….this week Cee brings us a new theme for the fun foto challenge, harvest-earth
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Harvest-Earth
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Category Archives: Food
Wordless Wednesday – March 8, 2017
….thanks to Create With Joy for hosting Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday – February 15, 2017
A Persian Wedding in Assisi
….the highlight of our trip to Italy was our son’s wedding to his beautiful Iranian bride
Talk about a destination wedding. What do you do when half your family lives in Canada and the other half in Germany and Iran and your friends come from all over (Canada, England, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, etc.)? You find a location that everyone is happy to travel to and won’t break the bank.
That perfect place was at Casa Rosa near Assisi. Az and B already had a connection to the place through a friend whose family owned the ‘farm’. It is actually located in the hills of Umbria about 10 kilometres away from downtown Assisi.
On the day of the wedding the family was very busy getting the spread called the “Sofreh-ye Aghd”ready for the ceremony. Traditionally the Sofreh-ye Aghd is set on the floor facing east, so when the bride and bridegroom are seated at the head of the Sofreh-ye Aghd they will be facing “The Light”.
On the cloth, the two most important elements are the mirror and the two candelabras on either side of the mirror. They represent the bride and groom and the brightness in their future. All the different foods on the cloth are symbolic. For example, the tray of seven multi-colored herbs and spices “Sini-ye Aatel-O-Baatel” guard the couple and their lives together against the evil eye, witchcraft and drive away evil spirits. The eggs and decorated almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts in the shell symbolize fertility. A bowl made out of crystallized sugar “Kaas-e Nabaat/Shaakh-e Nabaat” sweetens the life of the newly weds and a bowl of gold coins or money represents wealth and prosperity. 
At the beginning of the ceremony the bride is hidden from the groom. In our case a group of women, friends and family, stood in front of Az while B (our son) sat on a bench in front of the Sofreh-ye Aghd facing the mirror. He lit the candelabras and was asked if he consents to marry the bride. In a loud voice he answered with a rousing yes. When the bride enters she sits on the groom’s left side and the wedding party holds a canopy over the couple’s heads.
This is where the fun begins. Az’s uncle was the officiant and when he asked her if she consented to marrying B her role is to make the guests and the groom uncomfortable by not answering the first time. Some of her friends then call out that she’s doing the laundry as an excuse. The same thing happens the second time she is asked. The officient asks a third time, and this time, the bride says ‘with the permission of my father and mother- balé!’ And everyone starts kelling (the loud lee-lee-lee-lee sounds all middle easterners make) and clapping in joy.
Az’s uncle did a great job explaining all the rituals and symbolism of this ceremony. One other interesting symbol is the needle and the seven coloured threads used to hold up the canopy or shawl above the couple. Figuratively it represents sewing up the mother-in-law’s lips to keep her from speaking unpleasant words to the bride! As you can imagine I got quite a bit of ribbing about that one.
After the bride and groom have consented to marrying each other, the groom picks up a jar of honey (asal) from the table. He dips his little finger into the jar of honey, and feeds it to his bride. She then does the same for him. This is to symbolize that they will feed each other sweetness and sustenance throughout their lives together.
In this ceremony Az took her shoe at the end and snuffed out all the candles. I can’t remember what that symbolized and I can’t find anything on line to explain it. Maybe some of my Persian readers could bring me up to date on this tradition.
As in western cultures the ceremony ended with the groom kissing his bride.
After congratulations were bestowed upon the newly married couple the guests and the wedding party made their way to grounds where tables of food and drink were set and photographers were busy snapping hundreds of photos.
The food at this wedding was amazing. Our son kept telling us to leave some room for dinner. The first round of food immediately following the ceremony were just appetizers and cocktails. I can’t even begin to explain or describe how much food there was and everything was so delicious. When dinner was served there were five more courses and dessert was served later. I never made it to dessert. In fact I never made it to the party. After dinner I was done and went to bed. In hind sight it was a dumb thing to do because I couldn’t sleep anyway. Between not feeling well from too much rich food and the noise from the party afterwards, sleep was impossible. The party went till 4:00 in the morning. Somehow I managed to fall asleep around 3:00. All in all it was a great day, one that I will never forget.
Travel Theme – Snowy
….thanks to Ailsa for this week’s travel theme
The beautiful and unusually balmy days of November appear to be behind us. With the forecast of cold and possibly snowy days in the coming week, especially further north, I decided I couldn’t put off installing snow tires on my new car any longer.
On Friday morning I woke up at 5:30 so that I could get to tire department at Costco by 6:30. The evening before the nice man at the counter after giving me a couple of quotes for snow tires strongly suggested that I arrive no later than 6:30 even though the place didn’t open until 7:00. I walked through the doors at 6:35 and found myself 14th in line. When the gate was finally lifted, promptly at 7:00 the second man in front of me was informed that he was the last person to be guaranteed getting his car back by noon. The rest of us might have to wait till 8:30 in the evening before we could pick up our cars.
Feeling that I didn’t have much choice in the matter I decided to leave it and I walked to work. Luckily it was a PA day and I didn’t have any classes to teach. It took me about two hours to get to school but I did stop for a coffee and bite of breakfast at a Tim Horton’s. Later in the day a friend drove me home and I no sooner stepped in the door when the phone rang and I was told that my car was ready. The same friend drove me back to Costco. I am now ready for those ‘snowy’ days ahead.
