Natale in casa "Maiello"

Christmas Eve, and once again we are celebrating the centenary tradition of the Neapolitan Cenone della Vigilia.
For this type of traditions time and place cease to have any specific meaning. It is 2018 and we are in Eindhoven but for the Maiello family it could be 1988 and we could as well be in Napoli. The spirit, the feeling and above all the food would not be any different.

So allow me for today and because it is Christmas to make an apology of the "only partly integrated". Those who after fifteen years in a country still refuse to celebrate Christmas only on the 25th of December insisting on having a big family dinner on the 24th in the evening. Those who still cook for several days to have a truly traditional meal on the table and refuse to gourmet. Those who, during these holiday days, don't want to let go of the past even if the future is on to them.
Please understand and tolerate them, if one would take these things away from them, one could as well kill them. 

In this everlasting family portrait every role is fixed, in spite of the passing of the time and of the inevitable new entries. Mine, as you can imagine, has always been the role of the satiric chronicler. The critical observer of all the family's whimsical habits, ways and passions. And when I say family I of course mean grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings.

In the Christmas tableau of today, we find

• the grandfather, master of the kitchen and of the Presepe, ultimate keeper of the true Neapolitan traditions, despotic and capricious as every good patriarch. 
• the grandmother all sweetness, absentmindedness and starry eyes for the grandchildren
• the in-laws who by marriage inherited hundreds of years of strict conventions without any royal advantage (had they known they might have thought about it twice....) 
• the children, who will always be children even though their hair is grey and they have already paid off their first mortgage
• the grandchildren, idyllic magical creatures venerated by the grandparents who inject joy wherever they go and whatever they break
• the aunts, only virtually present through skype and whatsapp, but nevertheless always duly informed about all the inner circle news
• the cousins, even though far away as close and loved as brothers and sisters because they share the same memories and carry on the same heritage 

And it could not be any other way, any time! Ghost of Christmas past and ghost of Christmas future will concur with me.

For those of you that are not deep in Neapolitan world class literature "Natale in casa Cupiello" is a play from the much celebrated Neapolitan playwright Eduardo de Filippo.

Merry Christmas to you all!