one of the best parts of living in a foreign country is embracing their cultural traditions. of course, this means temporarily letting go of some of our own familiar customs, like neighborhood trick-or-treating on Halloween. here in Rome, the kids may dress up on Halloween itself and do a trick-or-treat activity at school, but there's nowhere near the excitement and community participation that there is in the US, and certainly no All Saint's Day parties for the girls to attend. this has been a major disappointment for them since we moved here, but this year, the Carnevale festivities more than made up for it!
Carnevale in Rome is not as elaborate as it is in Venice or Brazil; it's mostly focused on the kids, who are seen walking about the city in costume for weeks in January and February. Cecilia's preschool class had a special Carnevale party the week before Martedi Grasso (Fat Tuesday), when they all dressed up and then walked down to the local park to play and throw confetti around (the traditional Carnevale activity). with her recent DIY bang trim, she looked exactly like Anna from Frozen, and she knew it!
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| all the girls in her class! |
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| best field trip ever. (Cecilia is in the pink multi-colored coat, climbing up the fireman's pole) |
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| Anna on the way home from school |
the biggest Carnevale party occurred at school on Martedi Grasso (Fat Tuesday) itself. both girls got to dress up, and on the walk down to school, they were greeted by huge smiles and comments of "
bellisima!" and "
che bel vestito!" (what a beautiful dress!) from total strangers. we always pass a group of nuns walking up to the university adjacent to the seminary on our way to school, and usually Greta just ignores them despite my reminders of common courtesy (face palm) while they sweetly say hello to us each morning. today, she must have felt so full of regal rapture that she waved and said, "
buongiorno!" to each of them!
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Cinderella! you can't really see in the picture, but she's wearing glittery jelly shoes
that are a pretty good substitute for glass slippers. |
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| Anna, round 2! it was her idea to add the pink headband. |
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| i just can't stand the cuteness! |
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two of Greta's best friends at school... that's a whole
lot of sass for six-year-olds! |
the party continued at school, where each class went to see a
spettacolo (show) in the school's theater and then had a special snack in the afternoon. that evening, Nick took the girls to the seminary's Mardi Gras celebration so they could party it up even more with beads, hats and masks.
meanwhile, Mom, Auntie Kris and i were having a memorable Fat Tuesday of our own, attending an operatic concert at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj -- more on that later!
Ash Wednesday in Italy is celebrated a little bit differently than in the US. instead of marking the sign of the cross on your forehead, the ashes are sprinkled on the crown of your head. i find it a much more startling reminder of the fact that "to dust we will return". Mom and Auntie Kris happened to be visiting the Pantheon just before a late afternoon mass began, and they stayed for the service so Mom got her first Italian ashes! Greta's class attended a full mass at school with the traditional ash-sprinkling; Cecilia's class dipped their fingers in a bowl of ash and placed fingerprints on a banner hanging in the school hallway.
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"Wednesday of the Ashes". Quaresima means Lent; Pasqua means Easter.
the colors of the rainbow mean forgiveness, prayer, listening, change, respect,
love, and peace. the bottom of the banner says: "I promise to commit myself to
be more good, and I sign with my fingerprint." |
and so, Lent has begun! this year, our entire family is giving up sweets. i'm giving up my morning social media scroll, replacing it with the readings of the day. we also made a prayer chain for all 40 days of Lent plus Sundays (represented with the white loops). it's been a simple way to incorporate more prayer into our day: each loop has the name of a person or a group of people, with a few left for personal intention. each morning, one of the girls tears a loop off the chain (shockingly, there have been few fights about whose turn it is so far!). we say a quick prayer on the spot and then throughout the day.
this weekend, the seminarians observe a weekend of silent reflection, meaning there was no conversation after mass or at brunch. this was the third silent weekend for us, so the girls were prepared for it. Greta asked me, "did the seminarians give up being loud for Lent?" ha! as we ate our pancakes and sausage in the refectory, a playlist of instrumental and choral music muffled the sounds of silverware on plates and chairs scraping the floor. some of the men chose to sit alone at tables; some brought books to do some spiritual reading while they ate. most ate at tables together, with requests for salt and pepper made by eye contact. the girls remembered to whisper their requests the entire time, except for the very end of brunch when we were taking our dirty dishes out to the kitchen and Greta broke the silence by calling, "Cece!" to the great amusement of seminarians and faculty alike. some of these disciplines are not exactly designed for family life, but it's still good to raise the bar from time to time!
as a convert to Catholicism, i have a profound appreciation for the season of Lent. it's challenging, but it makes the season of Easter all the more joyful. the ebb and flow of the liturgical seasons mirrors the cycle of nature and our own human inclination for fasting and feasting. as Pope Benedict XVI said:
"Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism."
i wish you all a fruitful and inspiring Lent!
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