Chapter 12: Christmas Tales and Festive Customs with Lucas Ciscato

As the holiday season sparkles to life and the clock inches closer to a new year, this episode is a warm toast to traditions, laughter, and the magic of festive customs. I’m joined by Lucas Ciscato, who brings stories of Italian Christmas dinners, the whimsical La Befana, and the symbolic ritual of burning away the old to welcome the new.

We wander through snowy German Christmas markets, savor Dutch “oliebollen,” and marvel at Russian New Year’s traditions involving champagne glasses and ashes of wishes—a quirky nod to hope and good fortune. Along the way, we laugh about group Halloween costumes and ponder how traditions shape not only our holidays but also our identities.

Through these tales, I reflect on the joy of connecting with loved ones, the meaning of home during the holidays, and the fun of quirky customs—like sitting in red underwear for good luck or scribbling your dreams on paper before midnight.

As 2025 approaches, let this episode be your cozy companion, filled with good vibes, gratitude, and a sprinkle of holiday cheer. Thank you for an incredible semester and for being part of "The Identity Library"! Here’s to your New Year’s resolutions, a festive break, and all the champagne glasses brimming with possibilities. May we see each other next semester again.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Veronika Becher

What is Identity Library?

Welcome to the Identity Library, a captivating podcast hosted by Veronika Becher, a German student exploring life in the United States. Join me as we unravel the different layers of identity and embark on a quest for authenticity. Each episode delves into how our backgrounds, cultures, and personal journeys sculpt our sense of self.

Every month, we journey into a new cultural landscape with our guests, sharing stories and experiences from the tapestry of life. Whether you're forging a path in a foreign land or simply curious about the forces that define us, The Identity Library invites you to write your own narrative or uncover fresh perspectives.

So, settle in with a cup of tea and immerse yourself in tales from around the globe with some sense of humor. If you don't find your story here, keep exploring—there are countless books with chapters waiting to be discovered. Identity Library is a podcast by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2.

Veronika Becher 0:00
Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of identity library. My name is Veronica Becker, and today I'm here with who am I? Who are you here with

Lucas Ciscato 0:10
Lucas, yes, and I'm glad to be back again.

Veronika Becher 0:18
Yeah. Fitting to our theme of Halloween, we decided to record a special bonus episode that kind of covers random celebrations around that time of the year. And of course, since it's Halloween, we're also sitting in the dark and recording without any light. It only took us an hour to jump start this whole thing, but it's okay, you know, staying positive and such. Um, how did you forget to unmute this guy talking realizing that Lucas is not part of the conversation anymore. The monolog for this episode, he just left the chat quite literally, or rather, the conversation. But yeah, um, do you want to say something before we start? Well,

Lucas Ciscato 1:03
basically what we're going to be doing, because apparently it's my job now to introduce the topic. We're going to talk about, like, yeah, the different things that how we see celebrations differently in different

Veronika Becher 1:16
countries, exactly, exactly. So maybe starting with Halloween, since it's literally almost the 31st and I feel like everyone is just preparing, um, almost thinking ahead, a whole year ahead, to design it, a costume that fits your friend group design. And I'm like, just sitting there and thinking, This is the craziest thing ever. I think I've never experienced someone trying to prepare themselves so much for a celebration like Halloween. It's such

Lucas Ciscato 1:49
a big thing here. It's, yeah, very interesting, especially like amongst different

groups of people, like they take it very seriously in different ways, because it kind of gives them a way to express themselves differently with a mask or something like that. People are so creative here. I don't even know what to say. It's they started with, let's just have a couple costume and then, no, we have, we are gonna have a group costume. And I'm like, I have a dress

and fake blood. I plot,

but yes, maybe entering the spooky season.

Veronika Becher 2:28
Lucas, how do you think? Like, how did you celebrate Halloween? In all the countries you've lived in,

Lucas Ciscato 2:33
we actually never really celebrated Halloween. Halloween is not as much of a like traditional holiday in the Netherlands or Italy, and that's where my parents are from, so that's kind of where our traditions came from. And, yeah, it's more right now gaining more popularity. And also, when I lived in the Netherlands, that, like, some people would do some kind of costuming because they were adopting it from American culture. I

Veronika Becher 3:03
feel like in Germany, people don't celebrate Halloween as much because they first of all, we have Fauci or Canva. What is like in February, people dress up there all the time, and that's more thing. And then I feel like, if you don't have the celebration, you end up, you know, dressing up for Halloween, and it's quite a big deal. But then maybe also, the only thing we did for Halloween is we used to have this big celebration in our high school for since middle school and high school together in Germany, it's in one school, not even separated. We don't even separate it to begin with, um, we would organize, as a student student group, the celebration for fifth graders and sixth graders, where it's like a Halloween party, where they watch a movie in the best costume wins. And I would always dress up for the specific event, and people would just stare it like they will be really confused on the street when I would walk around in a Halloween costume. Um, what about you? Have you ever considered wearing costume for Halloween? Oh, what is your costume for this year? Maybe, oh,

Lucas Ciscato 4:14
my costume for this year is a little out there. Um, I, I am going to be Harry Styles for for Halloween this year. Even got a haircut for this.

Veronika Becher 4:24
Oh my gosh, this guy, the haircut looks really good, though.

Lucas Ciscato 4:29
Take it. Take the content. I went to Rwanda this, which side completely, complete side story. But I went to Rwanda this summer, and they have, like these people who create things out of any kind of fabric. So they have huge markets full of different fabrics with different designs on them. And I found a really cool and like vibrant, eccentric, I don't know exactly what the best word is to. Describe it, but very colorful fabric that I created overalls out of, and I wore it one day in London, because I went to London after I went to Rwanda, and everyone something, and everyone was telling me that I looked like Harry Styles was like, Okay, I don't have to buy a costume now. I'm

Veronika Becher 5:20
just Harry Styles. This is how you embody a new person. Well, I never had this issue, or rather not issue situation, where people thought I'm someone else, besides, oh no, there was one instant I feel like people always see me on the street. For some reason, they think it's me, because of my Slavic features. And a friend of mine, he was traveling through um, through Europe, Max um, and this guy was like, I see you everywhere I go. Because I didn't realize how much Slavic people look alike and you're like, more Islamic person than a German girl. So he saw me like, apparently, everywhere he went, but it's probably he just missed me, I'm just saying. But maybe, like, the thing that sparked this conversation was probably Nicolas talk that we talked about has this one celebration that we have in December. And do you want to share a little bit? Would you do like accordingly to Dutch traditions, even though you're not really prepared.

