Tag Archives: italian

Christmas Raviolis

Text: 

“At Christmas, we make homemade raviolis. When I was growing up, my grandmother [made homemade raviolis] most of the time, and then when you kids were younger, Nonni (the informant’s mother) did it a number of years, and now we do it.”

Minor Genre: 

Holiday Ritual; Food Traditions

Context: 

“My dad has a funny story about the first time he had dinner with my mom’s Italian family. In the Italian meals, they would serve raviolis almost as an appetizer. My dad filled up on the raviolis and then there were still like four more courses of dinner to come.

“I never made [the raviolis], I just ate them. My grandmother made them and I didn’t really pitch in as a kid. It wasn’t until Nonni started making them with you kids that I helped. We would have raviolis throughout the year but really the ritual of making them was saved for Christmas.”

Analysis:

I have memories of making raviolis with my grandmother, Nonni, every Christmas growing up. It was a process that involved the whole family: we first made the pasta dough using an old recipe from the informant’s grandmother (my great-grandmother); then we rolled out the pasta into thin strips using a pasta-roller attachment to the kitchen table; then we used ravioli dishes to place the dough, add in the filling, and press the food into ravioli shapes.

Ravioli originated in Italy and is a type of pasta dish containing filling typically composed of meat or cheese. Nonni’s side of the family immigrated from Italy from the regions of Tuscany and Campania. Although the filling of our family’s ravioli is likely an Americanized version of the Italian original, we reference an old hand-written recipe for the pasta that could reasonably be believed to have been brought over by Nonni’s Italian ancestors.

The ritual of making raviolis each Christmas is a way to honor our family’s Italian heritage while simultaneously engaging in a community-building activity that will ultimately be enjoyed by every member of the family at dinner.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American Christmas Eve celebration. J’s family has been celebrating with this feast just for the past few years, and he says it allows them to connect with their culture and ethnic community. In accordance with online descriptions of the grand meal, the “essentially have a dinner party with 7 different fish cooked into the dishes.”

According to Eataly, the tradition was started by Italian immigrants in the U.S. in the early 1900s and while the exact origins/meanings are difficult to trace, “the ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, including Christmas. The number seven is rooted back in ancient times and it can be connected to multiple Catholic symbols…” Therefore, like for J’s family, one can presume that both the meals and symbolism present were reminiscent of “home” for early participants in the Feast.

He believes it to be a celebration of abundance and the “being better off” that comes with immigrating to the U.S. as well as a ritualistic acknowledgement by Italian Americans of their cultural history and the sacrifices and hard work of their ancestors.

Feast of the 7 Fishes

Text:
Around Christmastime, his family will have a dinner party they invite family and friends to called the Feast of 7 Fishes. They will play Italian music and, among other celebratory little decorations, make a menu of the dishes that will be had at dinner. These dishes will have a total of 7 types of fish/seafood spread throughout them.

Context:
The informant’s Grandmother on his mother’s side passed away a few years ago. She was a first generation Italian immigrant who was very proud of being Italian. His mother has recently been looking to connect with her Italian side more. One of the ways she is doing this is by celebrating the feast of 7 fishes, which is a tradition of early italian immigrants to the Americas. They were celebrating how much more fortunate/wealthy they were in America than they had been in Italy, and found that they could afford to eat seven fish at christmastime, not just one like they had been limited to back in Italy.

Analysis:
I think the informant’s analysis of the original festival- the feast of the 7 fishes- is accurate, mainly celebrating newfound wealth and good fortune. It also is a celebration at Christmastime which, for Christians (and many Italians were Christian), is a time of being grateful for what God has given them. This gratitude centers on him sending his son, Jesus, to earth, but definitely is a time to be grateful to him in general, which would include good fortune and newfound wealth. I think there is another layer to why his mother has recently found this desire to deepen her connection to her Italian side, however, and that is to feel a deeper connection to her own recently deceased mother, as well as to respect her by starting to cherish something she cherished.

Folk Object: Nunzio Figure

Context:

The mother of my informant is from Italy, from the region of Abruzzi, and she owned a figure of a saint named “Saint Nunzio”. He’s a figure who comes from the same region. He was also a blacksmith, and a lot of the people there find kinship with him for being a craftsman like the rest of them. The figure is sort of a good luck charm that, according to the informant, her mother projected “everything nice” onto, and which she would take with her on travels. Eventually the informant’s mother passed Nunzio down to my my informant, who she instructed to take him with her wherever she goes, as he would watch over her. To this day, my informant still takes Nunzio with her on vacations and long trips.

Analysis:

Nunzio appears to be a religious piece of folklore of specifically Catholic nature. This is not too surprising, considering how much of a heavy role Catholicism and religion play into Italian culture. This one in particular is interesting, as while images of saints are often used to remember a saint’s good deeds, it is much rarer to have them be an outright good luck charm for the holder. This may be partially because of the importance of Nunzio to the region, as having an image of someone who would be considered “kin” is especially important from the perspective of someone traveling. If you have someone from your home with you, you no longer feel far from home. It should also be noted that Nunzio wasn’t canonized until 2018- far before the informant’s mother would have recieved the figure. This would make him a folk saint- another interesting layer of folklore that demonstrates how one can be exalted for their deeds and general help by fellow Catholics without being officially canonized by the church.

Gesture: Bras d’honneur

Text:

This gesture is a taboo, so no recording will accompany it- only a description. To do it, you’re supposed to bring one arm up high across the chest with a clenched fist, before making a fist with your other hand and striking the inner elbow of the risen arm.

Context:

My informant mentioned that Italians tend to be known for the gestures they make when speaking. She mentions that this is one specific type of gesture that you would see your aunts and uncles do, but which you weren’t supposed to do yourself. It is meant to mean “screw you”. It’s supposed to resemble a person hanging up an umbrella, hence the name. A notable difference between this version of the gesture and the more popular one you might find by looking it up online is that this version involves hitting the elbow with your fist, whereas the more common version involves slapping your elbow. 

Analysis:

Hand gestures in Italian culture seem to be a way to stand out compared to whoever the person doing them is talking to. It also serves as a natural form of punctuation, adding greater emphasis to whatever a person says. As a result, a major gesture that basically says “screw you” could be a very effective tool in shutting someone down. Because of its severity, though, it appears far more taboo. The way that this version of the gesture involves a fist instead of a slap to the elbow could represent a greater severity- a “punch” rather than a slap, showing more force and far more aggression towards the person it is directed at.