My husband Lino and I have just returned from spending Christmas in Italy with his family in the small town of Morsano, in the Italian region of Friuli. It was a great trip and we spent a lot of time enjoying family, friends and food (not necessarily in that order).
Like everything else in Italy, Christmas foods depend on the region. According to tradition, the meal for Christmas Eve, La Vigilia, doesn't have any meat. It's all fish and different kinds of seafood and of course vegetables.
The Christmas food traditions of Italy are distinctively different from what we normally find here in Canada. We did not have our traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings but that was OK. Basically you will find the Italians to be eating what they love to eat at the Christmas feast. Typical Italian Christmas dishes include baccal which is a salted dried cod fish. I passed on that one.
If there is one thing that is common in all the different regions of Italy during Christmas day it has to be the coffee. This really strong and delicious coffee is usually served shortly after or at the end of the meal.
Christianity happens to be the most prevalent religion in all of Italy and Christmas happens to be the biggest Christian event of the year. Lino and I had the opportunity to see a live night time Nativity play with more than 240 actors in the 1,250-year-old Abbazia di Santa Maria in Sesto al Reghena, a small town located about 45 minutes north east of Venice. During this huge presentation; which included a small army of Roman soldiers, they suffered a power outage which made the entire scene so very realistic. It was totally amazing and I felt like I had been moved back in time as the entire story unfolded.
I personally tried my best to help the Italian economy by going shopping!
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January is membership renewal time at all the five senior centres and new members are always welcomed. If you are 55 or older you may want to consider joining us and meet new friends.
For the specific details and hours of operation just phone or visit one of, or all of the five centres listed below:
Elder Citizen's Recreation Association: 1692 Tenth Avenue (between Vancouver and Winnipeg St.) contact Rolanda at 250-561-9381
Hart Pioneer Centre: 6986 Hart Hwy. Phone 250-962-6712
North Central Seniors Association: 5401 Moriarty contact Lorraine at 250-640-1693 or 778-416-8887
Prince George and District Senior Citizens Activity Centre: 425 Brunswick St. contact Trianda at 250-564-3287
Spruce Capital Senior's Recreation Centre: 3701 Rainbow Drive phone 250-563-6450
Each centre offers many of the following programs: low cost nutritional meals, volunteer opportunities, cards (bridge, canasta, cribbage, whist), group activities (carpet bowling, floor curling, line dancing and Tai Chi), a drama club, book club, breakfast club, a photo club, singing groups, craft groups, cooking classes, bingo and various educational and health related clinics.
Send me your seniors' information at [email protected].
