Archive for the ‘scenes from village life’ Category
secrets to my success
The lovely Emma at How to Italy has tagged me to share five things I do nearly every day to be successful. I love this idea. For me, it’s inspiring to read about others’ good, productive habits especially since we so often hear the harmful, destructive ones (which we all have as well).
But first a word on success–a slippery word that can and should be defined by each of us individually. I consider myself successful if I can end the day with a smile and the feeling that I did what I could as well as I could’ve. Does it happen everyday? Hardly. But I like to think the following habits make it more likely:
1. After I wake up, I spend fifteen minutes sitting on the balcony with Luna and my beverage of choice, usually coffee but sometimes fresh-squeezed orange juice (season-permitting). When I say “sitting on the balcony,” I mean literally. I plop my bum down on Luna level, and we have our own pettie and snuggle time in the sunshine if the weather cooperates, and if the weather doesn’t cooperate, we share our moments inside in the kitchen. These quiet, relaxed moments before the day kicks up are important for me.
Here are some photos from a recent pettie and snuggle session:
2. While we’re on the subject of Luna, we take at least 3 walks per day (usually more). I probably wouldn’t do this on my own without a canine companion, so thank goodness she’s with us. Being in touch with nature gives me inspiration, thinking time, and an overall calm feeling that everything around me is exactly as it should be for one reason or another. It also gives me an excuse to take even more photos despite the fact that the locals think I’m a tad wacky getting so close to trees and whatnot.
3. I tell someone I love them. Always P, but if I’ve spoken to my mom or dad that day, I’ve told them too. For as long as I can remember, my mom has always told me she loves me at the end of every phone call–and this was when we lived just a town apart. It’s something I’ve continued with my family members over the phone and with P in person, daily. I don’t think you can ever say “I love you” too much.
4. I go on the Internet (when Telecom cooperates). This may sound odd, but since I’ve had the Internet installed in the house about a year ago, I’ve felt so much more in touch with the world and comfortable with my life here. Whether it’s the news, celebrity gossip, other blogs, or personal emails, I need and crave this contact with civilization outside of southern Italy. It makes me feel more alive and part of something larger, and that’s a good feeling.
5. I write. Could just be a blog entry (no offense readers!) or an email or thirty, but every day I write something, which they say is good for a writer. In fact, blogging has increased my “other” writing productivity as ideas spring up at every turn–finding the time and discipline to follow all of them through is the more difficult part. Back to number 4, though, and reading other writers’ blogs inspires me to continue.
So there are my five things. I won’t tag anyone, but I do hope you’ll make such a list even if it’s just for your own eyes. A lot of times we focus on what we’re doing wrong because finding flaws is so easy (many of us even have people to help us if we can’t find them!), but it’s also useful to see what we’re doing right.
If you do post a list, please leave the link in the comments for others to find you.
Buon weekend!
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[tags]secrets of success, dogs, sunrises, trees[/tags]
adoring april
Time for my April Monthly Musing seeing as we’re only a weekend away from the end of these lovely 30 days.
I love April, second only to October, my birth month. Makes perfect sense because if you mapped out the year, they’d be on opposite sides of the scales, balancing out the coldest of the cold and the warmest of the warm with their usually pleasant although often unpredictable temps.
And if I’m about anything, I’m about balance, being a Libra and all.
April is special, though, because it gives me a bit of warmth, a glimpse at the months to come, a feeling of being more alive and wanting to get out and feel the sunshine on my cheeks again–which is saying a lot for someone who really, really doesn’t enjoy baking in the sun. Needless to say, the SPF always comes first.
I didn’t use to get Spring Fever when I lived in the United States, and maybe that’s because where I lived, the weather never got spectacularly warm until Julyish, so what was the point anyway…but here…I have felt my entire mood shift in just a month.
