Auguri, Buon Pasqua, La Pasquetta, Bonfires, Exploding Carts and more

I love the holidays on Facebook. I learned how to say "Auguri" at Christmas, and then this week I found out that it is also a useful word at Easter. Everybody says "Buona Pasqua" (Good Easter), and if you can't remember it, or you can't spell it, you can always just say "auguri", which is a shorthand way of saying "best wishes". I may have to do an entire blog on auguri, but this one is about Easter.

Probably for as many dialects as there are in Italy, there are an equal number of ways to celebrate Easter, however it all comes down to Buona Pasqua, the greeting you will hear everywhere and you will see on nearly every Facebook post. Some of the celebrations involve parades (rather processions), and there are even some that are explosive:

Florence-Scoppio del Carro

In Florence, Easter is celebrated with the Scoppio del Carro, explosion of the cart. A decorated wagon is dragged through Florence by white oxen until it reaches Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence's historic center. Following mass, the Archbishop sends a dove-shaped rocket into the cart igniting the fireworks held in the cart. This spectacular display is followed by a parade in medieval costumes. (Nothing is said about whether they unhitch the oxen or not. I think maybe yes? At the very least, I think it might be hard to find white oxen every year.)

La Pasquetta

The day after Easter is La Pasquetta or the Little Easter. This is considered a day of rest, and often involves taking the leftovers from Easter dinner to parks for a picnic. Many of the shops remain closed, and it is another excuse for a day off, and a day with the family.

Easter in Scotland

Easter is a very important day in the Church of Scotland. In many parts of Scotland, huge fires used to be lit on Easter Saturday, a tradition that dates back to the pagan era when spring festivales were held at this time. (See Easter in Vienna, next.)

Easter in Vienna

Easter Fires (Osterfeuer)

In the Alpine provinces of Austria, Easter fires burn on mountain peaks after sunset on Holy Saturday, and bands of musicians go through the towns, playing sacred hymns.

They are sometimes called Judas fires, because effigies of Judas Iscariot are frequently burned in them. The Easter eve bonfires predate Christianity and were originally intended to celebrate the arrival of spring. The burning effigy once symbolized winter.

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There are celebrations all over the world for many different reasons:  Political, religious, family, historical, etc.  Sometimes, like with Cinco de Mayo we adopt another country's festival as one of our own because of familiarity, but usually we just get used to how we celebrate our own holidays, and miss out on many different, wonderful festivals and traditions.  That is one of the fun things about learning about another country or region and I am looking forward to learning more about the special days of Scotland, Italy and Vienna.

Dee

A Serious Moment

Briefly going back to our sister Julie's response to my Facebook "friend", Mario's contact, I have been thinking about the pros and cons of Facebook, and the internet in general.

I admit that I am addicted. Being here in exile in Southern California, the Internet is my companion, my contact with the outside world, my library, my entertainment, and mostly, my connection to sanity. Yes, there are horror stories out there of people who have come to bad ends, or been swindled out of their life savings through contacts on the internet, but like-wise, I have met some wonderful people who don't want a thing from me other than a chance to communicate. I have Shelley, a fellow American Zucchero fan (not a lot of us out there, I think)who lives in Stockton. Shelley has introduced me to Laura who lives in Liguria, works in Vernazza in the Cinque Terre, and who also loves Zucchero. She is the one who checked out the hostel we are going to stay at in Manarola (another CT village) and told us that it is a nice one, per her inlaws who live there.

There is the incredible Mario, who listened to the disappointed ramblings of an American who he has never met, and went out of his way to talk to one of the most famous people in Italy about me, and arranged for me to meet that person. And not to forget Danilo Sacco, that singer who told Mario the he would be pleased to meet me.

There is Isabella, the delightful Austrian woman who is also a big fan of Zucchero (see the tattoo in an earlier post), who just graduated from a course where she has learned to make prostheses, and who has offered to meet Becky and I and show us around her beautiful city. She also spent time making up a list of places she thought we should see while we are there, and told us how to get around in Wien.

Ok, so any one of those people could be a crazed cannabilistic mass murderer, or they could just be kind people who are proud of their countries, and who want other people from other places to enjoy their stays, and who just happen to spend time on Facebook interacting with people all around the world.

A short story (stay with me, here): When I was working in the ER, we had a problem getting patients admitted to the progressive care unit. There always seemed to be a reason why they couldn't receive our patients , and often we really needed them to take our patients so we could use the beds.

After about 8-9 months of constantly being told to hold the patients, and not getting any cooperation from them, we did the most logical thing to improve matters. We challenged them to a softball game: The ER vs PCU.

It is really hard to stay angry with someone against whom you have played softball. Especially when none of us were very good, our equipment was stuff most of us had scrounged from our kids, and we were spending it at a beautiful park on a lovely day. Sharing the game, and a picnic afterwards gave us a better understanding of each other, and in the long run, improved patient care. And not surprisingly, the next week when we were back to work, and we had to transfer a patient, although they were just as busy as before, they willingly accepted the patient. And we were likewise willing to wait for 1/2 hour while they completed caring for a difficult patient. You see, we found out that they thought we felt we were more important than they were, and that we were demanding and unreasonable when we wanted to transfer a patient. Imagine that.

My point is pretty easy to figure out. If maybe just chatting on Facebook, learning about people in different places, picking up words in another language, helping each other out, or picking each other up when we are down can all in a small way lead to better world understanding, maybe there is still a spark of hope in a world where there are Gaddafi's, and Berlusconi's, and Bernie Madoff's. We can be proud of ourselves for taking care of each other in a family, but when complete strangers reach out across cyberspace to help someone or to create a special moment, I think it is a positive uplifting use of technology.

But I will be careful, Julie.  Thanks for caring.

Dee