Hammonton High School Italian Club is Back!!

The Hammonton High School Italian Club has received full funding for the 2010-2011 school year. They received the monies from a few local Italian Clubs including the Preserving Italian Heritage Foundation as well as the Sons of Italy. Now that the club is back on their feet they should be moving right along to encourage the learning and understanding of Italian language and culture throughout the students of Hammonton High School.

Adult Italian Classes For Beginner

To Community of Hammonton,

Hammonton is known as the Italian Capital of the United States.  With this title come some advantages such as the Mt. Carmel Festival and other Italian Organizations in our town.  Though we have many Italian organizations in our town they all face the same problem. None of the organizations offer Italian Language Courses. When people think of Hammonton, they think of a small Italian town where Italian is spoken often. In fact, you rarely hear Italian in Hammonton.  If you are lucky you will be able to hear a little spoken in Bagliani’s by the older generation of Italians.

We frequently use excuses like “my parents never taught me” or “well I understand it, but I can’t speak it” when describing how much Italian we know. It’s time that we change this. If you have always wanted to learn Italian I have a class to recommend for you. The Amici della Lingua Italiana, a local Italian Club headquartered in Burlington NJ is offering Adult Italian classes for beginners in our town. In fact, the classes are being taught by Mrs. Adair who teaches High school Italian. Mrs. Adair will provide her students with everything they need to succeed in the Italian Language Class. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know Italian at all. Most likely the person sitting next to you will not either. These classes are for beginners who have dreams of being able to read, write, and speak the beautiful language of our heritage.

This is an amazing opportunity for this town. We have waited long enough to pay homage to our ancestors who came from Italy many years ago. What a better way to do it then speak the language of our heritage. The classes are going to be held at Hammonton High School on Tuesday nights from 6:30PM to 8:00PM. The classes will run from September to May. The cost of the class is $175 plus books, which includes a membership to the Amici della Lingua Italiana. Keep in mind that this is very inexpensive. Most private lessons run from $70 an hour and up. We are accepting new students every day, in fact we need more students to keep the classes going. Let’s not let this opportunity go. Please join the Italian classes so we can live up to being the “Italian Capital of the United States”. Please contact Charles Sbarra at 609-377-4083 or Marion Condo at 856-768-5752.

Sincerely,

Charles Sbarra

Trustee, Amici della Lingua Italiana

How Italians Influenced the World

Rome gives the world a calendar, not once, but twice…

Italians have made many important contributions to society, but there is one that we take for granted; the calendar. Despite current use of about forty traditional or religious calendars (such as the Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Chinese), it is the calendar of Julius Caesar, as slightly modified by Pope Gregory XIII, that functions as the worldwide civil norm (D’epiro 3).

The Roman calendar, in its earliest form had only ten months and 304 days. This left 61 days in winter unaccounted for. This strange method of time was created by Rome’s legendary founder and first king, Romulus. Back in this time the months of January and February did not exist yet, since Roman farmers didn’t have much fieldwork to do in the dead part of the year after the last of their crops had been harvested and stored. After a two month downtime a new year would start in March with the preparation of the ground for next season’s crops. It wasn’t until Numa Pompilius, Rome’s Second King, that the months of January and February were added to the end of the year. This added 51 days to the calendar.

At this time, the main purpose of the calendar was to ensure proper observance of 45 religious festivals and to indicate which days public business could be conducted. Four months had 31 days, February had 28 and the rest had 29. In an attempt to fix the discrepancy between the lunar 355 day year and the solar year an extra month called Mercedonius, which had 27 and 28 days alternatively, was intercalated every other year after February 23. This meant that a four year cycle contained 1,465 days with the year averaging 366.25 days. First the calendar was way to short…now a bit too long.

By the time of Julius Caesar, the calendar was several months out of whack with the seasons. While Caesar was in Egypt he discussed the Egyptian calendar with Alexandrian Savants. As you know at this time around 47 B.C. Caesar was planning an incredible military campaign in the east. Because of this he wanted a single official calendar that would keep in step with the sun. Since January was now accruing in autumn, the harvest, festivals and the proper times for planting and sailing were losing all correspondence with the seasons.

Caesar devised a new calendar for the new Rome he was to rule, from Spain to the Middle East. He created a calendar of 12 months and 365 days with a leap year occurring every fourth year. Based on the calendar devised by the Alexandrian astronomer Aristarchus in 239 B.C., this Julian calendar was adapted by Caesar for the Roman world in 46 B.C.

The most interesting part of the story is how Julius Caesar ordered two intercalations in 46 B.C. The First was to make 23 days in February, and the second, was the addition of 67 days in the fall to realign the calendar with the seasons. The 355 day year thus added an additional 90 days which made the total amount of days to 445. These extra days occurred for one more year, and the year was known as “the last year of confusion.” The era of the Julian calendar formally began on New Year’s Day, January 1, 45 B.C. A little more than a year after this magnificent reform, Caesar was assassinated, but not before July was named in his honor.

Source: d'Epiro, Peter. 40 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. 3-8. Print.

Vacation in Italy...

Save the Hammonton High School Italian Club

Caro Amici,    

Sadly, due to the budget crisis in the state of New Jersey, the Hammonton Board of Education has voted to eliminate the Hammonton High School Italian Club as part of the budget for the 2010-2011 school year. The approved budget will cut numerous other extra-curricular activities, in addition to several positions held by valued teachers and other staff members at the high school.

            While budgetary cuts are, unfortunately, necessary when faced with the lack of money, we are questioning the decision to cut the Italian Club. The club plays an important role in this Italian community. It is the largest language club at Hammonton High School, boasting more than 60 members. You may be aware of the contributions of the club: We distribute a quarterly, student-written newsletter throughout the community; we host the annual World Language Dinner; we started the Showcase of Italian and Italian-American Heritage; and we sponsor Italian-related class trips for our members. We hold true to our mission statement:

The Hammonton High School Italian Club is a culture club committed to embracing and celebrating Italian Culture, Language, and Heritage. The Club’s main purpose is to share Italian Heritage through social functions and community events.

           

The primary reason we have for questioning the Board of Education’s decision is that the vast majority of our funds comes from fundraisers, donations, and the club’s members. The newsletter is printed for free, the club members pay a minimal fee for a year of postage, and trips are paid for by the students or by donations from local Italian clubs within the community. The High School Italian Club would be able to operate and continue its work within the community without the funds provided by the Board of Education. Therefore, we urge others in the community to contact the school to question the Board of Education’s decision and ask for the Hammonton High School Italian Club to be reinstated.

Hammonton High School

566 Old Forks Road

Hammonton, NJ 08037

(609) 567-7000

Grazie,

HHS Italian Club Board of Officers

No Italian Club in Hammonton High School

As you know, Hammonton is the most Italian town in the United States.At this current time the school board has voted to eliminate this extra curricular activity. A flier displaying more information will be available shortly.