AVANTI 2442 NEWS

Dear Brothers and Sisters,: Christmas, it seems, has lost its meaning. We become obsessed with decorations and gift- buying, putting aside the true beauty of the season. DECEMBER 2019 This is the time to concentrate on family, friends and the less fortunate. What better time to reach out to relatives and forgotten friends. A phone call (not e-mail), a donation to a children's charity, a home-made gift for a shut-in, yes, loving gestures that say I am here for you. [email protected] Giving of ones self is the greatest gift of all. A blessed Christmas to you and yours and a New Year filled with good-health and happiness. Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2019

Buon Natale e Buon Capodanno a tutti! Luisa Saturday, December 7th President

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE PARLOR HOUSE GRILL SUNDAY DECEMBER 15th

Hanukkah 2019

 begins Sunday, December 22

o at sunset (in 35 days)

 ends Monday, December 30

o at nightfall

Angela U. and Madeline B. gave the Cultural Presentation talking to us all about their recent trips to Italy

Lodge CSJ Liason, Grace, received an award for her work

Thanks Rose for many photos of the luncheon

I delivered the rest of the books. The back of my car was full. I had to get help to bring them in to the library!!!

GIOVANNI BOTTESINI

(December 22, 1821 – July 7, 1889) Giovanni Bottesini was an Italian Romantic composer, conductor, and a double bass virtuoso. Born in Crema, Lombardy, he was taught the rudiments of music by his father, an accomplished clarinetist and composer, at a young age and had played timpani in Crema with the Teatro Sociale before the age of eleven. He studied violin with Carlo Cogliati,

At the Milan Conservatory, He prepared a successful audition for the double bass scholarship in a matter of weeks. At the conservatory, he studied with Luigi Rossi, to whom he would later dedicate his Tre grandi duetti per contrabasso.

On leaving Milan, he spent some time in America and also occupied the position of principal double-bass in the Italian opera at Havana, where he later became director. Here his first opera, Cristoforo Colombo, was produced in 1847.

In 1871 he conducted a season of Italian opera at the Lyceum theatre in London, during which his opera Ali Babà was produced, and he was chosen by Verdi to conduct the first performance of Aida, which took place at Cairo on 27 December 1871.

Domenico Cimarosa, (born Dec. 17, 1749, Aversa, Kingdom of Naples—died Jan. 11, 1801, Venice), one of the principal Italian composers of comic operas. He was born of a poor family, and his parents, anxious to give him a good education, moved to Naples, where they sent him to a free school. Beginning in 1761 he studied for 11 years at the conservatory of Sta. Maria di Loreto. He began his career with the * COMIC OPERA , Le Stravaganze del conte, performed at the Teatro de’ Fiorentini at Naples in 1772. Its success was followed by that of L’Italiana in Londra (Rome, 1778), a work still performed in ITALY. *Comic opera, also called Light Opera, musical plays with light subject matter and happy endings. The dialogue is usually spoken, rather than sung. In addition to Operetta and musical comedy, types of comic opera include Italian Opera Buffa (which has sung dialogue) He lived mainly in Naples, and during its occupation by the French Republican troops in 1799, Cimarosa openly showed his republican sympathies, so that on the return of the Bourbons he was imprisoned. After being released, he left Naples in broken health. His death from an intestinal disorder led to the rumor of his having been poisoned by his enemies; a formal inquest proved the charge to be unfounded. Cimarosa was a prolific composer whose music abounds in fresh and never-failing melody. His numerous operas are remarkable for their apt characterizations and abundant comic life. He wrote many choral works, including the CANTATA Il maestro di cappella, a popular satire on contemporary operatic rehearsal methods. Among his instrumental works, which, like his operas, have been successfully revived, are many sparkling harpsichord sonatas and a concerto for two flutes.

National Mutt Day encourages us to embrace, save and celebrate mixed breed dogs Desperately longing for a new home, millions of loving and healthy mixed breed dogs in shelters wait for someone to come and adopt them. National Mutt Day provides an excellent opportunity to find the perfect canine companion. Of course, shelters always welcome donations and volunteers. Dogs love walking, playing and being loved even if they haven’t found their forever home. Every moment they spend socializing increases their opportunity for adoption.

NATIONAL POINSETTIA DAY – December 12

Each year on the 12th day of December, people across the United States recognize National Poinsettia Day. The poinsettia plant’s connection to the Christmas season dates back to 16th-century Mexico. Legend tells of a girl who worried she had no gift to celebrate Jesus’s birthday because she was too poor. An angel tells her to give any gift with love. The young girl gathered weeds from alongside the road and placed them in the manger. Miraculously the weeds bloomed into beautiful red stars. The poinsettia first came to the United States by way of Joel Roberts Poinsett, an American botanist and the first United States Minister to Mexico. In 1825, he sent cuttings home to Charleston, South Carolina. It wasn’t until the early 1920s when Paul Ecke, a second-generation farmer in , discovered a grafting technique which caused the seedlings to branch, that the poinsettia started to take root in American culture. The family hawked their Christmas flower at roadside stands. Paul Ecke Jr. advanced the sales of the poinsettia through shipping and marketing. The House of Representatives in 2002 created Poinsettia Day to honor the father of the poinsettia industry, Paul Ecke. The date of December 12 marks the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett, the man responsible for bringing the plan to the United States.

