Presented by Gianluca & Nicola

DECORATIONS In almost every place in Italy, people use to decorate their home and their town with some amazing ornaments. For example, we can find a lot types of coloured lights, that we can see around in the streets and on the balconies of the buildings. In italian homes, people usually build wonderfoul Christmas trees and make some very big cribs (presepi).

“Presepe” is often prepared by all familiy’s components at the beginning of December. “Presepe” represents the scene when Jesus was born about two thousands years ago and in particoular we can find Maria, Giuseppe and their son just born, in that cold and dark stable. But sometimes presepi could be bigger than this and are composed by lots of other characters like pastors, merchants and the Three Wise Men. In the oldest and biggest streets of italian cities there are some shows where these presepi are exhibited and sold. There are also presepi that are composed by real people who act their role on Christmas day. back

CHRISTMAS TREES The tradition of preparing Christmas came from America together with the figure of Santa Claus, that we call “Babbo Natale”. Originally Santa Claus was a shop, Saint Nicolas from Turkey. On Christmas day, he gave presents to the poor. Now in many towns of Italy, children write a letter to ‘’Babbo Natale’’ where they speak about what they wish for Christmas. Legend tells that in the night of 24th December, Saint Nicolas came from the houses’ chimneys and gives presents to people who have written to him. In the next morning they open the presents left by Santa Klaus under the Christmas trees. back

TIPICAL EVENTS: IMMACOLATA The first event that introduce Christmas is Immacolata day when, on 7th December, at lunch, women prepare frittelle, fried baccalà and rape. In the evening, men in Barletta collect everything that is made of wood and in the middle of open spaces they make a bonfire called falò. At the end they used to sing a folk song “Fanova” that tells about bread and frittelle(a tipical food made of oil, flour and yeast).

24° AND 25° DECEMBER -24th and 25th December: On the eve of 24th December all components of family stay togheter to eat, drink and make some toasts waiting for midnight. At midnight, they go in procession around the house singing Christmas carols and putting Baby Christ's doll in the presepe's stable between Giuseppe and Maria. back After, some people go to church for the Midnight Cermony. Next day families stay all together at table for a lot of hours. Later, they play and enjoy their time playing some typical games like Bingo called "Tombola" and "Picozzo" or "Mediatore" (that are played with cards), until the late night.

NEW YEAR’S NIGHT back

TIPICAL FOODS: SWEETS This period is great for woman to prepare good starters,side dishes and sweets like Cartellate, Torrone, Mostaccioli, Pastarelle, and Limoncello a traditional spirit liqueur. To celebrate Christmas, people eat Panettone and drink Spumante.

STARTERS AND SIDE DISHES Lenticchie and Cotechino, frittelle, Capitone, Baccalà, Spaghetti back