A Day In The Life Of A Cat

Holiday Traditions

Today's Topic: The Feast of the 7 Fishes

If you are Italian or know an Italian, then maybe you've heard of this feast. Pretty interesting actually.

After midnight Mass, it's traditional for Italian families to sit down to the feast of the 7 fishes. Why seven? Seven is a very important number. It stands for the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. The seven days of creation. In Biblical numerology, seven is a number of perfection. To celebrate this, they have 7 fish dishes. Traditionally the fishes used were: calamari, scungilli (a large marine snail), Baccalà (dry, salt cod), shrimp, clams served with pasta, mussels, and some type of big fish usually snapper, trout, tuna, or salmon. These days they are not too picky and a lot of families have a seafood salad or a seafood stew with 7 fishes rather than 7 different courses. It's easier and takes a lot less time to prepare.

For Italian's, Christmas Day begins with an antipasto plate. Then comes soup. Then a pasta dish and a meat course. They finish up with salad.

Later there is fruit and sandwiches. How they can eat a sandwich after all that I'll never know.

Finally comes the "Venetian table". Cookies, pastries, and other desserts. This is followed by coffee with anisette. All this is, from beginning to finish, accompanied with a good red wine.

Phew! I'm stuffed just thinking about it!

Here are some recipes should you want to celebrate like an Italian!