Friday 17th - Venerdì il 17 - Per un po 'sfortunata - Unlucky for some

I mentioned in my post yesterday, about repeating posts. As I have written about this subject before, this post is almost as it appeared on News From Italy back in February as we had a Friday the 17th then as well!

Today in Italy is the equivalent of Friday the 13th in other parts of the world, unlucky if you are superstitious. Here in Italy the number 17 has the same unlucky significance that other places such as the UK and USA give to the number 13. To keep bad luck away some people carry a little golden horn as a charm or use the phrase “tocca ferro” “touching metal,” (preferably iron) the equivalent of our “touching wood”.

In fact the number 13 is considered lucky in Italy apart from one time when it is considered unlucky, which is to have thirteen persons at the meal table, but I remember this superstition from the UK also. This superstition goes back to the Last Supper of Jesus and the Apostles.

The number 17 is associated with bad luck in Italy because the Roman Numerals XVII are an anagram of the Latin word VIXI – ‘I Was Alive’ note the past tense! It can be used in the sense of saying “My life is over”

A Friday the 17th occurring in November, turns the whole month into the month of the deceased and is considered particularly unlucky. As November 2nd is memorial day for the dead in Italy.

I am not very observant in that I have never noticed if the Italians miss out the number 17 when numbering houses and flats, but I do know that Alitalia does not have a seat number 17 on its aircraft.

I will take special care today then and Tocca Ferro.

Have a good weekend everyone and if you are in Italy take special care today.

Hazelnuts - Nocciole

Photo taken in Our Garden in Italy on August 14th 2012

                                     The first of our Hazelnuts - Nocciole are starting to drop. 

I do not often duplicate posts here and on my photography blog, lindyloumacsworldinphotos but today I have decided to do so. Firstly because I was rather pleased with this photo and secondly as I am looking for more followers to encourage me to keep the photography blog going. I would really like to do so as it gives me the opportunity to share a lot more of the world around me than I am able to do so here on News From Italy. Also as the summer season draws to a close, once I have caught up with sharing our recent activities I do not intend to be posting so often here. At least that is the plan unless I feel something is worthwhile sharing and I have not mentioned it in previous years. Maybe just a link and a photo to the previous post on News From Italy and My Facebook Page will suffice, if it is repeat news, as I really do not feel it is a benefit to me or my followers to keep repeating the same events again and again. I hope to spend more time on my photography which is why I am urging my lovely followers here to please come and share the experience with me. Your support as always will be very much appreciated.

I hope to see you there. lindyloumacsworldinphotos

Buon Ferragosto - Musical Moment - Momento Musicale

The Bank Holiday on August 15th is typically Italian although it is celebrated in a number of other European countries, but not in the UK.  Many Italians take long holidays around this date, celebrating the actual day with lavish long lunches and given the heat at this time of the year often seaside, lakeside or in the refreshing mountain air.

The Catholic Church celebrate this day as one of Holy Obligation which commemorates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the actual elevation of her soul into Heaven.

The word Ferragosto derives from the Latin phrase feriae Augusti (Augustus' rest), a feast that was started by the emperor Octavian Augustus in 18 BC  to celebrate the harvest and the end of the main farm work. During the festivities, throughout the empire were organized races with horses donkeys and mules, were free from work and decked with flowers. These ancient traditions are still alive  in some parts of Italy today, virtually unchanged in form and participation such as the Palio di Siena held in Siena on August 16 every year.

All over Italy tonight there will be musical entertainment, plus in some places Fireworks to celebrate Ferragosto, so what sort of music will they be listening to. A lot of it will be English language pop music, but here is a varied selection of the tribute to Ferragosto videos that I found on YouTube. 

Some Reggae to start with.

Courtesy of sabrina3309    Laid Back - Sunshine Reggae

This next video sums up summer beautifully.

 Courtesy of marinellaforever

A blast from the past, this artist is still very popular here in Italy. 

Courtesy of STAGE58

My final choice is another oldie that sums up summer nights in the city for me 'Luna di Citta d' Agosto'  'The Moon in the City in August sung by Lorenzo Jovanotti.

Courtesy of surbino

Please note that some of you may be restricted from watching these videos via the blog and you may have to visit YouTube to do so successfully.

I hope you are all having a good week and to those of you that are celebrating here in Italy Buon Ferragosto, more information about the significance of this holiday can be found by visiting, Ferragosto – Wikipedia.

Please note that much of this post appeared in Buon Ferragosto 2010 but I am sure those of you that have been reading News From Italy for that long will not mind me sharing the information and music with you again.    

We will be celebrating today with Our Wonderful Neighbours, some of you will already know how kind they are to us, treating us like members of their extended family.

Buon Ferragosto

Notte Bianca 2012 a Marta

As I mentioned in yesterdays post about La Notte di San Lorenzo  last night we attended the 3rd edition of the Marta Notte Bianca, we also went to the previous ones and I wrote about them in earlier posts.  If you follow the links back you can read a little more about these events.

Prima Notte Bianca a Marta        Notte Bianca Marta 2011

There is not actually anything new I can say about Notte Bianca Nights, that I or others have not written about before, but I can share here with you a selection of photos taken by myself and a video taken by martanolago  last night of the many things for sale and people generally enjoying themselves.

Let the photos and video speak for themselves.

                                          Notte Bianca 2012 a Marta

                                          Published on 11Aug 2012 by martanolago

I took forty four photos last night and have not shared all of them here with you, if you are interested in viewing the full album you will find them in My Flickr album entitled Notte Bianca 2012 a Marta 

What A Great Notte Bianca a Marta

Copy of official  event poster.

The photographs are all my own   All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection