Sunday,
December 23, 2007
The Seven Fishes: Italian Christmas Eve
Must!!!
The
ANNOTICO Report
The traditional
Christmas Eve "The Seven Fishes" spread often includes seafood
favorites like calamari, shrimp, clams, crabs and mussels or oysters, as well
as white fish and baccala, a dried cod that takes
several days to prepare.
The courses
varied, depending on what was available, and the wealth of the families serving
the dinner.
It is also
modified, because some children can't handle some fish. so
the menu is "Americanized"
Instead of the
dried cod, smelts or anchovies, dishes like mussels in linguini, clams casino,
or fried shrimp and flounder often substitute.
Tradition is
important, as pure to the original as possible, but a few necessary
diversions couldn't hurt, could it?????
Families'
Holidays Swim Around 7 Fish
By Jessica Beym
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Christmas feast of the
seven fish it's a tradition in some Gloucester County families that spans generations,
takes days to prepare, hours to eat and creates a lifetime of memories.
In many homes on Christmas Eve, families will
pull together tables and find as many chairs as possible to sit down together
and enjoy their own versions of the traditional dinner.
While it's perceived as mainly an Italian
tradition, some say the origin dates back to early Catholics who observed a day
of abstinence from meat on holy days, such as Christmas or Fridays during Lent.
The traditional spread often includes seafood
favorites like calamari, shrimp, clams, crabs and mussels or oysters, as well
as white fish and baccala a dried cod that takes
several days to prepare.
Some Italians say the courses varied,
depending on what was available, and the wealth of the families serving the
dinner.
In Maria Hildebrand's family, it is a
tradition that dates back to her father's parents, who immigrated
in the early 1900s from a small town near
Her father, Nicholas LaFanta,
82, still honors the traditional dinner by hosting his extended family in his
home in Runnemede.
"They had the whole family at the table
in the kitchen, and as the family grew, the tables grew and went in the dining
and living area," Hildebrand said of the early dinners at her
grandparents' home.
On the morning of Christmas Eve every year,
Hildebrand, of Pitman, stops at Ed's Crab Shack in
"We always follow the seven-fish rule
but we kind of modify it because there are a lot of fish my children don't
eat," Hildebrand said. "We Americanize it."
Instead of the dried cod, smelts or anchovies
that her father still enjoys, Hildebrand will include dishes like mussels in
linguini, clams casino, or fried shrimp and flounder.
"We want to keep the tradition going,
but we always change the menu up," Hildebrand said. "Tradition is so
much more important than detail. I think that's what the season's all about in
the first place."
Ed and Sue Camlin the owners of Ed's Crab Shack
where Hildebrand buys her fish said that Christmas is by far their busiest time
of the year because of the popular seafood dinner.
"Sunday is going to be busy but Monday
is going to be crazy," Sue Camlin said. "I had a lot of big orders
this year."
Before the weekend came, the Camlins were busy doing as much preparation as possible,
like making crab balls and breading shrimp. The store planned on closing at 5
p.m. on Monday, but the Camlins had to arrange for
someone to pick up a $400 order just after 5, since they had no time to cook it
all during the day.
Most of their customers place advanced orders
for cooked seafood, and also for fresh seafood.
"This year fried flounder is usually
number one, and fried shrimp, scallops," Camlin said. "This year
mussels are very popular."
Stephanie Clark's family tends to take the
more traditional route, having a menu of baccala,
smelt, spearling and anchovies incorporated into
various dishes.
"It takes a lot of preparation,"
said Clark, a longtime
About 30 people usually show up for dinner
with her family, but since she moved to a smaller home, it has been held at her
parents' house in
"Usually my mother and myself are the ones doing the cooking,"
The tradition has gone on for at least 60 or
70 years and it always draws in family members from the
"That's all we do on Christmas Eve I don't
know anything else," she said.
Even though Jan Anastasi
isn't Italian by blood, but by marriage, she's adopted the Christmas Eve fish
dinner as it was her own.
"When we had our two daughters I said
I'd really like to start a tradition," Anastasi,
of
Anastasi said she's heard of different reasons for the
significance of the seven fish, such as to symbolize the seven seas and seven
continents.
Others also say it has meaning behind the
seven sacraments in the Catholic religion, Jesus' seven wounds, or how the
Bible says it took God seven days to create the world.
The Anastasis'
table on Christmas Eve features dishes like an antipasto, fried calamari, tuna
in olive oil, and lobster bisque, followed by linguini with crab sauce, and a
layered seafood dish that's wrapped in foil and baked.
"That's where the fun comes in," Anastasi said as she explained how the entire family helps
make the dish. "Everyone has a job to do."
Tinfoil is laid on the table, and thick
pieces of a white fish are laid on top. Then comes the
shrimp, clams, mussels, olive oil and seasoning. Then it's wrapped, sealed and
baked so its steams just perfectly, she said.
"Fish has always been a big mainstay in
the Italian diet," Anastasi said. "I'm
dull, boring English, so we never really had any authentic traditions when I
was growing up. My mother-in-law never did anything like that, but when they
were alive they really enjoyed it. Everybody looks forward to it."
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net