Immigration, Celebrations, Traditions and Bunnies

 

Moving to Canada implies many, many things. One of the nicest one, however, is that Canada encourages people to keep alive  their background, their native language, culture and traditions. This is definitely one of the reasons why I love this Country so much.

In some way, that makes things as nice as difficult sometimes. Having kids, in fact, exposes you to a multitude of questions and options and, not always, it is easy to come up with a good, logic, satisfying answer which is also capable to keep ancient traditions alive and stable.

One of the first example that comes to my mind is the dilemma with baby teeth fall. Every time one tooth falls down, my brain starts spinning trying to remember where I am, what my kids know and how to make them believe that if in Canada a nice tooth fairy leaves you money under the pillow, in Italy that is going to happen thanks to a mouse, a ladybug or something else depending on the region, or even the city within the same region. In Palermo, city where I am from, for example it’s a ladybug’s task to trade your tooth with money. Interesting is that the ladybug is the way kids identify St. Nickolaus. In the past, actually, it was spread the practise to hide the tooth in a hole and pray the Saint with the following words:

Santu Nicola,
Santu Nicola
vi rugnu a zappa vecchia
vui mi dati a zappa nuova.

The tooth fairy thing is just one example considering that this dilemma pops up quite often in a new comer life. So, not only you have to adjust to things essential to your survival, but you are also required to make your children believe that everything is manageable. In my opinion this is quite amazing and, no doubt, highly motivating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having said that, let’s talk about Easter, Easter Bunny, Easter eggs, Pupo cu l’uovu and Pecorella di martorana. Maia came back home from school few days ago reminding me that Mr. Easter Bunny was coming to leave Easter Eggs. “Who is coming?”, “Easter Bunny, Mom”. “He is going to bring me eggs, you know!”.

It usually happens while I am driving and I can feel Maia’s presence behind me that I start thinking about these differences. Of course, Maia’s curiosity and the daily report to let me know what she did during the day aren’t entirely negligible.

Who is Easter Bunny? In Italy we didn’t have him and I couldn’t understand why eggs were brought by a bunny instead of a duck, for example.We do have eggs though!

Easter Bunny, derives form ancient pre-christian pagan rituals celebrating fertility and productiveness. As according to the tradition, rabbits and hares are among the most fertile animals ever, they soon became a symbol of the renewal of life that in the endless cycle of seasons corresponds to Spring.

It seems that the cute bunny became a symbol of Easter in Germany in XV century. On top of that, the first bunny-shaped cookies were circulating always in Germany in 1800. Later, German and Dutch immigrants imported this tradition to America where Easter Bunny brings eggs in a basket for those kids who were nice during the year. The only problem is that, being Mr. Bunny a naughty fellow, he loves to hide those eggs in bushes and grass.

I had to move to Canada to be able to understand why Mr. Lindt (maitre chocolatier) sells tones of golden bunnies for Easter!

What about eggs? Egg has always been considered symbol for life and sacredness. Egyptians, for example, considered the egg the fulcrum of universe 4 elements. It appears that Persians used to exchange hen-eggs at the arrival of Spring, followed by other populations.

In Sicily, we do have chocolate eggs but also we use real hen-eggs to decorate special bread baked for Easter, Pupuo cu l’uovo (puppet with egg). I remember this type of bread since I was a young girl. One special person, Zia Valentina, introduced me to this and I like it or not, it is something important to me. The recipe for this special bread is common everywhere in Sicily. The only things may change are the name used and the shape given to it. I was so happy, happy like a child, when I went to buy some bread here in Vaughan few days ago and I saw a beautiful, reassuring pupo con l’uovo on the shelf.

 

 

Finally, another Sicilian dessert for Easter is “la Pecorella di Pasqua”. Everywhere in Sicily, in this period of the year, is possible to find this little sheep. Even if the recipe once again can change from one city to another, all these little sheeps have one ingredient in common: martorana or pasta reale (marzipan) and, in some variations they have pistachio or cedar compote. This sweet cute little sheep is always laying down on a green lawn realised with a green painted plywood filled with candies and little chocolate eggs. Finally, the little sheep has a golden and red“labaro”, banner, because in heraldry those are the identifying colours for Jesus Christ.

I have now one problem: explain to Maia that in our backyard no bunnies are going to hide eggs. An alternative could be to have a little sheep jumping like a bunny and hiding some eggs into a bread. Or, even better, I can give Maia some chocolate and...pray she is not going to ask any other question until next holiday!