Lucas Ciscato 6:25
So basically, in the Netherlands, we call it center class. I don't know how to

Veronika Becher 6:33
switch languages many way through the podcast.

Lucas Ciscato 6:36
It's because you said it in German. So I was trying to put day in the Word. I was like, center class, center class. Doc, like, how do, like, how do I incorporate day in there? But they don't, there's no day, there's no day,

Veronika Becher 6:50
no day. This is a week a year. We are celebrating a whole year. This is how we get, uh, vacation days, right? In comparison to the United States.

Lucas Ciscato 7:02
Sorry, the reason why it's not a specific day is because we actually do celebrate it over a few weeks. You do well, kind of, I made a joke out of it, kind of, so basically, it's based on this, like, the history of it. Maybe you know it better than I do, but St Nicholas was,

Veronika Becher 7:28
can we take notes? Please? Please, dearly. Oh, my gosh, dear listeners, readers, is crazy. Please take notes, saying Nicholas was a saint period, Lucas, Lucas 2024 quoted,

Lucas Ciscato 7:45
and he was a very giving person, especially to those who were in need. And that's celebrated if you have more comments deeper on what St Nicholas did and why he was a special person who will

Veronika Becher 8:01
get there eventually. It's okay. You will get a full legend about saying this, Nicholas, but go ahead. Go ahead. You're still, you know, it's your spotlight

Lucas Ciscato 8:12
center class, right? It's basically, actually, it's actually where the tradition of St, Nicholas. St Nicholas, my God, Santa Claus. Santa Claus came from so the American tradition of Santa Claus actually derived from sinter class. And basically, in the Netherlands, we believe that sinter class doesn't live in the North Pole, because that would be completely unreasonable. Instead since your class lives in spade

Veronika Becher 8:46
crazy, I never I did know that, okay, my dear readers, listeners, oh my gosh. I feel like all the episodes are the craziest and weirdest thing is ever so my dear friends, if you ever believed in Purple Cows, you know now that we also have saying, oh my gosh, Santa Claus living in Spain. So if you live in Spain, you better watch out if there's a random old man entering your house and

Lucas Ciscato 9:19
staring at you. I've read whether you're sleeping,

Veronika Becher 9:26
so you get your Halloween vibes back. So this is why we don't celebrate Halloween, because Halloween is just the whole year through when Santa Claus is just on the beach at the beach.

Lucas Ciscato 9:40
This is the weirdest thing. So anyway, moving on from that, when basically, the tradition is that Veronica is laughing so much, the tradition is that sinter class will. I come from Spain to the Netherlands on his steam boat.

Veronika Becher 10:07
You're serious? Yes.

Lucas Ciscato 10:09
So there is a specific like arrival day in November, I don't remember rival day, yes. And in one of the major cities in the Netherlands, there will be a huge boat that arrives with center class and his helpers that we call beaten. And there's some historical controversy with beaten because they there's, like, some, I don't know you can look into that. I'm not gonna get too far into that, but there's, they're trying to make it more inclusive now and better. What is he wearing since a class? Uh huh, I don't know the best way to describe it, but like, I don't know the official words, it's, it's, it's rooted in history with, with the same sort of bishops, so I don't know exactly what the what it's called, but, like, he's basically dressed in red with some white undertone, kind of like Santa Claus, I guess on a steamboat. Can we from Spain? Yes, on with horses. He has a horse instead of having, like the reindeer and a sled, or whatever Santa Claus has, since a class has a horse, a magical horse, that can fly, okay, and, well, I think, yes.

Veronika Becher 11:28
Well, why do you need to Steamboat, if you have a horse that can

Lucas Ciscato 11:32
fly? Don't question it. No question it also, um, is he a fisher? Is he a fisher? I I don't know if he's a fisher, but anyway, they come in. There's this huge arrival. They stop distracting me. They arrive in the Netherlands, in in a city it depends. They change it every year so that everyone can experience the true arrival. There's also like smaller cities will do fake arrivals, with fakes into classes and everything, just to give all the kids the experience. But the real arrival happens in one city that they change every year. I think, um, and kids believe in that, yes. And I, since I didn't grow up in the Netherlands, I believed in it for so much longer than other kids. So the one year that I did go to the Netherlands, I was at like, third grade, and that's like, the kids already don't believe it, of course. And I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna get to see since a class in real life this like in in the Netherlands for once, and all these kids around me were like, what do you actually still believe in this? You traumatized after that? Yeah, that's the year i i lost

Veronika Becher 12:57
hope. My gosh. This reminds me of how my parents revealed to me that Santa is not real and also weird thing ever, actually, never told people about that I was literally brushing my teeth in my in the in our bathroom, and it was connected to like I was thought, okay, Santa is coming for Some reason through a bathroom. But you know, when you shower, and the shower curtain sticks to the to the bathtub, and then it moves by accident because of whatever, it just dries, and then it starts just randomly making sounds. So basically, I was just brushing my teeth, and then this shower curtain moved, and I was so shocked and scared at the same time, and almost I ran outside, out of our bathroom, literally crying and shouting to my dad, oh my gosh, I think Santa Claus just is coming. You know, so terrified that I started crying in the bed, till my dad was like, I'm sorry to tell you, but Santa Claus is not real. And so my parents basically explained to me that my dad was Santa Claus for each year he was dressing up for me, and as well as they invited once my dad's friend who was visiting us to be Santa Claus. Well, yeah, I don't know. I just believed it. It it was so good all the time, he would always come. And I was so scared of the shower curtain moving that I was like Santa Claus get stuck

