THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES REMAINS TODAY

One of the vivid memories of my childhood is walking into my grandmother’s kitchen on Christmas Eve morning and seeing live eels swimming in a big pot on the counter. Later that day, they would become one of the dishes for our annual Christmas Eve dinner, the “Feast of the Seven Fishes.”

The history of this meal is rooted in Southern Italy’s connection to the sea, as well as the Roman Catholic tradition of abstaining from meat on the eve of various holidays, including Christmas Day. Exactly where the number seven derives is subject to ongoing debate and conjecture. Surely, there are numerous references to the number seven in the Bible and the Roman Catholic religion. The Seven Sacraments, Seven Virtues and, of course, the Seven Deadly Sins. However, what is more important than the origin of the number is the connection to tradition and family.

Traditionally, the Feast of the Seven Fishes included dishes such as baccala (salted cod), fried smelts, eel, calamari, scungilli (often in salad) and various shelf fish, typically clams and mussels. By the time that I was a child in the 1980s, the “evolution” of this feast had already begun in our family. Gone were the days of baccala and fried smelts, and nonna was now making red sauce with blue crabs, lobster bisque and shrimp cocktail. The eels had disappeared by the time that I hit high school in the 1990s, although the calamari remained.

However, what was most important was that while the cuisine evolved over time, the spirit of this feast, and what is symbolized, did not change. Christmas Eve meant celebrating the birth of Christ, and family coming together. Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day of the year, and hopefully always will be. While I was fortunate to see my extended family often growing up, Christmas Eve was the one day of the year that everyone in my dad’s family got together. Nonna, pop, their six children and spouses and fourteen grandchildren – and my nonna lived long enough to see many of her grandchildren get married and the arrival of eight great-grandchildren as well. Nobody missed Christmas Eve, because it was fun, it was loud, it was spiritual, and the ever-evolving feast was the best meal of the year. So, while our Feast of the Seven Fishes has certainly been “Americanized” over the past hundred years, the meaning and importance of the day remain. Buon Natale.