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Five Famous Italian Christmas Traditions

Italian Christmas traditions generally blend of classical Roman traditions. It derives from the ancient Roman heritage of the region with a holiday called Saturnalia, a winter solstice festival, and ended with the Roman New Year, the Calends. Today it is celebrated December 24-January 6, or Christmas Eve through Epiphany. Many scholars believe that the date for Christmas was decided upon to correlate with the solstice so that the people of the region would more easily adapt to the new faith. Until the calendar was adjusted in 1582 the winter solstice fell on December 25th.

1. Piping in the Holiday

While this particular Italian Christmas tradition is slowly fading, it's one that resonates with both spiritual traditions. Fifers open the holiday season as they hike down neighboring mountains. This custom goes back to the time when bards would play and sing to heighten the celebratory feelings throughout the area.

2. Nativity Scenes

You will see a lot of manger scenes throughout Italy at this time of year. Many are highly artistic (again a Romanesque influence). Interestingly enough, some of the Churches have light-hearted contests with each other to see who can create the best scenery complete with landscapes. Some regional artists specialize in JUST making these elaborate panoramas.

3. Italian Yule Log Celebration

In Tuscany, one of the most important Italian Christmas traditions is the celebration of Festa di Ceppo, or "Festival of the Log." This festival begins onChristmas Eve, when a huge log is set ablaze. Traditionally, this gets cut from the biggest tree a person can find.

Pagan and Christian. In pagan customs, the lighting of the log speaks of the power of life and the "reborn" sun of the winter solstice. To the pagans, each fire lit was meant to give the sun more strength. But the Yule Log is also a Christian tradition in Italy. In the Christian version, it's before the Yule log that Mary warms her newborn child.

Traditions Surrounding the Yule Log. There has always been a great deal of ritual associated with the Yule log in many homes. In one, the head of the household was to gather the family together and lay the log in a bed of juniper. Some coins were placed near the fire, and the flames received an offering of wine while the family would sing Ave Maria del Ceppo. The log was to continue burning non-stop until New Years to bring good luck. Afterwards, ashes were often used as charms to protect the home from lightning or hail damage.

4. Italian Festive Christmas Foods

Whether you're celebrating in Italy or creating your own little Italy all the way across the world, what would any Italian Christmas tradition be without a hearty meal? The food for Christmas Eve throughout the region is often fish be it baked, fried, or roasted (Feast of 7 Fishes). Additionally, you may see pork sausage and turkey with stuffing, even as we see in some American, Canadian, or English homes.

The entire holiday season is one in which sweet treats are a star. Nougat, gingerbread, fruit cake, sweet honey breads, and marzipan are a few examples of the goodies you'll find in nearly any Italian home until well after New Years. The candies represent the earth's bounty and life's sweetness.

5. Mrs. Claus: She's Really Italian!

Although Babbo Natale (Father Christmas) and giving presents on Christmas are becoming more common, the main day for gift giving is Epiphany on January 6, the 12th day of Christmas when the three Wise Men gave Baby Jesus their gifts. In Italy, presents are brought by La Befana, who arrives in the night to fill children's stockings

One of the most beloved Italian Christmas traditions is the figure of La Befana, who is effectively the female equivalent of Santa. It's customary for children to put out their shoes on January 6th to receive candies along with a gift of wine and food so La Befana can continue on her way with a full stomach.

La Befana: La Befana appears as an elderly woman riding a broom. She's covered in soot because she enters the home through chimneys (sound familiar?). Prior to candies, La Befana delivered honeyed figs and dates similar to an ancient pagan goddess Strenia, who oversaw New Year's gift giving.

Cenone: La festa dei sette pesci

Vegetarians may not think of a seven-course seafood dinner as abstinence, but that is how many Italians around the world celebrate Christmas Eve. The Feast of the Seven Fishes, or cenone in Italian, is a commemoration of the wait for the midnight birth of Jesus. So where's the abstinence?

Since its earliest days, the Catholic church has had a tradition of doing penance for sins, often on vigil or the day before major feast days such as Christmas. The most common form of penance was fasting (eating less) or abstinence, forgoing certain foods, especially meat, fowl and sometimes dairy. But everything else was, you might say, on the table.

