Best wishes for a Happy New Year to you all!!!
2008 is coming to an end and a new year is about to begin!
The Gleni staff wishes all its visitors and customers a wonderful New Year, full of happiness, satisfaction and serenity. We are completely aware that, for some of you, 2008 has been a very difficult year because of the economic and monetary crisis which has affected the whole world, causing a drastic reduction in life-style and purchasing power. We too have suffered a little because of this difficult time, but we intend to think positive, both for us and for you, hoping that 2009 will start well and be full of feelings of calmness, good humor, prosperous business and faith in the future.
So now, banish any negative thoughts and tell us: how will you spend your New Year’s Day? What do you usually to do at New Year? What are the main traditions of your country to celebrate this day?
Italy is quite divided on this topic! While Christmas Day is usually spent at home with family, New Year’s Day is usually celebrated differently by Italians. Many people, above all young people, spend this day on holiday, often in a foreign country such as the Maldives or Mexico, where the weather is good and warm and they can toast the coming New Year at the beach, refreshed by a cool cocktail. Other Italians prefer to spend New Year in the mountains where they can ski or play cards by the fire.
However, there are also many Italians who decide to celebrate this day at home, (especially this year, with the gloom of the economic crisis), organizing special dinners and parties with friends. Older people usually take part in special New Year’s Eve dinners organized by restaurants and cafés, where they can enjoy a feast of typical Italian dishes and drink excellent Italian wine as they wait to see in the New Year.
Young people, on the other hand don’t usually attend restaurants, but rather organize special parties with friends. They meet at someone’s house and they cook together, listening to music. After dinner, the house is turned into a disco, with lights and disco special effects, and they start dancing while they are waiting for the New Year. Some minutes before Midnight, everybody stops singing, dancing and eating and prepares a toast to welcome the new year. Both in restaurants and private houses these last minutes of 2008 are pure adrenalin: someone slices up the Panettone, someone prepares the glasses for the toast, while someone else uncorks the SPUMANTE, a typical Italian sparkling sweet wine, usually served with dessert. When Midnight strikes the celebration erupts in every single Italian town, as everybody toasts the arrival of the New Year and goes out to dance and celebrate the New Year with friends or relatives. Restaurants and public squares put on traditional New Year’s songs and everybody sings, dances and drinks Spumante.
So they drink toasts to celebrate the coming of the New Year, and they eat too…..But what do Italians eat at New Year? What are typical Italian dishes for this occasion?
The most famous dish is without doubt ZAMPONE con LENTICCHIE.
Zampone is the foot of the pig which is carefully cleaned, treated and reduced into a sort of big sausage which is first boiled and then cooked with lentils, specifically the small brown lentils for which Italy is renowned (The most famous and sought after are the Lenticchie of Castelluccio) Lentils are eaten by everybody and even if they don’t like them very much, they all eat a few, because it is said here in Italy that eating lentils at New Year’s Eve brings you luck and money through the next year. We don’t know if it is true or not, but we certainly eat them in big quantities!!!!
Waiting for Midnight, we usually eat cakes like our Panettone and Torrone, or homemade cakes devotedly prepared by our mothers or grandmothers, and we drink coffee or a coca cola which help us to stay awake and celebrate the New Year with more energy.
For the New Year’s toast, traditional Italian families follow a particular custom for the preparation of the table. The table-cloth should be red with golden finishing, and the table is richly laid with many different cakes such as Panettone, Torrone, Pan Ducale, and special gold or silver coins made of milk chocolate which have to be eaten by each member of the family as a symbol of luck and prosperity. These coins are sometimes tucked into a round dish full of white grapes, and mixed with the grapes, because eating grapes is also supposed to bring luck.
People go to bed very late, sometimes not till six or seven a.m, so it is very hard for Italians to get up for lunch time on January the 1st! They often sleep till late afternoon then eat something light and go out with friends, probably to a cinema or to go bowling. Only a few families these days prepare the traditional New Year’s lunch with typical Italian specialities such as Lasagne, cotolette, olive all’ascolana, veal with green peas or mushrooms and the traditional Christmas cakes.
And what about you? How have you decided to spend your New Year’s Eve and Day? Are there some particular traditional customs that you follow in your country? What are the typical dishes you eat to celebrate the coming of the New Year? If you like, write us your story and you will have it published on our blog within a very few days.
Best Wishes for a fantastic New Year full of joy, prosperity and harmony to you all from Arben, Tatiana, Giulia, Cristina and all the Gleni staff!!!
