Tag: saint lucy
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Patroness of Light
Altar featuring Santa Lucia, Ortigia, Siracusa. Join us on Sunday, December 13 in New York City! Experience Sicily is partnering with Eolo Seasonal Sicilian Kitchen for a special afternoon feast celebrating Santa Lucia. We’ll enjoy traditional dishes (cuccia and arancine), live music (by Villa Palagonia), and a lecture-discussion about the feast (led by Allison…
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The Arancina of My Eye
Let’s talk about the lighter side of the traditions for the Festa di Santa Lucia: Arancine! Yes, this ball of gold is a masterpiece of Palermitano wheat-free street food, and Sicilians of the Conco d’Oro take their arancine very seriously on Saint Lucy’s feast day. The fried rice balls stuffed with beef ragu, peas, and…
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Caravaggio Captured Lucia’s Light
At the dawn of the 4th century, practicing Christianity in the Roman-ruled city of Siracusa was illegal. Already though, inspired by nearby Catania’s Patron Saint, Sant’Agatha, who lived just a few decades before (from 231 AD – 251 AD), the young and beautiful Lucia devoted herself to Christianity. In fact, she was known to enter…
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Coochy Coochy … Cuccìa
To celebrate Lucia, the Patron Saint of eyes, sight, light, and wheat, Sicilians eat cuccìa. Cuccìa is a pudding made of farro (wheat berries or barley), milk (in this case, ricotta), and honey or sugar. This culinary ritual is practiced in remembrance of the grain that finally arrived by boats on their way from North…
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The Symbols of Santa Lucia
A dagger, eyes on a plate, flames or a torch, and a palm are the symbols of Santa Lucia. A dagger to symbolize how the Roman soldiers finally killed the virgin martyr. Eyes on a plate to remind us that the beautiful maiden’s eyes were either gouged out by the Roman soldiers or she did…
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Lovely Bones
Please join me, Allison Scola of Experience Sicily, along with Villa Palagonia music duo and Gelsomino Imports at Eolo Seasonal Sicilian Kitchen in New York City on Sunday, December 13 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. for a very special Festa di Santa Lucia event. There will be unlimited exquisite food and wine, live Sicilian-inspired…
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Silver Girl
In the days leading up to the Feast of Santa Lucia, December 13, many Sicilians refrain from eating pasta and only eat un-ground wheat grain, or “farro,” that is prepared as a dish called cuccìa. Devotees observe this ritual to remember the severe famine that struck Siracusa and Palermo in 1646. During that time of…
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Save the Date for Santa Lucia: December 13 in NYC
As our daylight time gets shorter here in the northern hemisphere, we think about the importance of light, and in Sicily, that equates to the patron saint of light, eyes, sight, and wheat, Santa Lucia or Saint Lucy. December 13 is her feast day, and before the Gregorian calendar was installed, under the Roman calendar,…
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She Answered Their Prayers
A severe famine struck Siracusa and its environs in 1646, the time of Spanish domination of Sicily. For relief, the citizens prayed to their patron saint, Santa Lucia, and in May that year during a mass, a quail flew into the Cathedral squawking at the faithful. At the same moment, a messenger entered the church…