TheFeast of the Seven Fishes (Italian:Festa dei sette pesci) is anItalian American celebration ofChristmas Eve with dishes of fish and otherseafood.[1][2] Christmas Eve is a vigil or fasting day, and the abundance of seafood reflects the observance of abstinence from meat until the feast of Christmas Day itself.[1][3]
The Feast of the Seven Fishes derives its name from seven different seafood dishes that are typically served during this celebration. Also known asla Vigilia, it is a ritualized Christmas Eve feast consumed over several hours. As an Italian-American celebration, it came along from the peak of immigration into the cities of the Northeast and the Upper Midwest (from the 1880s to the 1930s).[4]
The tradition stems from theRoman Catholic observance ofabstaining from eating meat on the eve of a feast day.[1] As no meat or animal fat could be used on such days, observant Catholics would instead eat fish (typically fried in oil). It is unclear when or where the term "Feast of the Seven Fishes" was popularized. Nick Vadala, writing forThe Philadelphia Inquirer, found the newspaper's oldest reference to the feast in a 1983 article.[5][6]
The meal includes multiple (usually seven or thirteen) fish dishes. It is often erroneously claimed that the tradition is "unknown in Italy".[3] However the tradition of a Christmas Eve meal of seven or thirteen fishes has been well-documented inCalabria.[7][8][9][10] In some Italian-American families, there is no count of the number of fish dishes. A well-known dish isbaccalà (salted cod fish). Friedsmelts,calamari, and other types of seafood have been incorporated into the Christmas Eve dinner over the years.
The number seven may come from the sevenSacraments of the Catholic Church, or theseven hills of Rome, or some other source. There is no general agreement on its meaning.[1][2]
The meal's components may include some combination ofanchovies,whiting,lobster,sardines,baccalà (dried saltcod),smelts,eels,squid,octopus,shrimp,mussels andclams.[2] The menu may also include pasta, vegetables, baked goods and wine.
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It's a Southern Italian (and now Italian-American) custom in which a grand meal of at least seven different kinds of seafood is served before midnight Mass The fish part comes from the Catholic practice of abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve, while the number may refer to the seven sacraments.
It is a Christmas Eve ritual handed down from mother to son. Every year,Ed Giobbi, the artist and cookbook author, serves a holiday feast of seven fish dishes (seven for the seven sacraments). Each dish is cooked in a different manner – broiled, fried, baked and so on – or uses a different main ingredient. There is generally a fish or seafood salad and, inevitably, pasta served with a seafood sauce. ...
