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April 18, 2006

Easter Weekend

Italy has just observed a four-day weekend, from Venerdì Santo (Good Friday) to Pasquetta (Easter Monday). I had planned on using the days off of school to catch up on some studying – but keeping your eyes on the books is difficult when surrounded by giant, chocolate Easter eggs!

Sunday morning: I had spent the night at my boyfriend’s parents’ house. I came down the stairs for breakfast and was confronted with a table overflowing with decoratively-wrapped eggs and homemade tortes. Easter is the only time of the year when Italians eat hard-boiled eggs for breakfast (eggs are traditionally a lunch or dinner item). The chocolate eggs are exchanged among family and the children are anxious to break open their eggs and see what little surprises are hiding inside…

The gifts are generally things like plastic toys, necklaces or keychains – but the quality depends on how much you paid for the egg. Some people hand-pick their gifts and take them to a chocolate store for a custom-made egg. Either way, the Italians enjoy finding out what’s inside – I personally found the chocolate more interesting!

On Pasquetta, the Italians take the day to rest (to recover from the huge amount of food and family of the previous day). The city dwellers like to spend the day in the countryside. Traffic, however, can be discouraging. Rome’s parks fill up with picnicers and everyone gets to enjoy the day off and the spring weather.

Posted by Kelsea  at 5:08 AM | Permalink

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