Buon Halloween!

Buon Halloween!

Ask most Florentines what they will be doing on the evening of  October 31 and the answer will probably be ‘nothing special.’ Halloween is not an Italian tradition, although in recent years American customs have sneaked in, and shops now enjoy booming sales of scary paraphernalia, with &

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Thu 24 Oct 2013 12:00 AM

Ask most Florentines what they will be doing on the evening of  October 31 and the answer will probably be ‘nothing special.’

Halloween is not an Italian tradition, although in recent years American customs have sneaked in, and shops now enjoy booming sales of scary paraphernalia, with ‘Buon Halloween’ party signs and inflatable pumpkins springing up around Florence as early as mid-October. Younger children, with face-painted spider webs, ghostly make-up and fearsome fancy dress, may be seen trick-or-treating, asking ‘Dolcetto o scherzetto?’ However, for many, the origin of Halloween matters less than the opportunity for another party.

 

Several centuries on from the start of this Pagan festival, the Roman Catholic Church endeavoured to abolish a multitude of Pagan holidays and, instead, created Ognissanti, or All Saints’ Day, on November 1. It is believed that Pope Gregory III was the first to dedicate an oratory in the original St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, in honour of all saints on November 1, henceforth proclaimed as Ognissanti throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

 

A much later addition, started in France by the Abbot of Cluny to remember the dead, was All Souls’ Day, or I Morti, on November 2. Only at the end of the tenth century did this custom spread throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church. Today’s name, Halloween, derives from ‘All Hallows’ Evening,’ the eve of All Hallows’ Day, which is another way of saying All Saints’ Day. Ognissanti, il Giorno dei Morti and Halloween all share the same pagan roots, which were then swiftly substituted with a religious festival, as is common practice in the history of the Christian church.

Nowadays, outside influences have caused Italy to pick up on this festival and an array of eerie events can now be found on All Hallows’ Eve, even though I was assured by many Italians that this tradition—‘non é la nostra’—does not belong to them. A few kilometres north of Lucca, near the Devil’s Bridge in Borgo a Mozzano (see TF 89: http://tinyurl.com/kpnpxof), Halloween has been celebrated since 1993, with this festival claiming to be Italy’s first. The small medieval town of Corinaldo, in Italy’s Le Marche region, professes to be to the ‘Italian Capital of Halloween,’ hosting a week of haunting happenings, including a music, fire and lights show as well as the rather corny yet entertaining Miss Strega (witch) contest. Nonetheless, the American traditions of pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples and gorging on candy and caramel-coated apples have not yet infiltrated Italian culture. The appearance of pumpkin-based dishes on restaurant menus has more to do with the fact that Italian cuisine prides itself on using seasonal foods and has very little to do with celebrating Halloween.

 

Ognissanti, however, does have a couple of culinary traditions attached to it, namely schiaccia dei santi (a type of focaccia) and pan dei santi (a type of sweet bread, sometimes made with walnuts, raisins and figs). It goes without saying that the holiday is celebrated among family (what Italian holiday isn’t?), traditionally spent at mass followed by a lunch, which may end with a slice of castagnaccio, a cake made from chestnut flour, typical of this time of year. On November 2, it is customary to visit the cemetery to pay one’s respects to the dearly departed (although this is often done on November 1 as it is a holiday), leaving chrysanthemums on the graves (thus not the best flowers to take to an Italian party).

 

If you do decide to don your witch’s hat and zoom around Florence on your broomstick on October 31, you will likely find yourself in the minority—other than the odd group of teeny trick-or-treaters or young Florentines and expats on their way to one of the Halloween parties offered in the city’s bars and clubs. Since November 1 is a national holiday, you will have the chance to recover from your evening of frightening Florentine fun.

 

A word to the wise: from personal experience, attaching small orange balloons to yourself to create the world’s best pumpkin outfit is not advisable, as you will struggle to fit down Florence’s narrow streets.

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