Monday, March 17, 2014

An Italian Leprechaun?

There is an Italian version of a leprechaun.  I always wondered if anyone else has heard a story about them in their family.  One of my great grandmothers was Neopolitan and she called them minuscolo, which literally means miniscule (I had to look it up--I'm pretty sure that's the Italian way to spell it, but the dialect sounded more like moon-a-zhella).  

The way my mother told my siblings and me the story, she swore that elf left my great grandmother a dime every day in the same spot on her walk to work.  She would sometimes see him and he would stand there with his hands on his hips and laugh at her and tease her.  He said if she told anyone about him, he would stop leaving the money.

After a while, she couldn't help herself, and she told her husband.  Shortly thereafter, the elf appeared to her in her room and jumped from corner to corner laughing and laughing while she pointed him out to my great grandfather, "Look, there he is! Look over there!" He never did see the elf.  On her walk to work the next day, in place of a dime, she found a button.


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Diane Graci
Noble Niches

Treasures for Children & Home
www.nobleniches.com

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