PROJECT COMENIUS MULTILATERAL -E.P.E.I.T.E.

1. PROJECT COMENIUS MULTILATERAL -E.P.E.I.T.E. Ecole - Patrimoine - Esprit Initiative Touristique - Europe Made by pupils of2 D Relazioni Internazionali Teacher contactProf.ssa Franca Miserocchi ITSC « A.LOPERFIDO » Matera, December 30-2011

2. ITALIAN CHRISTMAS TRADITION Christmas is considered, almost everywhere in the world, as the most important celebration of the year. Christmas falls on December 25th and Christians celebrate with it the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas though has pagan origins. During the Roman Empire Christmas was a day devoted to Mitra, God of the sun and of its transit. Subsequently, during the IV/V century AD, with the spread of Christianity the cult of God Mitra has been replaced by the cult of Jesus Christ that, according to Christians , represents the Light. Nowadays when you talk about Christmas, you refer to the period from the 24th December to the 6th of January, or otherwise known as Epiphany. The latter one is represented by a nice old woman who, during the night between the 5th and 6th January, enters the houses riding a broom giving presents and candies in the good children's socks and alternatively with coal for the naughty children.Before the real feast, it is custom to set up the cradle (better: Nativity) and to decorate the Christmas tree. The Nativity, a reproduction of the nativity scene, and the tree, adorned by colorful lights and balls, are set up on the 8th of December, the day of Immaculate Conception and are removed on the evening of 6th of January.

3. For families from all over the world, Christmas is an occasion to get together, eating together and exchanging presents between loved ones. Italian families are no exception; their fondness of good food in this period is proverbial, in a culinary marathon in which you are engaged to taste all sorts of dishes, from sweet to savory food, fish to meat and obviously eating sizeable portions. The menu is a varied one, with handed down recipes or those deriving from the region, with new interpretations or trends which have been influenced by typical ingredients of other parts of the world. The Christmas Eve dinner is based on fish; the appetizers, the first course, can be a risotto or a plate of spaghetti with clams and the main course, fried fish, sea bream and sea bass baked with potatoes or salad. For lunch, on Christmas Day, you can eat meat. The first course is made up of lasagne, cannelloni, or meat pie; the main course consists of roast meat or roast beef.

4. Finally cheese, fruit, dried fruit and a lot of cakes, with red or white wine, a lot of sparkling wine, coffee and liquors/spirits (ammazzacaffè). On all Italian tables you certainly find the nougat, the panettone , the pandoro. The pandoro and the panettone are the traditional Italian Christmas cakes. The panettone, from the Italian region of Lombardy, consists of raisins and candies fruit. The nougat, the most typical Christmas cake, is available with honey, chocolate, almonds, pistachios and nuts.…

5. CHRISTMASTRADITIONI IN BASILICATA Christmas for the people of Basilicata is based on tradition; a feast of colors, sweet smells along with a rush for presents and good food. Year after year the gestures are always the same, though the "rite of the kitchen" recurs with increasing force. You rediscover the pleasures of the laid table and past flavours which belong to the local cookery tradition. In Basilicata the Christmas Eve dinner consists of thirteen courses based on fish. For lunch it is custom to eat a home-made, cylinder shaped pasta: the "strascinati"; they are served with a sauce of mince meat or prickly lettuce, cabbage and thistles soup. The main course consists of boiled cod. The pettole are also very popular, a fried dough with yeast and anchovies. Christmas in Matera (U' Natèl) was a poor feast, but a great celebration for many aspects: from a gastronomic, spiritual and familiar point of view, that started on the Eve of the Immaculate Conception day and that for many people consisted of a rigorous period of fasting. Women made the “ Immaculate bread” ( u fclatid) which was tasty and sweet smelling once it was fragrant. Christmas festivities started on the Immaculate Conception Day, when women made the pettole ( u pattl), some cartellate ( u cartedet) and some Porcellini ( u prciddiz), dipped in honey or mulled wine.

6. Walking through the streets was a real olfactory pleasure: from almost every house came an intense scent of fried pettole. This was only the beginning. The Christmas spirit was deeply felt at home, where mothers and grandmothers were kneading flour to make cakes: the friselle (u frsedd) the strazzate (u strazzetr), the meringues (u Schmjtt), the savoury taralli (u cangedd), biscuits made with white wine (u bschttjn), big cakes covered with sugar (u vschutt ingjlppet) and the pastries ( u pastccjn). Even today, Christmas Eve is a get together event, while tasting pettoles and playing together like they used to do in the past. Adults play the “Stoppa “ or The “ Briscola “, while children play “Snakes and Ladders”. The buttons serve as sign locations,” The Bunch or The “Bingo”, where the sign boxes were the orange or the mandarin peels or pulses. People waited for Jesus Christ’s birth until midnight, they wished Merry Christmas and only adults dipped their taralli in a glass of white wine. Children had some cakes and some families could buy small streamer shaped firework lit up by their children along the streets.

