New Year’s Eve
Finally, after all the excited anticipation, the 365th day of the year arrives. On this day, no matter where Italians find themselves, many hope to enjoy another splendid feast: the “Cenone di Capodanno.” This elaborate dinner starts on New Year’s Eve and may not finish until after midnight, thus straddling two years.
During the holiday period restaurants offer meals in a range of prices from €35–150. Many gluttons regularly eat out on this night, both to enjoy the fine food and also perhaps the end-of-year excitement created in restaurants. Others invite friends over to celebrate the countdown to the New Year in their homes.
Whether at home or in a restaurant, this end-of-year meal typically runs from about eight or nine until midnight. In preparing the numerous courses for this meal, cooks are not nearly as restrained by tradition as at Christmas. But pig’s knuckle and lentils are de rigueur, and one must also eat bunches of grapes, which symbolize wealth and abundance. Italian women dress up, not sparing the bling-bling even when eating at home. They look as colorful and well ornamented as their Christmas trees. Finally, everyone fills their glasses with sparkling wine and counts down: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1—Happy New Year!” Over the 2014 holiday season, Italians consumed 60 million bottles of sparkling wine.
Needless to say, the end of the year always brings the dawning of a new day, and January 1 has its own program of events. Early in the morning of January 1 this year, the Pope spoke from a balcony facing St. Peter’s Square. The skies over Rome were clear and blue, and the Pontiff prayed for Mary’s blessings: “May this gentle and loving Mother obtain for us the Lord’s blessing upon the entire human family.”
Joyously welcoming the New Year
Since moving to Italy 20 years ago, every year I’ve enjoyed the New Year’s concert at the Golden Hall in Vienna, which this year was broadcast to 92 nations around the world, including newcomers India and the Ukraine. Some 30,000 cut flowers were used to decorate the hall this year!
Another concert—just as exquisite, though smaller—is held in the Teatro la Fenice (Phoenix Hall) in Venice. Reconstructed and reopened in 2004 after being destroyed by fire, the hall also holds a 45-minute concert on New Year’s Eve, featuring orchestral and operatic works, solo singers and choruses. Though the space is not nearly as expansive as the Golden Hall, its carved pillars, gold-framed paintings, splendor and elegance make it a site that should not be missed by visitors to Venice. I have serenely enjoyed two concerts here. Of course, for New Year’s the mood should be upbeat. As he conducts Johann Strauss I’s “Radetzky March” in the Golden Hall, the conductor turns to face the audience, who clap along with the beat. Boisterous concerts of this ilk have become a New Year’s tradition, and not just in Vienna. In Venice Verdi’s lively “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” rings out as people drink champagne in celebration.
On January 2, people go back to work and school, and the shops open. Everything returns to normal. Pulling their luggage, Siena’s college students return to campus. All that remains of the holiday season is the celebration of La Befana (the witch) on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5). What does La Befana do? She delivers candy to those who have been good and chunks of coal to those who have been naughty! The children all hang socks from the headboards of their beds and believe that La Befana actually delivers the candy. Well, how good have you been? Once the candy or coal is deposited, all of the holidays have been swept away, as if by a witch with her broomstick....