Christmas Eve foods in the Skylands

Catholics once fasted on December 24 and gave up meat, and in southern Italy, where seafood was cheap, families broke the fast with fish. Italian Americans made it the Feast of the Seven Fishes. You won’t hear that name in Italy, and it first turned up in print in a Philadelphia newspaper in the 1980s. In Portugal the same rule put salt cod on the Consoada table, boiled with potatoes, cabbage and eggs.

Poland’s Wigilia waits for the first star. Hay goes under the tablecloth, an extra place is set for an unexpected guest, and supper opens with the opłatek, a thin wafer shared around the table. Then come the meatless dishes, twelve in some families, for the Apostles.

German bakers were held to oil during Advent until a 1490 letter from Pope Innocent VIII allowed butter in Saxony, for a fee. The Philippines took Noche Buena from the Spanish and queso de bola from the Dutch, an Edam made to survive sea voyages. The French réveillon is named for staying awake through it, and Puerto Rico pours coquito, a coconut and rum drink often called Puerto Rican eggnog.