A Sardinian Christmas

I’ve been living in Madrid for four months now, and I decided not to go home to Kansas City for Christmas. It was too expensive and I figured the money I would’ve spent could be saved and used for other things (read: other trips).

But that didn’t mean I particularly wanted to spend Christmas totally alone. Most of my friends in Spain were traveling – home or elsewhere – for the holidays. So I went to spend Christmas with my family on this side of the world – with our exchange student from last year, Gaia, and her family in Sardinia, Italy.

Last year on Christmas Eve, I interviewed Gaia about her Christmas traditions at home, and this year I got to experience them for myself!

I arrived in Sardinia on Thursday night, December 20. Gaia and her parents, Antonello and Federica, were waiting at the airport in Cagliari to pick me up. When we got home, of course we ate some delicious pasta for dinner.

The next day, Gaia had school in the morning and the rest of the family was at work. That night, Federica said she was going into town, Sanluri, to see the presepe vivente – or Live Nativity. I knew that the small town where I work in Spain had something similar, but I hadn’t seen it, and I’d never even heard of it before. So I decided I’d go along to check it out.

Though there were lots of people dressed up as characters from the Christmas story, it was less like a play or a performance than I was expecting. Mostly, one man talked as the crowd walked together to different sites throughout the town, where we’d stop and the man would talk some more. Before moving on, either a choir or the band would play. I couldn’t really hear very well, because there were a lot of people, but the man was speaking in Sardo, or Sardinian language, rather than Italian. This was slightly fortunate for me, because it seems that Sardo is actually closer to Spanish than Italian is, so I was able to understand some of what I was able to hear.

It wasn’t what I expected, but in school I’d learned about different types of festivals and processions that other cultures do, so it was interesting to see and be a part of one for the first time.

The next night, we went to Cagliari for dinner. There were a lot of Christmas markets there, and I liked them much more than the ones in Madrid – because they were selling interesting, hand-crafted and local products, and they weren’t nearly as crowded. I also had one of the most delicious pizzas of my life at Framento.

Christmas Eve was when the celebrations really started. Just like Gaia told me in her interview last year, there was a huge dinner. We started drinking wine, listening to Christmas music, and setting the table around 6 p.m. even though we wouldn’t eat for a few more hours. Gaia’s parents were preparing the giant gamberi – shrimps – and there was one part of the preparations that was a whole family affair.

Also on the menu for that evening was EELS. And the eels were still alive, and they needed to be skewered before they could be cooked. So I watched in amazement as Federica held the giant skewer, Antonello maneuvered the live eels onto the stake, and Gaia pounded their skin with a wooden block to drive the blunt skewer through their wriggling bodies.

Later that night, Gaia’s aunt Pina, uncle Elio, and cousin Emma came over, and we ate pasta, vegetables, fruit, seafood – including the eels and shrimps but also cuttlefish – wine, desserts, liquor, and of course, panettone and pandoro.

On Christmas morning, we woke up and opened our presents. Soon after, we got dressed and went over to Pina’s house for Christmas lunch. Gaia’s grandma was there too. The meal was in a similar style to the night before, but instead of seafood, we had a roast baby pig as the meal’s meat. Afterwards, we opened more presents, and then Gaia, Federica, and Pina invited me to join them in doing a traditional Sardinian dance.

And the next day – even though Christmas was officially over in the U.S. – we did the whole thing again, back at Gaia’s house. Instead of roast baby pig, we had lamb. I cannot stress enough how delicious all these meals were. I really wish I’d weighed myself when I left Spain and then again after I left Sardinia. Then we were treated to a live concert, Gaia and Pina singing, Elio playing the guitar, and later Gaia playing the piano while the rest of us sang.

In the evening, a group of friends came over for tea, cookies, and dessert. There were now 12 people around the table, everyone talking and enjoying themselves and eating. It felt very cozy. “When you go back to Spain,” Antonello told me, “You can tell everyone how much Italians love sitting at the table for hours.”

My time in Italy came to an end on Thursday, and I caught my flight back to Madrid, my backpack heavy with Sardinian food souvenirs. I feel so thankful that I was able to spend Christmas away from home in a different kind of home, but a place where I felt welcomed and loved nonetheless. It was one of those times where you realize how extraordinary life can really be. Thank you to everyone in Gaia’s family ❤

 

-Cathy

Originally Published on December 28, 2018.