Italian Voices: Making Minnesota Our Home

Chapter 6. Life Cycles and Calendar Events

· 6 · Life Cycles and Calendar Events Le celebrazioni sono spesso il migliore calendario. Celebrations are sometimes the best calendar. Italian proverb Rites of passage played a central role in the lives of the Italian immigrants . Celebrated with old Italian traditions, births, weddings, and funerals—as well as the religious milestones of baptism, first communion , and confirmation—marked transitions in the lives of individuals . Customs tied to the calendar also drew the community together for festivals and holidays. Observing the traditions associated with these momentous occasions—and passing them on to the next generation—was important for reasons that went beyond the events they marked; the celebrations affirmed both family and cultural identity. More durable and less visible than the physical possessions the immigrants carried with them from the Old World, the beliefs, values, and traditions of the Old Country life were the folkways that made life events memorable and meaningful. Rites of Passage In the early 900s, most babies were born at home with help from either a midwife or female relatives and neighbors. This custom brought together the women of the community, and was also cheaper than a hospital birth. In most cases the midwife, a mother herself, served as a woman’s primary caregiver during the labor and 146 Life Cycles and Calendar Events 147 birthing process. She dispensed herbs and applied home remedies for reducing fever and pain and staunching hemorrhaging. She was highly respected in the Italian community, of which she was generally also a member.1 As Roman Catholics, Italian immigrants viewed infant baptism as the child’s acceptance into the Christian community, the beginning of a life as a “child of God,” and the gateway to the other sacraments . The family usually presented the child for baptism one to three months after birth. The comare e compare (godmother and godfather ) were key participants who assumed a moral obligation to help the child for life. Parents chose godparents carefully, since godparents were considered next of kin if anything happened to the birth parents. The godparents not only took the child to the church on the day of baptism, but also clothed the baby head to toe and gave other handsome gifts.2 Naming the baby was part of baptism; parents usually chose the name of a saint, who served as the child’s patron saint and an example for the child. Because of these expectations, the priest sometimes challenged parents’ naming choice. Elio Cristoforo Varani, who emigrated to Eveleth in 908, was baptized at the St. Christopher Church in Sassoferrato , Italy. As had happened to other immigrants Elio knew, the priest complained before the baptism that “Elio” was not a saint’s name and proposed adding the middle name Cristoforo as a compromise.3 Baptisms occasioned much gaiety and neighborhood celebration ; in Minneapolis, as Patsey Mata explained, rugs were Mary Tomar in confirmation dress rolled up, Italian songs floated from the accordions, and before long the floors shook from exuberant dancing. According to Joseph Monti, Hibbing’s christening feasts resembled festive wedding dinners , except that if a boy was being baptized, the proud father imbibed more wine and sang with a little more gusto. A baptism in a mining location like Pillsbury would last a few days, recalled Tarquino Bertelli.4 Marriage was the next big celebration in an immigrant’s life. Italian courtships were closely monitored and nothing was official until a young man asked permission from a young woman’s family, either for a courtship to proceed or for a wedding to take place. In many families, a chaperone was always present when an unmarried couple was together. “Italian girls could not go out at night like they do today,” emphasized Mary Seppi of Buhl. Likewise, the immigrants often preserved such courtship customs as using an unbusciata (go-between), arranged by the parents, to carry messages back and forth between the families. Sometimes friends and relatives plotted matches for unsuspecting couples. Or a young man might gather his friends to serenade his intended bride, as Mike Laurienzo did in Minneapolis.5 Young people generally married other Italians, or at least other Catholics. The Catholic Church discouraged and even stigmatized marriage to non-Catholics well into the twentieth century; only later did “mixed” marriages become less problematic. The family, often through the father, voiced expectations in no uncertain terms, as when Theresa Riggio Johnson’s father inspected her...