A period of detachment from everything, a temporary cessation of an activity. This is the definition according to the dictionary.
In short, holidays are a period that we normally associate with a time that takes us far from routine, to places that are good for our soul because they allow us to discover new things, but above all, if they are Summer holidays, they allow us to relax. Sea, mountains, it doesn't matter where you are spending it but, in fact, it is a different period than usual.
In a recent article I have read there was a reflection that I have found very interesting on the cultural value of the idea of vacation. Because we are bombarded daily, especially around the Summer time, by images and stories of people on vacation, it makes people want to make an effort to communicate where they are and how they are experiencing this period, but it makes those who are not on vacation feel terrible for a thousand different reasons, from economic availability to work, from family situations to simply whether or not they want to. The pros and cons of social media I guess. Vacations as told to us by the digital world, and before it by pages and pages of newspapers and magazines, are a cultural construct: they did not exist before the end of the 19th century, but above all before their transformation into a mass phenomenon with the post-war economic boom.
But I don’t want to dig too deep.
What I recall from my childhood about this period is the ‘back to school feeling’, a bittersweet moment in which you realize Summer is over but you are also thrilled to see your classmates again and start the school year (at least for me, I loved studying).
School resumes on different days in Italy depending on the calendar of each region (Italy is divided into 20 regions from North to South) but they are all the first or second week in September.
In some regions, children resume school on the first or second Monday of September, while in other regions they start on the first or second Wednesday.
Nursery schools and kindergartens normally begin one week prior to mandatory school (mandatory school goes from age 6 to age 16).
In Italy, at school, all children and teenagers must have a school diary on which to write homework assigned, test dates and even communications from the teachers to the parents.
Nowadays, there is an electronic register for each class which parents and students alike have access to with all such information but the school diary tradition is strong in Italy also because it is a cultural thing.
Students are excited to go to the local stationery shop or supermarket to pick their own school diary. Choices are endless depending on the age of the student: cartoon characters, comics, brand names diaries…you can find all. It is ‘tradition’ to personalize the school diary with stickers, thoughts, non-school related diary entries and quotes and at the end of the year it becomes a souvenir to keep forever, memoir of the school year just lived.
Another key school supply for kids is the schoolbag. Over the years it got bigger and bigger because children have to carry more and more books and the number of books multiplied with the number of teachers.
I remember that when I was a child I had only one school teacher for ALL subjects in elementary school whereas now kids have about seven or eight different teachers and each with their own requirements when it comes to books and school supplies.
Books are decided by the Ministry of Education but teachers have a saying too.
The schoolbag is normally chosen by the children according to their taste and those too can be with cartoon characters and they come in a variety of colors and shapes. Some have wheels like airplane carry-on suitcases to facilitate children carrying them.
