Strenna or Strenna di Natale is a gift that is usual to make or receive in Italy at Christmas time. Torino - Biblioteca Reale 0599

This custom comes from the tradition of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

which involved the exchange of gifts of good wishes during the

Saturnalia Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple o ...

, a series of festivities that took place each year between 17 and 23 December, in honor of the god

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

and preceding the day of the ''Natalis Solis Invicti''. The term derives from the Latin ''Strena'', word probably of

Sabine The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divide ...

origin, with the meaning "gift of good luck." According to

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

, the use was adopted as early as the first foundation of the City, set up by

Titus Tatius According to the Roman foundation myth, Titus Tatius was the king of the Sabines from Cures and joint-ruler of the Kingdom of Rome for several years. During the reign of Romulus, the first king of Rome, Tatius declared war on Rome in res ...

who first caught, as good augur for the new year, the twig of a plant (''arbor felix'') located in the woods sacred to the goddess Strenia; from this derived the term ''strenae'' for the gifts of various kinds, including coins, to be exchanged in the feast of Saturnalia. In the publishing field, in the nineteenth century, ''strenna'' was also a collection of poems in prose and poetry that was placed for sale in the New Year. This use nowadays has diminished, but not ceased. From this custom come the definitions "strenne editoriali" or "libro strenna" ( en, gift book) for publications placed on the market during the first week of December, having as main purpose to serve as a traditional gift for the Christmas festivities.

Sources

Angelo De Gubernatis Count Angelo De Gubernatis (1840–26 February 1913), Italian man of letters, was born in Turin and educated there and at Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times. Life In 1862 he w ...

, ''Storia comparata degli usi natalizi in Italia e presso gli altri popoli indo-europei'',

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

Treves Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the w ...

, 1919 *Alfredo Cattabiani, ''Calendario, le feste, i miti, le leggende e i riti dell'anno'', Rusconi, 1988 *Alfredo Cattabiani, ''Simboli, miti e misteri di Roma'',

Newton Compton Newton Compton Editori, sometimes spelled Newton & Compton, is an Italian publisher. The publisher was founded in Rome by Vittorio Avanzini in 1969. The house has published mostly paperbacks and low cost editions, including literature classics, es ...

, 1990 {{morecat, date=May 2021 Italian traditions Christmas in Italy