Autumn Decorations in our Homes

I MADE THIS AUTUMN DECORATION FOR ROSE, AND SHE HUNG IT WITH THE CALENDAR FROM HER NIECE WHO LIVES IN ITALY. Angela

The Feast of the Seven Fishes (Italian: Festa dei sette pesci), is an Italian-American celebration of Christmas Eve with dishes of fish and other seafood. Today, the meal typically consists of seven different seafood dishes. The tradition comes from Southern Italy, where it is known simply as The Vigil (La Vigilia). This celebration commemorates the wait, the Vigilia di Natale, for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus. We didn’t celebrate with the 7 fishes in my house, my mother did not like fish. Instead my father made homemade pizza. At midnight we ate and opened gifts. Now, we celebrate Christmas Eve at my daughters home, enjoy antipasto and we get to eat our first round of Christmas Cookies. Each of us opens a small gift and my grandson likes to read the Night Before Christmas to us. Our Fire Department takes Santa for a drive around the neighborhood on a firetruck, we go outside and wave and leave food for his reindeer. Of course, cookies are left for Santa. Everyone heads to bed early, so we can get an early start on Christmas morning. Do you celebrate Christmas Eve in a special way?

Angela Donato

You can search for your relatives who entered through ELLIS ISLAND

Robert (Bob) William Montana (October 23, 1920 – January 4, 1975) was an American comic strip artist who created the original likenesses for central characters published by Comics and in the newspaper strip Archie. He was born in Stockton, California to former Ziegfeld Follies girl, Roberta Pandolfini Montana and Ray Montana a top performer banjo player on the Keith vaudeville circuit. As a result, Bob Montana traveled extensively as a child. Montana started working for MLJ Comics (which would later be known as ). He was asked to work up a high school style comic strip story, featuring . The success of the Archie and friends story in MLJ Comics' Pep Comics (Dec. 1941) led MLJ to assign Montana to draw the first issue of Archie (Nov. 1942). Montana was soon drawing the Archie comic strip, doing both the daily and Sunday strip, which over the next 35 years ran in over 750 newspapers. He died of a heart attack on January 4, 1975, while cross-country skiing in Meredith, .

CHARLES ANGELO SIRINGO (February 7, 1855 - October 18, 1928) Born on February 7, 1855, in Matagorda County, Texas to an Irish immigrant mother and an Italian immigrant father, An American lawman, detective, bounty hunter, agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Working for a number of Texas ranches over several years, he became a trail driver in 1876, accompanying a herd of 2,500 Longhorns over the Chisholm Trail from Austin to Kansas. He made a second trip in the spring of 1877, following the trail’s western branch. In 1884, he married and wrote his first book, “A Texas Cowboy”. In 1886, he was hired by the Pinkerton Agency. In the late 1890s, posing as “Charles L. Carter,” an alleged gunman on the run for murder, he infiltrated Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. After the Wild Bunch committed the 1899 Wilcox Train Robbery in Wyoming, he was assigned to capture them. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to Bolivia, where they were later allegedly killed by Bolivian soldiers during a robbery attempt. In 1907 he retired from the Pinkerton Agency. He moved to a ranch in Santa Fe , where he began to write a second book detailing his experiences as a Pinkerton detective, entitled “Further Adventures of a Cowboy Detective.” He wrote several more books, and in 1916 became a New Mexico Ranger. In 1922 he moved to California. Siringo died in Altadena, California on October 18th, 1928 Siringo’s recollections of his life as both a cowboy and a detective helped to romanticize both the myths and realities of the Old West.

ANTONELLO DA MESSINA; BIRTH PLACE; Messina, Italy, 1430-1479

The Virgin Annunciate

Oil painting in the fifteenth century, was a new medium.

In the Middle Ages, most painting was done with tempera (egg emulsion), fresco or other techniques.

Then somebody began to experiment by mixing ground mineral pigments with linseed oil, turpentine and varnishes - natural substances rarely used by medieval artists. An artist born in Messina around 1430 was one of the first Italians to embrace the new technique. Antonello "da Messina" (not all common people of that period had surnames) probably apprenticed in Naples, where he met Jan van Eyck, the Flemish master who had developed a way of painting with oil and egg tempera using a "mixed technique."

Essentially, Antonello began his intricate paintings by drawing in white egg tempera on a dark red or brown surface on wood, then glazing (tinting) this white "underpainting" with transparent layers of oil color. Each successive layer of tempera and oil rendered the image more luminous.

