Lavish and Luscious Christmas Eve Feasts in Poland, the Ukraine and Lithuania

Christmas traditions such as buying gifts, decorating homes, offices and classrooms and trimming indoor Christmas trees with lights and ornaments are commonplace throughout the world. For most, it wouldn't be Christmas without these annual customs. However, in Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania Christmas would be incomplete without their traditional Christmas Eve feasts.

These feasts are rich in traditions and superstitions dating back to pagan times. Early Christians adapted many of these customs giving them new meanings relating to Christianity. One such custom, delaying the meal until the sighting of the first star at night, symbolizes the birth of Jesus in Christian tradition and a soul of deceased ancestors in pre-Christian beliefs. Another custom, setting an extra plate and chair at the table, welcomes strangers who might be Jesus in disguise to the meal in Christian tradition and deceased ancestors who are believed to revisit their homes on Christmas Eve in pre-Christian beliefs.

The meal, a twelve-dish menu symbolizing the 12 apostles in Christian tradition and the 12 months of the year in pre-Christian beliefs, varies depending on the country. However, in all countries meat and dairy are not served in keeping with the month-long fasting period of Advent.

So what do they eat?

In Poland, unlike other countries where Christmas Day is the centerpiece of activity, Christmas Eve takes center stage. The day begins with a 24-hour fast and concludes with the Wigilia, or Star Supper.

The Wigilia begins with the breaking of the opłatek, a wafer of unleavened dough stamped with scenes of the nativity. The father, or other head of the household, will offer blessings to those present then break off and eat a piece of the wafer before passing it around the table for each person at the table to do as well.

The meal, which is laid out upon a white tablecloth having bits of hay spread beneath it as a reminder that Christ was born in a manger, includes a variety of fish, vegetable, soup, grain and sweet dishes.