AN ITALIAN CHRISTMAS

Cue (NZERS), Issue 13, 15 December 1944, Page 26

AN ITALIAN CHRISTMAS

FOR the second successive year members of the NZ Division

are about to celebrate Christmas among the Italian people. But because they have now entered the northern Italian regions, they will note a subtle difference in the form of Christmas observance, compared with the traditions followed by the peoples of the southern and milder climes, with whom they shared Christmas a year ago. 1 ‘ ; v

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Because of their deep - rooted religious inheritance, it is natural that Italians should regard Christmas with more than customary significance. The Church is, therefore, thronged with worshippers at special Masses and services, and a general spirit of thanksgiving and feasting possesses the populace. There is a sharp division between North and South in the children’s celebration of Christmas. The difference is found in the fairy who descends the family chimney to bless the children by filling their stockings. with 7 gifts, and the eve on which this mission is accomplished.

■ln the richer and more industrial areas extending from Rome northward, Christmas Day is the important day for the child. It is during the preceding eve that the cherubic Santa Nicola, the same Santa Claus of ,N.Z. children, pays his call upon the Italian branch of his family. z , Among the peasantry of the agricultural. regions to the south of- Rome, Epiphany, or BEFANA, is the day of days. It was on January 6 that the

Three Wise. Men brought gifts to the Virgin Mother and the Christ Child in His Bethlehem manger. So to this day the child of Southern Italy looks forward to the visit of BEFA.NA, a wizened old witch with a broom,’ to bring presents on the night of January 5. Hanging the stocking is customary in Italy, just as it is with the children of New Zealand—at the foot of the bed or from the mantel over the main fireplace of the casa, generally in the living room. . Some of the wealthier families also favour a Christmas Tree, a rarity in a New Zealand home. But about 1935 Mussolini banned the cutting of pine saplings for such a purpose, condemning it as an idle, foreign idea. In spite of the Fascist ban, people of British strain in Italy always managed somehow to have their Christmas Tree. The Germans wanted them, too, while they were in occupation. They had them, and Mussolini had to swallow his edicts. So for the past three years there have been more and more Christmas Trees, and the practice will no doubt be continued this festive season.

Toys are the customary presents for children of the North, especially in; the industrial areas, where some excellent mechanical toys are manufactured. Rome shops for several weeks past have had attractive displays of Christmas toys, and many have been bought by Kiwi servicemen for posting to their children. War toys are still the most popular. > Model tanks, jeeps and trailers, heavy army trucks bearing the Allied recognition emblem of the white star in a circle, and model aircraft with hangars and runways . complete, figure prominently in shop displays. Sleighs and skis for the snow are popular.

But in the South clothing and food are more acceptable gifts to the peasant children who work from an early age and have no time for toys. In fact, if a friend tells a boy: « I’ll make you a jacket for Christmas,» the best gift of all has been promised. Similarly, a new frock delights a girl.

All over Italy, the people make models to represent the manger scene, with the Babe, the Madonna, the Three Wise Men and other Biblical characters. One can be seen all the year round in a large glass case in the Capuchin Church in Rome. This is a most artistic work, with a realistic landscape and lifelike models of donkeys and camels, the whole improved by subtle* lighting.

Life-size figures of the principal manger characters are to be found in St. Andrew’s Church, Rome, which is the venue of major Christmas pilgrimages. In the St. Mary Maggiore Church there are remains claimed to be those of the actual manger, although New Zealanders who had leave in Palestine, remember what they saw for themselves of the handsomely-festooned manger in the • Church of Nativity, Bethlehem.

Christmas homage is also specially paid to the one and only Bambino in the Church of Ara Coeli in Rome. Letters continue to pour in for this famous Child every day from all parts of the world, and they are all stacked beside the Infant’s case. Children of Italy gather to pray beside It at Christmas and ask It to spread Its miraculous healing and bring health and happiness to suffering children everywhere.

Midnight Mass as celebrated on Christmas Eve in the past by the Pope in St. Peter’s has always been an important religious ceremony. Since Italy entered the war and the blackout and curfew were imposed on Rome, Mass in the past two years has been said by the Pope .at 4.30 p.m. The hour had no significance; it was the papal privilege to' set the time, however askew. The hope is general that it will be possible for Midnight Mass to be celebrated this Christmas in the traditional manner.

Throughout the Christmas ' season there will be the usual jollifications in the PIAZZA N AVON A. It is an antique circus of the Roman age In

the, middle cenuries it was a public bath. In more recent times it has become the centre for all costume carnivals—and with their great love of pomp the Italians hold many of these. The celebrations last from Christmas Eve until Epiphany. It is here that all the essentials for producing the homemade PRESEPIO, from statues down .to artificial grass, and candles for lighting may be purchased. z

Feasting begins on Christmas Day. One special macaroni dish is a seasonal delicacy, called PASTA ASCUITTA. Another fiesta morsel is CAPONE, or chicken specially prepared. -The banquets end with the Feast of the Queen on January 'B, and schools which normally close for Christmas from December 23 reopen on January 9. .

a ballad of bari

drive a jeep or take a gharry when you see the sights of bari thus avoid all broken bones on foul and slimy paving stones stately church and squalid hovel ; children play and beggars grovel countless hags and comely wenches pungent scents and horrid stenches and from sewers and from cells' arise another hundred smells by the sky-blue adriatic waft up new scents aromatic ities eating fish or squid .< sold at twenty to the quid army trucks of allied nations racing past with great impatience donkey carts and trolley buses british oaths and latin cusses dirty cafes busy shops pleasant ities greasy wops /- markets black and prices dearer fish and chips a hundred lire old world buildings others' modern few folk rich the rest downtrodden town of colour and of contrast blending age and fascist bombast yes i cannot help /but tarry to ask why people live in bari.