Lucas Ciscato 14:27
in the bathroom. That was me with sinter class. Although sinter classes and do creepy things like just randomly go into well, kind of does. So I guess, nevermind we. Never mind

Unknown Speaker 14:41
creepy things that you do? What did

Lucas Ciscato 14:43
I'm saying like you're saying that Santa Claus was coming into your bathroom? No,

Veronika Becher 14:48
but it's just we don't have any windows, and that's the only place that could have a fire pit, technically speaking. But it doesn't. It got removed, so the apartment got remodeled, and so. Now, the place where the fireplace used to be, we have a big aquarium with little shrimps in it. Don't ask me why we have shrimps, but we have mini shrimps. By the way, you cannot eat them, but that's my fun fact. We raise mini shrimps. My dad is really invested in the whole aquarium thing, and he he he knows everything about random water plants, and he puts random things in the into the water to make it grow faster and better. And, oh my gosh, I don't even know what's happening there, but basically, yeah, no fireplace. So I always thought it's gonna be the bathroom. Okay? It was just the most natural. I think probably because my dad will probably change in the bathroom when they come out at Santa Claus. So I never question that you would change on the balcony. It was really funny. Um, I know with the excuse that he's holding the reindeers on the rooftop, and I realized later on, like, that's kind of interesting, how to hold Yeah. Basically, my dad was running around on the rooftop. So, in fact, so

Lucas Ciscato 16:08
moving forward on Yes, since her class, so he arrives in the Netherlands in a steamboat with all of his helpers, with

Veronika Becher 16:17
one horse, with one horse, how's the horse? Okay, sorry, I need to ask how supports pitting on the steamboat. Like, like, where is it? Is it on top? Is it? Wait, it does fit. But oh my gosh,

Lucas Ciscato 16:29
I don't know. I'm gonna have to, like, re remember all the songs I sang it, because there's one that's like, he's on the steamboat with the windmills that are, I don't know. Well, I think while, anyway, there's like, songs that have that tell you the whole story that I would have to, like, recall to be able to tell you exactly where the horse is and where things I don't know if it actually talks about the horse, but I'm just saying anyway. So another very cool, elaborate thing about this is they have, like, a whole week or two or three, I don't know exactly how long it is where there is national news on everything that's happening with center class, like they nationally, like they hire actors or whatever to do this whole like news segment, because there's always a Big problem that happens in those few weeks that's into classes in the Netherlands, like, either they suddenly lost all of the gifts and now the kids have to be able to help by maybe putting money, a little a little bit of money in their shoes, like some change that he comes pick to pick up at night, or like, they have a huge shortage of a specific kind of snack, and there's a way that your the kids can help. And there's this whole national news problem that everyone's like, Oh my God, how can we help? Since a class so we can have the best into class ever.

Veronika Becher 17:53
I'm gonna throw in a joke, you know, for everyone who always questioned the ability of people being good with propaganda, and people talk about Hitler and all of propaganda that happened. Never mind. We're taking it back. I think the best price of propaganda goes to the Dutch government for creating such an experience for little kids around Santa Claus.

Lucas Ciscato 18:17
It's really impressive, honestly, and I would always watch it when we lived in China or when we lived in Mexico and then in the US, not as much, because at that point, my hopes and dreams of since a class being real kind of died, but basically one of the traditions that we do is we put our shoes under the fireplace, because, since a class will go and give you small gifts in your shoes, and what you will also put there is maybe a drawing that you want to give to since a class or a letter telling him everything that you want, and you also maybe give him some healthy snacks, or like a carrot for the horse, because the horse needs the energy to be able to go from house to house, jump on rooftops. And it's the helpers, actually, not since a class that goes down the fireplace and they put little gifts in your shoes or snacks, and some of the traditional snacks that we have associated with since a class are paper mountain and those are, I have no idea how to describe that. I think it's like a ginger, tiny, little ginger cookie. Don't quote me on that, but I think so I never made them myself, so I don't know exactly what it's made

out of. And. And then we also have you also get, like a letter, a big letter made out of chocolate with your initial so I would always get like a big letter L with of 250 grams of chocolate. It was always like my favorite thing, because then you sit there eating a whole letter that's very thick and good European chocolate.

Veronika Becher 20:24
Good European chocolate. That's literally like one thing that I'm gonna get when I'm back home, bring back a chocolate. But I'm curious, is Santa Claus and St Nicholas the same person? Or are these different people? I'm just

Lucas Ciscato 20:42
in the Netherlands. You don't celebrate Santa Claus at all. So I never, I did not know about Santa Claus until I moved to the US. I was like, that's weird. How could you ever believe it, San, it's Santa Claus. That's so like, it's so obviously fake. But since a class is so much more realistic,

Veronika Becher 21:01
because he's coming on a steamboat. Oh my God, and

Lucas Ciscato 21:05
he lives in Spain, not in the North Pole. Oh

Veronika Becher 21:09
my gosh. This is crazy. We have like, um, maybe coming, giving you, like, a rundown what happens in Germany, my dear friends, are you ready? Are you ready? Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Basically, we have a different tradition. It's so first of all, our Nicholas talk is not he's on horse. Let's start like that, he is on horse. Was very nice. Is

Lucas Ciscato 21:36
it a white horse? Yes. Okay, perfect. At least, at

Veronika Becher 21:39
least a color match exactly. If you see Santa Claus, normally, Santa Claus, if you see some, we say San Martin, like Martin.

Lucas Ciscato 21:48
So that's a different tradition in the Netherlands. That's a thing in in November, like November 11, or something that's kind of more closer to St Martin, oh

Veronika Becher 22:02
my gosh, we just brought up too many

Lucas Ciscato 22:06
for that. You walk around with lanterns and you go to like, people's houses, and you sing and you get candy.

