Title: Italian Wedding Lunch
General Information about Item:
- Material Folklore: Food
- English
- Italian
Informant Data:
- Damiano Benvegnu was born in 1977 in a tiny town called Albergo, which is located in the Dolomites region in the northeastern Italian Alps. He spent most of his childhood living in Turkey and Algeria, but he returned to live in Italy at the age of 10. He is currently an Italian professor at Dartmouth College. He has attended 5-10 Italian weddings.
Contextual Data:
- Social/Cultural Context: In Italy, much of regional identity is tied to cuisine and the order in which dishes are served. During Italian wedding celebrations, this is evident in the long lunch following the wedding ceremony. During these lunches, as many as 25 traditional dishes will be brought to the guests, and the lunch will often continue for many hours (sometimes even going into the night).
Item:
- The informant noted that at every Italian wedding he’s been to, it has been followed by a very long lunch. In this piece of collected folklore, the informant describes some of the many dishes that are serves, and comments on the order in which these dishes are served. He noted that the dishes are usually consistent from one wedding to another and that the order is invariable.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Associated File:
- “So usually, in my part, there is something called polenta, there is risotto usually involved. Now is a kind of tradition to have, between… meat and fish, there is something that is called sgroppino, which is a mix between prosecco, which is sparkling white wine, uh and uh tonic water and uh lemons to cleanse your mouth before you eat fish. And then at the end there is a distribution of confetti, which is an almond inside covered with the sugar. And then there is the cake at the end.”
Informant’s Comments:
- The informant noted that Italian weddings are generally followed by “huge, long, exhausting” lunches that may last all day, and even go into the night. The informant noted that at the last wedding he attended, there were about 25 dishes served. These meals are usually brought to the guests one by one by waiters and waitresses. As a way to break up the meals, there is usually dancing in between some of the courses. The informant considers the dishes served unique to the region of Italy in which the wedding occurs, and noted that the particular dishes differ between Northern, Southern, and Central Italy.
Collector’s Comments:
- In Italy, it seems that regional identity is very closely tied to cuisine as well as the order in which dishes are served during the wedding celebration. In the above folklore item, the informant considers the dishes of polenta and risotto to be particular to his area of Italy. Additionally, the informant considers the tradition of drinking sgroppino in between eating meat and fish, to be unique to wedding lunches in his region. Therefore, the traditional cuisine may be a way of reconnecting with one’s home. This is an example of material folklore – a customary meal prepared at Italian weddings.
Collector’s Name: Isabella Florissi, Peter Loomis and Katie Toal
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