It’s Capetièmpe in Abruzzo – that special time of year from all hallows eve for about twelve days when the kitchen table is laden with delicious food from harvest time and places set for both the living and the dead. When there are candles and bonfires of endings and renewal, picnics in cemeteries and masked children go to each house collecting treats from the laden tables to share with their poorer families.
Whether it’s called Capetièmpe, Samhaim, Halloween, Totenfest, Day of the Dead or other names in different countries or parts of Italy, it’s about remembering those from the past especially loved ones, honouring nature’s cycles and keeping in mind that time isn’t necessarily linear. It can also be a circle, an endless cycle of events, the sun and moon constantly rising and setting.
Dawn, day and night. Rain onto land, into rivers and the sea, then up into clouds again. In church frescoes, old photographs, recipes cooked over and again. The cypresses in so many cemeteries, planted because they represent eternity, endurance, resilience – reaching from the earth to sun and sky. Nature’s calendar always a part of life, whether in rural or urban places, modern or ancient times. Remembering and honouring who we’ve known, what we have and what may come. 🖤🌿
Spring circles in the kitchen and garden – eggs in purgatory, ‘lucky’ lentils, broad bean risotto fritters, a dandelion flower, melanzane fritte, orange patty cakes, fava spaghetti with spring greens…
At home when I was growing up, we sometimes ate eggs baked in leftover pasta sauce which we called, ‘eggs in tomato’, not quite as evocative as ‘eggs in purgatory’ that I later discovered this dish is also called.
Zoë Boccabella 