scusa Signore

Happy Christmas

White Christmas

Adeste Fideles

Jingle Bells 

Ave Maria

Ave Maria di Gounot

Silent Night

Imagine

Suono delle ciaramelle

Tu scendi dalle Stelle

Oh Happy Day

Venite fedeli

Resta con Noi Signore

Astro del Ciel

A cona 'i Natali del caro amico sig. Maio Antonino (un amico che non è più con noi!)

Gastropato for children

READ OUR TELL ABOUT AN OLD SICILIAN  CHRISTMAS TIME..  

  .

http://www.una.org/    http://www.msf.it  http://212.66.230.214/Internazionale/attualita.htm http://www.emergency.it http://www.cri.it http://www.savethechildren.it

http://www.acra.it/ http://www.cesvi.org/  http://www.unhcr.ch  http://www.wfp.org  http://www.unicef.it

And it was Christmas time....

And you often could perceive in a smell  of  small oranges, while the street boy pulled out from a cardboard folder their segments,  in to the classroom; and also you can feel when you see the flowers of Christmas stars which the  beadle, Miss Mary, has offered to the Holy Child of the Nativity where Jesus has been replaced to statue of the Virgin by the old teacher, Mr Ciccio Iannello; In the evenings, during Christmas functions, you could heard the gentle dirges that the  wind of west carried between the stars and the moon in the night clear and sparkling, from the top of the hill della Immaculate Virgin Mary, played by Father Innocent, a music which spread in the hearts.

Already on the eve of the Immaculate Conception or the same day, down from our mountains, from Rometta or Monforte or St. Lucia, the "ciaramellari" that is the bagpipers, and we kids worried if, by chance, for that other years the ciaramellaro had forgotten to come. They stop at the parish, where in return for hospitality, committed to play at functions. Others, however, is organized in orchestras; very famous were those of St. Peter in Milazzo, of 'Zu' Vanni, called " 'u Zumbiuni" and of "Don Pippinu".

But, going forward over the years, even the bagpipers were modernized, and they came to the city by the first fiat 500, posts of bagpipes on the back seat. Thin in the face, with sharp nose from too many hardships, the red cheeks of an incipient pulmonary emphysema, with moleskin blazers black, with heavy boots herdsman, the balaclavas, they held back on these huge bagpipes, decorated with colored ribbons and ribbons red, I do not know if for ornament or to keep out the evil eye, like sicilian tradition! 

.

And we there, in front of a small crib, togheter with the family. We youngest children with her ears plugged, as if to fear the roar of the pipes on the accord to DO more, that came after roaring over the hard bulge of "Ciaramella" (bagpipe), then follow 5 minutes of "birulu, biluru .... and last peeeeee final Ciaramella squeezed, with the applause of those present and all the joy of being spent a new year in good health and still be together to celebrate Christmas, which is the feast of the family.

Then they have drank the traditional glass of good wine, offered to Bagpiper like tradition!

      But it was Christmas, because already in the hearts was expected some time during ... and we could grasp the significance of the Feast, which was the feast of the family reunited, friends and children. Almost zero money to buy the decorations: the bigger brothers or fathers themselves, however, spare time, were full of initiative and went through the fields of Milazzo to collect the moss, which in those days still grew lush on the old walls of the Tono , among the olive trees of Saint Papino and the Cape, one of the thorny bushes and spikes of the first "asparagus villa", the "Sipal" of figs, which are not bought then to supermarkets, and "ntuppateddi", ie snails closed in their shell.

       The cribs were little ones, often realized on the bedside table, but in the eyes of children seemed huge, magnified by the imagination of two small eyes open, with candles, with the lights that float on oil, musk lying among the few shepherds, the stones of Sea west of the back, asparagus thorny collected for the occasion, the blueberry, the stars of heaven, the angel hung, the cork to the mountains, the cotton for the snow and oranges, manderini, almonds, walnuts , hazelnuts, confetti, "cassatedde", "Mustad", and the last bunches of grapes that mothers were offered a place as the Holy Child, for the rich harvest they had had.

And I will not tell you the joy of Christmas Eve, when the family gathered at the table in front of the classic dish of pescestocco (dried fish) with potatoes or the belly of tunnin (ie the portion of the tuna, the belly), and the "check" (ie, the nuts by crushing), between sweet figs, apples, small and fragrant and a few torrone only.


       And the gifts? A pair of gloves in wool or a small scarf that her mother had knitted, a wooden toy with wheels running pull for the home and much affection. Then we played a "sparari u Casteddu paratu c'u baddu of nucidda nchiumbatu" (literally to pull piles of nutty hazelnuts by the big lead), or with the channel of mud. " Now I wonder, apart from rhetorical speeches which are in these days, we do not know whether to show or as an expression of one's own way of being, when the Christmas night we performed at our beautiful fur in an atmosphere of air conditioning, those of us who manage to live the atmosphere of Christmas? Who among us is able to convey the magic of Christmas values to their children?      It's perhaps the video game 2 or the new WAP phone to create the atmosphere and the spirit of Christmas, when the father watching his beautiful game of football on Tele and his son becomes neurotic elsewhere in the computer, playing with the play station? !  

On  gastroepato website another links, for you about cribs, Christmas, sicilia:

index