An Italian Christmas is faith, family, and food

Intermountain Catholic

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Guiseppina Mirabelli displays an Italian Nativity, which is a focal point decoration for the Christmas season. IC photo by Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — An Italian Christmas revolves around faith, family, and an abundance of food. Throughout the Christmas holiday season, women spend days, sometimes weeks preparing for their family’s favorite Christmas dishes.

Italians love the Christmas season. They begin commemorating it on Dec. 8, with the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and end the season Jan. 6 with the Epiphany.

Today in Italy, Christmas trees are decorated, but the most important decoration is the Nativity scene. Italians take great pride in the manger, created in 1223 by St. Francis of Assisi. Bagpipes are the most common Italian Christmas musical instrument. The zampognari, or shepherds who play the bagpipes, come down from their mountain homes at Christmas time, and perform in the market squares.

The playing of bagpipes is popular in the regions of Calabria, Abruzzo, and in the piazzas in Rome. The melodies played are adapted from the old hill tunes. The tradition of the bagpipes goes back to ancient Rome when legend says the shepherds entertained the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. Today, as the zampognari play, they stop before every shrine to the Madonna and every Nativity scene.

Guiseppina (Josephine) Mirabelli, a member of St. Ambrose Parish, Salt Lake City, was born in Italy in the southern region of Calabria in the mountain village of Pedivigliano. At 25, she immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island with her mother, sister, and brother to meet her father who had been living in New Jersey for a few years. She soon met her husband, Gildo Mirabelli, through mutual friends. She said it was love at first sight. They met in January and were married in July.

Gildo was born in the village of Rizzuti in Calabria region of Italy. Together, they had three children, Donna, Dominic, and Rosalie. Gildo is deceased, but Guiseppina and her family carry on the family traditions of the Italian Catholic Christmas and the Feast of the Seven Fishes. The Christmas Eve meal takes at least a week to plan and prepare.

The Italians love food as much as they love Christmas. It is a tradition in the Mirabelli home one week before Christmas to prepare a meal of scones with anchovies, a lettuce salad with Italian dressing, and fresh fruit.

On Christmas Eve, it is an Italian tradition to only eat fish on Christmas Eve, which comes from the former practice of Catholics abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve. The seven fishes stand for the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church and the seven days of creation. There is no set menu for this feast.

The Mirabelli family follows their own tradition of baccalá (dry, salted cod), stuffed calamari (squid), green-lip mussels, smelts, crab dip, oyster crisp, fresh shrimp, and a whole baked salmon.

It is also a Mirabelli family tradition to have spinach-cheese triangles with filo dough, crab rounds, fried cauliflower Italian style, fresh broccoli, and a salad made with homemade Italian olives, cauliflower, green tomatoes, egg plant, and olive oil. They also have red roasted peppers in an antipasto, a pasta with tomato sauce, and homemade round bread (hubcap bread), which serves as the centerpiece.

The meal is followed with fresh fruit, nuts, and time to rest. Desserts include pizzelles (a thin waffle cookie), Tiramisú, scalilles, and turdilli, which are deep fried Italian cookies drenched in honey. The family has a tradition of putting together a Christmas jigsaw puzzle, visiting with family and friends, and opening their gifts on Christmas Eve. However, they still wait for Santa Claus to come down the chimney to bring presents for the children.

On Christmas Day, the Mirabellis attend Mass at noon at St. Ambrose Church, visit with family and friends, and make a soup out of the leftovers.

In Italy, Guiseppina remembers going with her family to deliver sweets to those families who had experienced a death in the family during the year. The family who had the death could not make their own scalilles and turdilles, because it was disrespectful to fry foods.

The children in Italy believe in a female version of Santa Claus called La Befana, who is an old woman who flies on a broom and brings presents to the children. According to Italian legend, the three wise men asked La Befana for directions to Bethlehem. La Befana was asked to join them but declined three times. It took an unusually bright light and a band of angels to convince La Befana that she must join the three wise men, but she was too late. She never found the Christ child and has been searching ever since.

On Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, La Befana goes out on her broom to drop off stockings filled with treats to all the sleeping children of Italy. Just like Santa Claus, children leave treats and messages throughout the night.