Twenty is 'a festa. The Italian word is doing more work than the English party suggests: a festa is a saint's day with its procession, its lights strung across a street and its stall selling nougat, and Naples has a great many of them.
The word-pool that gathered around 20 in the printed dictionaries is oddly administrative for a feast day — a creditor, a debt, an amnesty, a leap year. Nineteenth-century compilers were not sentimental.
- 20
- 'A festa
- the feast
- Row 11–20 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
Unexplained. Neither the round number nor the figure carries a recorded rationale.
Other things filed on 20
In Neapolitan life
Sicily puts u picciriddu, the child, at 20 and keeps its own feast elsewhere. Naples reserves 25 for Christmas specifically, so 20 is the generic celebration rather than any particular one.
20 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Any of them. A saint's day, a street festival, a family celebration. Christmas has its own square at 25.
No. Trapani puts the child on 20 and keeps its feast day elsewhere. Naples reserves 25 for Christmas and leaves 20 for celebrations in general.