Friday, April 14, 2006

Pasqua in Italia – Easter Traditions in Italy

The Easter celebrations in Italy are very similar to those practiced in the US. The Easter bunny and Easter egg hunts are not present. Instead the olive branch, and the blessing of the home by the local priest occurs at this time of year. The priest will go door to door with two alter boys and bless each house individually, leaving a blessed olive branch to be hung over the door.

The blessing of the eggs is a widely practiced tradition. The chocolate egg, elaborately decorated, can also be found.

While Christmas is spent at home with family, Easter is an occasion when it is appropriate to celebrate with friends or extended family members. Easter is another occasion to prepare foods that would not be part of the normal diet. Each region has their Easter favorites and some of those are Agnello Cacio e Uova, Capretto, Casatiello, Pastiera, Pizza Rustica, Gubana and Colomba.

Easter is a time of marvelous sweet breads, rich in flavor and symbolism. The Gubana in Friuli, the Casatiello in Naples and the Colomba are all part of this special festivity.

Some areas also have local rituals based on things from their past. In Florence they celebrate the Scoppio del Carro or in Ragusa, Sicily they celebrate the Maronna vasa vasa. No matter where you are Easter is a marvelous occasion to spend time with family and friends.

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Easter without the Easter Bunny and Easter Egg Hunts--that sounds great!

This was very neat. I like to learn about other places of the world. Thanks so much for posting this.

5:47 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mmmm sweetbreads

Saying that your site makes you hungry remains a fair judgement :-)

-Fruey

5:17 AM

 
Blogger Travel Italy said...

Joy - Easter is another opportunity to spend time together as a family or with friends.

Fruey - this is a good evaluation of Italian culture, I know it seems that I write alot about food but food is merely a characteristic of an underlying concept of life brought about through thousands of years of culture. Something that we, here in the US, could learn from, that is the superficiality of "What have you done for me today" or "Sparkle and Glitter" usually do not last over time whereas true value spans the centuries!

Thanks for stopping by.

5:51 AM

 
Blogger Alfonso Cevola said...

just back from friuli.....

7:09 AM

 
Blogger Travel Italy said...

The land of Bianchino, Picolit, and coffee made with grappa! My kind of place.

8:03 AM

 
Blogger Beau said...

Have a great Easter weekend mio amico! Eat, drink, and be merry.

Ciao,

Beau

10:58 AM

 
Blogger ChickyBabe said...

Happy Easter, David to you and yours, and thank you for making me dream of travel/food/wine on your blog.

3:57 PM

 
Blogger Tamela said...

Happy Easter! I really enjoyed visiting your blog. If you have a chance visit my cooking blog ChefTami at http://cheftami.blogspot.com/

2:15 PM

 
Blogger a.c.t. said...

Hope you had a great Pasqua. Thanks for the auguri. We've just got back from a weekend with my parents which involved lots of food and wine. On Friday night we had spaghetti with langoustines and on Sunday we had lamb and a chocolate Colomba - I'm still full!

12:02 PM

 
Blogger Travel Italy said...

Tami - Neat Site! well worth a look.

ACT - Family, Friends, good food and wine make all traditions worth looking forward to.

2:58 PM

 
Blogger Stenar said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

11:58 AM

 

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