Paesana! Feast of the Seven Fishes

Thanks Paesana
Arvada, Colorado
December 10, 2024 7:26am CST
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American Christmas Eve tradition that involves serving at least seven different seafood dishes. This custom is rooted in the Roman Catholic practice of abstaining from meat and dairy on Christmas Eve, with the number seven symbolizing various Catholic concepts such as the sacraments and the days of Creation. While not a religious event, it resembles a festive meal similar to Thanksgiving. Traditional dishes often include salted cod (baccalà), fried calamari, stuffed escarole, fried smelt, conch salad (scungilli), and stuffed clams oreganat. My Nana cooked a lot of seafood among other tasty dishes all year long and with lots of love. Had you ever had this many fishes to eat?
Christmas is the time of traditions—like the Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes.
18 people like this
16 responses
Bojel
@jobelbojel (36026)
• Philippines
10 Dec
Sounds good. We don't have such here though.
3 people like this
Toni
@toniganzon (72517)
• Philippines
10 Dec
I was born and raised as a catholic but we never had this feast. But I guess it's an Italian catholic custom. We did practice the Spanish catholic custom.
3 people like this
much2say
@much2say (55905)
• Los Angeles, California
12 Dec
Ohhhh, I did not know about this delicious tradition! I would dig having all that seafood. Your Nana must've been a fabulous cook .
2 people like this
rakski
@rakski (125769)
• Philippines
11 Dec
Wow! I think I will love that!!!
2 people like this
G
@freelancermariagrace (28588)
• Philippines
11 Dec
That sounds great! Since I love eating fish, I think I would really enjoy having that.
2 people like this
M Cheung
@Beestring (14675)
• Hong Kong
11 Dec
Fish is one of the dishes for Chinese New Year. But there are other foods as well.
2 people like this
celticeagle
@celticeagle (168126)
• Boise, Idaho
10 Dec
Only when I have eaten at Red Lobster and got the assortment, and I never ate most of the fish you mentioned.
2 people like this
Always smiling
@allknowing (137553)
• India
10 Dec
Never heard of othis. But I do remember as a child we never ate meat on Christmas eve
2 people like this
Marie
@Tampa_girl7 (50603)
• United States
14 Dec
I haven’t heard of this tradition before.
Judy Evans
@JudyEv (341752)
• Rockingham, Australia
11 Dec
I've never heard of this custom. We don't really eat a lot of fish. It's very expensive here.
1 person likes this
Ron Rybs
@Ronrybs (19588)
• London, England
10 Dec
Not heard of this one and it has far too much fishy food for my taste!
1 person likes this
DB
@dgobucks226 (35716)
•
14 Dec
You had me at fish OT. I love seafood! Italians showing, they can cook more than pasta. Love it
Aparna Sen
@Dreamerby (5756)
• Calcutta, India
14 Dec
Nope usually I don't like the fishy smell. I like few fishes though. Like today itself I had pomfret fish fry!
1 person likes this
Greenery8
@grenery8 (11078)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
15 Dec
only one kind of fish
Judy Story
@jstory07 (139782)
• Roseburg, Oregon
12 Dec
I would really enjoy that. I love all seafood and try to have fish at least twice a week.
MARILYN
@Marilynda1225 (83074)
• United States
10 Dec
I have Italian friends and they do the 7 fishes on Christmas Eve. When I was growing up my grandma always made fish cakes on Christmas Eve (she was Irish) but we kept with the no meat on the eve. Even now it brings back good memories