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[Italian Traditions] All Saints’ Day in Italy

11/03/2015

All Saints' Day in Italy: Italian traditions and celebrations

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How do we celebrate All Saints’ Day, here in Italy? 

First of all, let me just tell you one thing: we do not celebrate Halloween. Ok, I should be more precise: we used not to celebrate Halloween in the past, we have been doing it only lately.

When I was a kid, I had absolutely no clue of what Halloween was, for me it was just a weird celebration you saw in certain American movies or TV series. To be honest, I would never have believed we would end up celebrating it over here too. Probably people just wanted one more reason to have fun and decided it was time to make Halloween a proper feast in Italy as well.

Nowadays, shops are being decorated with carved pumpkins and scary stuff, kids go around asking for sweets and candies – even if, instead of saying “trick or treat”, they scream “dolcetto o scherzetto?” – and adults throw costume parties as they have seen in many TV shows, but Halloween is still not as huge as in the United States, for example.

After all, Halloween does not belong to our tradition, it is just something we borrowed from other countries.

Here in Italy, we celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, on November 1st and November 2nd respectively. All Saints’ Day, Ognissanti in Italian, is the feast of all the Saints of the Catholic calendar and it is a public holiday, exactly like Christmas or Easter. We do not work nor go to school on that day.  All Souls’ Day is called Giorno dei Morti in Italian and it is the day when we remember those who have departed.

Actually, both days are devoted to the dead. On November 1st, it is customary to go to Mass and then visit the cemetery. Quite frequently, Mass is held directly at the cemetery, some other times Mass is held in the church and then there’s a procession that takes people to the cemetery, where the priest blesses the dead.

During the last week of October, cemeteries in Italy are quite busy and crowded with people. People clean and prepare graves, decorating them with fresh flowers, and visit the tombs of faraway relatives and friends.

Did you know that chrysanthemums are the flowers of the dead, here in Italy? 

I did some research to understand why it is so, but I haven’t found a proper answer. Surely. this must be partly because they are in bloom at the end of October/beginning of November, but I don’t know if there’s another reason for that. Sure is that chrysanthemums are closely linked to the Day of the Dead and no Italian would ever give them as a present to anyone. Keep that in mind if you are coming to Italy and want to give a nice bunch of flowers to someone!

As for every other celebration in Italy, food has its own important role. 

Every region has its own typical food to be eaten in such days and Liguria, the region I live in, makes no exception. I actually live on the border between Liguria and Piedmont and this means that our traditions are kinda mixed. For example, on November 1st, we traditionally eat ceci con le costine, a soup made with chickpeas, celery, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and pork ribs, which is typical of Piedmont.

All Saints' Day, chickpeas soup

(this is the soup that my mother cooked for lunch on November 1st)

Another kind of food that you can find only at this time of the year is il pane dei morti, a sweet bread made with raisins, crumbled biscuits, flour, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate. It is amazing and I can’t wait for October to arrive to look for it at my favorite bakery. If you happen to be in Italy at this time of the year, make sure not to miss it!

All Saints' Day, pan dei morti

(the pane dei morti I bought just yesterday)

Do you celebrate All Saints’ in your corner of the world? Are there certain kinds of food in your country that you can find only at this time of year? Tell me!


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Filed Under: Italian culture, Italian food 12 Comments

Comments

  1. Debbie McCarrick says

    10/25/2017 at 5:32 PM

    I am an Italian American. My father was full Italiano. My maiden name is Vinciguerra. Which is I am told to mean win the war. I took 2 semesters of Italiano but it has not stayed in la testa. lol I am very much interested in including some traditional recipes in our family holiday celebrations. This year instead of ham for Christmas I will make my lasagna. Would like to make the il pane dei morti for November 1st also. Thank you for the info.
    Debbie

    Reply
    • cinzia says

      10/26/2017 at 4:38 PM

      Oh, I love pane dei morti! I’ve actually just been to the bakery and bought a few for tomorrow! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Kathryn Occhipinti says

    10/20/2020 at 9:47 PM

    The chickpea soup looks delicious! Is it made the same way a simple minestrone soup is made? I love making soups and would like to re-blog your blog with a recipe.

    Reply
    • cinzia says

      10/21/2020 at 9:00 AM

      Yes, just like minestrone!

      Reply
  3. Kathryn Occhipinti says

    10/21/2020 at 4:48 AM

    Love this blog! You’ve described very eloquently an old tradition worth celebrating today and in the future. Re-blogging in the hopes that more Italian-Americans will feel the way I do and revive the Italian tradition that uses the turning of the seasons in the first days of November into a time of reflection.

    Reply
    • cinzia says

      10/21/2020 at 8:59 AM

      I am really happy that you liked this post of mine!

      Reply
  4. Cristina says

    10/22/2020 at 5:22 AM

    Ciao Cinzie
    In Canada they do not celebrate Nov 1 or 2, but in my village in Puglia, Orsara di Puglia, they have a huge festa on Nov 1. it is sometimes called ‘Tutti Santi’, but the actual name of the festa is ‘Fucacoste e cocce priatorje’! in dialetto that means Falo e teste di Purgatorio. there are bonfires lit all over town at 7pm and the ‘teste di Purgatorio’ are carved pumpkins everywhere. We eat muscitaglia-made with wheat berries, vino cotton, walnuts and pomegranate seeds. I attended the festa in 2017 and wrote a blog post about it. I was supposed to go this year too, but hopefully next year! Ciao, Cristina

    Reply
    • cinzia says

      10/22/2020 at 2:47 PM

      Wow, this festa seems wonderful! I will definitely check your blog post!
      Thanks for sharing,
      Cinzia

      Reply
  5. C. D'Angelo says

    10/22/2020 at 8:27 PM

    I love this! I wrote about these holidays in both of my books. 🙂

    Reply
    • cinzia says

      10/22/2020 at 8:30 PM

      Great!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Our Italy — All Saints Day and All Souls Day in Italy | Conversational Italian! says:
    10/21/2020 at 11:26 AM

    […] the excerpt below from Cinzia’s blog, All Saints’ Day in Italy and click on the link to continue reading the full blog.  Check out my Instagram […]

    Reply
  2. Chick Pea Soup with Ribs (Ceci con le Costine) for All Souls Day | Learn Travel Italian Blog says:
    11/01/2020 at 11:08 AM

    […] If you’d like to read Cinzia’s blog to learn more about how Italians celebrate the Halloween season, just click on this link:  All Saints’ Day in Italy. […]

    Reply

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