I have both nationalities, Italian and American, and so I've celebrated Christmas Eve with my Italian-American family and my Italian-American family.

This is Jen, and we're talking about a tradition that many Italian and Italian-American families practice on Christmas Eve.

Preparing for seven different types of ways.

Yes, for most families Christmas Eve is a time for gathering, celebrating, reminiscing,

and of course, eating.

And while dinner on Christmas Day is mostly standardized and very similar to a typical Thanksgiving meal,

Christmas Eve meals can vary much more widely depending

on your cultural background and family traditions. Jen and her family serve what's known as

the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, there would come out

to all of this fried and baked and roasted fish, and it was completely amazing, because I love, I love fish.

It's a tradition born out of southern Italy and influenced by the Catholic Church.

Now, why seven fishes?

You know, I don't know. That's a great question. I never questioned it. I was always,

I was just like, okay, seven fishes.

It's not entirely clear why it needs to be seven. Some say it's a reference to the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Others suggest it refers to the seven hills of Rome. There doesn't

seem to be wide agreement on that. But one thing everyone agrees on is that it must be fish. Why?

If everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe helps to make the season bright,

then what's the deal with a feast of seven fishes for many Italian families?

Or a vegetarian dinner for families of Polish or Lithuanian roots?

These feasts and others like them are part of a long-standing tradition from Christian cultures of Europe

that involve a so-called meatless meal on Christmas Eve.

I'm Brian Earle. This is Christmas Past.

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