Experience Sicily

Tag: christmas

  • Sicilian Christmas Cookies

    Oh, right about now, I want one of Maria and Angelo’s buccellati cookies, like this one I photographed in September when our Experience Sicily group visited their bakery in the mountain village north of Agrigento, Sant’Angelo Muxaro. Buccellati are very closely associated with Christmas in Sicily. They are pastries often stuffed with chopped dried figs,…

  • The Stockings Were Hung… 

    The visit of the friendly witch La Befana is celebrated on Epiphany Eve (January 5) throughout Italy. La Befana is recognized because of her broomstick, shawl, and sack filled with sweets and gifts for children. Legend is that she originally set out to meet the Baby Jesus, but never found her way to Bethlehem.  To…

  • The Day After Christmas in Sicily

    Today, Saint Stephen’s Day, is a national holiday in Italy. Sicilians and Italians spend the day with family and friends visiting presepi di Natale, or nativity scenes, like this one pictured from Chiesa di San Bartolomeo in Scicli. Even more elaborate are ones presented by actors or townspeople dressed as the Holy Family, accompanied by…

  • Merry Christmas | Palermo’s Caravaggio 

    Merry Christmas!  This magnificent depiction of the Nativity was commissioned by Palermo’s Oratorio of San Lorenzo in 1609. It illustrates the newborn baby Jesus with Saint Francis (top right) and Saint Lawrence (left) looking over the shoulder of the Virgin Mother. Painted by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)) in the chiaroscuro technique, it captures…

  • Expecting Him …

    These 16th century marble statues of the Virgin Mother and Saint Joseph came from the Church of Saint Stephen in Salemi, Trapani province. They are now housed in the town’s outstanding Museum of Sacred Art. The sculpture group of a nativity scene, which is attributed to Sicilian sculptor Antonello Gagini (1478-1536), is missing the Baby…

  • She Knows If You’ve Been Bad or Good

    The visit of the friendly witch La Befana is celebrated on Epiphany Eve (January 5) throughout Italy. La Befana is recognized because of her broomstick, shawl, and sack filled with sweets and gifts for children. Legend is that she originally set out to meet the Baby Jesus, but never found her way to Bethlehem. To…

  • Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and a Zampogna Player

    Nativity scenes (presepe or presepio) in Sicily and Southern Italy don’t just illustrate the Holy Family, they also show the folk traditions of the people in the region. For example, at the presepe in Sant’Elia that Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta photographed last week, the life-sized figures include this zampogna, or bagpipe player. Zampogne (plural for…

  • Panettone with a Sicilian Theme

    Sicilian infused panettone or pandoro … Stuffed with sweet ricotta! I couldn’t resist when I saw this at DiPalo in New York’s Little Italy. We ate it for breakfast on Christmas morning. Not exactly cassata, but a treat nevertheless!

  • Buon Natale! Merry Christmas!

    Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! Photo of altar featuring Madonna dell Lume (Madonna of the Light) with child, Porticello