www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Holy Supper - how traditional is traditional?

Well, it seems to me. Perhaps I am wrong. I do remember having bread with the meal as well as kutiya. My conflation/extrapolation comes from seeing bread blessed instead of boiled wheat, it seems to play the same role.

Here's some links for the Italian vigil with comments on different practices and recipes for different regions:

http://www.wqed.org/mag/columns/cook/1201_cook.shtml
http://italiansrus.com/articles/7fishes.htm
http://italianfood.about.com/library/weekly/blnl093.htm
http://italianfood.about.com/library/weekly/blnl072.htm
http://www.acorn-online.com/food192.htm


And for Slovak/Rusyn practices, most folks probably know this link:http://www.iarelative.com/xmas/

One custom that we have, that no one has mentioned, is to wash our hands before dinner in a basin of water loaded with silver coins, while wishes for health and prosperity in the coming years are offered. Is this (the silver not the vinchovets) familiar to anyone?

We also tended to speak of Velija rather than Svaty Vecher.

I am curious about simple adaptations that people have made. My grandmother gathered mushrooms from the forest and dried them; they had a taste similar to cepes that I have had imported form eastern Europe. I use dried shitakes (and some fresh brown/white buttons) for my muchadlo (soup of muschroom and sauerkraut juice).

We make yellow peas. Green will not do. I found, when visiting Mal'cov that that - and the word "muchadlo" is just the way of that village.

And sauerkraut...
There was a little article in Gourmet magazine ca. 1980 about memories of Carpatho-Russian foods, with great nostalgia about home made sauerkraut. Any practitioners out there? How does it compare with commercial (in the jar) products?

I make my holupki and stuffed peppers now with buffalo rather than beef; much better for health.

Chtec,

The Eastern Slavs (Rusyns and Ukrainians) make a bread called "Krachun or Korochan", a large loaf made of flour, yeast, oil and salt. The Krachun
is broken and along with a clove of garlic, are then dipped in honey and then eaten by all. The Krachun bread is a custom from pagan times, when the Slavs celebrated the winter soltice. The "Krachun" is the name of the ancient pagan Slavic Sun deity. So I believe that the Western Slavs' usage of "oplatky" is a borowing from the Eastern Slavic Krachun tradition.

As far as the "Italiano" Vilija, my mother's family (Calabrese) use to eat a 12 coarse meal of many fish dishes, including "baccala". It was great to grow up in a "half na pol - menz a menz" family. We would first go to my Italian Uncle's restaurant and eat our Italian holy supper in early afternoon. In the early evening, my "Baba"
would then bring over her Rusyn Vilija foods (I can still remember her Lekvar pirohi!). I miss those days, it seems that no one bothers with "holy suppers" anymore and that's a real shame. So I applaud those parishes that attempt to revive this honored tradition! Smachnoho!

Ung-Certez

Ung-Certez,

I never thought of the olpatek as related to the krachun, and it's an interesting take. I've read a little bit about the krachun and the customs surrounding it, but am not too familiar with it. However, my paternal great-grandfather (from Slovakia) makes/made a bread with honey and cloves of garlic stuck on top; I suspect that it is related.

Dave

Chtec,

That would definitely be "Krachun". Your family's loaf has the "chesnok" already on the bread!

Ung-Certez

The prosphora and kutya (at least how I was taught) have different significance as Dave mentioned. The kutya has the rich symbolism of remembrance of departed ancestors, as well as the Resurrection (the grain, a tiny tomb, sprouts new life).

The prosphora adds a "eucharistic" and liturgical connection to the church services, as it was blessed previously for partaking at the Holy Supper. Perhaps sort of a faint reminder of the Old Rite practice of eating prosphora and drinking holy water after breaking the fast with prayer, and a vivid reminder of the connection of our domestic church at home with our parishes.

Ung, most Ukrainians call the bread "kolach". I've only heard Krachun used by Slovaks. In our celebration of the Holy Supper, we don't eat the kolach as it has eggs.

We make three round loaves of descending size which are stacked one on top another and topped with a beeswax candle which is lit during the dinner. The kolach is broken in the morning or later after Povecheria (Great Compline) and Liturgy to break the fast. I understand that oblong loaves are more popular on the western side of the mountains.

It seems also that borshcht may not as prominent at the Slovak Holy Supper table as with the further Eastern Slavs.

Like Ung, I applaud all that try to keep this holy tradition with whatever local or received twists that they may use. Z'Nami Boh!

