Friday 16 December 2016

Italian Christmas traditions

I wouldn’t like to spend Christmas in Italy. Generally I love this country, people, sagras and so on, but in my opinion Christmas traditions in Italy are... not interesting. Maybe it’s because in Poland this time is really special: we spend those days with our families, we divide Christmas wafer (which appears to be almost exclusively polish tradition) and leave an additional plate for an unexpected guest. 

In Italy it looks very different. Firstly, there is no snow, which ruins part of the Christmas atmosphere (unluckily in Poland we haven’t seen snow for Christmas time for a few years now too). Secondly, Italians do not spend the whole Christmas with their families: they go to the restaurants for the Christmas dinner, and later they party in the city with their friends. Thirdly, they eat strange things (which has nothing in common with our pierogi, bigos and barszcz). And, they eat Panettone and Pandoro – kind of a Christmas pound cake with dried fruit and powdered sugar which has  some really chemical aromas. I mean, it’s quite good if you eat one little peace, but after two or three you feel quite sick. 

And it’s also interesting that Italians do not celebrate 6 December but 6 January and that instead of Santa Claus the gifts are brought by Befana – an ugly witch!!! 

And you? Which are your favourite Christmas traditions?

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