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Catholics on 15 August, and thus referred to by the Italian speakers as mezzagosto
(mid-August). Men arrived to sing, dance, eat and drink while the Traversi brothers
played music from Giumaglio. Carlo Traversi, who later ran a well-knovm orchestra
and dance hall in Daylesford (ref figure 9), played on a viola which he had brought
from Ticino. Music and singing were central to the life of the osteria (as it had been in
their villages), transforming it into 'qualcosa di piii, che il semplice baretto dove si
beve un bicchiere' (something more than the place where one came to drink).^'
When Leonardo^ impressed with the four days of revelry, stated that everyone had
celebrated in the 'colonial way',^* he was also acknowledging the simultaneous shift
and maintenance which such 'traditional' practices and beliefs were undergoing in the
new contexts of Austraha ~ the new points of reference which invested the cultural
and ethnic identity of ItaUan speakers with additional meaning and significance. On
normal working days, the Pozzis would take their cart around the mines delivering
bread to the customers. On Sundays, the same group of customers would come to the
osteria to relax. Stefano had ceased to be the baker and was employed making cider
with a Luganese friend, Daniele Quadri. To attract customers, the pair placed a sign
reading 'cider' near the doorway to the store: this indicated a recognition on the part
of the Italian speakers of some English words as well as the existence of an English-
speaking clientele. ^^ This, and other anglicisms which entered the Pozzis' language ~
such as pubblichouse (public house) and polismar?^ (policeman) ~ mirrored the
broader acculturation the Italian speakers were undergoing in Australia, and reflected
the new points of reference for their changing cultural identities. The very imprecision
of many of the new renditions reflected the transitory character of these early years of
settlement. The word 'claim', for example, had taken on three forms: clem, cleme and
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