Meatless Christmas Eve

[CB_Catholic]

Some of the Italians have something they call “The Feast of the Seven Fishes” where every family member brings a fish-based dish (usually seven total) for Christmas Eve dinner.
All very nice and very yummy.

Yes, that’s what my Italian family did, as I wrote in my previous post, although my grandmother seemed to cook most of it herself. Seven kinds of fish (or seafood, as we usually had calamari and even octopus).

Our Deacon was telling us today, as we were discussing Christmas traditions, that in his family, Slavic in origin, they fasted on Christmas Eve, as well as abstained from meat, and for supper they would eat that delicious mushroom soup. But that was all. They would then attend Midnight Mass, and when they came home from Mass, that was when they would bring out all the festive food. So at 1:30 AM they would begin their Christmas feasting. They must have had some pretty strong stomachs. He said there was some symbolism in the mushroom soup, but I forgot what he said it was.

 

[umbro2914]

You’re right, not fasting, just abstaining from meat.
Do you guys do oplatek too? That’s one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve! Plus I love saying the word… it makes me feel even more Polish!

Yes, always oplatek. Its a stable at Polish wigilia, or Christmas eve.
We also set the table with one extra place setting to symbolize either a deceased relative, or a hungry stranger, so that if they knock on the door we are ready to welcome/ serve them (although that never happens, still a nice tradition)

 

[puzzleannie]

A meatless Christmas Eve is an *eastern *European tradition, usually observed by our Slavic brethren. You don’t find it in western Europe, and certainly not in the United States unless your ancestors came from Slavic lands.

when I was a child abstaining from meat on vigils of feasts like Christmas was still the discipline. Our custom, from my dad’s English (Catholic) family, was clam chowder, codfish cakes or finnan haddie, and boiled new potatoes with butter and parsley, and creamed peas. Then roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for Christmas day.

We raised our family in Cleveland where we borrowed freely from the ethnic customs of our neighbors–pierogi and mushroom barley soup from the Poles, pasta in marinara sauce and fish from the Italians, and so forth. Worked with Eastern Rite and Orthodox churches in town for the historical society and got invited to all kinds of holiday and pre-holiday meals and events (and liturgies as well), I could write a book. I am sure this has nothing to do with the extra 50 lbs. I haul around.