7. At midnight the procession for the Infant Christ’s birth and adoration made its way down and then they put him back into the grotto of the Nativity scene: Christmas had come. The following morning children went to the homes of their relatives to wish them Merry Christmas and in most cases they got a handful of roasted beans, some sweets or dried figs. Even then, children used to write their letters to Santa, where their good intentions were written down and they used to place those under their parent’s plate to be read after lunch. Over the days, the wait for the end of the old year and the arrival of the new one increased. People’s expectations were great as they hoped for the improvement of the standard of their life. At the stroke of midnight, in the neighborhood, you could hear people screaming with excitement and the old tradition of throwing “old stuff” away like plates, bottles, glasses and what was considered difficult to mend recurred once again because they believed that, in this way, the omens for their future would be good. Besides, it was fun. Families waited for the New Year to come, to play games and family time spent together.

8. If there were boys and girls, they turned themselves into dancers to the rhythm of a tambourine, but after the mutual exchange of greetings, everybody went back home. But everybody knew that the new year would have been the same old story, so they used to say “Ionn nov, vjta vecchij: iev passèt n’ata scjrnèt” (new year, old way of living, another day has passed). Children started to wait for the presents that the kind old witch ( la Befana) would have brought to them. Presents weren’t very expensive, because families couldn’t afford to spend large sums of money. According to tradition, on the Epiphany Eve, dinner was abundant and people used to eat nine different types of food ("nine things") with different characteristics. Obviously, it was not about a nine-course meal, but it was just a meal made of at least nine ingredients; which was easy to get hold of. On the Eve, especially children waited with excitement for the kindly old witch ‘the Befana’, who, at night came down the chimneys of the houses carrying her presents for children.

9. Children, on this occasion, used to hang a sock on the mantelpiece. The presents consisted of dried fruit, an orange, an apple and some candies. No toys. It was only in the '30s she began to give boys a rubber ball and girls a doll. People used to say that, during that night, the craftsman who repaired dishes ("'u conza piot") visited naughty children who had being playing pranks with the aim of sewing their mouths. With the arrival of the Epiphany and the Wise Men to Bethlehem, Christmas feasts ended and the nativity scene was taken down, even though many families preferred to preserve it until January 17th, the day of St. Anthony Abbot and the beginning of Carnival. On the Epiphany Day the Wise Men were put back in the storeroom and from the next day onward people proceeded with their daily duties: children went back to school and adults back to work in the countryside. At Christmas time, an average family of Matera used to live as described before, however, it must be said, that many other people over this period did not even have enough bread to eat, so for those people, these festive days were just any other ordinary days. Very often these people didn’t even have the strength to hope for a better life (for better days), so they used to say as a sign of resignation:

10. "Mò van Natel senza dner lascj u giurnel e m vauchj a chuchu"( It is nearly Christmas , I have no money, I’ll read my newspaper and I’ll go to sleep).Like any other city, Matera offers products that can be tasted mainly at Christmas time, the dishes require only a few ingredients to prepare and take only a short time to make creating the right mood to spend the time together. Typical food are the pettole, "u pattl", a kind of pancake prepared for Christmas Eve and fried sweets such as "u porceduzz" (‘piglets’), 'u' cartddet "(cartellate), or cookies baked in the oven such as "u strazzet" (le strazzate). These are special dishes that served the purpose of raising people’s spirits and to gather the whole family around the table. At the “Candelora” (Candlemas), during the phase of storing the nativity away, people were thinking about the year that has just passed and prayed to God the following year would be a better one. The special ritual that signed the end of the festivity period was the final procession of Baby Jesus around the house (usually made of one room only); finally people took the decorations away; the nativity statuettes were stored in a box, the little houses and the lights were put away, and the mandarins that used to hung on the Christmas tree (in more modern times even chocolates) were eaten.

11. CANZONI E FILASTROCCHE TRADIZIONALI CRISH PEN U CONT DU NATEL

12. Crishpen Crishpen, crish post, Comcrishì Gesù iund alla foss. Sant’Onn i Sant’Anastasij Non trumbè i non crishì Nafazzatour d penagnt

