An Italian Christmas Eve, Must be "A Feast of the Fishes". The only question is the Number of Fishes. Five, Seven, Nine. or Thirteen, and what it represents.The most
popular is Seven. But take you pick and enjoy!!!!!

CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS AS THEY DO IN OLD ITALY-
HOURS OF FEASTNG ON SEAFOOD

Palm Beach Post
By Jan Norris
Food Editor
Thursday, December 16, 2004

Five hours — or more — around a dinner table, with a different fish course arriving every 45 minutes or so. Plenty of homemade wine flowing, everyone talking and excitement building as Christmas Eve begins to work its magic. Kids are dreaming of Christmas to come, and their elders are remembering Christmases past.

This is the Southern Italian holiday tradition, brought to America by families from the old country. While it's been adapted for today's smaller families and appetites, the framework still stands.

The number of stories about the origins of the Italian Feast of Seven Fishes, known as La Vigilia (the Vigil) are as numerous as the fishes on the table.

Some say the seven fish courses, traditionally served as a huge Christmas Eve banquet, represent the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Others believe they stand for the seven days it took for Mary to get to Bethlehem, or the seven stations of the cross, or seven days of creation.

Still others plan 13 fish dishes — 13 being the numbers of apostles, plus Jesus.

Whatever the number or the symbolism, the fish meal also represents the food traditions of a country frequently torn by war in its long history, and also blessed with cheap and readily available seafood.

So it is that some of the lesser fish have their day on Dec. 24. Eels, small conchs (scungilli), periwinkles called marruzelle in Naples, little clams, small squid, large octopuses, lobster, orata (a type of bream), branzino or spigola (two names for a white-fleshed sea bass), minnow-like smelts, anchovies, sardines, mussels, and the must-have fish of the meal, baccalà (salt cod), appear in a variety of preparations.

This is a dinner that seemingly takes as long to eat as it does to prepare. Typically, the men shop for the fish or catch it days before, striving for freshness. They bring them home, where the task of cleaning can be left to the wife. She will begin the meal three days before and not finish until the last dish is cleared in the wee hours of Christmas morning.

In Italy, the kitchen is the woman's domain; men are seldom seen doing family cooking, especially for a large, traditional meal such as the Vigil.

Extended families will gather for this dinner — cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents and so on. A table for 24 or more would not be unusual.

During the seven-fish meal, vegetables are worked into the dishes or served alongside: roasted or grilled peppers with the eels, potatoes, tomatoes and onions baked on the sea bass, celery in the calamari salad, escarole with the octopus.

After dinner, a salad of endive, and a digestif (an herbal liqueur) would appear, along with a cheese plate and nuts, still in their shell and ready to crack. A little homemade grappa or limoncello would be sipped.

Games then begin, involving most of the men and children while the women clean up. The diners relax until it's time for church.

After midnight Mass, to which they walk, the families might return home for one more glass of grappa — and maybe an orange. Or mama may have made pizelles, waffle-like anise-flavored cookies, or struffoli, (translated, wads of cotton) — a sweet dough loosely formed into balls, fried till crisp, tossed in honey and stacked high on a plate. Sprinkles, crushed nuts or candied fruits sometimes are dusted over them for color.

The meal ends there, with children dreaming of their presents. Weary women plan for the next day's dinner, thankfully smaller, with usually only immediate family members. It generally consists of meat; the elaborate fish meal is over — until next year.

Celebrate Christmas as they do in Old Italy - hours of feasting on seafood
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