ITALY






IMMIGRANTS

         Italian Americans are one of the many ethnic groups that make America a diverse nation. First group of Italian American immigrants  that came to America stayed with their own kind.  Most of them passed through Ellis Island in New York and many of them lived in New York City. Here they found jobs in factories and some of them became construction workers. They built a "Little Italy" in many cities.                                                                         
        Italians value family loyalty, their customs and traditions, language, religion , and eating habits. They brought their culture to America and  continued their old  customs  while  they  are  trying  to  live peacefully   and  cooperatively  with  the  other  ethnic groups in  their community.     





CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

        Italian immigrants celebrate holidays such as Christmas and Easter as well as feast days of the saints, and  other Italian American national holidays like the Columbus Day. On this day many Italians and non Italians join the big Columbus Day parade on Fifth Avenue  in Manhattan, New York City.
        Italians  are  religious. Most of them are Roman Catholic. They have strong faith in their religion and the tradition of honoring their saints for giving them graces.
        On St. Joseph's Day ( March 19),  we get blessed bread and pastries. Some families celebrate the feast day by  cooking  spaghetti with meatballs. The special food my grandparents eat is pasta  Milanese  for the Feast of St. Joseph. his is eaten with a St. Joseph's bread. This is a tradition to my grandparents. This is prepared with fish, fenil canise, black pepper and pasta. The Feast of St. Lucy is celebrated on December 13. On this day, the Sicilian people eat food that is made from whole grain which is also wheat. They do not eat anything made from flour.
        Our family celebrates Christmas together. On Christmas Eve, we cook seven types of fish like scallops, shrimp, and lobster. Spaghetti with tuna is also served. We bake cookies and honeyballs. We dress in our best clothes and attend midnight Mass together.
        On Easter Sunday, we all share a piece of special Italian Easter bread and hard boiled eggs for dinner. Lamb is usually  the main meal.
        On June 23rd, the eve of the Feast of St. John the Baptist, we put egg whites in a jar of water and put it outside overnight. In the morning you look to see what shape the egg whites formed. In Italy  when you do this and if the shape of a ship was formed, it meant  you were going to America on a ship. My mother and her mother did this every year with her grandmother.
        On May 8th, the Feast of the Blessed Mother, you put a small bucket with water outside your door with rose petals in it. It was believed that the Blessed Mother passed by at night. The next morning you would wash
 your face with the water as a blessing.
        Every Sunday Italian families get together for dinner with pasta, sauce and meatballs. Also a roast chicken or other kind of roast is cooked.



FOOD

        Most Italians believe that food is what makes them different from other ethnic groups in America. Pasta, the staple food is served at every meal. Ravioli, calamari, tortellini, lasagna, baked ziti, carbonara, minestrone, and tripe (cow intestine) are all Italian. Italians love to have their food spicy, to. We use rich Italian tomato sauce in our spaghetti with mushrooms, olive oil, spices, nuts, and garlic. We put sauce on everything.
         In America, Italians and non Italians love eating Italian food. In every corner of our community there is an Italian restaurant. There is also a pizzeria that specializes in home cooked Italian food like pizza, cannoli and tiramisou for dessert, shrimp parmigiana with spaghetti, and different kinds of pasta like spaghetti, ziti, linguine, penne, and rigatoni. Together with pasta, Italians love to eat fresh green vegetables (salad).Italians are proud of their food and when people in America  think of Italians, they think of pizza, pasta, mozzarella, cheese and some of the  most outstanding food in the world.




CLOTHING

                                                                                                                                                                                                    There is no Italian dress code, but most Italians, male and female, are always well dressed.
Most Italian women wear skirts, blouses, and nice shoes. On the other hand, Italian men wear their best suits especially for special gatherings. Italians use flip flops for slippers for public showers at beaches and pools only.











MUSIC AND DANCE



        Italian music ranges from opera to popular songs. During weddings, a band providing dance music may play the mazzurcas and tarantellas. The tarantella dance music is a popular Italian folklore music. It is played with a mandolin (Italian guitar).







WORKING WITH PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY

        We  attend and participate in meetings concerning problems in our community. The Block Association helps the neighborhood watchers to protect the block.
        The Cypress Local Development Corporations helps the community with daycare centers and job placement services. It cleans up abandoned buildings. For our parents who want to buy a new home, it gives free counseling for first time home buyers.
        The boy scouts and the girl scouts in our community collect toys, clothes, food, and books to share with the poor. The boy scouts volunteer to clean up the beach  in the fall.
        We  keep our community safe. We keep our garbage in proper places  to make our surroundings clean.
INTRODUCTION