For All The Saints

I'm old enough to remember when national holidays were celebrated on their proper days.  Lincoln's birthday was always February 12th, Washington's was February 22, Columbus on October 12 and Veteran's Day, November 11; as a kid this meant NO SCHOOL!  Banks and other businesses would close too, after giving their clients plenty of warning by posting signs in their windows a couple of days prior the event.  If a holiday fell on Saturday or Sunday well. . . tough luck kids, sorry gang, back to the regular grind!  


(Holidays with underlying religious themes were always surrounded by either a one or two week school vacation and hopefully, if you chose the right god, your holiday was surrounded by "time-off!")


With the invention of the Monday holiday, everything changed. No more whimpering employees and schoolchildren feeling short-changed when a holiday fell on a Saturday or Sunday. Everyone was now guaranteed a day-off and all was fair and equal. 


Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day (observed) and the only U. S. National Holiday honoring a non-president.  Dr. King was born on January 15 but he, like Lincoln and Washington, was assigned a Monday position to create a three-day "weekend." 


Celebrating someone special's "special day" is a wonderful way of honoring that special someone; moving that "special day" is a way of honoring the needs of the celebrants. That model seems to work well back home, but that would never fly here!

San Antonio, Levina (IM)

Yesterday was Saint Anthony of Egypt Day and to an Italian that means "January seventeenth."  Regardless of where in the week January 17th it falls, it is always a holiday.  A national holiday? no, does everyone celebrate it? no, but if you're named Antonio, after the saint, or if Anthony is the patron saint of your town, it's a holiday and your employer will just have to deal with it! 


And so it is and forever shall be.


San Antonio is not the patron saint of Ceriana; however, every January 17th a few dozen Cerianaschi and Cerianesi make an hour's drive to the small town of Lavina to help the locals celebrate its patron saint, St. Anthony.  This "pilgrimage" literally doubles the population of Lavina.  


I'm told that this tradition started decades ago when a Cerianese woman, born in Lavina, was concerned that a dwindling population there would soon forget their rituals.  She sang with Ceriana's women's choir, le Mamme Canterine and, as a fellow musician, she enticed our band members to play in Lavina by organizing a luncheon for them.  Still alive, but now unable to participate, I hear she was a wonderful hostess who would entertain her "guests" with a, sort of, cabaret well into the night!  

To this day, an ensemble consisting of members of Ceriana's band and, I assume,
 what's left of Lavina's band, leads the procession of the Saint and provides music throughout the day. 

Like many traditions here, Saint Anthony's Day in Lavina is a blurred mix of the "sacred and profane." Although yesterday's event included two masses and a solemn procession I suspect that most of the celebrants were, at least, equally interested in nourishing more than their spiritual appetites.

The Lunch, il pranzo, started with a different kind of procession-- a procession of "small plates," gli antipasti.  


--Before continuing I'd like to share what I've learned about the word, "antipasto." "Pasto" is the Italian word for "meal" and "anti" is Latin for "prior to" or "before."  Therefore, "antipasti" (plural) are things consumed before the main meal.




The Lunch, il pranzo, started around noon with, gli antipasti:
                                                                                                              

1. Vegetable tart (la torta verde)
2. A cheese filled fried raviolo
3. A puff-pastry filled with truffles and garlic
4. Salame and marinated olives
5. A cod-filled fritter (friscioi)
6. Sliced veal in tuna sauce (vitello tonnato)
7. Fried frogs--whole (rane)

After an hour of antipasti we were treated to the primi piatti, or "first plates".  In restaurants you'll see "i primi piatti" on the menu and usually one chooses one primo piatto; at this banquet we were served three primi piatti:

1. Risotto con quattro formaggi (Rice with four cheeses)
2. Ravioli al ragu
3. Tagliarini al pesto

The third hour of lunch consisted of three "second plates,"
i secondi:

1. Roast veal with potatoes (vitello arrosto con patate)
2. Braised goat with beans (capra e fagioli)
3. Fried eels (anguille fritti)

The sweets, and there were three, were served on a single plate. 

• tiramisu
• millefoglie
• semifreddo

At last, coffee.

"croak"

Start to finish, lunch took about four hours to complete and, at this pace, it's not impossible to consume all of the plates listed above, although I must confess I "passed" on a couple of the; shall I say, "slimier" items.  Of course, the red wine flowed and I drank my share.  




Next year (and I've already marked my calendar) St. Anthony's Day falls on a Tuesday. 


Imagine what the conversation would be like if you had to ask your boss for that particular day off.   Her side of the conversation would sound a bit like . . .


"You say you'd like the day off . . . for what? . . . a religious observance? . . . I see . . . . St. Anthony. . . where? . . .Lavina?. . . do you think you could just go to Mass and come to work late? . . . oh, I see. . . and you play in the band . . . a procession . . . uh huh . . . oh, a luncheon follows . . . well, maybe you can come in after lunch and work late . . . it's a four hour lunch? . . . I see . . .