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Emancipation?

  Nothing has changed. Men have the power: they have always felt entitled to it and they still are. "Emancipation" is just a word to be mocked because men remain in charge of the world's most vital matters. Women are still considered and expected to be pleasant decorations, needed to adjust and soften the atmosphere. ​And yet, despite this low level of consideration, that role is another kind of power nonetheless! It is a power that voracious women embrace and learn to wield in order to dominate, yet without ever clearly affirming this "dominant" role. This type of apparently "submissive power" is much easier to deny and far harder to measure. ​You see this dynamic very clearly in the Mediterranean countries, where the Arab domination left deep roots. In the northern countries it seems less evident. And yet a widespread, creeping hatred towards women remains very strong. The fact that a Swedish author, Stieg Larsson, wrote Men Who Hate Women, it shows ...
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Christmas Time


On the 6th of December, the north of Europe celebrates Sankt Nikolaus, a Turkish Bishop, and patron of Bari, in the south of Italy. I really don't understand how a saint of the mediterranen area became so famous in the north of Europe. 

The same happens with Saint Lucia of Syracuse (Sicily), celebrated on the 13th of December, in the south of Italy, but also in Sweden, where all the girls dressed in white, with a crown of lit candles, very early in the morning, chanting "santa Lucia", the Italian song, visit all family members in their rooms, waking them up with the just baked Christmas biscuits. 
On the 7th of December is Saint Ambrose, the German Bishop who became the patron saint of Milan. Of course being Milan the Italian place I have always related to, it is still a festivity that I remember. On the 8th of December, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, that in Italy is again a national celebration now. From that date on we officially enter the Christmas time.

In Switzerland, when living in Luzern, a Catholic Canton, Sankt Nicolaus opened the Christmas time. While on the Alps, in the Canton of Bern, historically a Protestant canton (although Catholicism, once prohibited, has come back and grown a lot) I didn't remember Sankt Nikolaus being so important.

Whatever... in these last years I slowly switched my Christmas beginning time from the 6th to the 8th of December.
And this year it is the first time since in Italy, that I am not going to buy the German Christmas bisquits, but the Italian Panettone and Pandoro.

Letting go of the past has come very naturally, no nostalgia, a very spontaneous and clean turning page. No looking back. 
And it feels really fine!


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