Christmas, after months and months of waiting, is finally upon us and with it the whole holiday season capable of giving families moments of relaxation, quiet and peace in the name of feel good in the family.
In these last days that separate us from the most important period of the year, the thought of each member is directed towards the gifts to give, for those who have not yet fulfilled this moral obligation; others on the other hand are already organizing all those rituals and traditions that must be respected so that Christmas can be defined as such.
The sacredness of the Nativity scene
For Neapolitan citizenship, Christmas it is an event to devote all one's energies to and their own resources so that we can celebrate in full respect of tradition.
The tradition of the crib and San Gregorio Armeno
One of the most heartfelt rites in the shadow of Vesuvius is definitely the creation of the crib, become a real art over time: just think of how many thousands of tourists guests San Gregorio Armeno, a district of Naples literally dotted with craft shops focused on crib art.
In this magical atmosphere, the masters demonstrate their immense skill by creating gods little worlds in miniature composed of cork and terracotta, arriving to shape with their hands all the protagonists of the Nativity scene, from the Magi to the shepherds, passing through the animals.
In recent years, however, more traditional nativity scene figurines are seeing the addition of miniatures dedicated to the most important characters of the current world scene, belonging to entertainment, politics, sport and, inevitable, to the leading figures of the Neapolitan tradition, from comedians to singers.
When making the crib
According to tradition, the sacred Nativity scene must be set up on 8 December, in correspondence with the Immaculate Conception, to then disappear from the stalls on January 6; in the very first days of setting up, the true protagonist of the Nativity scene, the Child Jesus, is not yet present, except to appear in the days immediately preceding Christmas.
In short, the Nativity scene tradition is one of the Neapolitans' must-haves: without a shadow of a doubt, it is a ritual that will continue for a very long time to come!
The Neapolitan Bingo
There are no Christmas festivities without the typical conclusion of the Christmas lunch aimed at preventing the classic afternoon sinking: the Tombola!
What is Tombola and how to play it
For the non-accustomed, it is nothing more than a sort of homemade Bingo (a heresy for Neapolitans, so don't repeat it aloud), made with numbers, folders and billboard.
The goal is to fill your box with the numbers called on the billboard, extracted by waving "the panaro".
The possible calls are the following:
- Both
- Suit
- Quatern
- Fifty
- Raffle
In the case of the first 4, the numbers must be present on the same line of the card, while the bingo occurs when the whole card is complete.
Bingo as a symbol of family happiness
It is accompanied above all from lots of laughs and an unparalleled competitive spirit: the participants, mostly family members, fight fearlessly to grab the prizes up for grabs, sometimes even simulating both or fours to the hilarity of those present.
The origins of bingo
Probably not everyone knows that, initially, Tombola was only played on Christmas day; however, over the years, this rather rigid and inflexible mentality has softened a bit and the Bingo has begun to represent a fixed appointment for all the Christmas holidays.
Bingo and the grimace, numbers and meanings
Not everyone knows that at every number of the Neapolitan bingo there is a meaning associated with it, present in the old bingo folders on each box. But that's not all, there is also a strong correlation between it and the Neapolitan grimace, one of the oldest superstitious traditions of Naples.
To find out the meanings, read our insights:
-> The numbers of the grimace from 1 to 50 with their meanings
-> The numbers of the grimace from 51 to 90 with their meanings
The capitone and the cod: inevitable culinary traditions
The Christmas tables cannot exist without their undisputed protagonists: the capitone and the cod.
The first has a purely symbolic function: since it recalls the famous snake that led Eve to sin against God, eating it at Christmas acts as a way to exorcise bad luck.
The Neapolitan tradition, however, also provides for the classic dispute between capitone and eel.
What is the difference between Capitone and Anguilla?
In fact none. The Capitone is the female of the eel, a fish that can exceed one meter in length, while the simple "Eel" in Naples nothing is but the male of the species.
How the capitone is preserved
The classic capitone it is kept in large tanks and it can be cooked in various ways, but in Naples tradition has it that it must necessarily be fried, exactly like cod, the second protagonist of Christmas tables.
Cod: an unfailing tradition
There are many recipes that see cod as the absolute protagonist, but they all share a single denominator: frying.
The sublime smell that the dish gives off makes the diners already anticipate what its flavor will be, very tasty like the forbidden fruit of Eden!
Ciciole and Christmas sweets
The end of the Christmas lunch, before the moment of the Bingo arrives, is dominated by two foods that the family members of the table enjoy with happiness: ciociole and struffoli, but nearby we always find the priest's chestnuts ei Roccoco.
What are the priest's ciociole and chestnuts
The former are nothing more than all those products with shells that are consumed just before desserts: it is therefore about walnuts, almonds, pistachios, peanuts and walnuts. The ciociole are accompanied by another culinary tradition: the castagne d'o prevete.