The results were stunning. Optically, light would travel through the layers to the underpainting and ground, bouncing back toward the viewer, creating an unusual effect.

In 1475, Antonello took his skill to Venice, where the city employed him as a resident master.

He returned to Messina in 1476 and there completed his Annunciation. Other paintings from this period are a Crucifixion (1475, Musée Royal des Beaux- Arts, Antwerp) and the San Cassiano Altarpiece (1475-1476, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).

Read the complete story by clicking on the link: http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art24.htm

It is believed that the first church bell ever used in a Christian service were Italian, and that they pealed out on a Christmas Eve about 1,600 hundred years ago. Until that time, he faithful had been called to Mass by man going around the community ringing a handbell. Bishop Paulinus of Nola, in the Province of Campania, is credited with instituting the custom of using church bells, instead. Since then, the joyous clangor of bells has become associated with Christmas everywhere. In Italy today, at midnight on Christmas Eve, all the country’s Churches ring out the glad tidings, “Christ is born!” The most characteristic Italian Christmas sound, however, is not that of bells, but of BAGPIPES. Sometime around the middle of December, the noisy market in Rome’s Piazza Navona shrills with a new sound: the bagpipers have arrived! Called Zampognari, they are Shepherds who live high in the mountains and come down each year at Christmastime to perform in the market and at other sites in Rome. They still visit other cities and towns, too, particularly in the regions o Calabria and Abruzzi. The melodies they play are adaptions of old hill tunes, such as the Shepherd Song, “Cantata dei Pastori.” Most people think of bagpipes as Scottish, but they have long been found in one form or another in many lands. In Italy, the go back to the ancient Romans. Legend says that Shepherds, who traditionally play the bagpipes, entertained Mary in Bethlehem long ago. She supposedly preferred their strange, droning music to any other. One story claims that thoughtful shepherds even eased her labor pains with their melodies. In years past, the Zampognari made a practice of stopping before every shrine to the Madonna and every Nativity scene. There they would serenade the Virgin Mother. They also paid visits to carpenters’ shops to honor Joseph’s memory. In some regions, the Zampognari and Pifferari, flutists, would go from door to door. They would ask if the householder wished them to return for the Novena, the nine days of special prayers before Christmas. When the musicians went back, they would gather to sing and play in front of the family’s manger scene. In Sicily, the shepherds were often joined by a violinist and cellist. Modern day Zampognari still dress much as their ancestors did. Once they walked all the way down from their mountain meadows; nowadays many drive or ride motor scooters. Their arrival is a cheerful announcement that Christmas is near.

YOU CAN BUY BAGPIPERS FOR YOUR CRECHE

GESU BAMBINO L’E NATO

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining Gesù Bambino l'è nato The Christ Child was born It is the night of our dear Savior's birth in tanta povertà in such poverty Long lay the world in sin and error pining l'è senza pesse né fasse he has no clothes or bands e né fuoco da riscaldar and no fire to warm him 'Til He appears and the Soul felt its worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices Maria lo ammira Mary admires him For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn Setà chila sospira Satan there is sighing Fall on your knees; O hear the angel voices! perché l'è nato al mondo because he was born in the chi tutti vuol salvar world O night divine, O night when Christ was born who wants to save everyone O night, O holy night, O night divine! Ognun faccia l'ebbrezza Everyone may rejoice che è nato il Redentor that the Redeemer was born Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming il fior d'ogni bellezza the flower of all beauty a l'è tutto pien d'amor he is all filled with love With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming Stanotte l'è nato Tonight was born Here come the Wise Men from Orient land il Verbo incarnato the Incarnate Word perché l'è nato al mondo because he was born in the The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger chi tutti vuol salvar world In all our trials born to be our friend who wants to save everyone He knows our need, to our weakness is no Giuseppe vecchiarello Old Joseph stranger lo stava a rimirar was there to behold him Behold your King; before Him lowly bend il bue e l'asinello the ox and the donkey lo stavano a riscaldar were there to warm him Behold your King; before Him lowly bend Truly He taught us to love one another; Venite pastori Come in O shepherds a fare grandi onori to do great honors His law is love and His gospel is peace perché l'è nato al mondo because he was born in the Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother chi tutti vuol salvar world who wants to save everyone And in His name all oppression shall cease Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we Tre Magi dall'Oriente Three Magi from the East Let all within us praise His holy name lo vengono a ritrovar come to visit him con oro incenso e mirra with gold incense and myrrh Christ is the Lord; O praise His name forever! gli vengono a donar they come to give gifts His power and glory evermore proclaim His power and glory evermore proclaim

https://www.italyheritage.com/italian-songs/christmas/gesu-bambino-l-e-nato.htm

For Unto Us a Child is Born

SEND ME PHOTOS OF YOUR NATIVITY CRECHE. AFTER FINDING THE STORY OF THE BAGPIPERS IN ITALY, I HAD TO BUY SOME FIGURES TO GO IN MY STABLE.