Italians love to celebrate during the winter months. Like many Americans, they celebrate Christmas, which is called Natale in Italian. Christmas is celebrated similarly to America, with family coming together to exchange gifts and share meals. My family visited me for the week of Christmas in Italy! And we got to celebrate together, cooking a Christmas dinner in my apartment, and exploring the city together. Italians also celebrate New Year's Eve on December 31st, in ways similar to America, like with fireworks and parties, but also in very different ways in the city that I live in.
In Bologna, they have a very unique tradition to celebrate the end of the year. In the largest piazza, or square, in the city, they construct a large wooden statue. When the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, the statue is set on fire. This tradition is called the Rogo del Vecchione, or the "Burning of the Old Man". This year the statue was a huge bat-like creature holding an egg named the "Oviparous Gremlin", which was designed by the artist Marco Barbieri.