Where does the name “Le castagne del prete” come from?
Their denomination is due to a very interesting legend that dwells behind this food: it seems that a priest accumulated a large quantity of it on his mule, which tired the beast that stumbled, rolling all the cargo into the river.
The fellow villagers, having seen what happened, began to denigrate the priest who, however, did not lose heart: he collected all the fallen chestnuts and, having arrived home, put them in the oven.
Unexpectedly, at the end of cooking, the chestnuts tasted yummy so much so that, precisely those fellow villagers who had made fun of him shortly before, tasted them passionately: from that moment they were called "the priest's chestnuts".
How struffoli are made
The typical Christmas dessert that must never be missing on Neapolitan tables is the struffolo, ball of dough made with flour, eggs, sugar, salt, lard and anise liqueur, which is fried in hot oil and garnished with honey.
However, given that its composition makes it a particularly fatty food, it has been created over the years its light version, which provides for the replacement of frying with cooking in the oven.
Once ready, the struffoli are decorated with i candied fruit and colored sugared almonds, to then be consumed in no time by the diners!
Together with the struffoli, the Neapolitans also usually consume the mostaccioli, i.e. chocolate glazed biscuits with a fairly soft dough; alternatively, there are also almond pastes, colored sweets of various shapes.
-> Check out our struffoli recipe
-> Discover our mostaccioli recipe
What is Roccocò and how it is made
Among other desserts, they include the Roccoco, cookie particularly hard which is broken into two parts to facilitate tasting, in addition to the classics susamielli, S-shaped sweets that owe their name to the main ingredients of the recipe, sesame and honey.
In ancient times, susamielli were divided into 3 recipes, depending on the final destination: some they were reserved for nobles, others to bagpipers and still others to the clergy.
Today's ones are those originally intended for the nobles, given their composition which includes the presence of top quality white flour enriched by the traditional pisto, a mix of Neapolitan spices.
-> Discover our recipe for Roccocò
-> Discover our recipe for Susamielli
The Procession of the Child
As mentioned previously, at the stroke of midnight of Christmas day, the veto on the presence of the statuette of the Child Jesus ceases: only at that point, in the ancient tradition, it was pulled out and carried in procession to every single room of the house, staging a real torchlight procession complete with lit candles and "You come down from the stars” as background.
Today it is now a dead tradition, we usually tend to put the "bambiniello" in the cradle at the stroke of midnight without all the rite.
According to tradition, this rite had the important function of bringing the Divine Light throughout the house; at the end, each member of the family said a prayer and kissed the Child before placing him back in the crib.
The veracity of this particular Neapolitan tradition is evident from the care that families still reserve today for the statuette of the Child, passing it down from generation to generation without taking into account the size of future nativity scenes: still today, this rite is part of the millenary Neapolitan tradition!
Christmas Eve traditions
Although it is not a real tradition, Neapolitan families they usually take a nice walk on Christmas Eve morning, an opportunity to reunite the family before what will be the holidays.
Not only that, December 24th is also used to provide for the very last gifts to put under the tree, the last shopping for the dinner and the exchange of greetings between friends and acquaintances, who will gather in front of a few toasts.
Christmas Eve dinner
Christmas Eve traditions continue with dinner strictly based on fish: the origins of this custom, in fact, date back to the dawn of the Christian faith, when the day before Christmas was considered "of lean” and, for this reason, the prohibition of eating meat was observed.
Since then, Neapolitans have gotten used to consuming only fish Christmas Eve dinner, without touching the meat or even thinking about it.
What is side salad?
Parallel to what has just been described, another Christmas tradition is linked to the consumption of the classic reinforcement salad: what is it about?
Basically, it is nothing more than a salad made from pickles which was used to strengthen and prepare the stomach for the lean day, Christmas Eve; today, however, it remains an appetizer that is eaten before plunging headlong into the main courses of dinner and lunch, even if not all families like it.
The figure of the piper
Doubly linked to the Neapolitan Christmas festivities is the figure of the piper, which has its roots far back in time: according to tradition, in fact, the first traces of bagpipers date back to when the shepherds went to the city asking for cash offers in exchange for Christmas melodies.
Today, the beginning of the unmistakable sound of bagpipes already starts on December 8th, and then continue for the whole month, until Christmas.
In short, as we have examined, the Christmas rites and customs of the Neapolitans are wonderful! Regardless of the protagonist of each tradition, for the Neapolitans the only thing that matters is spending Christmas with those you love, no matter how many guests there are or who made the best crib.
If there is peace, joy, cheerfulness, light-heartedness and conviviality, you can celebrate Christmas properly, in the name of traditions and the hope that the new year can give everyone new joys!