Veronika Becher 22:13
Oh my gosh, we just uncovered something. So maybe, okay, let's start with San Nicolas, this guy is also saint, but he we also put out so you need to clean your shoes, and usually not sneakers. We're talking about, like boots. You need to clean them, and then you put them, not under the fireplace. Usually you put them outside of your apartment or outside of your house, and then he comes in during the night and brings you oranges. So usually Mandarin is actually, to be precise, and nuts, walnuts, and that's kind of the thing. And then we have this other tradition in Germany where it's it is sang Martin. And sang Martin, you want to go ahead.

Lucas Ciscato 23:05
I mean, it's what, what I know of it is that you you go around to different houses, and you go with a with a lantern, and you knock on their door, you sing a traditional song to them, and then you can get candy or something. So that's,

Veronika Becher 23:27
I think, is the the rundown of why Halloween is not as important, because we have in November. So sang Nicolas, type is fifth, no sixth of December. Then Simon Martin is end of November. I think if I'm not right, if I'm not wrong, I think

Lucas Ciscato 23:47
it's November 11 or something. Yeah, it's earlier. And

Veronika Becher 23:51
it's always different in each region. In Germany, I realized when I moved to the south, they have a different tradition. But what we do is you build these lanterns by yourself, and you you completely created yourself. Um, usually it's like a huge process where each year, especially in kindergarten, you can choose your own like, like the animal you want to create, or like they look amazing, really creative. Um, and then you walk around with the stick that has a little bulb on it and this lantern. And then you're seeing the go from one place to another. But the interesting thing is, about a Nicholas talk is talk means day, and then Nicolaus is the name. Wait now I'm like, literally mixing it up, Saint Martin. Martin, oh my gosh, Martin, why are we doing? Nicholas, Martin, I'm sorry, I use siblings, I don't know, maybe in a different world, um, going back to Sir Martin. So Saint Martin, he was, according to a tradition, um, sold. Her. And the Roman Empire was doing the Roman Empire, and he had this long red cape. So he is on the horse, on a white horse, and he sees this beggar that is sitting in the snow, freezing. And we have this tradition where he we we have literally play in our city where you can see everything unfold. And we have actually a guy who's sitting on this horse with this whole thing, and a beggar on the floor, and the whole city comes together and watch this play. And I was like, the town that I'm from aircraft is 40, 49,000 I like people live there, so it's not as big, but it's also not as small, and the tradition is just a really local tradition. And the story goes as follow, he sees his beggar, and he's like, I really want to help you. So what he does, he completely divides his cape into health and gifts the beggar the other half. And during that time, it was actually a disgrace to even do something with your cape, because that means you load yourself in the rank of like all the soldiers. And so when he came back to actually all the other soldiers, they made fun of him for donating almost like or giving away part of it or a piece of his cape. But he didn't care, because he warmed the beggar, and it was more important for him. And then we have this other tradition where they bake this really huge wek man, that's what we call it. And wek man is actually one of the most favorite things that I love to eat during that time. And it only, you can only buy it during that time of the year. And it's this little it looks like a gingerbread man, but it's not a gingerbread man. It's made out of dough. And it's a fluffy dough, sometimes covered, sometimes it's just though nothing else looks like a gingerbread in it has a pipe that kids really love to like extract and then do something of the pipe. My dad even tried to smoke it, but realized that it doesn't work. And jokes aside, um, and this huge pipe, and sometimes they put even some almonds on top of it. I love the almond one. And so they they create this huge Beckman that feeds the whole city. Just imagine how big that needs to be. And so everyone gets a piece. And I was thinking about why they do that, and I realized something we learn actually in our fellowship program is servant leadership, and how you, in a way, do something for the community. And one of the morals of the story with Martin, St Martin, he shares something that is so important to him, but realize that it's not important if the human being in front of him is dying and that he is gracefully, actually hurting his own dignity in his own perception, perception, how people view him in order to help someone else and serve someone else the community. So this vec man is a representation of how we all belong and help each other, because we part of one thing, and the VEC man symbolize, actually, this guy who shared his cape with the beggar, and it's like, we share food, and it's one thing, and we'll be one, like, each have one piece of the whole thing. And I remember my dad would always Put Me On his shoulders because I was too small. It would be so many people crowded, and so I could see this huge like Batman, and you would drink glue vine or punch, what is like a really traditional drink, where you the punch version is just for kids. It's really sweet, like grape juice with some other spices and oranges boiled up really warm. It's really cold, usually during that time. And then glue vine is something you also see in Christmas markets. But, yeah, this is, like, this is one of the things that we do. Do you do something else for nuclear stock Martin? Oh my gosh, I'm not

Lucas Ciscato 29:13
entirely sure. But what I said is all I really know because I only did it once, which was that one year that I lived in the Netherlands, because I didn't like I've been to the Netherlands mostly during winter time and summer time, and since school was always in in November. Like, that's not some a time we would often visit. And just the one year that I lived there, we participated. Yeah,

Veronika Becher 29:39
we had, I actually used to do it every single year for a long time, and we would sing these specific, specific songs that are only made for this time of the year about this guy, and it's a lot of religious songs. But also I would play my two. Recorders in, like nursery houses and like just other places, because there's, like, I was literally looking it up. This is funny song that stuck to me. I don't even know why. So someone actually, in 2000 I think, 14 or something, that decided to invent this new song that would reinvent just little kids being crazy sometimes even maybe earlier, probably, and it was when I was actually beforehand. They just published it later on. But a kid in my kindergarten would sing this all time. He just changed the lyrics of a really important song that everyone would sing. And it works this way. It's like St Martin Sung, Martin San Martin promised a lot, and it's like it goes on and on, and it's like he changed it to St Martin didn't ride through just really cold, the cold area. He said he was riding through salad and fries, and then, then his horse stopped at the Coca Cola. And this is the best, probably a Coca Cola commercial you can ever get, like, stand to drink a Coke, but then he drunk it like a like a pig, like he didn't know how to actually drink it properly. And then he saw, in the snow, it's like a continuous image. Ask, um, there's the beggar who is sitting there, the old man and but he has clothes on like a Superman. And then he's like, Please help me. Please help me. I don't know what to do. And if you don't help me, I will literally, like, make you a bread with butter. I don't know what the heck happened there. Sorry, this was the weirdest like story ever. But yeah, we were singing this every single year. So if you ever think of bread and butter, I don't know why we translate it this way, but you know now what's happening. I

