ITALICA · Discover

The Fall Flower Americans Love Means Something Else in Italy

It's on every American porch this week. In an Italian home, it would stop the conversation.

1 · Halloween

Borrowed, late

Italians first met Halloween through Peanuts. It caught on as a real party only in the mid-1990s.

2 · November 1

Ognissanti

All Saints' Day is a national holiday in Italy. The day after Halloween is the one that matters.

3 · November 2

The chrysanthemum

Families bring it to the cemetery. It blooms in the cold and lasts, so it is never given as a gift.

4 · Sicily

Gifts from the dead

On November 2 Sicilian children wake to toys, marzipan fruit and sugar figures left overnight.

ITALICA

From Maria's edit

Skip the costume and the mums. Bring roses, wear a good black dress.

Shop Dresses