Easter is one of Italy’s biggest and most important holidays, with Vatican City being the major draw for visitors during Holy Week. So, let’s take you few a few Easter highlights in Italy…
When did we start celebrating Easter?
The Nicean Council decided, in A.D. 325, that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox, unless the first full moon also rose on a Sunday, in which case Easter would be celebrated the Sunday after that. For over 1500 years we have continued to mark the celebration of Easter based on these calculations.
Carnevale & Easter
The religious celebration of Easter in Italy is strictly attached to other traditional and religious events, namely Carnevale and, of course, Lent. Carnevale officially starts in January and lasts up until Ash Wednesday, with the last three days before Lent being especially festive!
Important traditional and liturgical moments happen during Lent: The Feast of St. Joseph (Festa di San Giuseppe) and Palm Sunday (La Domenica della Palme). Catholic tradition wants palm leaves and olive branches to be blessed during a large ceremony, then distributed to the faithful.
In Italy, the tradition wanting the parish priest to bless each, and every home of his parish is still fairly common, and usually takes place during Lent and Easter time.
Holy Week starts the day after Palm Sunday and ends on Easter day. The main celebrations leading to Easter Sunday take place during the Easter Triduum, on Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All of these celebrations are typical of Easter in Italy!
Holy Friday
Rome is the city where the Vatican state resides, and who at this time a year is a mecca for Catholic pilgrims and on Good Friday you’ll hear church bells ringing at three o’clock, to mark the moment and as a reminder for all of the beginning of the mass and many people gather in Saint Peter’s Basilica to listen to the Pope’s mass at 5 pm, and immediately following, the Pope starts his walk to remember the Christ’s Via Crucis with a candlelit procession starting at the Palatine Hill, where he makes 14 stops along the way.
Easter Sunday
On Easter Sunday, full celebrations are on! Many towns and villages have traditional exhibitions and commemorations held to honour the religious feast. Everywhere, of course, solemn mass is held.
Easter Sunday begins with a bang in Florence – quite literally! The three-hundred-year-old traditional (Scoppio del Carro) has its roots in the pagan ritual of ensuring a good harvest and is now considered a bringer of good luck for the city of Florence.
A huge, decorated wagon, used since the 18th century, is dragged through Florence by white oxen until it reaches the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in the historic centre. After mass, the archbishop sends a dove-shaped rocket into the fireworks-filled cart, creating a spectacular display. A parade of performers in medieval costumes then follows.
Easter Monday
Easter Monday, also known as Lunedi dell’angelo (Angel Monday) or Little Easter (Pasquetta), is also an official Italian holiday that is often spent enjoying the fresh Spring weather with family and friends. The Racing of The Egg (Palio dell’Uovo) is a traditional Easter Monday game in the town of Tredozio. And in Barano d’Ischia, a traditional dance called the Festa della Ndrezzata takes place on the same day.
There are games, parades, contests, concerts, wine drinking events of course, and even fun things like cheese rolling contest (Ruzzolone) in the Umbrian hill town of Panicale, to brighten the celebration.
Ruzzolone is played by rolling huge wheels of cheese, weighing about 4 kilos, around the village walls. The object is to get your cheese around the course using the fewest number of strokes. Following the cheese contest, there is a band in the piazza and wine, of course.
There is certainly something for everyone to do on Easter Monday.
Easter Food
When it comes to food, across the country, there are many different ways to celebrate Easter Sunday in Italy and traditional Easter meals vary from region to region. Eggs and roasted lamb are common elements everywhere. Eggs represent life, fertility and renewal, all of which are essential symbols of Easter. Dyed eggs grace many Easter tables, and eggs are often found in soups and in a traditional Easter pie (Torta Pasqualina). Roasted lamb, as a symbol of birth and the Shepard, is a traditional main course for Easter in Italy.
Chocolate bunnies are not common, but in Rome and Florence, one major Easter tradition is the chocolate egg, which is eaten at breakfast to bring about the changes and birth of new life in the springtime. Everybody gets an egg for their dear ones. Most chocolate eggs are industry produced, however, every serious cake shop, and bakery produces finely handmade eggs, using the best chocolate available.
Food in Campania
In the Campania region, Easter breakfast traditionally consists of Pastiera Napoletana, which is a pastry that is filled with canditi, wheat, eggs, and cheeses such as Ricotta. This breakfast masterpiece represents the rebirth of the savior.
Food in Rome
In Rome, and many other places, it is common to have roasted baby lamb with, carciofi alla romana (Roman-style artichokes) and Pizza Sbattuta, a sponge cake, hard boiled eggs, ham and corallina, a typical salami for Easter.
Food in Assisi
The most common thing to see eaten for dinner is in Assisi is lamb al forno con le patate (from the oven-roasted with potatoes). Most regions have their own dishes for different times of day on Easter Sunday in Italy, all of course coupled with a splash of wine to wash it all down.
Food in Lombardia
Then in Lombardia, the Columba is the most famous dessert, a dove-shaped bread made with almonds, sugar and egg whites. Today this cake is known worldwide but originates in the region that boasts Milan. Another northern tradition is the Pinza Pasquale from Trieste, a sweet bread with a three-point cross carved on top.
Every holiday in Italy has its own typical food. Easter is a particular exciting one for children since they receive over-sized, hollow chocolate eggs with a surprise inside. Children wait in anticipation as they break an immense chocolate egg with embroidered sugar decoration.
The painted hard-boiled egg is also an activity that many children engage in. Some children paint the eggs themselves, while others colour them in simple, monochrome ways by placing various spices, vegetables or fruits in boiling water. Some of the most common dyes are beets for red, vinegar for brown, saffron for yellow, and blueberry for blue.
