Christmas Eve Italian Traditions
The average christmas day meal is enough to fill your belly for a good few days.
Christmas eve italian traditions. But even with this common practice another tradition is to go to town. Christmas is a major holiday in italy which means italians celebrate lots of great unique christmas traditions. The feast of the seven fishes is part of the italian american christmas eve celebration although it is not called that in italy and is not a feast in the sense of holiday but rather a grand meal. Families share sumptuous feasts on both christmas and christmas eve however there s no inappropriate time of day to nosh on a slice of panettone.
Across italy natale tends to be a family centric holiday a time to stay at home and eat with loved ones but customs also vary from city to city from exactly which dishes are served to when to open presents making every region an interesting place to enjoy the holidays. Musement shares some holiday traditions from all around the boot. Instead the tradition is for italians to eat fish dishes. Christmas trees and gift giving have long been staples of italian christmas il natale after all gift giving predates modern consumerism by millennia and italian shops and city centers have long traditions of decorating and making things for christmas even when things were more modest.
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.