{"id":240689,"date":"2018-12-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/ghosts-of-christmas-past-and-present\/"},"modified":"2018-12-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T08:00:00","slug":"ghosts-of-christmas-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/ghosts-of-christmas-past-and-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts of Christmas past and present"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Tom Cesarini<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Convivio Now and Again Series comprises oral histories from Italian community members. In these excerpts from interviews with Louis Palestini and Luke Vinci, the treasurer and secretary of the Little Italy Association, respectively, they discuss the importance of food and the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestini recalls with a particular fondness the holidays spent in the Italian neighborhood, noting importantly the family dynamics during these times, saying, \u201cHoliday times, like most families, we have the whole gang over the house \u2026 Actually, our family would go from house to house for a whole week \u2026 My mother and aunts and grandmothers would make the pasta, raviolis, cookies, and of course, the cannolis \u2026 I remember my grandmother making bread, like in the old days, with the ovens they had in the backyard. I used to love it when my grandmother would call us; she’d get the bread out of the oven and call me and my cousins and then she would cut the bread in half, put the oil on it \u2014and it was good stuff. Christmas was celebrated with your family but also the rest of your neighborhood friends. You’d walk down the street; they\u2019d have you come in the house; they had all the homemade cookies. It was just a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Ghosts
Scene from a Christmas play at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Little Italy, c. 1928. (Courtesy of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish and the Convivio Italian Community Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Examining the intermingling of his two primary cultural influences, American and Italian, Vinci states, \u201cWe grew up in a house that holidays were celebrated. Tradition is very important in Italian families.\u201d As his mother isn\u2019t Italian, Vinci explains that his father handled the \u201cresponsibilities for Christmas dinner,\u201d adding, \u201cWe always have lasagna, and other than barbecuing, (Christmas) was the only time of the year my dad cooked.\u201d Vinci mentions the importance of the \u201cfamily endeavor that we created\u201d in the traditional preparation of the holiday meals. \u201cWe cooked 15 trays of lasagna, and it would take a week, a day for the sausage, a day with the meatballs, and assembling it all, and cooking the sauce,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas with Convivio<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 14, Convivio continues the tradition of breaking bread in good company as we celebrate the holiday season at Amici House!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec. 14 | 6 p.m. | Amici House, Little Italy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music, music, music! Featuring Jim Bianchi tickling the ivories and Rosario Monetti on vocals, plus our world-famous sing-along!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delicious pot luck and scrumptious desserts \u2014 bring a dish to share with everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Espresso coffee drinks by Arcidiacono Coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holiday Giveback. Bring a non-perishable food item or clothing, coats and\/or blankets for our homeless community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We look forward to seeing you for our festivities with friends old and new!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And be on the lookout for our pre-sale tickets this month<\/strong> for \u201cArrival From Sweden: The Music of ABBA,\u201d coming May 5 to Little Italy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get social: @conviviosociety (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Tom Cesarini es el director ejecutivo de Convivio. llegar a \u00e9l en <\/em>tom@conviviosociety.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Tom Cesarini The Convivio Now and Again Series comprises oral histories from Italian community members. In these excerpts from interviews with Louis Palestini and Luke Vinci, the treasurer and secretary of the Little Italy Association, respectively, they discuss the importance of food and the holiday season.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":240690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Ghosts of Christmas past and present","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}