Italian Lesson – April 2025

As Italians and Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Easter on April 20, we offer our readers some practical expressions associated with the holiday to learn and use during your own celebrations. The week of Easter is known in Italian as il Periodo Pasquale and is firmly rooted in religious traditions. Se mancano alcune parole importanti (if some important words are missing) then they don’t yet play a significant role in Italy during the Pascal season. We begin with words associated with Lent, then continue with useful expressions through Easter Monday.

Important days of Lent:
Domenica delle Palme – Palm Sunday
Giovedì Santo – Holy Thursday
Venerdì Santo – Good Friday
Sabato Santo – Holy Saturday or Vigil of Easter
Pasqua – Easter Sunday
Pasquetta – Easter Monday or Little Easter
Pentecoste – Pentecost

Words associated with Easter:
La processione – Procession
La ceremonia – Ceremony
La Santa Messa – Mass
Falò – Bonfire
La Passione – The Passion
La croce – Cross
Il Cenacolo L’Ultima Cena – or The Last Supper
Il discepolo – Disciple
Ponzio Pilato – Pontius Pilate

Food takes center stage in any Italian celebration and Easter is no exception. Here is vocabulary for some Easter foods.

Il pane – Bread
L’agnello – Lamb
La cioccolata – Chocolate
L’uovo – Egg

Chocolate at this time of year is almost always in the shape of an egg followed by chocolate crosses. Breads made during Easter are beyond imagination with most regions boasting of one or two specialties. The one bread that is common to the entire country is the traditional columba, a sweet bread shaped like a dove.

The seasonal greeting is Buona Pasqua (Happy Easter).

Here in the United States, there are certain Easter phrases and traditions that Italian Americans maintain and others that have been lost to assimilation. Much of Italian vocabulary used during this holiday in the United States has a food connection to a particular region and the associated vocabulary is in dialect. Let’s look at two of these food items and explain their significance.

The first is the Sicilian cuddura cu l’ova. Once you leave Sicily, it is almost impossible to find a bakery on the Italian mainland that bakes this Sicilian Easter favorite. Here in the United States the tradition of the cuddura cu l’uva transcends the Sicilian Americans and is popular among the Italian Americans-at-large. In fact, it is easier to find the cuddura here than on the Italian mainland.

What exactly does this Sicilian word mean and what is the Italian equivalent? The translation from Sicilian to English is best put like this, “braided with eggs” but as defined in proper Italian is a bit different. Since this is not an item that crosses the Straits of Messina very often, there is no other way to refer to this short of a literal translation to Italian. This would become something like treccia con le ova.

Another popular food, la pastiera from Naples, is also enjoyed in the United States among Neapolitan Americans and has gained popularity among many Italian Americans. However, a search through an Italian dictionary reveals no such word as pastiera in Italian. It can best be described as an Easter sweet grain pie.

This month’s proverb
It is Sardinian, which is not Italian, but classified among the minor distinct Romance languages.

Sardu: Vora dae coru, vora dae pensamentu.

Italiano: Lontano dal cuore, lontano dal pensiero.

English literally (Far from the heart, far from the thought.)

English figuratively (Out of sight, out of mind.)

This month’s falso amico
It is mare. It doesn’t mean a female equine in Italian. It means “sea” as in English “marine.” The word for a female equine in Italian is giumenta.

Buona Pascua a tutti i nostri lettori! Happy Easter to all our readers!