June 2nd, " Festa della Repubblica” is the Italian national holiday!
We were invited to celebrate Festa Della Republica at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts Caroline Weiss Law building . There was hor d'oeuvre, drinks, Lavazza coffee, desert and lots of mingling with the Italian community in Houston. All the Italian women looked fashionably chic!
The “Festa della Repubblica” is Italy's national day. It commemorates the institutional referendum of 1946 when the Italian population was called to decide either a monarchy form or a republic form of government to give to the country, after WWII and the fall of Fascism.
On this day, Italy become Republic after 85 years of monarchy.
Interesting to note, that while Italy is rich in culture and arts, and I'd think this holiday should be as big as July 4th Independence day, it's not widely celebrated. Religious holidays are a much bigger deal... The Italians go all out on the gifts and the foods at Christmas and Easter, but no one seems to really celebrate National day....
The Taiwanese are big on traditional cultural holidays, but the National Day October 10th is such a big deal. Taiwanese people are in general fanatic about politics... not only are there big parades and celebrations on October 10th, but also even young people party at nightclubs for Taiwan National Day.
I guess in a way it's showing how we want to differentiate ourselves from that big land across the Taiwan Strait!
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