Feeding the soul
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is more than a festive meal. It’s an event that brings a community together
PITTSBURGH — It’s just after 6 o’clock in the morning, but Joseph Sabino Mistick is already on his second cappuccino and is now buying a round for everyone who just walked into La Prima Espresso coffee shop.
“Misticks for all of them!” the former deputy mayor of Pittsburgh says to the barista. (The hot creamy creation with an extra sprinkle of cocoa is named after him.)
It’s dark and frigid outside, but inside this tiny espresso bar the room is bursting with rich aromas, chatter and excitement as patrons start planning their traditional day of shopping for
cena della Vigilia — or, as the vigil is more commonly known, the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
It is a celebration whose origins date back to ancient southern Italy, said Sabino Mistick. “It goes back to the Roman Catholic custom of abstaining from meat on the eve of holidays including Christmas.”
“You can see the connection in several Catholic traditions. You have the seven sacraments, the seven days of the creation and, well, the seven deadly sins, too,” he chuckles.
The coffee shop empties then fills again as people young and old get a jolt of joe before embarking down Penn Avenue to buy fresh fish, dried cod and a variety of spices, sauces, fresh vegetables, pastas, cheeses and Italian delicacies for the Christmas Eve feast.
Sabino Mistick has been hosting his own seven fishes meal for over 30 years along with his three daughters. His wife, Catherine, and her three sons joined in the tradition several years ago when he remarried.
What started out as a feast for his immediate family has mushroomed into a banquet hosting friends and extended family, all dressed in black tie. Mistick makes more than the customary seven fish. “I usually make nine or 10, and one of my three daughters is vegetarian so I am making her seven different types of vegetables to keep her connected with the symbolism.”
No matter your background (or your dining preferences), in this country food is the great equalizer for all of us. In spite of our many differences, a large meal is the one thing that can bring everyone together.
“From shopping for it, to preparing it, to cooking it and even talking about it in the days ahead of preparation, breaking bread is our country’s great common denominator,” said Sabino Mistick, now a law professor at Duquesne University.
Dr. Alice Julier, a sociologist who runs a food-studies program at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, wrote in her book “Eating Together” that sharing meals is how people bond and learn the rules of life.
Julier’s research shows that food isn’t just subsistence; it’s part of the social fabric. We form and deepen friendships and strengthen family or community ties through shared meals. Offering food to others has led to wars being averted and marriages being formed — it is a connector that traces back to antiquity.
A food event like the Feast of Seven Fishes is even more powerful because it inspires anticipation — an emotion lost in a society filled with instant gratification.
“We are used to getting exactly what wewant when we want it,” said Sabino Mistick. “Half of the joy of traditions and festive meals is waiting for them to happen. The other half is being together, eating the food and knowing you are doing something your Nona did for you and her Nona did for her.”
Penn Avenue is now filled with thousands of people along its narrow street. All of the buildings are from the turn of the 20th century — built along the railroad tracks that follow the Allegheny River, which once served immigrant mill workers who lived in this formerly industrial city.
Many of today’s shoppers are the children of the children of those workers buying fresh walleye, live lobsters, catfish and eel just like their ancestors did. The street is also filled with newcomers eager to make this ancient custom part of their own American Christmas meal.
“I’m not Italian, but I love the tradition, so I ammak- ing it for my friends and neighbors for the first time this year,” says one young womanwhose basket is filled with squid, clams and an array of different filets for a “melting pot of friends” back home. As she leaves, an unsuspecting cashier assumes she is Italian. “Buon Natale!” he shouts out. “Buon Natale!” she shouts back. She turns to me and beams. “In doing my research for the meal, I learned ‘Merry Christmas’ in Italian.” Then she works her way through the crowd, her arms straining under the weight of so many bags filled with fish.