I find myself getting up earlier and earlier, not being able to fall back asleep once I start thinking of getting up and out and walking with Luna and getting so warm that I have to take off even the lightest of jackets. I feel more energized, wanting to clean out all the must and dust of winter, smelling the freshness of flowers mixed with cleaning solutions as they waft out of the window and balcony door, which, thankfully, I have been leaving open all day now.
Not even sending off my American taxes in the middle of all this can spoil the mood.
April also marks the beginning of Spring Cleaning down at what we call “il giardino.”
It’d be safe to assume that P did the majority of the work as I was busy taking photos; bless his heart, he actually told me I could bring a book!
Here’s part of the area after many hours of P’s hard work:
And here are two of our new little friends:
Now go check out Cheeky’s thoughts on April, and then get out there and enjoy the final days of this special month.Don’t forget that you, too, can appreciate each month as it passes by recording your thoughts–and letting me know so I can link to you.
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[tags]april, gardens, calabria, lizards, snails[/tags]
Still Celebrating: Pasquetta
Last we left off, I promised that I would make time to eat and relax on Pasquetta, as Easter Monday is called here. P and I ended up spending the day with some of his friends and their wives, and now I have photographic evidence.
There was eating:
There was drinking:
There was singing:
There was bocce:
Oh was there ever bocce.
And there was even playtime with Luna and my friend Helen:
Then today, I continued the Pasquetta celebration by turning an annoying work obligation into a fun time by meeting up with Cherrye in Catanzaro for some cappuccini with the stars (and she didn’t even mind her drink getting a little cold while I took a photo or ten):
And then, for the first time in a year, some McDonald’s, including a chocolate milkshake (woohoo!), with an Aussie friend who has a house in my village. Sometimes you just get cravings, you know?
*sigh*
La vita è bella.
Pasqua (Easter) in Calabria: Sabato Santo Photos
And so here we are at Pasquetta (Easter Monday).
Many people down here take the day to spend with friends, relax, eat, and whatnot, but since I’m a dedicated blogger, I’ve been going through the hundreds of photos I took this past weekend. Don’t worry, I’ve also made time to relax and eat too.
For a fuller description of events, check out my previous Easter post here.
Some quick background. I had, essentially, an all access pass to the behind-the-scenes events because of P. You see, he’s been involved in this forever and directs traffic so to speak at various parts. He kept telling people I was covering the whole thing for the BBC, so you can thank him for giving me the courage to get in the way of Jesus and co.
Ahem. The photos.
Starting at about noon on Saturday, the soldiers got their gear ready.
P and I headed down to where Jesus and the other two that would be crucified were getting ready. This happened inside a cantina while the soldiers and the penitent got in position outside. I thought the grated window would be a cool shot, and just as I snapped, a soldier walked by.
Here is one of the two to be crucified alongside Jesus waiting to exit the cantina.
And here are the sinners waiting to self-flagellate.
The two to be crucified and Jesus are being led down to one of the village’s thirteen churches, from where the procession will begin.
Jesus rounding the corner to go down the path to the church.
The path to the church.
The area behind the church where Jesus is tied to the tree and beaten.
A brief pause in the festivities to give you an idea of how many people participate.
One of those people is P’s nephew Vincenzo.
After Jesus is given his cross down there, the procession moves through the village and up to another church, formerly part of a monastery. This photo is taken from my balcony and is hazy because my neighbor decided to heat his house (read: smoke got in our eyes).
From here, the procession arrives at another small church in one of the tiny vicoli, and some of the major players hand off their robes to different participants.
From there, the procession moves to yet another church, where we await the arrival of the Madonna, but not before some further punishment of Jesus.
I don’t have a photo of the arrival of the Madonna as I took it all on video, which I haven’t been able to upload. Boo.
From that church, the procession goes all the way back down to the church where everything started, and we wait for the next day’s events.
FYI, the procession of Sabato Santo takes between 8 and 9 hours.
