Confetti: celebrating Italians' events since ancient Rome

Confetti, the Italian typical small sweet treat, is definitely much more than that. It is part of Italian tradition and has specific features according to the particular occasion.

Conversely to one could imagine, making Confetti is a long process that takes several days. In fact, almonds need to be coated in sugar and water syrup many times, alternating the soaking phases with the drying ones. While they keep the traditional form of almonds coated with hard sugar, Confetti's colour often changes. As correctly reminded by the Australian magazine Italianicious, during marriagesConfetti would be white representing purity, green for engagements, pink or blue for births and christenings, red for graduations, silver for 25th wedding anniversaries and gold for the 50th ones.

As we can see, Confetti are there to celebrate all the important events in a person's life. They date back to ancient Rome when they were mostly used for marriages and births as a symbol of good luck. Today, people still use them for the same purpose (good luck) being very careful when giving Confetti as a gift to their guests wrapped as "bomboniere", in tulle or in creative shapes. Guests usually receives 5 pieces of Confetti - said to represent health, happiness, longevity, fertility and prosperity. It can happen that people are given less than 5 pieces but the most important thing is that the number is always odd, believed to be lucky in Italian culture for a number of reasons. For instance, an odd number cannot be divided as a couple in the marriage should not.

Nowadays, Confetti have come out in several varieties, substituting almonds with hazelnuts, chocolate, cinnamon, pistachios and dried fruit. Still, almonds remain the traditional ingredient. Almonds from Avola (a small town in Sicily) are very famous and for their exquisite taste and absence of bitterness. Nevertheless, the capital of Confetti is Sulmona in Abbruzzo, attracting a lot of gourmand visitors from every place.

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