Little-Known Christmas Traditions in Rome

Will you be spending your Christmas/end of the year holidays in Rome? Are you curious about the traditions and cultural customs of this area? We have collected some of them in this post: none of them related to the sweets found in this season, for which we refer you to this article, but still all related to the area of Lazio, the region of Italy in which Rome is located.

What’s in a date

As many of you already know, Christmas Day in particular was chosen to fall on December 25 in order to “overwrite” earlier pagan celebrations that had already been observed around or on the day of the winter solstice. The most famous of these was the cult of Mithras, the sun god who was born of a virgin in a cave on December 25 and worshiped on Sunday, the day of the conquering sun. Remind you of anyone? What not everyone knows is that to this day, the actual celebration can take place on different days.

Depending on the individual customs of each family, some people decide to exchange gifts on December 6th (St. Nicholas, the saint who gave birth to the myth of Santa Claus!), December 13th (St. Lucia), or even January 1st, which is the oldest celebration, dating back to Romulus himself, the founder of Rome. The first king of Rome had the city surrounded by walls. As a good omen, he was given a bundle of green branches from the forest dedicated to the Sabine goddess Strenia, which was located on the Via Sacra. Romulus decided that this rite should be repeated every year. The tradition spread to the people, who added figs and apples to the gifts given at this time. Over the centuries, the word strenia, to indicate this particular tradition, became strenna, the proper (and untranslatable!) word in Italian for a gift that is customarily given or received at Christmas or the holiday season, and only then.

Why we exchange gifts

Speaking of rites, it’s not just bundles of mistletoe and holly we receive at Christmas: the tradition of exchanging gifts dates back to the Saturnalia, another pagan festival held at the end of December: to this day, many families in Rome exchange dried fruit and candles, which were the main gifts given during this part of the year.

Seasonal music

Much less common than in the past is the encounter with the “zampogna” players, a kind of bagpipe that dates back to Roman times (the name at that time was “utriculus”). Nowadays only seen at Christmas markets and around important monuments such as the Ponte Sisto in Trastevere or the Spanish Steps, the zampognari were shepherds who played in exchange for food (salami, dried fruit, beans of all kinds, in ancient times) or money to buy provisions that could be easily transported to their pastures.