Pizzelle (pit-sell) - Pizzelle's come from Italy. Pizzelle are also known as Italian wafer cookies and there are various ways which to spell pizzelle such as "piazelle," "piazella," "pizzele" and "pizelle." The name comes from the Italian word "pizze" for round and flat. Many different cultures have adapted this cookie and re-named it accordingly. In Scandinavia they are also known as "Lukken" and the Krumcake is baked using a similar iron as the pizzelle.
In some parts of Italy, the irons would be made with family crests on them which would be passed down to each generation.
Pizzelles are the oldest known cookie and originated in the mid-section of Italy. They were made many years ago for the "Festival of the Snakes" also known as the "Feast Day of San Domenico" in the village of Colcullo in the Italian region of Abruzzo. This village in Italy that was once overrun with snakes, and they were chased out. Afterwards the village celebrated with pizzelle. Sweet bread pancakes, know as pizzelles, are sold in an auction, to receive the offers of the faithful: they will be on show during the procession with the statue of the saint enveloped by live snakes.
According to an article from the Lonely Planet Publications on the Festival of the Snakes: 

Legend has it that the mountainous and bucolic area around Abruzzo was once so infested by snakes that life tended to the short, sharp and brutal rather than the long and cheerful. The local shepherds, back in 700 BC, appealed to Apollo for help. His advice was to capture the snakes, domesticate them by draping them around his statue and then release them into the bush again.
Curiously, this seemed to work and the ritual has been replayed ever since. Somewhere along the way, however, the fickle mortals dumped the old Greek gods for the newish Christian gods and indulged in a bit of historical revisionism. Apollo became Saint Domenica and a few touches of modernity, like fireworks, were added to the ritual.
Celebrations begin on St Joseph's Day, 19 March, when the first snakes of the season are netted and caged. Two months later, on the first Thursday in May, the village is stirred by an 8am revelry call of fireworks, followed by a traditional mass. After the mass, the statue of Saint Domenica is hauled through the streets of Colcullo, where villagers drape the captured serpents, boa-like, around the stone neck of Saint Domenica.
This ritual and the procession is usually accompanied by a noisy band of villagers, barking dogs and merry-makers. At the edge of the village the squirming mass is released back into the bush and the villagers, so it is said, are immune from snake bites for another year.
Pizzelles is similar in meaning to Pizza. In Salle, in the Abruzzi region of Italy, there is a festival, which takes place in which pizzelle plays a large role. The feast is held in July to honor Beato Roberto a twelfth-century monk. When the feast begins, people bring food to the town square and some people attach pizzelle to tree branches and proceed down the street with them."
In some parts of Italy, the irons would be made with family crests on them which would be passed down to each generation. To many Italians, there is no feast without pizzelles.
What is a Pizzelle information courtesy of cookbook author and culinary historian, Linda Stradley.  Linda is the Author of "I'll Have What They're Having - Legendary Local Cuisine" and web site "What's Cooking America" at http://whatscookingamerica.net