Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is the most festive day during the entire Paschal Triduum. Probably all over the world, it is a day of gluttony, because one eats, eats, and eats!!!

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The day begins with the whole family gathering around the table with a prepared Easter breakfast. Every home is dominated by various delicacies that were blessed during the Paschal Eucharist. The breakfast is salty, but of course with a sweet touch! All the blessed baked goods, cheeses, hams, sausages, and other delicacies are consumed. Also, gourmet is Colombe, a yeast dough, which with its shape resembles a pigeon – a sign of new life. Colomba can be bought everywhere – the traditional one is with orange peel, but you can find plenty of other flavors, such as with chocolate, pistachio, or lemon filling. There's a variety to choose from!

Children get chocolate eggs from their parents and grandparents as gifts!!! To eat them and discover the surprise inside, they have to break them first. There are many ways to crack a chocolate egg. The funniest is by hitting it against your head, you can also hit the egg with your fist! (It's worth remembering to leave the egg in its wrapper so all the chocolate doesn't land on the floor.) After breaking it, you pull out the surprise from inside and share the broken chocolate with the whole family. There are lots of laughter, fun, and cheers. A show like no other!

Colomba

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After a delicious and satisfying breakfast, the whole family goes to church together for Easter Mass. On such a beautiful day they go out for a walk around the city, parks, and gorgeous streets of old towns. In these places, people also meet with friends. While loitering around the city, space is made in the stomach for more delicacies. At the same time, you can get some fresh air and catch some sun! (If the weather is nice, of course… Unfortunately, in Italy every year the weather at Easter plays tricks).

Churches in Naples and Naples

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Another family gathering is obviously for dinner, grazing like a few. Each house has its traditions, its typical dishes, and of course, recipes! There is no one best cuisine, although everyone claims that their grandmother or mother prepares the best dishes! Because she does it by eye and with a lot of love!

For dinner, they eat castiello, fellata, artichokes, lamb with potatoes, and green peas (a one-pot dish). These are typical dishes that can be found in every home. A very beautiful custom is the way of eating fried artichokes. From one artichoke, everyone plucks individual leaves, and so, the vegetable is eaten together. A very beautiful custom that unites everyone gathered at the Easter table.

Traditional dishes

After lunch, of course, there must be no shortage of sweets. In Naples, this important pastry is pastiera. It is a shortcrust pie filled with ricotta cheese and cooked wheat, topped with candied orange peel and spices. It has strips of shortcrust pastry made on the very top. The Neapolitan pastiera has 7, which symbolize the streets in the Centrum Storico. There are 3 decumani (main streets) and 4 cardini (intersecting streets).

Italian sweets (pastiera, colomba, choclate eggs)

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Easter Sunday is one grand, endless feast!!! Also taking walks together, meeting family or friends. All this to spend precious time together, chat and feast. The streets are overflowing with people in every city, be it Rome, Naples, Florence, etc.

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Foremost, they are swarming with tourists, but also locals. Everything is throbbing with life!

WARNING!!! Italians are very appreciative of their lunchtime, siesta, so you need to be careful about the opening hours of various stores, restaurants, and public transport!

In Naples, I personally experienced a shock when my family and I wanted to go home by metropolitan, and here it turned out that public transport had a break from about 13:00 to 17:30. All metro stations and funicolars were closed! Stores and supermarkets, markets, were closed. The only thing was such Chinese or Arabic kiosks were open. On the other hand, most bars and restaurants were open (those located in the center most often yes, but the farther away from the tourists most were closed, and also were not open according to the normal schedule). That's why it's best to ask employees or check on the Internet (although you can't always find any information). A person may be surprised when he arrives at his destination and it is closed to the public...

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Each country has different traditions and customs, different foods, and ways of celebrating. In addition, each region and even city has its delicacies and dishes. But even more beautiful is that each family, celebrates Easter in its own way, practicing its individual traditions, which are irreplaceable and unique.

Buona Pasqua from Naples