I know you’re thinking that this is a pretty cheesy way of getting to the theme of snowy but I do have some photos that are snowy white to share with you. Seeing that we haven’t experienced any snow yet I’ve gone into the archives to find some appropriate ‘snowy’ shots.
The photos include whitening the feathering on a Clydesdales feet with chalk, the snowy white marble of the Trevi Fountain, my granddaughter’s snowy white yogurt face, a lovely creamy white ball of buratta cheese, a snowy white peony from my garden and snowy days from last winter.
Are you ready for the onslaught of snowy days? It’s coming!
Cheers!
The Town of Assisi, Italy
….despite being occupied with the wedding we did manage to hire a taxi to take us into the town of Assisi for a few hours
On the day our train arrived in Assisi we were scooped up by family and friends who were already there and we quickly drove through the town and up into the hills to get to the ‘farm’ where we were staying and where the wedding was being held. We got a glimpse of the narrow cobblestone roads and the facade of the Basilica of St. Francis and I knew that we needed to find a window of time to return to the town.
That evening we hired a taxi to take us back into the town, where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with our newly acquired family from Iran and Germany. It was a beautiful evening and dinner was served outside on the brick patio. The meal took several hours so there was no time to walk around. Besides we had a big day ahead and we needed to get our beauty sleep. Little did I know how important that was going to be. The next day was long and sleep was next to impossible.
On our last day, after the wedding, we woke up to pouring rain. It was a welcome relief from the heat we had been experiencing on this trip. It did, however, put a bit of a damper on the brunch that the newly married couple had planned. Instead of all of us gathering outside in one location we held a couple of brunches inside a two of the cottages. More food. After the wedding I couldn’t even imagine that people would have room for more copious amounts of food. Somehow we managed to indulge in fresh fruit, home baked breads and cakes and platters of cheese and meat.
Later in the day the rain stopped and we hired another taxi and made our way back into Assisi. We stopped in front of Basilica di Santa Chiara. It is dedicated to and contains the remains of Saint Clare of Assisi, a follower of Saint Francis of Assisi and founder of the Order of Poor Ladies, known today as the Order of Saint Clare.
After a quick look inside the basilica we headed out on foot, over the cobblestones, on our mission to find the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. Around every corner we found magnificent views of the countryside and quaint shops. bistros and town squares.
Eventually we came upon the basilica. The entrance was patrolled by armed guards and our bags were checked before we were allowed to enter. It is built into the side of a hill and is comprised of two churches known as the Upper Church and the Lower Church, and a crypt where the remains of Saint Francis of Assisi are interred. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs inside the church itself but the courtyard and the grounds and the building itself are beautiful.
In my next post I will finally share the photos of the wedding and discuss the symbolism of a Persian ceremony. Till then, ciao!
The Changing Seasons – October 2016
…..thanks to Cardinal Guzman for hosting Changing Seasons
October has been a month of birthdays in our family and all were special birthdays. We started with my husband’s 65th birthday, then my father’s 90th birthday, my granddaughter’s 1st birthday and my son-in-law’s 40th birthday. October also saw the colours finally change and mostly towards the end of the month. Finally the month ended, as it always does, with Hallowe’en and what a glorious day it was for trick or treating.
In the Hills of Assisi
….my favourite part of my trip to Italy took place in Assisi
Part 1
I’ve saved the best part of my trip for last. As some of you know my son was married this summer. The family part of the wedding took place in the hills of Assisi. In June, B and A were officially married in the registrars office in London, England and the guests that attended were mostly friends and work colleagues who lived in England.
In July friends from Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy and family from Canada, Germany and Iran came together to celebrate the union of our son and his beautiful bride in a traditional Persian ceremony.
The family stayed in a beautiful hillside resort, Casa Rosa, above the town of Assisi. Originally all the cottages had been farm buildings. The cottage we stayed in was formerly the pig barn and then later the horse stables. The view from our patio was breath taking and the property was surrounded by olive groves, lavender, fruit trees and rosemary.
Our accommodations were very comfortable and you would never have known that some of the cottages previously housed farm animals. We were warned to watch out for scorpions, yellow spiders and asps but we didn’t encounter any of these creatures. We kept looking over the hills in hopes of seeing some wild boars but we didn’t see any them either.
We took a walk along some of the trails that surrounded the farm. The trip out was pretty easy because it was mostly downhill but returning was a little more challenging. We passed numerous pieces of abandoned farm equipment along the way.
On our first evening in Assisi we took a taxi ride into the town of Assisi and had a wonderful meal on the patio of a local restaurant. It was our first real introduction to the family of the bride. We pretty much took over the restaurant for the evening. I tried to take photos of all the entrees that were placed before us but sometimes they were so mouth watering that half the plate was eaten before I remembered about taking photos. All in all it was a great evening and a good start to the wedding festivities that followed the next day.
More about the Persian ceremony in a few days.
Ciao!
My Local Farmers’ Market
…..buying locally grown, preserved and baked food at the Farmers’ Market in my neighbourhood
This week’s theme for WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge is local
Supercrawl in Hamilton, ON
….last weekend I went to my first art crawl
Since 2009, Hamilton has hosted an art supercrawl that now spreads over 16 city blocks and has gone from a one day event to an entire weekend. It celebrates the diverse art community in the James St. North community in Hamilton. This year it featured numerous art installations, hands on art demonstrations, live bands, street performers, dozens of food trucks, and hundreds of vendors selling jewellery, crafts, paintings, clothing, knitwear and handmade toys. Supercrawl 2016
Mama Cormier 