Pasqua – Celebrating Easter in Italy

By Katelyn Hemmer, Freshman BA

As a freshman, this has been my first Easter in Italy. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, I have not experienced how it would be celebrated traditionally. Seeing videos of Piazzas packed with people following parades and watching exploding carts is so foreign to me. I can’t wait until next year, when (fingers crossed) we will be able to celebrate properly. However, instead of the traditional festivities, our RA organized an egg hunt for those of us living in Student Housing and bought us all the traditional sweets. We had an amazing lunch of Lasagna and other traditional dishes with carrot cake for dessert. It was a good Easter, but it is night and day compared to the usual celebrations.

Though 2020 and 2021 saw dramatically reduced Easter celebrations, usually Italy goes all out for Pasqua. Beginning on Good Friday, Italians Easter festivities last through the weekend to Easter Monday. On Friday, the day of Via Crucis, torches are lit in the streets and processions follow the ordeal of the crucifixion. Saturday at midnight, bells announce the resurrection. Easter Sunday is the most important day of Holy Week, it marks the resurrection of Christ and marks the end of Lent, the catholic’s period of fasting. Colorful processions on Sunday depict the crucifixion and resurrection, and statues of Jesus and Mary are carried throughout the city. Parade participants don traditional clothes of ancient times and sing religious songs while carrying olive branches. And of course, one of the main events of the weekend is Easter Mass on Sunday morning. Easter Monday, or Pasquetta, is the final day of celebration and remembers the meeting of the winged messenger with the women who came to Christ’s empty tomb.

Some local traditions can look pretty odd to foreigners. Florence is known for its Scoppio del Carro, during which a massive ornate cart is paraded through the streets, coming to rest at the doors of the Duomo. A dove is sent through the doors and into the cart, setting the cart on fire and beginning what is now an impressive pyrotechnic show. If the dove misses its target, it is seen as a bad omen for the future. The dove missed in 2018–– maybe it was predicting the pandemic! In Bormio, they celebrate with Pasquali, a parade of five religious-themed floats from the five neighborhoods of the city that compete with one another. In the center-north, you can find celebrations focused on the egg: the Sagra and the Palio dell’uovo in Tredozio with games, battles, and parades of floats. In Sicily, there are parades of masked characters through the streets, with traditions originating in the eighteenth century and handed down father-to-son.

Easter celebration wouldn’t be complete without food–– as the holiday marks the end of Lent, Italians are ready to eat! Italians Easter meal is an all-day affair and usually includes some combination of lamb (or bread in the shape of a lamb for vegetarians), fish, artichokes, Torta alla Pasqualina (egg pie), Sciusceddu (meatball and egg soup), and many other dishes. Not to be outdone by the actual meal, Italy saves its best seasonal sweets for Easter. You might be served Sanguinaccio Dolce (a dessert made of pig’s blood and chocolate), rice cake, Pastiera Napoletana (a cake with orange-spiked ricotta), Pan di Ramerino (sweet bread), and of course, Colomba di Pasqua (the traditional Easter cake made with candied citrus and almonds). You can also find shops lined with elaborately wrapped chocolate eggs that hide a surprise in the hollow center.

Regardless of which traditions you choose to follow, Easter in Italy is a one-of-a-kind celebration–– a celebration I hope to experience when the world is back to normal.