Holidays & Festivals
Italy
Holidays
Offices and shops in Italy are closed on the following national holidays: January 1 (New Year's Day), Easter Monday, April 25 (Liberation Day), May 1 (Labor Day), August 15 (Assumption of the Virgin), November 1 (All Saints' Day), December 8 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), December 25 (Christmas Day), and December 26 (Santo Stefano). Many offices and business also close on June 29, for the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, the city's patron saints.
Festivals
New Year's Day (Capo D’Anno) is celebrated with church services, parties and all kinds of festivities. Children receive strenna, or money gifts, from their parents, while friends and relatives send each other flowers and bunches of mistletoe. Since early times Italians have attributed mistletoe with such miraculous properties as healing sickness and aiding fertility. Today a piece of mistletoe is hung over the door to "bring luck" to the entire household. On January 6th, is Epiphany (La Vigilia Dell’Epifania), the feast that commemorates the visit of the Three Kings to the manger. Also, on Epiphany Eve, children receive gifts in memory of the presents the Wise Men offered the Christ Child. Carnevale always begins on January 17 and continues until Ash Wednesday. The ceremonies of the last three days of the carnival are the most entertaining, especially those of Martedi Grasso (Shrove Tuesday). Throughout Italy the occasion is celebrated with colorful pageants, masquerades, dancing and music.
In Agrigento, the Almond Blossom Festival (late February) celebrates the beauty of the almond blossoms on the trees in the Greek town of Akragas. This festival was originally a peasant celebration of the planting season. Each evening, on a stage erected near the Temple of Juno, various local and international artists perform as the temples are brought to life by artistic light displays.
From May to June Siracusa classical theatre livens the stages of the Greek theatre at Neapolis in Syracuse and at the Maniace Castle in Ortygia. You can see productions of classics from the likes of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes. Productions are in Italian, but even if you don’t understand the language, the setting and the atmosphere make a visit worthwhile. During Taormina Arte (June to August), the Greek/Roman theatre comes to life with a season of top acts. The 2005 season included a staging of Madame Butterfly, a season of concerts dedicated to the conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Diana Ross in concert.
On August 13th & 14th each year, the Festa “Tatarata” takes place in Syracuse’s Piazza Armenia. Medieval costumes are on parade and a magnificent joust is held to remember the Norman victory in driving the Arabs from Sicily after two hundred years of dominant rule. This same festival celebrated in Casteltermini, not far from Agrigento, also recalls this victory over the Arabs with the Parade of Horses.
