Happy Easter from all the families at the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central to you and yours!
In case you are planning to order take-out for your family’s Easter gathering, please consider the following IACC member restaurants. They are all taking Easter orders and will be open on Easter Sunday for pick-up and delivery:
Amalfi
Fresco Café Italiano
Nundini
ROMA
The following is an Easter message from our deputy director Maurizio Gamberucci.
There’s a saying in Italian that describes with who you are supposed to spend the main Catholic festivities: Natale con i tuoi e Pasqua con chi vuoi. It means that — according to our tradition — Christmas is the time when the family gets together, when parents, children, grandpas, aunts, siblings all enjoy large meals, await for midnight to share gifts under the properly decorated Christmas tree. It’s winter, cold weather, staying home is pleasant. Easter instead is celebrated during springtime when the weather is nice and mild and you are eager and “allowed” to choose alternative ways to spend the few days off available. Travel is often an option, especially on the Monday after Easter, the so called Pasquetta, for the traditional gita fuori porta (short trip outside of town).
This year is different though, we do not have such a choice for the coming Pasqua or Pasquetta. No trips inside or outside of town are allowed or encouraged. For us Italian-Houstonians the only way to enjoy the mild weather is to spend time in backyard or pool area (for those who have a private one) and take a stroll around the block. Italians do not dare to go to the still even open marvelous parks we have in town. News from our hometowns strongly discourage us to be that brave.
Under these unprecedented circumstances, Easter this year it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, staying home, no travel, with your family. Is it just like Christmas in spring? At first sight maybe…, but with a difference: the extended family cannot get together around the big dining table whereas separate households are confined in their homes a few blocks away from each other or perhaps thousands of miles distant….
Happy Zoom Easter everybody!
Maurizio Gamberucci
Deputy Director
IACC South Central
