Allora, Aspetta!

Festa delle Donne

Today, March 8th, marks the Festa Delle Donne--an Italian holiday which celebrates the importance of women. Although the sun is barely peeking through the clouds here, it seems like a bright day, with yellow flowering mimosa being toted around by everyone--women coming home from fruit markets, old men carrying boquets of it as they walk home, boyfriends buying it for girlfriends. Mimosa is the flower of choice for the festa, and the little dusty flower sprigs litter the streets today like confetti during Carnvale.

As I bought tomatoes earlier at the grocery, the women who worked there were handing out mimosa free for their customers, and a man in front of me asked something like "why don't we ever have a Festa dell' Uomo (Men's day)?"

She responded, laughing as she handed him a bouquet, "Why? Everyday is men's day!"

When I asked Antonello later what Festa delle Donne really celebrated though, he said it was actually an American occurrence that brought about the first celebration. In the early 1900s, a large number of women died in a factory fire in New York City. Since then marches have been held internationally, and eventually it has developed into a sort of "Women's Freedom Day."

Here, though, while no one is marching, it's enough to see people walking home with yellow flowers in their hands for friends or family, smiling brightly on a foggy March 8th and thinking of someone special.

And besides, I'm pretty happy about it. My house is filled with little yellow flowers, and tonight, Antonello is going to cook me dinner in honor of the festa!

Happy Festa Delle Donne to everyone!

-Jackie

posted by Corrie @ 3:56:00 PM