Community Altar & Gathering
All Saints Day & Day of the Dead
Did you know Sicilians celebrate Day of the Dead? It’s referred to as Giorno dei Morti or Festa dei Morti in Italian, and Jornu ri Morti in Sicilian.
Traditionally, and especially in the days of our nonni and bisnonni, families would gather in cemeteries for picnics alongside the graves of their loved ones, sharing stories, playing card games and music, and decorating entire cemeteries with flowers, such as chrysanthemums, bringing life, color and celebration to accompany the spirits of those departed.
Ognissanti (All Saints Day) and Giorno dei Morti (Day of the Dead) serve as a means of deep remembrance for our ancestors and all of the forgotten Saints who have created an unbroken chain of life and faith that has led us to this present moment.
In the States, a lot of these traditions, rituals and venerations have been lost, and there is a grief that comes along with that loss.
Gather with us for our own diasporic twist on this beautiful, meaningful, bittersweet time.
-Bring personal photos, saint cards, mementos, herbs, flowers, etc. for our community altar (yes, you'll bring everything back home with you)
-Bring a snacky-food to share that honors your deceased loved one (think nonno's favorite taralli or nonna's morning S cookies)
-Bring your bambini - there will be special treats just for them AND tambourine decorating
-There will be music, connection, chatting, laughter, tears, and more
We will start the event with a workshop on connecting with the Saints and ancestors from a non-denominational folks lens led by Jenna Faccenda of Widow Apothecary. Maybe you have never worked with Saints before, or watched your Nonna put notes under Saint Anthony, or even if you have a full altar that you work with daily, this will be a gentle but powerful introduction to inviting these energies into your life.
Then we will move into making a collective Amaro (traditional Italian liqueur). You'll learn the stories behind the plants used, as well as how this act was a way of tending grief. Each participant will be able to take some of the Amaro home.
Then we will open up the space to add to the altar and talk about our lost loved ones, their journeys across the ocean, and anything else that needs to be held in community.
And then we venerate by living! Music and dance and eating and chiacchiere!
Let's hold each other in death and in life, in grief and in celebration, and let us remember how our ancestors remembered.
You can find the RSVP link below:
PIAZZA PARTY is a semi-regular free community event with LIVE(ish) music, with the intention of reclaiming third places for the Italian-American community with musica popolare and dance, and solidifying the Italian diaspora in a social setting like how piazzas are used in Italy. We hope you can come and dance and yap; let’s all get to know each other.
Brought to you in collaboration between Hidden Village, Widow Apothecary, and Equilibrio of Brooklyn, New York. In conjunction with the Italian Educational & Cultural Center, and our friends at PIACE and IAF.