Lucas Ciscato 32:13
since you gave like the story on St Martin the history, I pulled up the little history on St Nicholas, just so we have yes both of go ahead go ahead stories accounted for, basically the story of St Nicholas, which is what Santa Claus and sinterklas are both based off of, is that in a town In Turkey called Patara, St Nicholas was born there, and there lived a poor man with three daughters. In those days, a woman's marriage prospects, a woman's marriage prospects were largely dependent on her dowry, which was like the amount of money they had or property that the bride's family was expected to give her husband's family and without a dowry, a woman's future was uncertain, and in the case of this poor man's daughters, it meant that they might not be able to get married and could face a life of hardship. So the poor man was in despair because he could not afford dowries for any of his daughters, and feared that without marriage, they might be forced into lives of servitude or worse. And then, after hearing their that story, St Nicholas decided to help, but he wanted to do it in a secret way to avoid embarrassing the man for accepting charity. So one night, after the family had gone to sleep, Nicholas crept up to the house and tossed a bag of gold through the window, and the money was enough for the eldest dollar daughter story, and soon she was able to get married and begin a new life. And Nicholas did the same for the second daughter, secretly tossing a second bag of gold through the window. When Nicholas prepared to help the third daughter, the Father, Father, eager to help find out who was helping them, decided to stay awake and watch as Nicholas approached the house in the middle of the night, the man recognized him. Nicholas begged him to keep his identity a secret explain explaining that he wanted to help anonymously. But despite that, that man, the story of his generosity, spread through the town, and the people began to look at Nicholas as a protector of the poor and vulnerable.

Veronika Becher 34:35
And literally, I remember that story, not about you telling me that, because we used to literally play it out in kindergarten with a bag of little stuff, like colorful like glass stones. And I just remember that those like something that stuck with me, and they would represent money with, like, little glass stones. I don't know what you call them, so

Lucas Ciscato 34:57
I'll finish off with. Since a class, very quickly, one thing that. So the whole like two weeks that he's in the Netherlands, some kind of chaotic thing happens, and everyone tries to help out, and you get little gifts in your shoes under the fireplace. But then on December 5, the eve of December 5, so it's kind of like Christmas Eve versus Christmas Day. So this, this December 5, that night, you get a knock on your door and there's just like, this huge potato bag full of gifts out outside of your oh my gosh,

Veronika Becher 35:34
I thought you said potato. No way we are talking about potatoes now, please,

Lucas Ciscato 35:39
please. You know the bags that I'm talking about? Like, yes, about? Like, yes, yeah, yes, huge bag full of gifts that you get to unwrap that night. And there's also, like, a tradition with with writing poems for each other within a family, and that's always fun. And then when you're older, and you obviously don't believe in center class anymore, there's a tradition of making, making like surprise gifts, kind of like white elephant that we do here. But rather than just buying a gift and it being exchanged with someone, you get someone's specific name drawn, and then you create like this, the this box or creation that matches that person, and you put the gift in that so I don't know if you have someone who's we I did this with with kids out of school, so that's why this is what comes to mind. But if you have, like someone who's obsessed with Minecraft, you you build like a whole creeper or something, and hide the gift inside of that, and so then they get a creeper or whatever. So that's kind of the since a class tradition is, yeah, you'll get all your gifts December 5, that night, and you have all those other things that I was talking about, maybe

Veronika Becher 37:02
since we're moving on from this story, and you dropped already the perfect thing, potato sack, I was literally just reminded of something that I forgot for a long time, for a while, you know. And then once you reach the point when we out of Nicolas talk, out of St Martin, talk whatever we're at this point where we are approaching Christmas in Germany, you would have this series that starts airing every single year during Christmas. There are two, actually one that I love more, but this one is called bartolomeus, and this is, oh my gosh, now that I look back, he looks creepy, sec, but this is a just potato sack that came to life has two eyes, and the story is about how he is in charge and helps the so Santa Claus has actually no help us besides a potato sack. Hey, like, this is so funny, and he gets there's another Santa Claus that hates the original Santa Claus. Or, like, they dress up as the fake one, and so they want to ruin the Christmas Day, so they steal away the potato sack that is actually alive and can walk and talk, and he looks crazy sick in the match. That's so scary. And like, the story is about this woman in this guy, you can look it up. It's funny. It's like, how they were really poor, and so St Nicholas gave them these two eyes, oh my gosh, these two Marvel eyes that they attached to the potato sack because they were really, really poor farmers. And then the sack starts to be alive, but, but, okay, whatever. Moving on. And then the other story that I feel like is so funny is, um, the elves. Like, there's an elf series that is also airing, and I love the elf series. It's, it's an animation series about how all the elves are preparing for Christmas. And it's, it's adorable. But moving on to actually Christmas, Christmas, you want to go back to your Italian roots and talk about panatona.

Lucas Ciscato 39:26
It's like this sweet bread that, yeah, we eat around Christmas time. And in Italy, Christmas is celebrated more than just, like one day or one or two days, like a Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Like, it's more of like a whole Christmas season, like it's a whole period of time, kind of like, you know, we do put up trees here very early. Like, sometimes too early. Americans tend to put up their trees, but, yeah, it's kind of like, you see that as Chris. Season. But in Italy, like, the Christmas season ends in, like, I think the fifth or the sixth of January. And in that time period you will give, often, you'll give panettone as, like a gift.

