My grandparents and great grandparents moved from Ukraine many years ago.  They have passed on now and I am left with many questions pertaining to my Ukrainian heritage.  Why is the tradition for Christmas Eve to have meatless dishes?  I only ask because my mother did not raise us in our heritage and now as an adult I am trying to learn of these traditions.

Welcome Dana,

"There are twelve courses in the Supper, because according to the Christian tradition each course is dedicated to one of Christ's Apostles. According to the ancient pagan belief, each course stood was for every full moon during the course of the year. The courses are meatless because there is a period of fasting required by the Church until Christmas Day. However, for the pagans the meatless dishes were a form of bloodless sacrifice to the gods.

The first course is always kutia. It is the main dish of the whole supper. Then comes borshch (beet soup) with vushka (boiled dumplings filled with chopped mushrooms and onions). This is followed by a variety of fish - baked, broiled, fried, cold in aspic, fish balls, marinated herring and so on. Then come varenyky (boiled dumplings filled with cabbage, potatoes, buckwheat grains, or prunes. There are also holubtsi (stuffed cabbage), and the supper ends with uzvar."

Dana wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2009, 9:41pm:


The funniest response to this question I have heard comes from my aunt: "There are meatless dishes on Christmas eve out of respect to the animals in the stable who gave up their manger for Jesus. There were no fish in the stable so that's why we still eat fish on Christmas eve."