Vatican Corner
Practically every continent has some version of Thanksgiving, from Africa’s Kwanzaa, India’s Pongal to China’s August Moon Festival. Each of these cultures celebrates the end of the harvest with a shared feast of the bounty. In Italy many villages hold festivals to celebrate the harvest of their local produce. There are festivals for grapes, mushrooms, chestnuts, truffles and olives. Activities include processions, competitions, dancing, singing, and of course eating and drinking. All the residents turn out and visitors are warmly welcomed. But in Rome on the last Thursday in November, Americans can find it a little changeling to celebrate their traditional American Thanksgiving, since it is not a holiday, just another work day. Whole turkeys cannot normally be found, and the butcher requires a special order one week in advance. Potatoes, green beans and cornbread stuffing are no problem, but cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie filling, sweet potatoes and pecans are difficult if not next to impossible to find in Roman food stores. There are a few specialty stores that carry ethnic products where Americans can find these items. A few Roman restaurants have created special menus for the American celebration, such as the one in front of the American embassy that serves turkey and pumpkin pie on that day. Some Americans in Rome capture the spirit of Thanksgiving each year by inviting other families and Italian friends to share in the feast they have prepared. They make such special items as pumpkin ravioli for the banquet. Those Italians have begun to expect the feast on that day and it is joking thought that if enough Italians are invited to share Thanksgiving dinner, Italy will make it a national holiday too. Each year on the weekend of Thanksgiving, seminarians from the Pontifical North American College in Rome trade in their clerics for flags and compete in the Spaghetti Bowl, a flag football game between the first year seminarians, or “new men” and seminarians from the three upper classes or “old men.” The game was first played in 1953 and serves as a chance for the new men to earn the respect of the old men through friendly competition. The teams begin practicing weeks before the game. The football competition along with other activities act to relieve some of the homesickness that first year men experience, often being away from home during Thanksgiving for the first time. The weekend activities highlight that the men have joined a new family, one consisting of their brother seminarians who are all traveling on the same journey.
Prayer at Harvest and Thanksgiving
O God, source and giver of all things,
You manifest your infinite majesty, power and goodness In the earth about us. We give you honor and glory. For the sun and the rain,
For the manifold fruits of our fields:
For the increase of our herds and flocks,
We thank you. For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace, We are grateful.
Sources: SeeItalia.com, Catholic News Service, goitaly.about.com