Christmas Eve

All the teachings and all the mystic experiences of Christianity are wound into the feast of Christmas, and this gets translated into Family celebrations too. Each generation holds on to what they have grown up with and share these with new members of the family -- the children, the in-laws -- even as they make new traditions that work in new times and places.

So to with the Boenzi family, transplanted from Acerra to Cerritos, via Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Bellflower.

There are many traditions, but let me just note a few.

In centuries past, Christmas Eve was a day of fast and abstinence from all meat products. This was typical on the day before every major feast. Thus, during the day of Christmas Eve, people ate very little and no meat. Then in the evening there was a supper -- a huge supper as a matter of fact. Now, how could you justify a huge meal on a fast day? The reason is that before the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar (1582), the new day was always reckoned to begin with sunset, not with midnight (who had clocks in those days besides the very wealthy?). In the Church this tradition continues on feast days when «First Vespers» marks the beginning of the new day liturgically. Well, the Neapolitan custom of the big supper goes back centuries, and so once it is dark on Christmas Eve, the fasting is finished because it is a new day.

Yet, if the meal is big, it is still meatless. There is the tradition of seven fishes or of twelve plates. Seven fishes for the seven days of creation, and twelve dishes for the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. Of the twelve dishes, then, seven would be seafood. Usually there are three salt-water fish and three fresh-water fish, and one serving of eel. Each has a symbolic value that would recall the mysteries of faith and traditions of Christian practice.

The opening dish is a seafood pasta, and for us, it is always linguine with clams. Clams are thrown into the sauce after it is brought to a boil.

Angela prepares to stir the tomato and clam sauce

For the last couple of years now, my niece Angela has prepared the sauce. She has become quite expert in this, having learned the recipe from her mother Diane, who learned it from her mother-in-law (my mother) Connie (Maria Concetta Nuzzo), who learned it from her mother Maria Zito. The sauce is a tricky one since the herbs must be just right. In the old country the clam shells are cleaned and the clams then sorted, and then they are thrown into the sauce living. The pasta will be served with the clams and shells and all. We instead buy the clams already par-boiled, and therefore there are no shells (and the cook does not feel herself to be cruel).

The pasta is the last thing to be cooked, but then you know that. Ten minutes before the guests are ready to sit down, Angela throws the pasta in the pot.

Pour a little hot water in the bowl to heat it up, empty it, and then line the bottom with sauce. Take the pasta from the colander, put it into the sauce in the bowel, as you see my brother Mario doing in these photos.  Our father taught us this trick. The reason, he used to explain, is to keep the pasta from sticking and to allow the red sauce to spread evenly on all the pasta… but one must work fast.

After filling the bowl, add more sauce, stir the pasta together. Now you are ready to serve. My brother Mario, as head of the family in southern California, does the honors of serving up the linguine.

Mario fills each plate with the first course: linguine with clams

Mario follows the tradition that he learned from my father. He asks that all the plates be brought to his place, and fills each bowl with the linguine, then hand the bowl to the first person, who then passes them on to the one whose name Mario has called. Each person may add more sauce as she or he prefers. Cheese should never be added to a pasta dish if there is seafood… this is traditional, also because in old time abstinence from meat on a fast day included abstinence from dairy products. Very few people know this today. However, the clam sauce is so favor-full that there is no need to add cheese (good job, Angela!!).

There is plenty of pasta, but be careful. Do not fill up on this. As my uncle Rudy used to quote the old proverb, “taste everything but eat nothing” (assaggia tutto; mangia niente). Why? there will be more to come, of course. This is the first of twelve dishes… but I’ll shut up for the moment, so you can enjoy the pasta.

The meal ends with a dessert which we call gli strufoli. This Christmas dessert is typical only of Naples and the towns of the old Kingdom of Napoli. It is virtually unknown in the rest of Italy, but because of the strong emigration from southern Italy to the USA, more people in America know this tradition than perhaps in Italy today.

The small, golden brown orbs of a deep-fried pasta are covered in honey and dried fruit or confetti candies… the candies represent the sparkle, and the pile of pastry orbs represent gold. Yes, of course, the gold brought by the Magi to the Christ Child. The «strufoli» are served on a platter as if they were a pile of gold, and each member of the family spoons a small portion on to his or her own plate. It is a royal treasure shared. As with all the dishes of the Neapolitan Christmas Eve supper (cena), this dish has catechetical value. Christ is the King of Heaven come to us: Come let us adore him.

Gli strufoli e le generazioni - la nonna e le nipoti

Fervent greetings for a Happy Christmas to all.