Easter in Italy: 'con chi vuoi'

What do 'Italians' do with Easter? In Italy the saying goes: 'Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi'. Christmas with your family, Easter with whoever you want. Easter consists of Good Friday (Good Friday) and then Sunday Easter and Monday Easter Monday (Easter Monday).

Picnic

Many Italians organize a picnic on Pasquetta, somewhere in a beautiful place in nature. At such a picnic you should not imagine a sandwich and some salad. Fires are lit on which (lamb) meat is then roasted, the wine flows freely and there are many courses, almost like a real extensive lunch.

Often these picnics are organized and groups go out together. Plenty of places, but given the amount of food and the need for an open fire, only those places with a barbecue and a passable road for the car are suitable for this kind of excess.

Procession

On Good Friday there are evening processions in many places, in which a number of men are dressed as Romans. They keep an eye on a disguised Jesus who, with the cross and all, is dying from the cold, depending on the outside temperature. All around it are neatly dressed (thickly packed) Italians as if they were on an outing, and after all that is what they are. The priest says a few words and then the procession returns home, or rather, church.

Blessing

Already last Sunday everyone in the village was walking with freshly cut olive tree branches. They are blessed by the priest. Also some eggs and possibly – for a hefty payment – the priest will also come to your house (which you scrub well before his arrival, such as during spring cleaning) to sprinkle some holy water there and in this way protect you for another year against disaster. to protect. Well, it sounds like idolatry, but it's tradition and the church apparently thinks it's okay for a long time. Busy times for the priest.

Lamb

Oh… and speaking of traditions… at Easter you don't want to be a male lamb in Italy. The trade in these cute animals is brisk. Traditionally, lamb is eaten with Pasqua. Unfortunately, we also have to do something with those animals, because males are pretty useless because they do not produce milk, so it makes sense that they are already eaten in the spring.

pigeon

Furthermore, there is the dove, a kind of large cake in the shape of a pigeon (dove means dove, that type of pigeon that stands for peace with an olive branch in its beak, it is of course not that dirty, larger city pigeon).

Easter dove — Easter tradition in Italy: the Colomba di Pasqua, or the Easter pigeon (photo: Pixabay)

The real doves have little to fear at Easter, but are eaten the rest of the year. The worldwide sign of peace is tasty, but not at Easter. Innocent lambs have to pay for it at Easter.