52 Ancestors Week 50: Tradition

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 50:

This is the time of year when many families celebrate various traditions that they have. Several days from now, I'll serve pork chops and sauerkraut, the traditional New Year's Day dinner on both my paternal and maternal lines. Do you know the origin of any of your ancestors? Or, taken another way, what's a genealogy tradition in you family that you've had to dispute (or proven)?

The Eight Greats!

How are there only two weeks left in the year already? It seems like yesterday that I was telling everyone about my grandfather Marco Ferraiolo and his para-trooping exploits. Two more weeks, huh? Better make them count! I will be back in 2020 of course. Doing #52Ancestors has proven to be really fun and I'm sure Amy will continue to do these for years to come. If not, I could always make something up for these blog entries.

Amy is right. During this time of year people celebrate various traditions based on their ethnic origins. So, it shouldn't come to any surprise that I eat a lot of pasta on Christmas Eve. Shocking, right? The Italian guy eats pasta. What's next? Baguettes? Yes, I've had those, too. Great for dipping in sauce and making subs.

Melons wrapped in prosciutto! Mmm!

Word of caution before you continue reading. This blog might actually make you hungry. =)

Ever since I was little, we would have a huge get-together on Christmas eve. It was a multi-generational affair with all of our Italian friends and relatives. It was started by my Grandpa Marco and Grandma Ollie. A lot of people would come over from all over the Merrimack valley and beyond. When I was a kid, we'd pick up my grandmother, Ollie, and she'd stay with us until after the holidays.

That wasn't all. We would have a feast that night like you wouldn't believe. It's usually customary for Italians to serve fish on Christmas eve. So, that's what we did and still do to this day. We would eat pasta, haddock, shrimp and calamari. Calamari is of course squid. My dad would prepare the calamari in many different ways such as:

* Fried
* Stuffed
* In sauce
* Squid salad

We would also serve haddock and gnocchi if the person didn't much care for squid and still wanted some pasta.

Baked stuffed calamari!

My parents tried to accommodate everyone's tastes and be gracious hosts. We never really had anything French-Canadian that night and it was fine. My mother embraced cooking Italian goodies to the point where she did a really good job preparing a lot of the dishes I'm showing in this blog! Though, I was often in charge of wrapping the melons in prosciutto and cutting the rest of the antipasto dishes like cheese.

People brought many treats as well. My great-aunts would bring cookies that they baked. My dad's cousins would be in charge of desserts. They'd bring cannolis, tiramisu and other desserts. It was fantastic!

Not to be outdone, people on my mom's side of the family would bring treats too like shrimp cocktails and various dips. One time one of my parents' friends brought shrimp dip. It was pureed shrimp as a dip and you'd put it on crackers. It was okay. I still tried it despite having many, many reservations! You should always try something at least once in your life. And if you don't like it, then that's fine. A notable exception is liver and onions. That stuff is gross and is considered a war crime by the International War Tribunal of the Hague.

The food wasn't the only thing on the menu of course. Being with family meant that we would talk about the old days. In some cases, it was the really old days. Christmas eve when I was a kid was one of the times where I would learn the most about my family history when I wasn't with either set of grandparents. I would walk around and listen to conversations and ask questions should the opportunity present itself.

I can remember another time where we'd bring out the old film projector and watch old home movies. It was nice to see my grandparents in their much younger days. I remember seeing Giuseppe and Clementina the most.  We definitely had a lot of good times watching the film reels. It would be a very good idea to preserve them. Film reels don't last forever. Just look at the lengths people have gone to preserve old reels containing things from world events to classic episodes of Doctor Who.

Aside from the meals and learning family history, my first cousins and I would always hang out and we'd have a good time while the adults talked. We'd play the then latest video game consoles and just catch up. Those were always good times!

Now that I'm older, my relatives tend to ask me if I could look into something. Last Christmas eve, my dad's cousins were talking about another Carrabs child Giuseppe and Clementina had. When I had free time, I did some digging in the archives for Gesualdo and found that they did indeed had another child. Her name was Olimpia like my grandmother.

I guess you could say that the "circle is now complete". I join in the discussions about family and say what I found out online. Everyone is usually impressed. I guess they remember how curious I used to be. I still am and I will always cherish the Christmas eve get-togethers because they were fun and probably a little educational!

Christmas eve parties still continue and now our tree has ornaments that have ornaments that once belonged to my grandparents on there. The parties may have gotten smaller in recent years due to people passing, but, they are still memorable. And they're never really gone as long as you remember them.

See you next time!