Fave Alla Romana

The “fave dei morti” or “beans of the dead,” which consist of pastry, shaped to resemble a large broad bean, are found in various parts of Italy, and are specially made on All Souls’ Day. The making and consumption of these pastry beans in connection with the dead must have started at some remote period, and is a survival of an ancient superstition with regard to the bean. The goddess Demeter, for instance, who was not only the “corn” mother of the Greeks, but whose influence extended to ve