Days of Remembrance
Italy - On Tutti i Santi, All Saints Day, Nov.1st, and La Festa dei Morti, Day of the Dead, in Italy Nov.2nd, the dead are remembered by visiting their graves. Over these few days many families make an outing to the large cemeteries on the outskirts of the big cities (the traffic jams are legendary!).
During this long weekend (the 1st is a holiday), an all-Italian tradition is to decorate family graves and war monuments with yellow, white and other colored chrysan- themums, the bigger and fluffier the better. So although these flowers are colorful and lovely, be sure to NEVER bring them as a gift to someone's home. Your host or hostess will not want them in the house, and not knowing what to do with them will probably invent some feeble excuse to place them outside the front door.