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- The Italian Christmas Holiday Season Top of Page
- In order to understand the Italian Christmas Holiday Season, it's important to consider a couple of differences between the Italian and American cultures that are both political and religious. The United States was founded on the premise of division between religion and state. This is not true for Italy. Indeed, in Italy, that division has never been attempted. In Italy, the base of continuity since time immemorial has been the Church, or religion, and government structures have come and gone for more than 2000 years. In the United States, the governement is the foundation and religions have spread outward, even come and gone, since the foundation of the nation.
- Further, the foundation of the Italian culture is implicit, and is centered upon family and tradition. This fact is reflected in the approach to the Christmas Holiday Season in ways that are difficult to explain, but can be shown in an example: in the United States, the commercial pounding of the Christmas Holiday Season creeps further each year toward July 4th. Indeed at the time of this writing, Christmas sales and decorations appear on or before Haloween. This trend has been developing slowly, and continuing consistently for several years. This does not appear to be the case. Indeed, the atmosphere does become commercial during the holidays, and January 2nd does bring exceptional sales and bargains to the keen consumer. However, the American culture does not celebrate, perhaps even understand the feasts of St. Stephen or Ephipany. In Italy, these feast days are as important as Christmas Day itself. In short, the Italian Holiday Season is much deeper, richer, and has a more subtle and direct focus on family and tradition.
- In short, the Italian Christmas Season begins sometime before Christmas Eve (La Viglia), and extends for over two weeks, to Ephipany (Jan. 6). At times, the economy, public transportation, and other presumed facts of life come to a virtual standstill. Everyone goes to be with their family.
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- The City of Milan Top of Page
- Learning the city of Milan, and to negotiate it, could be likened to eating condensed soup - and not adding water. The city is extremely dense. Milan has been compared to Chicago in terms of its importance with regards to economy and fashion. The city was originally, long, long ago, centered on and around the Sforza castle, and has grown outward in a circular fashion for the last several hundred - or thousand - years. The streets are narrow, crowded, busy, fast moving, and intense. There is rarely a simple, direct route from one point to another. Further, the street names change every few blocks or so. Simply to negotiate getting around in the city is an education in itself. The key, in my experience, is similar to an escalator: get on, and be prepared for the ride. For a person who is open to history and new experiences, there's an entirely new dimension to each around every corner. The city is full of Piazzas and monuments, at roughly the rate one would find a Safeway, Kroger, or HEB store in the US. The public transit system is available, abundant, timely, and dependable. I found my stay in Milan to be much richer by not engaging an automobile and using the public transit system. The 2 days that I needed to learn the public transit system - the Metro & the Tram - were well spent. By remaining 'on foot' I not only didn't have to deal with traffic, but I was at 'eye level' with the city itself.
- There's another part of being in Milan that I noticed and asked about. There are a lot of people living on the street. These include beggars, pick-pockets, thieves, sidewalk vendors, and other various types of human beings. I was told that the murder rate, and the rate of violent crime, in Milan is much less than that in the US in a city of comparable size and interaction. I cannot quote any statistics on this finding, but I can say that I had no problem getting help when I asked for directions or assistance in how a system or machine functioned. Indeed, I found that the typical 'Milanese' would often make eye contact, talk to me, and was generally curious. The fact that I knew a little Italian, and was attempting to learn as much as I could, went a long way. These facts alone were worth their weight in Euros.
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- The Trains of Italy Top of Page
- The train system of Italy as a country is comparabe to the metro train system of Milan. It's possible to get to almost anywhere in the country on the train using either the regional or express trains. The trains also connect Italy to the other major cities of Europe. There simply is no comparable train system that exists in the United States. The Italian (and typically Eurpoean) trains run on time, and are reasonably priced. The express trains that run between major cities are fast and comfortable. Again, by using the train to travel, and remaining 'on foot', it gives the traveller the advangate of seeing the country 'at eye level'. Use of the train systems is beyond the scope of this article, but is most definitely a suggested form of travel.