Veronika Becher 40:15
And Panet honest, like it looks a little bit like a huge cake that is really high up. And I love this one that has citrus pieces in it. Oh my gosh. I actually bought for my friends last year, pan and done. And like the small mini ones, because I was like, try it. It really reminds me of Easter, Easter goods that we bake in Russian traditions. They taste really similar to that. And I remember there's this really funny story I used to Fun fact, I used to date an Italian, half Italian guy on my first relationship, and his mom was Italian. She told me about this tradition that they have for New Year because she gave me pantana On Christmas Day, and then she was like, well, there's this other tradition that is a little bit funny. I was telling Lucas about. Lucas was like, I don't even know what you're talking about, but basically it's, it's low it's small disclaimer, it's, it is PG 13, but yeah, small disclaimer. It's basically, if you have a husband, or like a boyfriend, he would buy you red underwear for New Year. And it's the thing that you see in other cultures too, because you see it a lot in, I think, like Middle Eastern, like other cultures, where women specifically would wear, like, red dresses, or like red underwear, because red symbolizes luck and love and like prosperity and so on. And so people would wear it to, like, end the year and start the year with luck. So they wear red. I see this so often turkey for some reason on, like, New Year, because my parents used to go every single year, actually on New Year to Turkey. Don't ask me why, but my dad's birthday is on the 24th of December, so he always wanted to have actually vacation instead of a birthday present, and so we would spend New Year Abroad. And the funny thing is, so the husband basically looks for the perfect set for the woman to wear. And then the tradition, the actual tradition is you have to wear the whole New Year, like the 31st through the 31st and then the first, you have to take it off and burn it because you don't want the bad luck that got absorbed to your body. Okay, so I don't think that everyone burns it down anymore, but it's like this tradition of, instead of getting like presents, you get underwear. What's so funny for me, it stuck with me till the end of my end of my life. And do you have any new year traditions that I feel like are super common in any of your family, um, celebrations.

Lucas Ciscato 43:03
One thing that's just, I mean, I'm sure you know this very well, but the Netherlands is, like, very big with fireworks. Like, the Netherlands is very environmentally conscious until, until New Year's strikes, and then, like, it's insane, like, the amount of fireworks that go off everywhere and it's so

Veronika Becher 43:23
dangerous to be outside. Yes, do you agree? I feel like this is the like, if people in America are concerned about mass shootings, we are concerned about fireworks hitting your face, I'm not even kidding. Like, if you have especially in bigger cities, when everyone is out there trying to people no one has experienced. No one knows how to do it properly, but for some reason, it's just the most dangerous thing you can do, because things are just falling on your heads, on your face. Okay, maybe not, but they do actually, yeah, go ahead. Sorry. I got too excited.

Lucas Ciscato 43:55
You saying that kind of reminded me of a story that I don't know if my parents have heard or my grandparents, but when one time my brothers and I were in at my grandparents house and we bought fireworks and sold for you, I don't remember, but young enough, young enough

Veronika Becher 44:18
is crazy. Not old enough, young enough, go ahead.

Lucas Ciscato 44:21
So basically, hey, my my older brother's older, so we can give him all the responsibility for anything that may or may not have happened. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Nothing, nothing really ended up happening. But we went to a skate park to light these fireworks, and I don't know, we just started playing around with them, and at some point we put one of them on, on, like one of the skate park things, I don't rails, like the ramp, and then we lit it, and then it fell off to all the other fireworks that we had, and it just started a little bit of a fire. We like, Oh no, this is so bad. But I mean it, things just started kind of exploding all over the place, flying to one place, and then that one exploded over there. But nothing ended up happening because we were on a, like, clear field. So that was, that was good.

Veronika Becher 45:16
I'm just curious. I know this is a little bit drifting off, but in regards of fireworks, have you ever experimented with magnesium, unlike or magnesia? I know you know, I mean in chemistry class, like putting it into the fire, like, Oh my gosh. Okay. Yes. Short story, Simon and does that too? Yes, there you can use other chemicals too for that. But basically, we wanted to show like in chemistry class. We used to have this old, old teacher who should have retired already several years ago, but he decided to come back. Hello, this guy. And we were trying to like, show how it will look like if you actually throw all these chemicals into the fire, and it would expose like a, actually, to create fireworks. That's like, literally the same. And this random guy, a classmate of mine, he was holding all these chemicals on a piece of, I think, paper, or, like, just a tissue. And he was distracted walking around talking, realizing that he was, Oh, I'm gonna put this in the fire. And then what happened on the into the flame. He, by accident, put the tissue into the flame too. But then he was, like, not paying attention, so he walked around the whole classroom with the tissue that was burning down class. And so he started burning down everything that he was touching with the tissue, I think, several folders and backpacks started burning by the time half of the class was actually burning, we realized that things are burning. Fun fact, things are burning, if you didn't know that, if you let them, these are burning. And I love the thing when he panicked and he realized what's happening. So he started using the tissue to actually light off the fire. So he actually created emo fire. Started

Lucas Ciscato 47:23
spreading all the chemicals too, yes.

Veronika Becher 47:25
So we had a whole explosion going, God, and I love my teacher. At the time, he just looks at me and looks at the class, and he's like, it's fine, let's take home. And he was super calm about that. Half of the classroom is burning. I'm not even exaggerating. And these people, like the people that were close to this table, saw panicking, everything's burning. And my teacher is like, it's fine. I've seen worse in my life. He walks to this random table, use his clothes, I think his jacket even, and just starts his neck. Let's check and I never seen he didn't even use any of the protection measurements that we ever learned about. He just used his jacket. And he, like, literally turned off the fire in a second. And he's like, that's fine. I hope you're fine next time. We're just not gonna we're gonna realize that tissues should not be put into flames, and that's it. Just so that was my experience with my works. But, um, drifting weird. I don't know where all these stories all over the place, but I don't know where these stories are coming from, but you just like, sparked some random ideas today. You Oh my gosh, that I used to have.

