Thursday, January 10, 2013

Christmas Day! - 25th Dec

Today is Christmas. Hmmm..... Christmas is a very grand, big affair in most European countries. I think for Italy, it is pretty important, considering that Italy is a Roman Catholic country. So today, I've got quite a busy day too! hahaha.... everyday is a busy day.... coz there are always activities.... =D

Anyway today, we'll be going to the church 1st. Coz Emanuel and Francesca and Francesca's mum wants to go to the church for the Christmas prayer session. For me it was ok, just sat through and see everything... there was nothing special, it was a typical Catholic mass. But I guess the sermon the priest was preaching was something to do with Christmas. So after the mass, we headed to Emanuel's grandparents' place. This is my 2nd time here. coz we were there last evening to visit them. (oops forgot to recap in my rentry for 24th dec). yeah we visited them last evening, and pieces of the best beef were presented to them as Christmas gifts.

Before lunch, we had a bit of time to kill. So Emanuel drove us to the beach for me to see the sea! I msut say, the sea was really blue! and clear and clean for me. Hmmm... for me the sea here is definitely much cleaner and clearer than the sea I see in Singapore.
blue sea & sunny weather
Happy Muraca family
That's me with Francesca & Francesco. Emanuel was behind the camera
Emanuel's mum cooked Christmas lunch for us! As usual with all the food that was cooked and served, I was really really full after lunch was over. Emanuel's mum is a really good cook! the food she cooked were all delicious!
Lunch. This was the 2nd dish. 1st dish was cananoli. (sorry did not take the picture of that)
And for help in digestion, Italians eat raw fennel. Hmmm it is not that palatable to me.... maybe because I'm not use to eating this particular vegetable and I'm not use to the smell it has. I tried them for the 1st time yesterday at Francesca's house. Oh Yeah one thing i forgot to mention, I thought i eat pretty fast when I'm with my friends or ex-colleagues. However, seems that I loose out to the Italians! Hahaha.... coz yesterday at the Christmas eve dinner and today at the Christmas lunch, I was the last to finish the food on my plates!

After lunch, we headed to Panettieri to visit and view the Presepe. When I heard Presepe from Francesca & Emanuel, I was like what is that. So they tried to explain to me from Italian to English and we decided it was some sort of street performance. And in my mind i was imagining it to be some sort of street parade. Hahaha.... But this proved to be the wrong word and description for it. Yes, its some form of perfomance, but its not street perfomance. Rather its real live performance. It was only after I return to Denmark and started googling what is the meaning of presepe, I got an answer. Its a reenactment of the birth of Jesus as depicted in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
Entrance to the Presepe
1 prohpet i think
me & a guy who dressed as a soldier
I must say, the Presepe at Panettieri was amazing! Maybe because its 1st time for me to attend such an activity/event, so I was hugely impressed! Emanuel told me that this Presepe was put up by the people living in the town, Panettieri. And they really made the whole town into Bethlehem. Seroiusly, when you enter the 'gates' it is as if you've stepped into a whole different world! better than Universal Studios or Disneyland!
That's Emanuel's family with Caterina and her boyfriend
Posing for photos in the streets
The streets in the Presepe
Coz all the props, activities, people, animals are real! They are not some form of robotic machinery controlled by humans! I was totally awed by all these! And the stuffs like certain food that the people in Bethlehem used to eat, they made it and we were free to try.
the women in the house in those days. Think this was a scene in the kitchen
Girls making spagetti
Girls selling vegetables
This is interesting. A person dressed up as a mythical being making bubbles
Women knitting the wool into blankets, clothes
Scene of Jesus and his parents. The kid on the right is the archangel, Gabriel
A man chaning the horseshoe on the horse. It was terrible. I could smell the burning flesh of the horse. Poor thing.

After the visitation to Panettieri, it was a long drive back to Francesca and Emanuel's place.
Tomorrow we'll be attending Mattair's baptism.

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