Buon Carnevale! / Happy Carnival! February 25, 2009

Il mio paese, per il Carnevale, ha diverse usanze. La più diffusa e divertente per noi bambini è, durante tutto il periodo di Carnevale, mascherarsi e girare per le case chiedendo caramelle e dolciumi vari. Un’altra è festeggiare preparando polpette in piazza ed offrirle a tutta la gente. In tutte le case si preparano chiacchiere, zeppole, polpette di carne o di mollica e maiale (carne, sopersate e salsicce)  .
Tutti gli anni, inoltre, si fa una sfilata: i bambini si vestono e girano per tutto il paese buttando coriandoli e facendo scherzi di qua e di là.
Finita la sfilata si dà fuoco ad un fantoccio, simbolo del Carnevale, per indicare che il Carnevale è finito ed inizia la Quaresima.
My town, for Carnival, has got many traditions. Dressing up and going around te houses asking for candies and different sweets, during all the Carnival time, is the most popular one for us children. Celebrating making meatballs in the square and offering them to everyone is another one. In every houses they prepare “chiacchiere”, “zeppole”, “meatballs” or “crumb rissoles” and pork  (meat,” sopersate” and sausages). Then, Every years they do a parade: all the children dress up and go around the town throwing confetti and doing tricks here and there. When the parade is finished, they burn a puppet , Carnival symbol, to show that Carnival is finished and Lent starts.

Alcune specialità carnevalesche/ Some Carnival goods:

Chiacchiere

Zeppole

Polpette di mollica / Crumb rissoles

Salsicce stagionata / dried sausages

Salsiccia arrostita / grilled sausage

“Sopersate”

“Sopersate”( altre specialità lucane / Lucania goods)

la sfilata / the parade:

Desiree – Classe 5^A

Ecco come i bambini di alcune classi hanno rappresentato il Carnevale:/ Here’s how the children of some classes rappresented Carnival:

Il Carnevale nel passato di Francavilla / Carnival in the past of Francavilla: SulSinni.com

Scuola Primaria  “A. Ciancia”- Francavilla in Sinni (PZ) – Italia

Dragobete February 19, 2009

Love, the force that sets fire to young hearts, has a day of its own in the Romanian folk calendar. It is February 24-th when Dragobete, a sort of Valentine’s Day, is celebrated. It is an early spring day not by accident, chosen by the time birds begin to find a mate. Probably, their nuptial dances inspired the people who felt that springtime, a time of rebirth for the entire nature, is also the time of young love.
The Dragobete is the day when the spring is said to begin. This day is dedicated to love and fertility and is also named the spring beginning. Unfortunately its origin isn’t known yet. Scientists have established many resemblances to other holidays celebrating love and concluded that they all had the same ancient, pre-Christian origin. Weather it  is a Celtic, a Roman or a Greek one, this shows that no matter where they live on this planet, people celebrate each year the pure, misterious and unpredictible feeling that love is.
Dragobete is similar to St. Valentine. People say that the one who don’t celebrate this day will not be loved during the year, but the one who does it will be in love every day of the current year.
The Dragobete is the day when couples form. This applies not only to people, but to birds also. The girls and young women use the snow which didn’t melt until this day for washing them in certain days of the year. The tradition has it that men shouldn’t annoy the women because they will have troubles.
The young people dance on the field and, if the weather is sunny, they pick snowdrops.
Birds mate and gather materials for their nest. If a bird didn’t mate on this day, it will not be able to do it anymore and it will fly chirping from place to place until it dies. Other version says that the bird won’t have babies until the next Dragobete.
Every thing began on this day will turn out just fine. The carpets and other textiles are shaken out, for the wealth to come back. Only working inside the house is allowed, for fear of illness.

Irina and kids from School 92, Bucharest