15 Italian-American Traditions That Confuse People in Italy

Every November your grandfather wrapped the fig tree in burlap and tar paper, with a bucket on top, and told you that's how they did it back home. In Sicily, where a lot of those trees came from, figs practically grow wild. This is a countdown of fifteen Italian American traditions that puzzle people in Italy, from the one an Italian would shrug at to the one that confuses them most. Each one comes with what Italy actually does, and where ours came from: the Naples word behind "macaroni," the Italian parlor behind the plastic-covered couch, the cookie table in Niles, Ohio, in 1925, the Brooklyn giglio that kept rituals Nola dropped, and the day Italy took St. Joseph off its holiday list. Number one is the Columbus Day parade, and the story of how it started. If your family kept any of these, subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/@MulberryStreetMemo?sub_confirmation=1 Traditions covered: wrapping the fig tree, calling all pasta macaroni, plastic on the good couch, rainbow cookies, the bathtub Madonna, the cookie table, the Chianti candle, pinning money on the saint, the San Gennaro feast, the Brooklyn giglio, wearing red on St. Joseph's Day, the tricolor stripes in Nonantum, the Feast of the Seven Fishes, saying you're Italian, and the Columbus Day parade.