| Hello everyone, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com. |
| My name is Desy. |
| Mi chiamo Desy. |
| And in this video, we're going to talk about what happens during March in Italy. |
| Marzo in Italia |
| March, the third month of the year, is usually the month of Lent. |
| So quaresima, which comes from quaranta, so forty days, quaranta giorni, |
| i quaranta giorni di quaresima, which is the fasting that Catholic people are supposed to do |
| or anyway everyone who follows those rules. |
| So they abstain from fancy food like rich in fats and especially everything that comes from animals. |
| So as you know, Easter is not a fixed holiday, it doesn't have fixed dates, |
| and that's why it depends what's celebrated in March. |
| For example, it could be a late carnival or an early Easter. |
| But March is usually in between, so there's carnival in February and then Easter in April, |
| so that's why there is quaresima in March. |
| But we do have some fixed dates for some celebrations. |
| For example, the 8th of March is Women's Day, or even better, International Day for Women. |
| Of course, it's not a holiday, but we still do celebrate. |
| The symbol of this day is a mimosa, mimosa, mimosa. |
| So not only the cocktail, of course, but the flower. |
| Actually, there is also a cake, a mimosa cake that is really used during this day. |
| But it's also said that this flower was chosen because there was a tree, |
| a bush of mimosa outside a factory where a lot of women died actually in a fire |
| in New York in 1908. |
| So that's why it became the symbol. |
| It may be for that or just because it's just like season of mimosa and it's also cheap. |
| So everyone can afford it and gift it to women. |
| In fact, that's what happens. |
| Usually you can see around the street at every corner actually people selling those flowers |
| so that everyone can buy those. |
| For example, your colleague or like your schoolmate, your father, your husband, everyone. |
| And it's also common for women to gift it to women as well. |
| So it's not only men who buy it. |
| And what women do on that day, it really depends, but there are many celebrations. |
| So there may be speeches or book groups that discuss a novel or maybe an essay written by a woman. |
| But there's also crazy celebrations like, for example, aperitivo, which is not that crazy, |
| but just having like entrance and a light dinner with your friends, with your female friends. |
| So aperitivo tra donne, aperitivo tra donne. |
| Or la cena per la festa della donna, cena per la festa della donna. |
| So you could say il giorno della donna, woman day, and it's not delle donne. |
| It's more like la festa della donna singular in Italian or yeah, the celebration of the woman. |
| For these days, in fact, you can see a lot of discounts or sales. |
| If you're a woman, you can get some percentage off. |
| In some discos or pubs, there are also stripteases organized and that's the same word, |
| striptease comes from English, but we do have a word for that. |
| It's spogliarello, because spogliare means to take off clothes. |
| 17th of March is la giornata dell'unità nazionale, giornata day dell'unità nazionale |
| of national unity. So it's the day when in 1861 the reign of Italy was proclaimed. |
| Now the thing is that we're a public, not a reign anymore, so there's no king, |
| so it's not properly a holiday, it's just like a celebration of Italy becoming united, |
| but it's not like the celebration of the country, because that's on the 2nd June for the day of |
| republic, but still you can see frecce tricolori going around and those are the airplanes that have |
| colored smoke. In fact, they remake, they represent the colors of the flag, |
| because on this day we not only celebrate unity, but also la costituzione, constitution, |
| l'inno, the hymn, and la bandiera, the flag, costituzione, inno, and bandiera of Italy, |
| because they date back to this day, which by the way is also St. Patrick's Day, |
| people do celebrate that in Irish pubs and so on, but it's not inside our bones, |
| it's not for everyone, not a lot of people know about that actually. |
| And then on the 19th, so 10 days after Women's Day, there's Father's Day. This one too is an |
| international day, even though depending on the country they have different dates to celebrate, |
| but in Italy the 19th of March was chosen, because this is the day of Saint Joseph, |
| so San Giuseppe, who is Jesus' father. Of course you can find like cards and notes to buy |
| and also kids make them in school for the father and say like auguri, so congratulations, |
| or thank you, grazie, so to show appreciation, but there is also a typical sweet of this day, |
| it's called zeppola with the Z, and actually it varies a bit like depending on the region, |
| but the origin comes from the same thing, and it is the fact that Giuseppe, |
| Joseph, had to sell frittelle, we'll see what it is, when they had to escape to Egypt, so with |
| Maria, Holy Mary and Jesus, when they escaped to Egypt, he had to sell those on the street |
| in order to provide for his family. Frittella is fried dough basically, could even be rice, |
| or some people put fruits on it, like apples for example, but anyway, the fried sweet was what |
| Giuseppe sold to provide for his family, and so that's what is sold and eaten on this day as well |
| to celebrate him. Zeppola is basically like a cream puff, let's say, but bigger and not always |
| with cream in it, but on it, and the cream is typically custard, so crema pasticcera, |
| crema pasticcera, but there are also some variations like with jam or with chocolate. |
| Nowadays there's also the baked version, so not only fried, so it could either be fritto, fried, |
| or cotto al forno, baked in the oven. There are no other specific celebrations during this |
| month, for the reason I told you before is quaresima, but temperatures are getting warmer, |
| like 14, around 14, the maximum, and 6 degrees minimum, so this is a good period for school trips |
| because it's still bassa stagione, so low season. Marzo is the month of primavera, |
| primavera, spring, and it's known as marzo pazzerello, so little crazy march, |
| a bit crazy march, pazzerello comes from pazzo, and that's because sometimes it may be good weather, |
| sometimes it may rain, and it can change it also on the very same day because it could be like super |
| windy, for example. In fact, there is a way of saying that goes like marzo pazzerello guarda |
| il sole e prendi l'ombrello, marzo pazzerello, crazy march, guarda il sole, look at the sun, |
| and prendi l'ombrello, and take the umbrella, because yeah, you never know with march, |
| with crazy march, pazzerello. So yeah, that's what happens during march, let me know in the comments |
| if we have the same celebrations or not, and if you want to be able to have real Italian conversations |
| with native speakers, click the link in the description, download our PDF lessons, |
| and learn all the essential Italian that you need in your everyday life. |
| Thank you for watching, I'll see you soon, bye bye, ciao ciao. |
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