Marriage and birth customs?

As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
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lngrid
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Marriage and birth customs?

Post by lngrid »

Hi. I'm not lucky enough to be Italian. But I'm helping my best friend research her family history. Unhappily her Italian-born grandparents never learned English and she never learned Italian so 90% of the traditions and lore they knew has been lost.

The last few days I've found her grandparents' marriage certificate as well as the certificates of their and their siblings' births in the Bucita frazione of San Fili, Cosenza, Calabria. We would love to learn about them!

If you know of any traditions from around this area, or from Italy in general, would you share them? My friend might hear something she's forgotten she knew. At the very least she would have something to tell her children about their ancestors. And we would love to learn about them!
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Re: Marriage and birth customs?

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DeFilippis78
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Re: Marriage and birth customs?

Post by DeFilippis78 »

One tradition I am living in the middle of right now is mourning. I know its stupid to bring up because its not the most pleasent but it is a tradition. My great grandparents were from Vasto so this might be just a Vastese tradition. There children are still alive and follow their traditions to this day. My father died last year and that whole side of the family followed the tradition of mourning for one year. Not just mourning, but meaning you dont celebrate any holidays for a solid year since the person died. No christmas trees, birthday cakes, sending out cards, Easter dinner, nothing.

Alicia
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johnnyonthespot
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I recently had the pleasure of seeing for the first time "Light in the Piazza" on the TCM channel. Although technically a drama, the movie which takes place in early 1960's Florence was great fun to watch, especially with a very young George Hamilton playing a lovestruck Florentine.

At one point, Rossano Brazzi as Signor Naccarelli, tells Olivia de Havilland that his wife will not be attending the football game with him because she is in mourning. Olivia's character says, "Oh, I'm very sorry" to which Signor Naccarelli replies, "No matter; her family in Naples is a large one - someone is always dying." The viewer is led to believe that Signora Naccarelli is thus forever "in mourning".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056183/

http://books.google.com/books?id=khad8e ... &q&f=false
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lngrid
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Re: Marriage and birth customs?

Post by lngrid »

I like that custom of deep mourning. I'm glad you told us about it. It seems like it could give a person a year to meditate on what the loved one meant to those left behind -- time to focus on the grieving process before moving on.

I'll jump in with a Norwegian custom I know about, since none of my ancestry is Italian.

On a woman's wedding day in Sogn, Norway, she would wear a tall, glittering silver crown with many dangling silver ornaments. These crowns were expensive and usually only owned by wealthier families or churches who would lend them to ordinary brides. After the reception friends of the family and other well-wishers would escort the couple home. These friends would ring bells and sing songs along the way. Some of my ancestors could only find spouses of the their social class in other communities. In these cases the bell-ringing procession would travel by boat from the bride's community to the groom's community with the bride standing in the prow for everyone on shore to see. I have a photo of one of my ancestress' braudlaup in the years when the custom was dying out. She actually looks a little embarrassed by all the hoopla but procession members look very happy.
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Post by Italysearcher »

I have been living Italian customs for the last 10 years. I wrote about many in my book. It's not the same area but many customs are widespread.
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Post by PeterTimber »

Dear Ann from what I see nobody mourns for long any more in Italy and certainly not in black either save for the throwback village inthe woods somewhere in Italy or am I just being a caustic New Yorker? =Peter=
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You are right Peter, only the old will mourn in black. I see people at funerals in their everyday clothes, even white, although not usually the close family.
Ann Tatangelo
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Dual citizenship assistance, and document acquisition, on-site genealogical research in Lazio, Molise, Latina and Cosenza. Land record searches and succession.
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Post by Thorny »

I was just researching my genealogy recently. And, btw, when I asked Suanj for help, it was amazingly fast and accurate.

Be that as it may, something my father and I suspected seems to be true--there is a custom of naming the first born after the last dead guy.

When my great grandfather died (the one Suanj helped me find in Roccamandolfi), there was a slew of Josephs is our family, maybe 6 or so in a single generation, and there were certainly enough aunts, uncles and cousins to make that possible.

After my Grandfather died, there was a slew of Carls--My father, me and another cousin come to mind immediately. Subsequent, more Americanized generations did not keep this custom however.

I noticed there are common names all over the family tree--Thomas, Mary (and Marie), Lilly, Theresa, Joseph, Carl and Dorothy. I suspect that my great great grandfather, when i get around to researching that, will be named either Carlo, Tommaso, or Giuseppe.

Is this really a custom, or just something my family did?
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Re: Marriage and birth customs?

Post by johnnyonthespot »

My six brothers were all given traditional "American" names at bith, the only exception being myself who got stuck with Carmine (God, how I hated that name...).

My paternal grandfather, Giuiseppe, died while my mother was pregnant with her second child. By that time, the family had been in the US for more than 35 years, nonetheless, my brother Joesph was named in his honor.
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The last few days I've found her grandparents' marriage certificate as well as the certificates of their and their siblings' births in the Bucita frazione of San Fili...??
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Re: Marriage and birth customs?

Post by MaulikShah »

I know about one of the festivals of Italy - Mardi Gras/Carnevale. It is just like Halloween. People dress up but there is not horror theme. Children love it.

The main idea is to dress up and look like someone else. Elementary schools and kindergartens do not give any typical daily lessons and allow the children to have a day-long party on school premises and enjoy.

The typical sweets include frappe and castagnole. Similar to pastries and doughnuts, they are very tasty.
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Re: Marriage and birth customs?

Post by labutakti »

Hi,

I am from San Francisco and I new some tradition of Pakistani and Indian weddings as my parents are from Pakistan but I am not sure about Italy. And at this thread unable to get any info about Italy tradition and wedding costumes!
Go Green!
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