聖誕節Natale

搬過來以後，每到這個時節，總有朋友會問道：「義大利人怎麼過聖誕節？」其實這個問題，就好像外國朋友問我台灣人怎麼過年一樣，每家過節的方式都有一點不一樣，不過還是有許多共同的地方。
After I moved to Italy, when it comes to December there're always friends asking how Italians celebrate Christmas. It's like forwign friends asking me how Taiwanese celebrate Chinese NewYear... Every family has its own way and it's always slightly different, though some common places do exist.

大部分台灣人過聖誕，充其量是找個狂歡做樂的藉口，畢竟這究竟是個很具有宗教意義的節日。義大利人的聖誕節，好比台灣的過年，是全家人團聚的重要節日。以我家來說，聖誕節當日的午餐，全家聚在一起吃些傳統菜，在一頓長達三個多小時的午餐以後，大家夥兒從餐廳移駕到客廳，一份一份地把每個人費心準備的禮物打開，經過將近兩個小時的拆禮物節目以後，要回家的回家，想留下來晚餐或聊天八卦看電影的繼續，一天就在吃吃喝喝聊天拆禮物中度過。
Most Taiwanese people take Christmas as an excuse for parties, for the reason that the majorities are anyway non-Christians. However, it's anyway a religious holiday. Christmas for Italians is like Chinese New Year for Taiwanese. It's an occasion for family gathering. Take my family as an example, we have Christmas lunch together. Every family member will get together for traditional crusines. After a lunch for more than three hours, we move from dining room to living room to exchange presents and open them one by one. It normally takes two hours only for opening the presents. After that, some will go home and some remains for dinner, chatting or a movie together. Basically, the whole Christmas Day is passed in eating, opening presents and chatting.

吃什麼呢？北方最常見的菜色，應該是蔬菜雜燴肉（bollito）和包肉的義大利麵餃（tortellini）。麵餃是第一道，通常和蔬菜雜燴肉的高湯一起吃，而雜燴肉則是第二道，一般佐以馬鈴薯泥，而蔬菜通常是不吃的。我曾經問過米奇，吃這些東西是不是有特殊的意義…根據他的說法，以前的人窮，只有重大節日才有肉吃，所以在聖誕節這個一年裡最重要的節日，一定會要吃肉，包了肉餡的麵餃自然就成為聖誕節的食物。這個答案感覺上好像在呼攏人一樣，不過問了一桌子的人也沒有別的答案，所以我也就只好暫時接受這個說法。
So, what do we eat? The most common dishes in the north Italy is bollito (boiled meat) and tortellini. The tortellini is normally served with broth which is the soup prepared by cooking bollito. The bollito is the second dish, normally with potato puree. I once asked Michele if there's special meaning for these dishes. According to what he said, people used to eat meat in important festivals. So meat is a must in Christmas. And Italians eat lots of pasta, so tortellini with meat filling become a traditional Christmas dish. It doesn't seem to be a proper answer for me, but asking around there's no other better explanation and I just had to accept it.

甜點自然是餐桌上不能少的尾聲。除了來一片黃金麵包（pandoro）和混了水果乾的大麵包（panettone）等應景甜點以外，還有樹幹蛋糕（tronchetto），不然就是上面寫了聖誕快樂並以象徵聖誕節的雪人、聖誕樹等裝飾的一般蛋糕。
The dessert is something can't be missed. Apart from famous pandoro or panettone that only appear around Christmas, there's also tronchetto (tree trunk), or cakes decorated with Christmas symbols such as snowman or Christmas tree.

跟以往相比，今年的聖誕節有點不一樣，感覺上特別地長…一方面是因為平常在聖誕節當日的家庭聚餐，因為米奇的大妹蕾蒂在聖誕節當日要出發去柏林玩耍，而提早了一天慶祝，聖誕節當日大家自然就聚到公婆家一起過，而聖誕節過後的聖史蒂芬日，又因為好友克里斯和希薇亞的邀約，硬是好好吃了第三頓漲到不行的大餐。結果，我家冰箱出現了一個禮拜都解決不完的剩菜…聖誕假期，果然是發胖的季節。
Comparing to the past years, it seems to me that Christmas is especially long this year... One of the reasons is because Letizia (Michele's sister) left for Berlin on Christmas day and we decided to do the family gathering on 24. On the Christmas Day, all brothers went to my inlaws'. The next day which is Santo Stefano we were invited to a friend's place for another party. So we basically had three big meals in three consecutive days... and there're also leftovers in my fridge... Christmas is really time for putting on weight!!


這張是2000年我正式搬過來以後的第一個聖誕節. This photo was taken on the first Christmas after I moved to Italy in 2000.

















這是我今年的甜點, 大家把蛋糕上的所有裝飾都往我盤子裡放! This is my Christmas cake this year. All the decorations on the cake were put into my plate!









這是我帶到克里斯家的樹幹蛋糕.
This is the Tronchetto cake I brought to Cristian's party.











十個人的禮物堆起來也是頗壯觀的! 每年聖誕節最期待的就是這個... Presents for ten people~~ the most exciting thing on Christmas Day.