Lucas Ciscato 48:44
So another, unless you have something else, go ahead. Go ahead. Another new year's tradition in the Netherlands is to, like, dive into the new year. And so one thing that they do is they go to the ocean and jump in the water, in the freezing cold water, as like a way to cleanse yourself and get yourself, like, jumping into the new year year, completely ready for it, something

Veronika Becher 49:11
you do in Russia too. Like all these you see it even on TV, like ice baths, like they literally, like, break the ice and then all these random guys jump into the water. But in Russia, we celebrate Christmas later, because we follow Russian Orthodox people follow an old their calendar system, Gregorian calendar. And so our Christmas and all the traditions are always a couple of weeks apart and later. So Christmas fast is on the fifth of January, if I'm not wrong. So when you said that in Italy, you kind of end here Christmas celebrations. That makes so much sense, if you think about it this way. And we have, we have Santa Claus, but Santa Claus has this one helper. It's not a. Potato Sack. Just a disclaimer, it's this beautiful lady who is called sneaker, which go and sneak, is snow and then sneak, basically, like a snow woman type of thing, like we she's really pretty lady has this really long braided, like, like, really long braided hair. And the funny thing is, she's younger. This is a really weird thing. She's younger than the guy is like, she's definitely younger. She's, like, in her 20s, while this old grandpa is already in his, like, not questioning that relationship. But basically, um, they both have, actually blue coats, not a red coats that you usually use, see in Christmas celebrations, right? Like Santa Claus have you know, it's just a complete different color that we use. And there's another thing is, like New Year, where you write down, this is the most stressful thing in Russia, people are really superstitious, and one of the superstitions that they decide to implement out of everything they could have chosen is when you watch this TV series, it's this concert that is existing since my parents are alive, not even I think even earlier. It's the same old Russian songs. The whole concert that you watch on TV. You eat food. Everything is like. You have these crazy salads that have like, Sid patch, rube, what is like? Fish, basically with beets, red beets and like, different layers of the most random food. But it tastes fantastic, and you just eat. You eat too much, you watch this thing, and then you have this one moment where the last seconds before New Year, you we, we see they like show on this TV show, Moscow, and the like, almost like a big band, but a huge like, clock that takes. And we say COVID to that. So it's like, it takes the last seconds before we'll have new year. And we see the whole, like, red like, oh my gosh, I'm so bad at explaining this today. But you know the church, this really, like, famous Moscow church. So this is where people stand outside, and they usually watch the fireworks. You have this video that we even my parents right now, they still watch it every single year. And then once, when you have these last seconds ticking, you need to write down on a small piece of paper you wish you burn it down before. So you have literally couple of seconds. You have to write it down really fast. You burn it down, you throw all the ashes into your champagne, and then you have to drink it as fast as you can before actually New Year happens. So it actually can be fulfilled. And there's a whole series in Russia where they they show so many random movies that are like, correlated to the superstition about people trying to find their love. And it's like the most funniest thing ever

Lucas Ciscato 53:08
you're it's all up to the last second. Yes, most stressful moment. I need to get this.

Veronika Becher 53:13
It's, it's a series called Yoki. What it means? Yoki means, like the Christmas tree, like just or like the pine tree in general. And it's just a series of comedy movies that you watch all the time about these guys that are trying to, like, one year they had, like, this guy who wished that the President will actually speak about say something specific, and so they made a bet. And then the end of the movie The President, actually, Vladimir Putin will say that it's the weirdest thing ever. Sometimes, sorry, I'm like, drifting apart, but this is actually something I never told people. And then after when New Year happens, you hear the Russian national anthem, and then the President comes out and has holds a speech, and it's the same thing every single year.

Lucas Ciscato 54:07
Same speech, no, same Okay, I got it. You do the same thing tradition, okay? Doing this like same speech is kind of

Veronika Becher 54:14
like, no, but it's very similar every single time. And you listen to it every single time. And then you like, you know, you like snuff and go down. What means, like, Happy New Year. So, yeah,

Lucas Ciscato 54:32
another thing in the Netherlands, like a traditional food for New Year's is olibulin, which quite literally translates to oil balls.

Veronika Becher 54:44
It's getting better. Okay, go ahead, oil. Oh my gosh. Oil, boil

Lucas Ciscato 54:50
only, basically, literally, all it is is deep fried balls of dough. So. So I know, go ahead. Go ahead. So, like, right now in Raleigh, we have the State Fair going on. And I know some people who are like, the tradition of, like, every time they go to the state fair, they have to get I forget the name, like,

Veronika Becher 55:17
I know exactly what you mean. Is it the puffy pastry that is like, made in oil. Oh my gosh. I love how you're like to your tenacious students sitting in one room and forgetting completely, oh my gosh. Okay, go ahead. I would think about

Lucas Ciscato 55:32
it. Okay. So when I was at the state fair a few days ago, I realized that they that, I mean, so I saw on one of the signs that it said, like, Dutch, whatever it's called, but I don't think it's a Dutch thing. But the idea of, like, just frying, the deep frying, the dough comes, is a Dutch idea. And that actually is also an inspired donut. And olibulin are often filled with, like, raisins or apples or and can be dusted with powdered sugar, just like whatever we're talking about. That's that you find at the state fair. And, yeah, basically you'll have Oli bowl and stands like pop up all over the country, and it's a tradition to have that for New Years, while you're looking for funnel cake, funnel cake, yes, oh my gosh. For some reason i Okay. I haven't had Oli bowling in a while, but I feel like I enjoy that, and maybe it's just because of the nostalgia or the traditional value to it. But when I eat funnel cake, I immediately like, it's disgusting to me. It's so oily. It's so, like, I don't know, so airy and it doesn't have much taste

Veronika Becher 56:50
the recipe you're referring to. There's something similar in Russian culture. It's called porn chicken. And I've seen something similar also in Turkish tradition. So it's like, it's literally just almost like a donut, but it's not really a donut. It tastes a little bit differently because it's just hand made and it's just the dough, and you can put something else on top of it, if you want to, like topping like you said, Um, no, that's actually really funny. I feel like, oh my gosh, you just gave me like the space to express the most random traditions that I feel like shaped my childhood and my identity. And it's so interesting to just realize that I don't think that everyone does these things. And it's like this, the biggest debate is also like, when do you celebrate Christmas? 24th 25th 26th oh my gosh, not even starting that debate.

