La Festa dei sette pesci -"Feast of Seven Fishes"

This article originally appeared on suite101.com on 11/29/11. 

 

 

Feast of the Seven Fishes - an Italian Christmas Tradition

 

There’s one meal my entire family looks forward to all year long, and that is the Italian Christmas Eve dinner known as the “Feast of the Seven Fishes” or “La Festa dei Sette Pesci”.  Google the English phrase and you will find as many different theories on the origin of the tradition as type of dishes involved. Whether the significance of seven is due to the days in which God created the world, the number of Sacraments, or the days journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, the Roman Catholic tradition is meant to commemorate the birth of the baby Jesus.  The one commonality is that the meal involves only seafood and lots of it (due to abstinence from meat on a holy day).  

 Apparently, the tradition is celebrated only in southern regions of Italy, and relatively unheard of north of Rome.  Our tradition focuses more on the celebration of family, friends and food.  It’s the one time of year my immediate family (Napoletana side) is together at one time, in one place.  My Sicilian side did not celebrate this (contrary to a theory this is a Sicilian tradition)!

The number of diners at our table varies from year to year, depending on how many significant others and non-family friends join our celebration.  It’s possible the number even varies throughout the night, as guests come and go.  For this reason, large quantities of food are purchased so no belly will be unfed.  I was able to experience the buying of the fish firsthand.  Being from a prominent family and with no expense too high, my Grandmother would enter the seafood market proudly, and the vendors would practically bow in her presence.  I may be the only family member who was allowed to witness the exchange of ridiculous amounts of money but I was not allowed to hear the negotiation.    

Although the seven types of fish varies between families, our meal consists of linguini with crab sauce, crab legs, lobster tails, calamari salad and scungilli salad (combined with chopped onion, garlic, celery and hot cherry tomatoes), bacala, fried smelts and the piece de resistance: colossal shrimp (approximately 5 inches long, 1 ½ inches wide) filled with a delectable mixture of butter, bread crumbs, chopped parsley and the secret ingredient only divulged when the tradition passed on, Chicken in a Biscuit.  With first course starting at 7pm and dessert wrapping up at 10:30, it is a gastronomic feast.   Bloated and exhausted, we head to midnight mass and then get a quick nap before it is time for the Christmas Day meal.

Then we count 364 days.