Tag Archives: Christmas Eve

Recipe – Sicily

Occupation: Student
Residence: Monterey, CA
Performance Date: March 23, 2008
Primary Language: English

Family Recipe/Meal Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Jessica Nicholas is from America, but much of her family is directly from Sicily.  During the Christmas Holiday they have a Sicilian, Catholic tradition of eating special meals both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  The meals are as follows:

Christmas Eve- Sicilian Ciappino Fish stew over Couscous

Christmas Day- Raviolis with red sauce, beef chunks, homemade meatballs

Jessica said this meal and its recipe were learned many generations ago back in Sicily.  She said the reason for the fish on Christmas Eve was because of their family’s history.  Her family back in Sicily were fisherman and ate a lot of fish, and saved the expensive meat for special holidays.  The combination of eating fish and meat on these two days brings together the sense of identity and the sense of a special occasion.  I asked her who prepares the meals and she immediately told me her mother and her grandmother (Nanie).  This seemed to be something that the women in the family do each Christmas, so I asked her if she is learning the recipes and plans to prepare it for her family in the future.  She told me, “possibly, I definitely try to help and learn their secrets, but it’s a lot of work it really depends on where I live because there’s no point in making the Ciappino if I don’t live by a fresh fish source. We literally go to the pier where the fisherman are coming in from their boats and buy straight from them”. This brought up the fact that people go through a lot of effort to maintain tradition and a sense of identity.  Jessica told me this meal has been made only one time on a separate occasion. “We’ve only made Ciappino once on a non-holiday in all of my years and that was because it was in the summer and we went fishing and my older sister was in town and wanted some of mama’s cooking”.  She said her mother made it so her sister could feel the sensation of being home for Christmas again.  Jessica also noted that the meal is not just important because of the taste.  She said it is the feeling of connecting with family that really makes it important. Also, seeing her Grandma and her older relatives makes her recognize the need to continue this tradition so her children and grandchildren will know their roots.

My analysis of the meal is very similar to that of Jessica’s.  I realize where she is coming from when she talks about how this connects her with family and her Sicilian heritage.  I also agree that preparing the meal is hard work, which is why she is hesitant about passing it on to her family.  I have a feeling she will feel differently as she grows older and has a family, because the hard work only comes once a year.  That hard work then connects your family with itself and it’s past forever.  The only difference in opinion is why they might have meat on Christmas.  This meat symbolizes the specialty of the occasion but also expresses the want for a better life.  Her family were fisherman and the prospect of having meat at the end of the year on Christmas could symbolize the expectations for a rich Christmas and New Year.

Holiday Tradition – Mexican

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 46
Occupation: Dental Assistant
Residence: Tijuana, Mexica
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

On Christmas Eve, Blanca, her sisters and her mom get together to prepare dinner. The menu is standard and always includes masa (batter), husks, chicken, potatoes, meat with red sauce, pineapple, raisins, and cheeses. Her mother always prepares the sauce in advance which she refers to as salsa. The sauce is a particular one her mother’s mother had devised and it is only made once a year. The special sauce is known as “Salsa Michoacana” because this is where the family is from. It was passed on from her grandmother and has stayed as a tradition to eat every Christmas Eve. The fillings are pre-cooked and everything is laid out on a long table. Loud music is put on, everyone puts on their aprons, and all they take a spot around the table forming an assembly line. One person would fill the husks, then pass it on to the next who folds it, and the last person ties it. The assembled husks get placed in different containers and get steamed in different pots depending on the filling used.

While the food is cooking and the kitchen cleaned up, the family relaxes while playing “Loteria” which is equivalent to Bingo except the cards have pictures not numbers. Some common pictures on the cards are of “el boracho” (the drunken man), “la palma” (the palm tree), “la estrella” (the star), “el sol” (the sun), and “el botella” (the bottle). A deck of cards is turned and little stories are made to depict little stories of the card turned over. Beans are used to cover the card and when the card is filled one yells “Loteria”.

This time before Christmas represents a time for family and tradition to Blanca. Regardless of the directions that her family members have taken that year, the Christmas preparation sparks a time for togetherness and family.

Blanca’s family celebration seems to represent a time where not only present family is recognized but also a commemoration of family members who have passed and an acknowledgment of tradition and culture. This is implied through various features of Blanca’s story. Firstly, the special salsa that is made for the event is named in remembrance of the location that the family is from. Secondly, the same exact recipe is repeated each year, with each person assigned a different task. Not only does it reinforce the necessity of each family member in the creation of the Christmas Eve celebration but also emphasizes the presence of tradition within Blanca’s family.

The card game emphasizes the Mexican influence on Blanca’s family. The game “Loteria” is one that is in their native tongue and slightly adapted to reflect the Mexican culture. Playing the card game is useful for the purpose of recreation and fun but also a time for family to rest collectively in addition to all the time that goes into the preparation of the event.

Tradition – Sicilian-American

Nationality: Italian-American
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hillsdale, NJ
Performance Date: March 16, 2008
Primary Language: English

Tradition—USA

“On Christmas Eve, Sicilians eat 7 different types of fish.”

Liz informed me that she has been observing this tradition for as long as she can remember.  Every Christmas Eve, her mother cooks seven different types of fish for the family to eat.  During normal meals, they eat some sort of chicken or red meat, but not on Christmas Eve.  Usually her mom prepares Salmon, Calamari, Shrimp, Mussels, Clam, Tuna, and Snapper.  This combination of sea creatures varies from year to year depending on what the family feels like, and whether or not family from out of town [with certain preferences] is visiting.  The most important piece is that seven, no more no less, types of fish are prepared and consumed.  This tradition is observed by most Sicilians and has biblical implications.  Seven is arguable the most important number in the bible.  As Italian Food Editor Paula Laurita describes the importance of the number “seven is a number of perfection”—the seven days of creation, seven sacraments of the Catholic Church to name a few (Italian Food Editor).  Though seven is an important number for Sicilians, Liz herself has always wondered why seven types of fish are consumed on Christmas Eve.  Yes, the number seven is important, but why this food on this particular day?  This question shows how with folkloric traditions sometimes people are clueless,  but traditions are observed religiously nonetheless—almost the same as if they were recorded somewhere.

This is an interesting piece of folklore because numbers and what they mean to different cultures are a big piece of folklore.  To Indians, good luck and good things come in groups of fours.  To us Americans, good things come in groups of threes (third time’s the charm,  three little pigs, etc.)  It is thus interesting to examine the way in which Italians observe a tradition in sevens.  It also must be noted that both the origins and reasons for this tradition are mysterious.  Eating seven different types of fish and not seven different types of vegetables or meats may have been a random tradition or may have come about for a very specific reason, either way it has given Italians a way to celebrate the importance of the number.

Laurita, Paula. “Italian Christmas Eve: Feast of the Seven Fishes.”  Italian Food Site. 2008