La Vigilia and Other Christmas Traditions

Lobster tails

Photos by New York Scugnizzo

By Giovanni di Napoli

Like many Neapolitan Americans, my family keeps the tradition of La Vigilia di Natale, the southern Italian ritual of eating seafood and eschewing meat on Christmas Eve. Despite regular and varied claims to authenticity, I believe the so-called Festa dei sette pesci, or the Feast of the Seven Fishes, is a recent fabrication. Though more lavish then in the past, according to our matriarchs there were never a set number of dishes served. We simply ate what we could afford, and what was fresh and available. 

Today, we normally have shrimp, calamari (squid), clams, mussels and scungilli (whelk), which all can be prepared in a variety of ways. Capitone fritto alla napoletana (fried eel) is usually the main course, but this year we had aragosta (lobster), ricci di mare (sea urchin) and baccalà (salt cod).

As always, the ladies outdid themselves and treated us to another memorable dinner.

Ricci di Mare

Spaghetti alle vongole and sautè di cozze

Insalata di mare

Following the fish bonanza was another southern Italian specialty: panzerotti, delicious crescent-shaped deep fried dough filled with ricotta, mozzarella and tomato or scallion and olives.

Three different types of Panzerotti

Next came fruit, roasted chestnuts, caffè and an assortment of delicious sweets, including cartellate and struffoli, the quintessential Neapolitan Christmas dessert that will satisfy the most stubborn sweet tooth. There is no panettone in my house.

Struffoli, Neapolitan honey fritters

The vigil, of course, is not just about food, it's also about family and faith. 

After dinner we played games (tombola) with the kids and attended Midnight Mass in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Afterward, we walked through the neighborhood to see the spectacular Christmas decorations. My family has been doing this for as long as I can remember, though originally it was in East New York, Brooklyn, where my maternal grand- and great-grandparents were from.

(Above and below) Two dazzling Dyker Heights Christmas displays

Christmas morning we exchanged presents, made the rounds and visited family and friends until dinnertime. No less extravagant than the Eve, Christmas dinner was a culinary tour de force with plenty of hot and cold antipasti, insalata, pizza, baked manicotti and a American-style Christmas ham. Fruit, dessert and caffè complete the meal. 

(L-R) My father's 'famous' Pizza and a shot of Liquore Strega

Not quite finished yet, December 26th is the Feast of Saint Stephen, or Saint Stephen's Day. In honor of Santo Stefano, the first martyr, we usually celebrate with torrone, a sticky nougat candy made from honey, nuts and egg whites that dates back to Roman times. I like mine with a glass of Strega. Buon Natale!

Amended 2014

A Look at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Annual Angel Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche

Photos by New York Scugnizzo

Two Marble Reliefs With Birds From Salerno at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two Marble Reliefs with Birds, carved about 900-1100

Photos by New York Scugnizzo

With all my Christmas shopping done early, I took advantage of my day off from work by treating myself with a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition to seeing many of my old favorites and the Annual Angel Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche installation (see upcoming post), I discovered two marble reliefs with birds from the vicinity of Salerno.

According to the museum’s wall label

These reliefs are cut down from a larger composition and show an imaginary bird, a cock with a griffin-like head, and a peacock set within foliage and amphora. Both originate from Salerno, where they were said to have been built into masonry of a church. They were reused at a later date, and cut into their present forms. While their original function is unknown, they may have been part of a chancel screen, a low wall in front of the sanctuary of a church. The exotic and orientalizing birds reflect the rich interchange of design motifs between the Islamic, Sassanian, Byzantine, and south Italian cultures in the century 1000.

Mass to Commemorate the 120th Anniversary of the Death of King Francesco II in New York City

RSVP: pmenna@mennalaw.com

John Miniero's Presepe Napoletano

A Christmas Tradition in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn

John Miniero with his masterpiece

By Giovanni di Napoli

Last week (Dec. 4th) during Anita Sanseverino's Presepe Napoletano lecture and photo exhibit at the Italian American Museum I had the pleasure of meeting John Miniero, a local artisan who keeps the Neapolitan tradition of presepi making. Mr. Miniero, a retired baker, was nice enough to bring a few examples of his handiwork for the museum to exhibit.

