Le Festività Natalizie in Italia

The 8th of December marks the beginning of the long Christmas holiday period in Italy, which ends on the 6th of January with Epiphany day. The Italian Christmas calendar begins and ends with two religious holidays: 8 December is  il giorno dell’Immacolata the day on which the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is celebrated, while 6 January is l’Epifania the day on which the three Wise Men visit baby Jesus, bringing gifts. However, although punctuated by officially religious events, le feste natalizie (the month of Christmas festivities) in Italy is a triumph of secular popular traditions featuring legends, children’s stories and, above all, the desire to spend time together with loved ones.

Starting on the evening of 7 December, families and groups of friends gather to dine together and, above all, to play card games such as the famous Tombola (a sort of bingo) and Mercante in Fiera. In both games, the main character is a “game director” who engages and entertains the players with their skills as a salesperson/charlatan.

From 8 December, people can start decorating their Christmas trees and, for many families, the tradition of Presepe (the nativity scene) is still very much alive. From that moment on, whoever you happen to meet will say goodbye by wishing you “Buone feste a te e famiglia!”

But who brings gifts to Italian children?

Today, there is only one answer: between the night of 24th and the morning of 25th December, Babbo Natale arrives with his flying sleigh to bring gifts to all children. However, this is a relatively recent tradition, the result of mass culture over the last 40 or 50 years. But what is the Italian tradition? As in many cases, there are differences between regions and especially between the north and centre-south.

For children in northern Italy, gifts were brought on the night between 12 and 13 December by Santa Lucia: a blind old woman who delivered gifts on the back of a donkey. The night before, children left milk and biscuits for Lucia and her donkey, and the next morning, they would find a gift. This tradition is similar to those in northern Europe, especially Sweden. In Sicily, this tradition has a completely different flavour, literally. Saint Lucia is celebrated for ending a long period of famine in 1646. To thank the Saint, foods made from processed wheat (such as bread and pasta) are avoided, but people eat impressive quantities of other specialities, such as arancine (deep fried rice balls), or panelle (chickpeas fritters).

Especially in central and southern Italy, gifts were brought on 6 January – Epiphany day – by an old woman riding a broomstick: la Befana. This figure, halfway between a saint and a witch, established a sort of dark and somewhat traumatic meritocracy: she brought gifts and sweets to good children and coal to bad children.

December is a sparkling month in Italy, every small community has its own traditions that are renewed every year and have stood the test of time.

Buone feste a tutte e tutti!

This blog was written for you by our Italian teacher Marzia!

For more Italian Christmas vibes, tune in to this Italian Christmas Playlist Podcast by Johannes and Luca!