This post feels a little bit more personal, as I recall the way my family explained to me the significance and the importance of such a day.

My grandmother used to tell me that on the night of November 1^st, the souls of our loved ones and all the people who passed away would have come to earth to spend some time with the members of their families who were still alive. What actually interested me at those times was that she also told me that they would have brought presents for the kids and that they would have hidden them all around the house for us to search and found them.

All the kids were so excited to the idea of getting presents that they were falling asleep wondering about what they would have received the morning after. However, only the good kids would have got a present: children who behaved badly would have been punished by the souls of the dead who would have tickled their feet while they were sleeping.

Needless to say that all of us kids in the family slept by keeping our feet far away from the edge of the bed, just in case.

In the morning, presents were really not that hard to find as they were hidden  behind a portrait, up on a shelf next to the books, between coats or in the umbrella stands. They were not even that fancy: a doll, a backgammon, shanghai sticks, a tea set, and so on… but half of the fun was looking for them around the house feeling like we were more cleaver than the souls of our ancestors who thought we could never find our precious reward!

The entire day is dedicated to family: in the morning, you pay a visit to the cemetery, leaving flowers on the grave of your ancestors and saying some prayers for the souls of your loved ones. After, a huge lunch will be served for the entire family at someone’s house, usually grandma’s.

Some of the “must” of this special holiday is the so called “puppaccena“, which is a little statue (similar to a doll, “pupa“) made entirely of sugar. The inside is empty so that you have like some sort of Easter egg in the shape of a boy or a girl dressed in traditional costumes. The front is decorated and painted in bright colors.

The puppaccena is usually placed in a basket, together with nuts, almonds and other seasonal fruits, surrounded by a kind of hard cookie called “ossadimorto” (“dead man’s bones”) and some “frutta martorana“.  Shaped in the form of different kind of fruit (could be a fig, an apple, a pear…) this kind of sweet dish is entirely made by “pasta martorana” or “reale” (“royal”), which is made of almond flour and honey or sugar. Just as the puppaccena, the frutta martorana is also realistically painted on the outside.

If you are lucky, you will also get some stories about the life of your ancestors or some anecdotes about someone’s life. Yes, because however you will celebrate this day, November 2^nd is dedicated to memories and to the commemoration of life together with death, in a respectful yet cheerful way.

Have a lovely day together with your loved ones and remember not to eat too much!