CUSTOMS IN ITALY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29082, 19 December 1959, Page 11

CUSTOMS IN ITALY

Fireworks And Processions

(From a Reuter Correspondent) ROME. : Fireworks depicting camels and ; church processions with fifes and Chinese lanterns will be among the many Italian traditional customs which accompany the celebration of the Christmas Eve with midnight Mass, the most picturesque of the year.

i In Rome, most of the capital’s i 300 churches will be packed with and non-Catholics alike ;to witness religious ceremonies which begin shortly before midnight and end only in the small hours of the morning. At Biancavilla, north-west of Catania, in Sicily, traditional fireworks depicting camels will be shown. In the tiny mountain hamlet of Bersezio, in the Alps, 12 men dressed as shepherds will enter the church to the sound of fifes.

Probably the most characteristic manifestations of Christmas in Italy are the cribs —the scenes . round the manger in Bethlehem i set up in all the churches and, on a smaller scale, in most homes. j A comparatively new feature ' will be the millions of Christmas trees dressed with tinsel. Many i Italian families caught the habit from the Germans during World i War 11.

On December 25, the people of every major city will vie with each other in the lavish quality of their local dishes, which have remained relatively unchanged down the centuries.

Roast turkey will be eaten as a traditional Christmas Day dish only in the northern province of Lombardy, where it is served in Milan and elsewhere with a tasty fruit preserved in a mustardsugar syrup. The Venetians prefer goose, with a mustard-sugar sauce, as well as specially prepared eels.

JRoast kid will be eaten in the Calabrian toe of Italy, and raw seafood cocktails with shell-fish pastries in the fishing hamlets. The German-speaking minority iin the extreme north of the Italian-Austrian border remains ‘ faithful to Teutonic rather than Mediterannean tastes with liver dumplings and apple pie.