Italian Christmas Traditions & Practices – A Survey
I asked my friends in Italia (Milano, Lombardia Region) the following questions:
Generally, what is the tradition on present-giving in Italy? Who gives gifts to whom? Do adults exchange gifts? And when are gifts give to children, and by whom? – the day of Christmas or la Befana [Epiphany]? By Santa Claus or by the Befana? Who goes to church and when? And when and how do families celebrate together (a big dinner, which day? Typically, what is eaten?)
What follows is a synthesis of their answers. Following my summary are the actual answers of my friends, in original form. Take a look; see what you can understand. Buona lettura!
“Generally speaking, everyone gives gifts to everyone. Among adults: friends exchange gifts, especially younger adults. Gifts are also important between spouses and couples. Among adult family members, it is common to exchange ‘small gesture’ gifts, just to have something to unwrap, such as a tie, stockings, or a silk scarf. Also in use is giving a card that tells the recipient a donation has been made in their name (e.g. to the cancer foundation).
Like ‘everywhere’ children receive the bulk of the gifts! These are left under the albero or near the presepe, by Babbo Natale or Gesu` Bambino – depending on how religious the family is. Most often, kids wake up Christmas morning and run to see if Santa/Baby Jesus came by with presents during the night.
Some families observe la Befana on Jan. 6th and some don’t. The Befana fills kids’ stockings with candies, chocolate and sweets if they’ve been good, and ‘carbone’ – a dark-colored sugar candy shaped like coal – if they’ve been bad.
Yet another ‘twist’ on when bambini receive their gifts is in the Bergamo area (50km northeast of Milano). There, kids get presents on December 13th, Santa Lucia Day, which also coincides with a similar practice in Scandinavia.)
Church: In smaller towns and the in the south, more people go to church for Natale. In bigger cities, only the very religious go to a Christmas mass or service. Though like in the US, those who don’t go to church every Sunday will often go on the occasion of Christmas. The most popular is midnight mass on Christmas Eve, but many also go Christmas morning.
Celebrating Christmas in family is very important and consists most importantly of eating, eating, and eating! As one friend reported, the eating/celebrating starts the 24th and continues on thru the 26th/27th, only to start up again on Capo d’Anno. “The average Christmas or New Year’s Eve meal lasts 8-12 hours.” (And he was only half joking!) The most common day of the big family dinner depends on location: in Rome and further south it’s a huge dinner on the evening of Christmas Eve, based on fish, especially eel. In northern Italy, families tend to celebrate on Christmas day with a midday dinner based on some type of roast meat. And perhaps the most common dolce (dessert) – especially in the north, since it originated in Milano – is panettone – this sweet fruit cake absolutely, ‘rigorosamente’ must be a part of the meal.
And finally, many claim that southerners are bigger ‘mangioni’ than northerners– m’boh! Seems to me like both do some pretty serious face-stuffing (abbuffare)!
