2021 Home For the Holidays

2021 Home for the Holidays Lincoln Daily News November 24, 2021 Page 31 she would jeopardize her future success with finding a husband.” Food, food, food No matter where and how people celebrate Christmas, food is often a part of tradition. These traditions have religious or secular meanings. Some Italians and Italian-Americans celebrate the ‘Feast of the seven fishes,’ which appears to be connected to Catholic traditions. An article ‘The origins of the feast’ says, “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.” The seven courses also have Catholic connections “rooted back in ancient times”…[which] can be connected to multiple Catholic symbols: in fact, the seven seems repeated more than 700 times in the Bible.” In Catholic tradition, there are the seven sacraments, seven days of creation and seven deadly sins. It was in the early part of the 20th century when the feast of the seven fishes became an official tradition. Then, “Italian-American families rekindled the Old Country’s Christmas Eve tradition by preparing a seven- course seafood meal.” This meal “made them feel close to their homes, while celebrating the sea, a major connection in Italy.” In Australia, the food served at some Christmas feasts looks a bit different than what Americans might consider a traditional dinner. Since December is summer for Australians, some have cold meat and salad. Sheila Randall, whose family has lived in Australia for many years, says salads may include pasta salad, potato salad, rice salad, beetroot and lettuce salad. Alongside the salads are slices of cold meat. Randall says these often include chicken, lamb, ham and silverside (corned beef). Randall says, “many Australians think it is very festive to celebrate with seafood such as cold prawns and crayfish.” Others have a barbeque at the beach where they cook sausages, lamb chops and steaks. The salads are side dishes. There are also those, who Randall says, are Continued n