L'Italo-Americano

italoamericano-digital-3-17-2016

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THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Dear Readers, It's time for you to get the green necktie of scarf out of the closet and for me to recycle my "St. Patrick Was Italian" column so you can win a few w agers at your lo cal "Iris h Coffee" dispensary among the doubting Tommasi sure to be present. The first St. Patricks' Day in the U.S. was held in Boston in 1734. by stretching things a bit, you can correctly state that "St. Patrick was italian". Patrick 's p aren ts w ere R oman s . The Romans ruled England at that time. Calpurnius, P atrick's father, w as a high Roman diplomat living in England, but a Roman citizen. Patrick was born in England around the year 385 A.D. Roman cities in England had shops and beautiful houses, so Patrick lived the good life for a while. A cros s the s ea in Ireland (Eire), things were not so good. Tribal kings were constantly feuding, and in the year 400 A. D ., a tribal king (Niall) attacked England. He took thousands of prisoners, including Patrick, for s laves . S oon the rich little Roman kid was forced to herd pigs and sheeps, just a poor little slave boy far from home. Patrick w as taken to Northern Ireland and sold to another tribal king named Meliucc. Meliucc and his family were kind to Patrick and their children were good company. S till, P atrick (M aew yn) w as alone in a strange land, only 15 years old. He did not know if his family was still alive. Patrick slept in a mud hut and was a swineherd. A t 21 years old , after s ix years as a leave, he ran away. Walking many miles to the sea, he found a ship that took him back to England. By now, he Romans had been chased out; they were no longer the rulers, and the country was in ruins. Patrick sailed across the channel and wandered through Europe and then on to Rome and found that by the year 410 A.D., the center of all Roman power had been conquered as well. His pas t w as really dead, s o he decided to go back to England to think, pray and live very quietly there. While in prayer, he felt certain that God was calling him back to Ireland, to bring all those tribes together and make Ireland a Christian land. But first, Patrick went to France and studied religion there for ten years. In the year 432 A.D., Pope C eles tin e ma d e Patrick a Bis h op and named him "P atricius ". N ow , Bis hop Patricius sailed for Ireland. The Irish people were not interested in Christianity and wanted to stone him to death. The Bishop and his men fled and found shelter for the night in a barn near the shore. The barn belonged to a tribal king named Dichu. He thought the Bishop and his men were robbers and wanted to kill them. Patrick held out his hand and smiled and a golden aura shone on his face. Dichu put down his weapon, his fierce dog stopped growling (according to legend) and Dichu became the first Christian in Ireland and the barn, the fist church. P atrick traveled all over Ireland. He a lw ays h ad a drummer with him. When he arrived at a village, the drummer w ould drum and the people would come from their houses to listen to him (as in drumming up business). P atrick s how ed them a shamrock like a three-leafed clover. Patrick explained the idea of the Father, the Son and the H oly G hos t. (If no shamrocks are handy, use the water, ice and steam idea). Today, the s hamrock is Ireland's national flower and as more and more tribal kings and their people became Christians, they came together to w ors hip and be united as a country. Bishop Patricius drummed the snakes out of Ireland and into the s ea (A ccording to legend) and built hundreds of churches . When he died on March 17th (between 461 and 492 A.D.) the Pope declared him a saint and had him buried on church grounds in Downpatrick, Ireland. In the U.S., St Patrick's Day means party time. In Ireland, it means Holy Time... *** Father's Day is celebrated in Italy on March 19th, St. Joseph Day. St. Joseph's Day also falls close to the spring solstice, when crops that are beginning to appear will be harvested later in the year. When "La festa di San Giuseppe" comes, celebrates are also seeking intervention against the unseasonable weather that can sometimes harm crops. In addition to Father's Day, St. Joseph Day was also a national holiday for almost 100 years. But because Italy had so many holidays, in 1998 St. Joe and a few others w ere let go as a national holiday. A carpenter by trade, San Giuseppe is the patron saint not only of fathers and workers, but also of the family of mother (be they w ed or unw ed) of fatherless and orphaned children and of the dis pos s es s ed homeless and hungry. Like any good dad, S t. J os eph w as a provider first and foremost. And s o, his celebration revolves around the offering of food, traditionally to the poorest of the poor. Coming in March 19th, right in the middle of Lent, the Feast of San Giuseppe is traditionally meatless but never wanting in terms of variety and quantity. M any kinds of vegetable minestras and thick soups, are prepared and s erved at this celebration, but no chesse is eaten on St. Joseph's Day. This is to remind us that our people were too poor to have cheese. The spaghetti is sprinkled with a traditional mixture of toasted dry b read cru mb s w hen fresh sardines and fennels sauce are served. In some regions the choice to sprinkle with dry bread crumbs instead of cheese is said to be due to the fact that St. Joseph tables are new common in the U.S. thanks to our Italian Heritage clubs. Lentils, favas and all types of dried beans are cooked and served with escarole and other leafy vegetables. Pasta con le s arde (s paghetti w ith sardines and fennel), double layers of stuffed sardines, chunks of fresh chilled fennel, large black oil-cured olives, fried artichokes hearts, stuffed baked escarole rolls, fried cauliflower rosettes, spinach and as paragus fros ce (omelets ), braided bread wreaths, large navel oranges, pomegranates are all part of La Tavola di San Giuseppe, a meatless feast table. *** St. Joseph is portrayed with a flowering staff in this painting by G iovanni S erodine, painted between 1620-30 and now hangs in the church of Santa Maria D ella Concezione, S poleto (Perugia). Why the flowering staff? It turns out that according to the texts of the apocryphal Gospels, which provide details not found in the canonical Gospels, Joseph was chosen as the husband for the Virgin Mary from a group of suitors gathered in the temple. Each had been instructed to bring a staff and to direct a special prayer to God who would indicate the chosen one by making the staff flower. Joseph's was the only staff to flower and so it has become his primary attribute in iconography. ***

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