After the presentation, while I was admiring his work, he shared some of his modeling techniques with me, as well as what kind of tools and materials he uses to build the scenery. Because of the detailed work that goes into his creations, each one takes him a couple of days to make.

Mr. Miniero, I learned, also displays a giant outdoor presepe in front of his house in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Seeing my interest in the art form, he kindly invited me over to take a look.

So the next day after work I took Mr. Miniero up on his offer and made my way to 14th Avenue, between 79th and 80th Streets. When I arrived, I was blown away by the sheer size of the presepe. Spanning the length of his front yard, the intricate diorama—made with wood, cork, paper and paint—was covered with a multitude of characters, from the Magi to Pulcinella. The impressive collection, portraying vignettes of everyday life from 18th century Naples, was acquired over the years from his native Sorrento, Napoli and various hobby shops around Brooklyn.

To the delight of the community, Mr. Miniero has been constructing his presepe for nearly 20 years. Never put together the same way twice, the display is always growing with new additions. The multi-leveled diorama—complete with scenic backdrops, hidden grottos and mirrors that create the illusion of more space—even has running water; hidden water pumps feed flowing brooks, fountains and waterfalls.

Naturally, his house has become one of the stops on the now popular Dyker Heights Christmas Lights bus tours, and the whole time I was there talking with him, people walking and driving by in cars were stopping to take photos. It was great to see so many people taking an interest in his work. I felt privileged to see it and experience his love of the tradition. 

A bustling tavern

A dinner party with Pulcinella

A town in the distance

A look inside the manger

A bakery

Scenes from an open air market

A shepherd with his flock  

Up the stairway towards the manger

Figures performing domestic choirs

Pilgrims making the journey towards the manger

Photos by New York Scugnizzo

Blessing the Flags

Benediction at the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pozzo in Capurso, Bari

On December 8th, during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, people across southern Italy revived the old custom of blessing the flags of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. We are grateful to our friends at the Comitati delle Due Sicilie, Le Città del Sud, and others, for sharing their photos so that we, from a distance, can also feel part of the benediction. As always, it is great to see the national flag of our ancestors fly again.

Photos by Don Luciano Rotolo courtesy of Comitati Due Sicilie

The Presepe Napoletano Returns to the IAM With Anita Sanseverino and Lou Barrella

Lou Barrella and Anita Sanseverino

Photos by New York Scugnizzo

By Giovanni di Napoli

Last Thursday (Dec. 4th) I returned to the Italian American Museum (IAM) for the annual Presepe Napoletano lecture and photo exhibit with Anita Sanseverino. I’ve been attending Anita’s presentation at the museum since 2009, and each year it gets bigger and better. All-encompassing, she covers everything about this fascinating Christmas custom, from its humble origins with Saint Francis of Assisi in the 13th century, to the golden age under the Neapolitan Bourbons, to today's artisans and their world famous workshops on the Via San Gregorio Armeno in Naples.

The event was heightened with a fantastic new audiovisual presentation by Lou Barrella, illustrating the manifold techniques and materials used in making these charming figures and highly elaborate dioramas replete with symbolism.

This year we finally got to meet Mr. Barrella, the man behind the DVD, who briefly spoke about his own interest in the presepi. Matching Anita’s passion for the tradition, Mr. Barrella put together a phenomenal video montage featuring many of Anita’s photos accompanied by some of Italy’s most popular Christmas music, putting us all in the festive spirit.

Joining our speakers were John Miniero and Gianvito Bottalico, two very talented presepi builders, who were kind enough to loan examples of their work to the museum. Mr. Miniero, I learned, has been displaying a large outdoor presepe for nearly twenty years in front of his house in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. He was kind enough to invite me over for a look [see upcoming post].

In addition to Anita’s spectacular photos, I was happy to discover that the IAM is once again home to the Presepe della Pace, or “Nativity of Peace.” The 18th century style presepe comes from the famed Ferrigno workshop in Naples and was generously donated to the Federazione delle Associazioni della Campania USA after the events of 9/11 by the President of the Region of Campania, Antonio Bassolino. 

