Today, 30 November, is the feast day of St. Andrew, patron saint of fishermen and brother of St. Peter. It was Andrew who introduced the boy with the loaves and fish to Jesus.
Viterbo, like many places in Italy, has a Church of St. Andrew. It is a beautiful Romanesque church with remains of 13th century frescoes. Closed for many years, it was recently reopened. Traditionally the priest of this church would place a chocolate fish in the holy water basin for each of his clerks and also for the bishop of Viterbo on the occasion of the feast day. For this reason it became custom for the Viterbese to give each other brightly wrapped, chocolate fish as signs of friendship and affection. Young children leave an empty plate on the windowsill the evening of 29 November and when they awake the next morning they find foil-wrapped fish that St. Andrew has left for them.
These fish can be purchased all over town as the feast day approaches. Our fish is dark chocolate, of course, wrapped in deep pink foil. We purchased it from L'Antica Latteria, a short walk from our old apartment.
No comments:
Post a Comment