Yesterday I was caught completely by surprise by celebration which is international while being entirely non-American. It turns out March 8 is International Women's Day. In Italy in 1945, the Union of Italian Women decided to hold their commemoration of women on May 8 in rememberance of two events whcih took place on that day: a women garment workers strike in New York (1857) and a bread and peace strike by Russian women (1917). Shortly after, the tradition began of Italian men giving their wives, daughters, mothers, etc. yellow mimosa flowers. Now it is common for women to also give other women these flowers. Since mimosa might be not be in flower at this time, it is acceptable to give other yellow flowers in their place.
When school opened, students, prompted no doubt by their host families, began arriving with mimosa blooms for all of the women in the program. The mimosa flowers are quite delicate and fragrant. Then, when I went to the fruit store, the proprietress, Laura, gave me a potted yellow pansy with a sprig of mimosa for me to bring home to Amy. It is a wonderful tradition that I hope to continue when we return to the US although mimosa might be hard to come by!
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