Day: June 23, 2020

The fascinating story of Nocino, the witches’ liqueur.

randomcollabs

Patron saints. Every Italian town has one and a local public holiday for celebrating their heavenly protector. In some italian regions, San Giovanni Battista or John the Baptist, is venerated with evening bonfires or fireworks and the night between 23 and 24 June, is also linked to the preparation of a culinary specialty handed down from ancient times: the harvesting of green walnuts to make the liqueur nocino. Many families still preserve the “secret family recipe” of nocino, a liqueur made from green walnuts, often enriched with those particular herbs…

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The albumen of St. John: a curious Italian tradition

Danijel90

John the Baptist is the most depicted saint in art of all centuries. His night has always been considered magical and prodigious, probably because it immediately follows the summer solstice (June 22), when the sun reaches its peak on the horizon and gives strength and vigor to all creatures. The night of St. John is also called the second New Year, very similar to the first for the magical conception and the rituals connected to it, first of all the bonfires. The difference lies in the contents: if the New…

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St John’s eve: ancient rituals to mark midsummer

Ivan

Saint John’s Eve, starting at sunset on 23 June, is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke states that John was born six months before Jesus, therefore, the feast of John the Baptist was fixed on 24 June, six months before Christmas according to the old Roman calculation. This feast day is one of the very few saints’ days which commemorates the anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of the saint being honored. The Feast of Saint John…

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Saint Mathieu Lighthouse | France

Anya016

Located on Pointe Saint-Mathieu in Plougonvelin, around Brest in Finistère, Saint-Mathieu lighthouse was built in 1835 among the ruins of the ancient Abbaye Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre. The Abbey gives the cape its name, and It was dedicated to Saint Matthew the Evangelist, whose skull it housed. It was a Benedictine abbey, but was revived and reformed by the Maurists in the mid-17th century. According to legend the first abbey here was founded in the 6th century by Saint Tanguy, chosen for its isolated location among the lands he had inherited.…

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#TodayInHistory – June 23

randomcollabs

June 23 – Some important events on this day. 930 👉🏼 World’s oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi), established. 🇮🇸 1683 👉🏼 William Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape indians in Pennsylvania. It was only treaty “not sworn to, nor broken”. An early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, William Penn was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the…

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