Though the seven fishes dinner is traditionally a family meal, many Italian-American restaurant chefs have gotten into the act. At Fiamma at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, chef Carlos Buscaglia's seven courses will include such dishes as tuna with crispy cremini mushrooms and truffle vinaigrette; clams with house-made linguini; baccala with spicy pomodoro and grilled foccacia; and branzino with strawberry panzanella. Spezie Restaurant in Washington, D.C, will have the likes of pasticcio, a baked seafood pie (which chef and co-owner Cesare Lanfronconi likens to the timpano in the movie Big Night); a seafood soup Lanfronconi calls capriccio di mare, and octopus stew over soft polenta. "My family is from Sicily and my wife's family is from Rome. Both celebrated Christmas Eve with fish, though the Sicilians had more courses," Lanfronconi says.

Southern Italy puts more focus on Christmas Eve dinner, whereas in the North, Christmas Day is more important. Naples, in particular, has a reputation for having opulent Christmas Eve meals. So much for abstinence.

Why the number seven was chosen is a matter of dispute. Some suggest it represents the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Others, the

seven deadly sins, or the seven wonders of the world or, well, just about anything with seven. Then there is the argument over whether the seven means seven courses of fish or just seven different fish or kinds of seafood, which would include shellfish. At Incanto restaurant in San Francisco, chef Chris Cosentino will have seven fishes served in four courses, with dishes such as grilled squid, seafood salad with seafood foam, skate chop, and tagliarini with eel, capers, raisins and pine nuts.

Eel, a favorite (particularly among Romans) going back to the time of the Etruscans, is one of the obligatory fish for the meal. Unfortunately, just the idea of eel can be offputting for some folks (like my wife). "People eat it at sushi bars, but prepared the way Italians do it is a different story," Lanfronconi says. Because eel is not popular with Americans, you'll need to order it special or head for your nearest Chinese seafood store, where eel is more common. Fresh eel needs to be skinned. Frozen eel is normally skinned. Not having eel would be a pity because it is considerably less fishy tasting than many other fish and it has a firm, meaty texture. This texture also allows eel to work well on the grill. Another good method is deep frying, which I did in adapting a recipe from Mario Batali's Holiday Food (Clarkson Potter). The eel was served with a sweet and sour sauce.

Deep-frying is common on Italian Christmas Eve menus. It could be a single fish or a frito misto, combinations of fish and perhaps even a vegetable or two. Though his Sicilian family deep-fried smelts, whiting, and scallops, Tony Marcello, chef at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in Bethesda, MD, will serve deep fried calamari with three dipping sauces. Marcello's mother made squid a number of ways. One involved stuffing squid bodies with nuts and spinach, then baking them in tomato sauce

Baccala or salted cod is another staple on the Christmas Eve menu. Baccala requires a little advance preparation because the preserved fish needs to be soaked for about 48 hours in water that has to be changed a least twice a day to remove the excess salt. The typical preparation is to gently stew pieces of the fish in a tomato sauce with garlic

and onions and perhaps a few other embellishments such as basil, capers or white wine.

A more inviting way to present salt cod (at least to non Italians) is to make a variation of the French salt cod dish,brandade de morue, which calls for poaching the cod in milk with potatoes, onion, garlic and rosemary, then pureeing the mixture and serving it on polenta crostini. It's delicious and not as heavy as some other versions ofbrandade.

Of course, what would an Italian meal be without pasta? The most common pasta dish is a year round favorite, linguine with clam sauce. However, Buscaglia will be serving gnocchi with lobster and truffle crema and Mantuano black pasta with braised scungilli. Whichever pasta course you choose, keep portions small, no more than two ounces of dried pasta per person.

In some families a whole fish is the centerpiece of the meal. Though he remembers his family having a bluefish large enough to serve eight or more people, Cosentino will serve individual branzino with salmoriglio sauce, a warm Sicilian vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice and herbs that I served at home on grilled swordfish.

Dessert is often light, such as an assortment of Christmas cookies or biscotti. Fruit, especially citrus fruit, is also common, as are nuts, particularly walnuts and hazelnuts.

With appetizers that included tuna carpaccio and anchovy crostini consider a good sparkling wine from Sicily. An old vines, low-yield Verdicchio had enough oomph (more than most Verdicchios) to stand up to the linguine dish whose recipe is below. Even sturdier was a barrique-aged Slovenian blend of Ribolla, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc that paired nicely with grilled swordfish. Red wine is common for many cenones, particularly for dishes such as baccala stewed in tomatoes, capers and hot pepper flakes. In this instance, a medium-bodied red wine from Lombardia made from the obscure Marzemino grape was a first-rate match. Of course, there are dozens of other Italian wines at your disposal from fizzy Prosecco to Brunello. Just don't choose to abstain from wine for this meal.

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