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Photo courtesy of Sophia Mattia (12-3)
The sound of oil splashing in the pan filled my ears as I quickly scurried downstairs. The aroma of Christmas Eve cooking wafted through my nose as I made my way into the kitchen to see my mother and grandmother hard at work preparing for tonight’s big dinner. In Italian culture, Christmas Eve is actually more of a fuss than Christmas Day, though we celebrate both. On Christmas Eve we present the “Feast of the Seven Fishes,” an Italian-American holiday tradition. It originated from Roman Catholic Italians that abstain from eating meat on Christmas Eve before “Feast Day” which is Christmas Day. Thus, in my household, no meat is eaten on Christmas Eve, only fish and non-meat products.
When I am asked about my holiday plans and try to explain the complex tradition of the seven fishes, I often get the question, “Why seven?” The truth is, no one really knows why the number seven is so special. There has been speculation that it is because the number seven appears in the Bible many times, or because there are seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church or because there are Seven Hills of Rome. In my household, we don’t confine ourselves to that number. We can have any number of fish we want...as long as it’s an odd number. I often wonder why the number of fish being odd is so important. I’ve asked my grandmother about it multiple times and always get the same response, “An even number is bad luck.” There is never any explanation beyond that, no reason following that would explain this “bad luck,” so I’ve just learned to go with it.
Every fish must be different. On Christmas Eve at my house, the food spread greatly resembles the ocean. Before dinner, there is roasted red peppers and Italian tuna as an appetizer, with bread on the side, among other non-seafood delicacies. Once we sit down, the feast starts off with clams and macaroni, followed by many other fishes such as stuffed calamari, baccalà (salted codfish), scallops, crab claws, shrimp cocktail and fried shrimp (counting as one fish). Basically, if you don’t like seafood, you’re essentially a fake Italian.
Christmas Eve dinner at my house has also become a whole event outside of food. The table has extended so much over the years, the joke of breaking down a wall to fit more people has been made several times. We have my dad’s sisters, their kids, and their significant others. Then comes my mom’s side, which is much larger, so not all of them can come. It’s sort of like a competition for who can get a seat at our Christmas Eve dinner.
There is also an entertainment aspect of this dinner as well. It usually happens when everyone is almost at the end of their meal. One of my uncles always has some sort of Christmas song parody to perform, and everyone has their own verse to sing (or speak) about themselves. Sometimes I help write them and I can’t deny that it’s a fun time. It always leads to laughter, as many of these performances are done by slightly tipsy relatives.
All in all, my family and our Christmas Eve traditions are anything but ordinary. But what else can you expect to happen when you put over twenty-five Italians in a room together with plenty of food, alcohol and self-produced music?
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