Lucas Ciscato 57:43
In the US, you don't even have 26 as a thing. But in the Netherlands, that's second Christmas Day. And I don't know if that's the same. In Germany,

Veronika Becher 57:51
it is. We have two free days. It's 25th and 26 that is always

Lucas Ciscato 57:57
Christmas Eve. In the Netherlands, Christmas is much more of like a appreciation for the religion, religious aspect to it. So there's not actually much tradition specifically towards like Christmas, besides family gathering things like that, because it genuinely is related to like Jesus and the Christian belief that goes along with it, the birth of Christ. So we don't celebrate Santa Claus. We don't celebrate anything else that, like Christians might consider a distraction from the true meaning of Christmas, and that's why we get all our gifts December 5 with sinter class, when he knocks that night when he knocks on the door and gives you the gifts, so that when you have Christmas, it's more of just like celebration with family and celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, whatever that means to you. And in Italy in general, for Christmas and for New Year's, for festivities. And you know, they're very big on food, so big family dinner is like the way to celebrate any of those things. And we have one more tradition that maybe I wonder if this sparks something in with your with either Russian culture or German culture. But we have la Befana, which, like, it's almost like the Italian version of Santa Claus and and sinter class, except it's completely unrelated to St Nicholas, so it has nothing to do with that. But it's this old, like, kind hearted witch who will fly around on a broomstick at night in on January 5, and she will give like little gifts to children. And she's often shown in like completely tattered, broken, I don't know exactly the word clothes and cover. In soot. And like for bad children, they receive coal, just like with Santa Claus or with sinter class. And basically you have, like they she fills their stockings with, like, sweets, candies and small toys. And like I said, the naughty ones receive coal. And what happens is the next day, which is kind of crazy, because you have this sweet witch that's like giving you these gifts the next day you burn her. So what reminded me of this was when you were talking about, like in Germany, you would be on your dad's shoulders watching the bread man, or what Ginger Man kind of look thing? Beckman, yes. Beckman, Beckman, yeah. Beckman, that reminded me of this, because I would sit on my dad's shoulders and just like they built this huge bonfire, like massive that goes all the way up, and you just, there's the witch on top of it, and, yeah, you, you burn her every year. Oh my

Veronika Becher 1:01:11
gosh. This is like, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but in I've never heard of the story. I never know. I didn't know that there's such rich stories that are connected to Christmas, but apparently it's the most interesting topic. I could actually start a podcast about, oh my gosh, and then you're burning. Is this an middle age thing that stick? They decided to, they didn't find any witches to burn down anymore. So they didn't,

Lucas Ciscato 1:01:45
it's a witch. It's apparently like it's seen as a way to say goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year on January 6 by sacrificing a person. Yes, the burning represents the end of the holiday season and the passing of the old in order to make a way for renewal, purification and a new beginning. And the bufana is a symbol of the old year. So it isn't she isn't just a Christmas figure. She's a representation of the old year. Burning or effigy symbolizes the clearing away of old negative energy and the hardships or mistakes of the past year so well, yeah, often. So what the burning of pufana will take place in like the city center, kind of like you were saying, and then you just have all these people collected together, and this is mostly a tradition of the air, the place where my dad grew up, and where I've always gone back to see family Veneto, which more specifically for my dad in Padova and but you can also see it in Tuscany, and people gather to watch this, like this big fire happen, And often it's accompanied by music, fireworks and communal feasts. But you be like the witch is usually like a big straw filled figure dressed in old clothes to resemble la Bana, and the burning of this figure is, is like something that everyone celebrates. It's like, Oh, my God, this is the New Year is coming, and we can forget about everything that happened last year. And it's a moment that families and communities come together to celebrate the Yeah, the end of the holiday season. Like, okay, we just had multiple weeks of celebrating Christmas and New Years and all of these things together. So like that. That's kind of like the last moment, January 6 of like, moving forward,

Veronika Becher 1:03:48
oh my gosh, I'm just sitting here. I've learned so much from this episode. It was the funniest episode ever. I'm sorry, Abdullah, the person that always records with me, I'm sorry you just got, like, Christmas. Just got me, I'm sorry, the Spanish Rivera that was going to be filled with people admiring and trying to find now, the mysterious man on the steamboat with the white horse. With the white

Lucas Ciscato 1:04:18
horse, he also has a staff, a golden staff, like a big, big, big, golden staff. Oh my gosh, and like a bishop hat with the cross. I

Veronika Becher 1:04:29
can imagine that. That's crazy. That's crazy. I have no idea whenever this episode is going to be aired, but whenever it is, if we are airing it as the last episode of this whole season, then it is what it is,

Lucas Ciscato 1:04:45
and then we'll, we'll also burn bufana To celebrate the end of the season of of the podcast for the new season to come. So,

Veronika Becher 1:04:56
uh, disclaimer, we are not burning anyone here right now. Besides Lucas joking the end of the podcast,

Lucas Ciscato 1:05:05
the new podcast tradition, burn la Befana,

Veronika Becher 1:05:09
so you share a story and then you disappear. Sorry, I should stop joking about that, but maybe Yeah, so my dear friends, ending kind of this episode with the last words? Do you have anything you want to share last words? If we're talking about new year starting next year?

Lucas Ciscato 1:05:28
I'll let you do that. I just wanted to compliment myself for saying since now, I can't say synonym, synonym, whatever correctly when I said it, because I've been thinking about that. I don't think I've ever said that correctly for shine. I can't say it again, so I'm not

Veronika Becher 1:05:44
gonna. We can just plug it in every single time we need to see this word. The right recording is space. Oh my gosh, cinnamon. This is amazing. My dear friends, if you're part of the group of writing random lists about things that you want to do in your life and things that you've experienced. Go ahead, set these resolutions, but you better do it Okay, and if you want to follow one of these traditions, please don't burn people down. I would be gladly assisting you. This one's weird. That's crazy, and please don't try to find white horses. Now this is not what we're doing here. Write down your wish, wear your red underwear and try to eat the ash, drink it with your champagne. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Thank you so much Lucas for being here. Thank you for having me, and I hope you have a wonderful start wherever you are in life, wherever you're whenever you're listening to this episode. Thank you so much bye, bye, bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai