Enjoy La Festa dei Sette Pesci during your Italian Vacation

For Italian families, the Christmas Eve meal is all about fish.
While other Christmas families throughout the world celebrate this momentous occasion with various meats, it is a tradition for Italian cooks to serve seven fish different types of fish.
In Italian, the meal is known as La Festa dei Setti Pesci, or Feast of the Seven Fishes, and it is one of Italy’s most famous tradition.

By all accounts, the Feast of the Seven Fishes began as a southern Italian custom. The tradition was hugely popular in Italy’s most southern points, including the island of Sicily.
Although Italian throughout the world celebrate it, no one knows for sure the significance for offering the seven fishes, but they are numerous explanations for it.
Some believe that seven fishes are served because it took God seven day to create the world, while others mention the Seven Hills of Rome.
There is also the possibility that the seven fishes symbolize the seven sacraments in the Catholic Church, along with the seven sins.
There are no requirements as to which types of fish need to be served but popular fishes include lobster, smelts, octopus, eels, calamari, baccala’, oysters, scallops, clams, mussels and shrimp.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a tradition that has existed since ancient times, and one which will surely continue. Life changes, but for the Italian people throughout the world, this is one tradition whose religious and cultural significance outweighs everything else.