Festa delle Donne

March 8 in Italy is the Festa delle Donne, the celebration of women. This is the Italian version of the celebration of International Women’s Day, a holiday that perhaps had its origin in New York City. This is an official holiday in some countries, an unofficial holiday in others such as Italy, and a day that is unobserved in some other countries such as the United States.

Packets of sugar that appeared on March 8

In Italy the Festa delle Donne is impossible to not notice. Small yellow spring flowers (called mimosas; no, it’s not an alcoholic drink) are available everywhere for merchants to give to female customers and for men to purchase for the women in their lives. 

On the morning of March 8 we had cappuccino as usual at our coffee bar. Along with the regular ways in which sugar was offered to customers, the owners also put out these packets of sugar to mark the day. This was an interesting gesture.

Later that day we walked to Piazza Repubblica, a main civic piazza, where people congregate on Sunday afternoons. Today the air was cool but the sun was bright, blindly bright. There were stands set up in the piazza. We looked and saw that the stands were sponsored by an organization called the Association of Women in Agriculture (Associazione Donne in Campo.)

A translation of the purpose of the group from their website might be:

“Donne in Campo is the main Italian association of women entrepreneurs and women of agriculture, recognized and appreciated in Italy ... Donne in Campo creates 'networks' of women in the rural area, weaves relationships between companies and builds community and local groups.”

Many different agricultural products were offered. We talked with one woman for quite a while and purchased her plum marmalade, a mild concoction rich in fruit, low in sugar, and free of preservatives. We also purchased a pleasant ointment for a certain relative as a gift for when we return.