Liberal Arts Blog — “Feast of The Seven Fishes” (Festa Dei Sette Pesci) — Italian Culinary Tradition — Or Just An Italian American Invention?
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Miscellaneous Day
Today’s Topic: “Feast of the Seven Fishes” (Festa Dei Sette Pesci) — Italian Culinary Tradition — or just an Italian American invention?
Are you Italian? Was the “Feast of the Seven Fishes” on your family’s calendar? What were the seven fishes? If not, what did you eat for Christmas Eve dinner (Cena de la Vigilia) or did you call it “Cenone”? And, by the way, what did you have on Christmas Day itself (Pranzo di Natale”?
If you are not Italian, but Christian, what has been your family’s Christmas Eve culinary tradition that you most look forward to every year?
If you are not Christian, what is your equivalent?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
SOUTHERN ITALY: baccala (salt cod). capitone (eel), calamari (eel), scungilli (conch meat), vongole (claims)
1. ”The ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, including Christmas.”
2. “The number seven is rooted in ancient times and it can be connected to multiple Catholic symbols: in fact, the seven seems repeated more than 700 times in the Bible.”
3. “Also, according to the Roman Catholic Church, seven are the sacraments, the days of Creation, and the seven deadly sins. Hence seven courses.”
NORTHERN ITALY: “Nothern Italy’s cuisine may lean more towards freshwater fish like trout, grayling, zander, pike, perch, and whitefish”
1. “Families in Piemonte celebrate with agnolotti, fresh pasta filled with meat.”
2. “In Roma, the tradition calls for minestra di pesce, fish-based soup.”
3. “In Sardegna, there’s no Christmas Eve dinner without malloreddus, small semolini gnocchi usually served in a sauce with tuna and fresh cherry tomatoes.”
NB: “Of course, for any Italian family it wouldn’t be a Christmas feat without panettone and pandoro, the traditional fluffy cakes that adorn every table and are gifted with wishes of love and prosperity, and classic holiday desserts like torrone, hazelnut-studded chocolates, panforte, and beyond.”
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS IN ITALY BEGIN ON DECEMBER 8TH, THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND END ON JANUARY 6TH EPIPHANY
1. December 26th is “Giorno di Santo Stefano” (Saint Stephens Day) and is a public holiday.
2. “In some areas female puppets are burned on a pyre (called falo), to symbolize, along with the end of the Christmas period, the death of the old year and the beginning of the new.”
3. “Nativity scenes were popularized by Saint Francis of Assisi from 1223, quickly spreading across Europe.”
NB: “Typical bearers of gifts from the Christmas period in Italy are Saint Lucy (December 13),
Christ Child, Babbo Natale (the name given to Santa Claus), and, on Epiphany, the Befana.”
The Befana is a witch-like old woman on a broomstick
https://www.eataly.com/us_en/magazine/culture-and-tradition/origin-feast-seven-fishes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_Italy
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert? Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
