Jesus, thinking He might be in some or the other house. It is also said that she gives a piece of coal instead to children who behave badly. Well, this is just the traditions that I am talking about where he is not present in the mythologies. But nevertheless with modernizations, you do see people dressed up like him. :)
Christmas Feast!
The traditional Christmas recipe in Italy is vegetarian but just prior to the main Christmas day i.e. the eve of Christmas which is known as the La Vigilia di Natale, as mentioned in the list of Christmas holidays in Italy above, Italians eat pasta, special cakes, viz., panettone, pandoro, etc. along with fish and panforte which is a ginger bread. Yes, fish is allowed on the occasion and in the Southern Italy in some places, they serve seven kinds of fish.
On contrary to the eve, people go all over the board feasting to their delight in the Christmas dinner. With stuffed chicken to various other roasted meat preparations, all mouth-watering and lip smacking dishes are served on the dinner table on the day of Christmas.
Last Day!
Well, coming to the last part of the Christmas traditions, it is a double bonanza... Showering gifts again! This is the best part I must admit and sure alluring too. Now what happens is, after you have taken your lucky dip inside the urn of fate, it is La Befana's turn for gifting you who is compensating for denying to see Lord Jesus. It is said, she travels through the chimneys and leaves gifts for the kids inside their shoes which they hang instead of Christmas stockings. But only thing is that the kids got to wait till the January 6th for this.
Other Italy Christian traditions include burning a bon fire in the main square of the city, decorating the Christmas tree, marching through torch-lit streets like in a mass and these are especially popular in the Northern Italy. Different cities have different ways and customs of celebrating. One of them is people getting dressed as Father Christmas or Babbo Natale along with their canoes full of lightings and Christmas decorations, travel to the middle of the river where there is a crib hanging over the water and they give gifts to all the children present in that crib. This ritual takes place in Cittŕ di Castello.
So these were most of the Italy Christmas traditions that the beautiful place has got to offer. For more information on Christmas traditions around the world you can refer to the links given in the article and now I take this opportunity to wish you... Buon Natale! (Merry Christmas). Hoping to learn more from you if you have any kind of inputs for enlightening me as well as others who read this article. God bless!
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