Wednesday, December 3, 2003

A blending of traditions from holidays of the past

By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

Like many of you reading this column, I’m not from here. Although I’ve lived in the area for 20 years, I’m still considered a “newcomer.”

But, one of the wonderful things about hailing from another region of the country is a sense of perspective and being able to blend traditions.

Growing up as a youngster, the traditions of my mother’s very large, Italian and Catholic family played a huge role in the holiday season.

Nearly three weeks before Christmas, the house would be filled with the aromas of pizzeles baking. For the uninitiated, pizzeles are Italian cookies that are baked in a contraption that looks like a waffle iron. The most common flavor baked is anise, which tastes like licorice.

But the baking didn’t stop there. Italian knot cookies, wine cookies and other dishes handed down from the old country gradually filled up the cupboard during the holidays.

The festive times would culminate Christmas Eve, when a huge feast, featuring meatless dishes, would be prepared.

Baccala, which is codfish, would be prepared along with spaghetti served in garlic and olive oil, along with fried smelts.

After the huge meal, everybody would gather in vehicles and head to midnight Mass. After the church service, the kids would go home and open their presents, while the parents enjoyed an adult beverage and congratulated themselves on getting through another hectic holiday season.

When I first moved to the South, culture shock hit me hard. Trying to find Italian food products many years ago was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Nearly as challenging was locating a Catholic church for my mother who had been transplanted from a majority religion status in Denver to a small minority in northwest Florida.

But, the wave of development that started in the ‘80s and ‘90s, gradually brought more tastes and more people south who shared a different viewpoint.

Now, the region is a giant hodgepodge of faiths and peoples, which leads to a far more interesting area than 20 years ago.

One of the best parts of living in our melting pot society is the ability to learn about other people and integrate some of their traditions into our own.

Growing up, we always stuffed our Thanksgiving bird with a blend of sausage and sage, but now I’m a huge fan of cornbread dressing.

I’ve learned to love the lilting sound of a genuine Atlanta accent and also to understand the relationship people have with their property. (Gerald O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” was right: Land is the only thing that matters.)

In return, I’ve shared some fun Italian traditions with friends and relatives who incorporate them into their holiday celebrations.

We’ve all learned that no one group is totally right, but that blending our traditions gives us a great perspective to deal with the growth we encounter everyday.

Now, if we could just get a bocce tournament going....