13. U CONT DU NATEL Ven Natel, ven chntend,ca l’uagnedd stann aspttonn,(2 volte) stonn aspttonn ch tutt lu cor,pettila vol e pettila vol.RIT: Tulì, Tulè, La nett du NatelE la nett d Nateliè na fest pringpel(2 volte) ca nascij Nostr Signorjin da na povr mangiator .RITSan Gisepp fu chiamet,sop o cil fu prtet,(2 volte) ch n vaij e ch n'agnjllSan Gisepp u vcchiarill.RITSan Gsepp u vcchiarilvint a chuch ch mech staser(2 volte) t’l'egghij fott u littcjddsott a lu titt d’anma maij.RITMarij lavev i Gjsepp spannav,u njnnjll chiangiav ca vlav la mann,(2 volte) fe la ninn, fe la nonnfe la ninn nonn vu fej RIT Viene Natale, viene contento,che le ragazze stanno aspettando,(2 volte) stanno aspettando con tutto il cuore,pettole vogliono, pettole vogliono.RIT: Tulì, Tulè, la notte di NataleE la notte di nataleè una festa principale(2 volte) che nacque Nostro Signorein una povera mangiatoia.RIT San Giseppe fu chiamato,sopra il cielo fu portato,(2 volte) con un bue e coh l’’agnelloSan Giseppe il vecchiarello.RIT San Giuseppe vecchierellovieni a dormire con me stasera,(2 volte) l’ho preparato il lettinosotto il tetto dell’anima mia.RIT Maria lavava e Giuseppe stendeva,il piccolo piangeva che voleva il latte,(2 volte) fai la ninna, fai la nannafai la ninna nanna vuoi fare

14. Today events of different sort are being organized to remember people that Christmas is coming: Sassi are lighted up showing their suggestive atmosphere by a gigantic star of Bethlem to recreate the splendour of a natural nativity carved in the limestone (tufa) and where you can visit the recreation of a live Nativity scene. Nature has a share in this event because of its unforgettable and unique background.

16. MENU TIPICO DI NATALE CARTELLATE PORCELLI NON SOLO DOLCI pettole SECONDO PIATTO Arrosto misto PRIMO PIATTO Pasta al forno

17. INGREDIENTS Fresh Scamorza Parmesan Boiled eggs Salami Pasta METHOD Prepare the meat sauce (ragu), leave the sauce at the right consistency, therefore, neither too thin nor too thick. Cook the pasta, drain it al dente, it will finish cooking in the oven with all the other ingredients. Pour a generous scoop of sauce into a baking tray, then add a layer of pasta over it, add the fresh soft cheese (scamorza) cut into pieces, the meatballs, boiled eggs, a layer of meat sauce and sprinkle with abundant parmesan. Repeat the layering operation until you used all the pasta. Bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Once cooked, get the tray out of the oven and let the pasta set for 5 minutes, then serve. PASTA AL FORNO(Past’ au’ furn’)

18. MIXED ROAST • INGREDIENTS: • Half rabbit • Half chicken • Pork Ribs • Lamb chops • 800 grams of potatoes • Half a glass of white wine / red • Rosemary • Salt • Pepper • Oil • METHOD • Cut the rabbit and the chicken into small pieces, add the pork ribs and the lamb and season everything with salt, pepper, rosemary, olive oil and the wine. Leave it to rest for a couple of hours. Put the meat with the marinade in a baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 200 °C for about an hour. Check every now and then, if necessary add a little bit of white wine. Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices, season with salt, pepper, rosemary and put them in a baking tray over a sheet of backing paper, bake at 180 °C for 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.Serve the mixed grill with roasted potatoes.

19. CARTELLATE ( U’ CARTDDAT) • INGREDIENTS: • ½ kg of flour • 5 whole eggs • 50 g. of sugar • Lemon zestgrattato • METHOD • Mix the flour with the eggs and sugar, add the zest of a lemon. Roll out a thin sheet of dough with a rolling pin and cut some strips 1cm wide and 10 cm long. Flatten each strip and join them in intervals. Heat some oil in a pan and fry them. • Once ready, serve the “cartellate” with honey, cinnamon or sugar.

20. PORCELLI (L’ PURCIEDD) • INGREDIENTS: • 1kg of flour • 4 eggs • 100 g of lard • 1 cube of yeast • a pinch of salt • METHOD: • Mix the ingredients to obtain a hard though. Work the dough until it gets a soft consistency and leave it to rise for about 2-3 hours. Once risen, cut the dough into small pieces and roll each little piece out through a grater. Cover the little pieces of rolled dough for half an hour. Fill a pan with boiling oil and fry.Once ready serve them with a little bit of sugar.

21. PETTOLE (L’ PETTL) INGREDIENTS: 500 g of potatoes 1 kg of wheat flour 1 kg of flour Yeast Water Mix until smooth and elastic Salt q.b. METHOD: Boil the potatoes and mash them straight away. Mix the potatoes with the two varieties of flour and add baking powder and salt. When the dough is ready, put to rise in a covered bowl for about an hour and a half. Once the dough has risen, heat some oil in a pot and deep fry your “pettole”. Once fried, serve them plain or with sugar.