The Last Stage on the Journey to Bethlehem: Christmas Eve

Article by courtesy of: http://www.fisheaters.com/customschristmas2.html If Advent preparations have been handled well, the house should be clean, work should be done, and things should be fresh and ready for 12 days of rejoicing! Once the sun goes down on Christmas Eve, the Yule log is lit in the fireplace. Back when homes had great fireplaces, fires were lit on Christmas Eve using logs so huge as to be able to burn for all the days of Christmas. These Yule logs now tend to be much smaller, but the traditions surrounding them remain: the fire on Christmas Eve should be lit using a piece of last year's Yule Log which has been stored under the bed of the mistress of the house, which folk belief says brings good fortune and prevents lightning strikes to the home. In Provence, the Yule log is lit with great ceremony. The Grandfather will pour sweet wine over it three times while saying: Alègre! Alègre! Alègre! Que nostre Segne nous alègre! S’un autre an sian pas mai, moun Dieu fugen pas men! Which means: Joy! Joy! Joy! May God bring us joy! And if, in the year to come, we are not more, let us not be less! Then he and the youngest child carry the log three times around the Christmas table before taking it to the fireplace. Alas, fireplaces are less common than they once were, but if you have no fireplace, a decorated log can be used as a centerpiece, as is done in Italy where the log is known as a "ceppo." While the Yule log burns, a candle is put in the window. This is an old Irish custom stemming from the Protestant persecutions: the candle signalled to priests that the home was a safe place for Mass to be offered, but when the English asked questions, they were told that it was a symbolic invitation to Joseph and Mary. The Christ candle -- a large white candle decorated with holly and such -- is lit for Christmas Eve Supper, replacing the Advent wreath. It is re-lit each night until the Epiphany to represent Christ's Light and in order to help guide the Magi to the manger. 1 The greenery of the Advent wreath itself is now decorated and hanged on the front door, remaining there throughout the Christmas season. Foods Christmas Eve (before the Vigil Mass) is a day of fasting and abstinence. The 1983 Code of Canon Law eliminated this fast altogether, but traditional Catholics still keep the fast, eating seafood (the Italians eat fish -- often seven of them!), noodles, other forms of pasta, etc. for the Christmas Eve Supper. In any case, on both Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, special dinners are served, some families beginning their Christmas Eve meals when a child sees the first star of the evening in the Noel sky. The table should be beautiful, with greenery and candles, especially the Christ Candle. Some families set a place setting for those who've died during the year or for those who are otherwise unable to attend, and then set a lit candle on it to burn throughout the meal. An Eastern European tradition is to use a white tablecoth to represent Christ's purity and His swaddling clothes, and to place underneath it a bit of hay to recall where he was born. In Provence, three white table cloths of different sizes are used, with the smallest on top. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day foods vary from country to country, but Christmas Eve dinners are meatless, while Christmas Day is the day of unrestricted feasting, when Christmas candies, marzipan, oranges, apples, tangerines, nuts, and the cookies baked during Advent are all laid out. From a German tradition, the nuts are cracked open with a nutcracker (nussknacker) shaped like a soldier. E. T. A. Hoffmann's Christmastime story, "The Mouse King," written in 1816, uses this type of nutcracker as a character, and since Tchaikowsky wrote his famous "The Nutcracker" ballet based on this story, both the nutcracker itself and the ballet have become seasonal favorites (click to hear the ballet's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"). On Christmas Eve, the Poles have a beautiful custom that recalls the Eucharist: Oplatki ("oplatek" in the singular) -- very thin, crisp, large rectangular breads with the consistency of Communion wafers and impressed with religious designs -- are eaten on Christmas Eve (Wigilia) . They are laid at the center of the table this night, on a bed of straw. Just before supper, the father wishes all a holy Christmas and recalls those who've died during the year and brings to memory Christmas Eve suppers past. He takes an oplatek that's been blessed by a priest, and breaks off a piece to give to his wife. He places it in her mouth with a blessing such as, "May the Lord bless and keep you through this next year." The mother reciprocates and then hands a piece to the person next to her and blesses him. That person does the same to the one next to him, and so on, until all have received and given a piece. If it is more than just the immediate family present, the oldest person present will initiate by offering an Oplatek to another, and the two break off a piece between them, passing the remainder on to the next person. Oplatki are shared with the family's animals, too. So loved is this tradition that Poles will mail small oplatki inside Christmas cards to those who aren't present for Christmas Eve. Remaining pieces of oplatki are given to animals to bless them, too (note: the "L" in the word for this bread is pronounced as a "W")." In Denmark and Norway, a Christmas Eve requirement is a rice pudding, sometimes served with a raspberry or cherry sauce, and inside of which is a peeled almond. The lucky person who finds the almond wins a marzipan pig! The after-Midnight Mass time (see below) is known as "le réveillon" (the "awakening") in France and French Canada. Foods from the Christmas Eve Supper are served up, and, depending on the region of France or Canada, crêpes, foie-gras, oysters, etc. are served, always ending with the fanciful, Yule Log-shaped Bûche de Noel cake. In Provence, seven meatless dishes are eaten for supper, and then, after Mass, thirteen desserts appear on the table and remain there for three days.   On Christmas Day, the English prefer gingerbread, plum puddings, and mincemeat pies. Mincemeat pies are baked in an oblong shape to recall Jesus' crib. To them were added cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to symbolize the gifts of the Magi. These pies were once made illegal by Puritan Oliver Cromwell, Lord Chancellor of England, because it was considered a "popish" dish (their loss!). An old bit of doggerel 2 that describes the anti-Catholic animus: The high-shoe lords of Cromwell's making Were not for dainties -- roasting, baking; The chiefest food they found most good in, Was rusty bacon and bag-pudding; Plum-broth was popish, and mince-pie -- O that was flat idolatry! Along with Christmas Day Feast's "popish foods," the English serve Christmas Crackers -- not a food, but a device invented in 1844 by Thomas Smith. It is a tube filled with candy, trinkets, jokes, and a party hat, all wrapped in colorful paper and broken open by two people, one pulling and twisting at each end. A cracker is placed beside each dinner plate at the Christmas table, and guests pick them up in their right hand, cross their arms, and, with their free left hand, pull the cracker of their neighbor to the right. When the cracker breaks open, a bang is produced when two strips of cardboard treated with silver fulminate strike against each other. Italians have to have a wonderful Christmas bread called panettone; Germans have their stollen (also crib-shaped, like mincemeat pies, and then "swaddled" in powdered sugar); Americans tend to go for their grandmothers' recipes from the "Old Country." See this page for a few recipes for a classic Christmas. -- and in all your feasting, don't forget God's other creatures! St. Francis of Assisi preached that animals should be well fed on Christmas, too. 3 He said If I could see the Emperor, I would implore him to issue a general decree that all people who are able to do so, shall throw grain and corn upon the streets, so that on this great feast day the birds might have enough to eat, especially our sisters, the larks. Give your dog some cheese and your kitty a little saucer of cream in honor of this great Saint and the Christ Child!