Chase Away the Dark

Let the fantastic monsters from Villa Palagonia (replicated on a wall down the street from the villa in Bagheria) chase dark spirits into the ether of history in order to make space for the good spirits of the New Year.  For information about New Year’s traditions in Sicily, visit my 2013 post.   

For Good Fortune

There isn’t a long history of celebrating New Year’s Eve or Day in Sicily. Only over the past century has it become a milestone holiday. Therefore, modern Sicilians celebrate New Year’s Italian-style–eating sausage (cotechino), grapes, and lentils (pictured here). Lentils, with their coin-shape, are thought to bring good fortune for the year ahead. I’m eating…