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- The Village of Origin Top of Page
- In an interesting sense, I have found that genealogy at large is not terribly popular in Italy. Most people seem to know where they came from, and the family line that got them here - or there. The typical Italian knows who his grandparents were, perhaps his great-grandparents as well. There typically isn't a need to research and find this information. However, for me, this is not true - at least to a certain extent. I most certainly knew - very well - my grandparents. However, a lot of information beyond that was not available. For instance, my surname (cognome in Italian) has always been a mystery, even having grown up in an Italian community where it was not uncommon. Since I found out, several years ago, that there was a village in North Italy that seemed to be the base of the name, I have had the desire to visit the place. The name of the town is Carnago, and the fact of visiting had a certain emotional content up to the moment that I actually entered the village and sat with one of the residents. In the end, it came to be a small deal, not necessarily disappointing. What I thought would be a large conquest with a sense of accomplishment and emotional content simply was not. The bottom line is that my name, Carnaghi, definitely exists commonly in Northern Italy. At some point, my ancestors probably did have a common location, and perhaps it was the village of Carnago. But the origin of the town, and the meaning of the name, appears to be lost and not of much ado to most people who have the name, as well as those who live in the village of Carnago. For an odd reason, I came to feel a little easier around this thought: how many people named Smith are preoccupied with visiting Smithville?
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- The Italian Culture Top of Page
- I don't think that there could be an understanding of the Italian culture apart from an experience of it. I could not pretend to understand the Italian culture even after visiting here for more than a few days, particularly after growing up in a traditional American-Italian/Catholic family and community.. The culture is perhaps slightly more understandable after reading the history of the peninsula, and talking to several of the people who are Italian. The history itself is quite a study. Indeed, the most condensed version, which still had a certain quality of content, was over 35 pages long - that's 8.5 x 11 - and took me several evenings to read. I once asked about how Italian history is taught to school children, and the response was that it's spread over several years because there's so much of ot. At any rate, the culture most definitely seems to reflect the history as well as the needs of the people, and the way those have developed and interacted over the years. In comparison, the allegiance of a typical American could be summed thus: to the family, to the country, to the state, and to the local community. To the typical Italian the order of priorities would be thus: to the family, to the community, to the region, and to the country. The only other priority that an Italian might have is to his favorite soccer team, which - depending on when the person was asked - may rate above or just after the family.
- As a child, as a part of our family heritage, we always knew that we had two cousins who were nuns in Italy. Indeed, they currently (at the time this is written) live in traditional convents. I write to them, and I have visited them in their convents. I am utterly impressed with the life they live. It's a life of giving and service, dedication beyond what I have seen in most other endeavors of my life.
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- The Italian Language Top of Page
- I will be the first to admit that learning the Italian language is a completely personal desire and conquest. It is no small discipline to learn a foreign language. However, there is no way that I could possibly express the rewards that I have reaped from this effort. I have been accepted in places and situations that simply would not have opened if I had not shown the desire to communicate with Italians on their terms. Indeed, the amount of goof-ups that I have committed have created memories and moments that will likely live with some to their final days. For me, personally, this has produced an intrinsic reward that I value as one of the highest achievements of my Italian heritage.
- I grew up listening to the Italian language. Indeed, I remember hearing it as the dominang language in the streets of my childhood neighborhood. I didn't know it at the time, but the Italian that I grew up listening to between my grandparents was (and is) an uncommon dialect spoken only in a specific area of Northern Italy. Standard Italian is most definitely the language to learn if one wants to communicate with the typical Italian. 'Dialect', as it is known today, is not written, at least not commonly, and is a dying tongue. I simply cannot understand it, beyond the few words and phrases that were passed to me by my grandparents.
- Learning a language from a book or tape, perhaps a stock 'Berlitz' course is one thing. Staying in Italy for a period of time and being pressed to communicate is another. When having to question an erroneous money matter, or having to understand the answer to a question about a train timetable or directions, makes the language sink in at a level that books and tapes simply can't reach. Such is the 'immersion' experience. There is not substitute if one truly wants to speak the language, and experience the culture.
- In summary, this was one of the best Holiday gifts that I have ever received. It's been a truly rich and rewarding experience, and I can now say that I've seen and experienced my roots and heritage as perhaps few others ever do. For a rich visual impression of this experience, visit the Natale in Italia photo series.
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