The Hoax of the Seven Fishes
Not exactly a shocking expose (it's touched on here) but if I took away
one thing (in disgusting business speak,
"a learning") this Christmas, it is that The Feast of the Seven
Fishes is an American, or more specifically NYC Italian-American invention. Oh,
and that Home Alone is a popular Christmas movie in Italy with a title that
translates as Mama, I've Lost the Plane.
Facebook planning for a Christmas Eve get together
involving a bunch of Italian under-35s (what do you call millennials in Italian?)
just ended up stumping them when the hostess mentioned the party would be
"BYOF" since she was only serving three kinds of fish. Representing geographies from the top to bottom of
the boot, no one had ever heard of having to eat fish on Christmas Eve, let
alone seven of them.
Then again, anyone abroad could just as easily
assume Americans all crack open peppermint pigs for Christmas.
I do love that there is a Feast of the Seven Fishes comic book.
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