Anita’s photos and the Presepe della Pace will be on display in the museum’s gallery throughout the Christmas season.

John Miniero with some of his presepi

A close-up of Mr. Miniero's presepe

Gianvito Bottalico shows us his presepe 

The Presepe della Pace 

St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary

Pulcinella

A fishmonger

The Search for our Ancestry (VII)

How do you spell that?

By Angelo Coniglio

I’ve reviewed factors that are important in determining an immigrant ancestor’s name as it was used in Italy and Sicily.  Once the name is known it can be used in searching for other information about the person, that is, the other genealogic ‘keys’: date of immigration, date of birth, and town of birth.  Future columns will contain many references to various types of American and Mezzogiorno records, which often are indexed so that a record may be searched for by a person’s name, address, or other identifier.

Such searches may be undertaken at local libraries, churches, civil offices, genealogic societies and other repositories of paper documents, or they may be done on line using sites like the free Mormon church site https://www.familysearch.org/ the subscription site http://www.Ancestry.com or the official Italian ‘Antenati’ (ancestors) site at  http://bit.ly/ItalianRecordsPortal 

Whatever form the search takes, be forewarned that even though you may think you know the ‘correct’ spelling of an ancestor’s name or place of origin or residence, it may be mis-spelled or mis-recorded in the documents you are searching.  

Consider these errors to watch out for on records and indices:

Mis-spelling on original documents.  Often our ancestors were illiterate.  The Mezzogiorno and Sicily were poor, depressed areas, and literacy was vitually non-existent among the common folks.  This meant that a name on a record, even an original record, was spelled in whatever way the clerk making out the document thought it should be spelled.  If later records were made by someone who spoke a different language than your ancestor, as in census documents, even more errors could be introduced.

Mis-spelling by computer transcribers.  When records are transcribed into on-line computer databases, the work is done by ‘indexers’ who read the original document and ‘digitize’ the information, so that it can be searched for by a person’s name.  An image of the record is placed on line, and some sort of search engine is used for you to enter the name.  If the name you enter is in the data base, the proper image of your ancestor’s document is displayed.  However, the indexer may not be an Italian-speaker, and may not recognize archaic handwriting, so he may have transcribed the name incorrectly.  If so, searching with the right name or the name commonly accepted by your family may not yield results!

Mis-spelling by sound.  If the record is one for which an ancestor (even if literate) pronounced his name, but it was written by another person, as in a census or license application, that person may have mis-heard the name: Andolino for Andolina, De Marco for Di Marco, etc.

Mis-spelling by looks.  An indexer unfamiliar with archaic handwriting and with Italian names may mistake one look-alike letter for another (u for n, j for i, i for e, etc.)   A common error is to transpose i and u, spelling GUIDO as GIUDO, GIUSEPPE as GUISEPPE, and so on.

Switching given and surnames. Italians often said their surnames first, as in Alessi Rosa, Coniglio Gaetano, etc. An English-speaking clerk or indexer unfamiliar with this custom, and with the names themselves, might write the first name as the surname, and vice versa.

The moral of all this is that when you search for an ancestor’s record by name, don’t give up if you don’t get results for a name that you “know” is right.  Try spelling the name differently, as it would sound, or replace “i” by “e”, or try the person’s last name as the first name in the search, etc.  Be flexible.  You may be surprised to learn how some of your ancestors’ names were listed!

Coniglio is the author of the book The Lady of the Wheel (La Ruotaia), based on his genealogical research of Sicilian foundlings.Order the book in paperback or on Kindle at www.bit.ly/racalmuto. Visit his website, www.bit.ly/AFCGen, and write to him at genealogytips@aol.com.

New Books

Some new and forthcoming titles that may be of interest to our readers. All are available at Amazon.com

• Historical Essay on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799 by Vincenzo Cuoco 

Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Publication Date: November 18, 2014
Paperback: $59.10
Language: English
Pages: 336

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• Remembering Parthenope: The Reception of Classical Naples from Antiquity to the Present by Jessica Hughes

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: March 26, 2015
Paperback: $109.69
Language: English
Pages: 416

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