Then on Sunday morning we have A Cumprunta where the risen Jesus is met by the Madonna. Again, I have this all on video, but here’s a shot of the two statues together.
And one of the a guy dancing while balancing his church’s flag in his mouth.
And that’s all from this pretend BBC correspondent for today.
Pasqua / Easter in Calabria
Many people who haven’t visited Italy often think that Christmas is the big holiday here–Catholicism equals Jesus equals Christmas, right? Well, Jesus’ birth is most definitely celebrated (amazing presepi are everywhere), but in fact, Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified, is hands down the most important holiday in Italy.
I’m not religious (although I was brought up Catholic), but it’s easy to get caught up in the emotions of the Pasqua (Easter) season, particularly in this village.
The festivities begin on Palm Sunday with the blessing of the palms; see Cherrye for more about this tradition. Since I don’t participate, my neighbor makes sure I’m not a complete heathen and always brings me some; this time she also brought me a Calabrian cake traditional for Easter called “cuzzupa.” They are kind of crumbly with a slight lemony flavor, not too sweet and perfect with espresso.
If you’ve been around Italian neighborhoods, perhaps you’ve seen such cuzzupe twisted and shaped into baskets and cradling hard-boiled eggs, but here where I am, they simply make small, glazed cakes usually with rainbow sprinkles.
And, yes, they are delicious. I’ll post a recipe later this week.
Then from Monday through Friday, every morning there is a small procession through the village with a drummer and a small group of male church members dressed in the robes of their brotherhood; each of the village’s 13 churches has a corresponding brotherhood, or organization that keeps its name and activities going. The groups change each morning, and the songs are in a mix of Italian, Calabrese, and Latin–which means I understand precisely nothing.
But you don’t need to understand the words. It’s enough to hear the wails of mourning that their Savior is about to be murdered, martyred. They stop in front of several churches to sing, and are accompanied by a steady, slow drumbeat as they walk through the village.
All of this leads up to grand procession of Sabato Santo (Holy Saturday), which lasts for approximately nine hours, starting at one in the afternoon and ending when the last mass is said in the main church sometime around 10 p.m. People come from all over the area to take part in this special tradition as this village is one of the few around here that still does it.
Participants dress in costumes representing the major and minor players of Christ’s crucifixion, including Christ himself, who is given his cross at one of the lowest points in the hilly village and carries it on his shoulders for the rest of the procession. There are soldiers, penitent sinners, the other two who were crucified with Jesus, the Madonna, and so many more–and then there are the regular folk who are welcome to walk along the path, which touches most of the villages churches, including one on the site of a former monastery.
Then on Sunday is the “Cumprunta,” which is the meeting between the risen Christ and the Madonna on a small incline leading up to one of the churches. Onlookers line the street for a glimpse of the reunion as between them younger boys from the congregations run up and down the hill, accompanied by frantic drumbeats as back and forth, back and forth, they wave their churches’ flags–which are at least five times the size of them.
The statues of the Madonna (dressed in black) and Jesus are on separate platforms carried by groups of men from oppositely situated churches. As the statues get closer and closer, the men run faster and faster so that the statues meet, and at that exact moment, the Madonna’s black clothes are stripped to reveal a beautiful white, celebratory dress–her son has risen.
It is beautiful and moving and wonderful and *sigh.*
I think it’s my favorite moment of every year.
Afterwards there is spontaneous dancing in the street as the drumbeats continue, and the strongest men balance the wooden poles of the enormous flags in their mouths, holding the strings of the flags with their outstretched arms to keep everything in check. And so they dance, looking up at these flags now as high as the houses for as long as they can stand until passing it to the next willing taker.
The other day in the piazza, I saw a little boy practicing with a push broomstick in his mouth, preparing for his future day in the sun. Oh, why hadn’t I brought my camera?!
I give you these tidbits now, but if all goes well with the weather, there will be more information (i.e., photos) to follow later this week. So let’s pray for good weather, shall we?
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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