Dear Mike,

Sorry I was not clear in my post. Of course as a Roman Catholic monastery we use communion breads that are unleavened wafers. Actually, these are made by the nuns who live a couple of miles from us. The difference I was trying to convey is that nowadays most hosts I encounter are made from whole wheat flour and require the communicant to chew them. I don't know if you ever experienced it, but perhaps some other members of the forum remember or know about a type of host that was popular decades ago made of highly refined white flour that would melt in your mouth.


PAX

I believe it is of Eastern Slavic origin. Even the ethnographer Mykola Musinka states in his articles about "Svjat Vecur" among Southern Lemko's of the Prjashev region and Subcarpathians, he uses the word "Korachun". The "Kolach" traditon seems to be a Central and East Ukraine tradition. He seems to be an authority about Carparthian- Rus enthographic traditions.

Ung-Certez

Mark, so you don't use a set number of dishes? That's interesting.

Probably most know but it might prove useful to mention that "Christmas" is "Karacsony" in Hungarian and "Craciun" in Romanian (the -cs- in the former and the -ci- in the latter making the hard -ch- sound as in church).

Kol�č according to the "Etymologick� Slovn�k Jazyka Česk�ho" by V�clav Machek is "tak u v�ech Slovanů; psl. kolačъ, od kolo." (Emphasis mine.) So the name kolach is due to its shape, rolled or circular. Perfectly applicable to the shape of bread mentioned above and that I have occasionally seen. The cognate in Hungarian is kalacs used for a sweet bread.

This is a link that Bill/Ghazar posted last year to an article by his pastor:
Christmas in the Armenian Christian Tradition [stjohnsarmenianchurch.org]

As to the Italian Christmas meal mentioned by Incognitus, the practice varies from place to place in Italy, explaining why Mike found it unknown in Rome. Italian friends tell me that it is a southern Italian tradition, most commonly found from Naples southward and in Sicily.

The number of fish types involved also varies considerably, ranging from 3 to 13, and virtually every number in between, although 7 is probably the number most frequently cited. The symbolism of the number is variously ascribed to the Magi (3), the Evangelists (4), the sacraments (7), the days in Genesis (7), the deadly sins (7), the Apostles (12), the Apostles plus Jesus (13).

For a couple of discussions about the tradition, see: The Christmas Eve Fish Dinner [sicilianculture.com] and The Tale of the Fishes [neuronet.pitt.edu]

While we're on the subject of Christmas, early though it is (except by retailers' standards, by which we're late :rolleyes: ), Ghazar also posted a great piece last year on Saint Nicholas versus Santa Claus

It came from a booklet titled "Religious Customs in the Family" by Father Francis X. Weiser, SJ, of blessed memory, an Austrian-born Jesuit and prolific writer on religious folklore and customs, whom I was honored both to meet as a child and to have been a student of, briefly, during college.

Another booklet by Father Weiser, the complete text of which is available online, is: The Christmas Book [library.catholic.org] . Its focus is chiefly on Western European customs, but he discusses some Ukrainian and Slavic customs in the chapter on Christmas breads.

Another of his texts, also available online in its entirety, is: Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs [neiu.edu] . I believe it incorporates "The Christmas Book", but the subject is expanded upon and, as I recollect, this one delves further into East European customs than its predecessor.

Many years,

Neil

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!

I was just re-reading my last post and I completely forgot to mention that my Baba was Slovak Roman Catholic.

On our table we had both oplatky and a round loaf of bread. We would cut the bread and smear it with honey and garlic. We didn't bake them together.

We still look for the First Star, usually the job of the youngest person in the house, to keep them from being under-foot while the preparations we being made.

One other change that my Baba made was in the soup. Her husband was Croatian and didn't like the mushroom-sauerkraut soup. My Baba began to use scalded milk to cover the bobalky and then we sprinkle poppyseeds over the top. My Dad would never eat the milk since he was Greek Catholic and would keep the Fast. Now we serve both the mushroom soup and the scalded milk, SEPERATE NOT TOGETHER!

I've found that there a few different things associated with the word KOLACH. What I know as KOLACH are the long yeast rolls that my Baba filled with nuts or poppyseeds or lekvar or appricott. Among the Czechs, kolach are very small pastries that are filled with the same fillings mentioned above but shaped like crescent moons.

When my Baba was living, we used to eat the meal with the house being quiet, in case there was knock at the door and it was the Holy Family. These days, we have CD's of kolendy from Slovakia that we play to remind of us those beautiful hymns and songs that we used to hear but are not sung in the Cleveland area anymore...

For those who still "sit Svaty Vecer", do you permit anyone to get up from the table once Vecera has been started?

Blessings...

marko

I thought I would add a summary of what we do in our parish in terms of the ritual observances themselves during the Holy Supper.

We have a booklet for parishioners to use throughout the Holy Supper. It opens with an explanation of the table setting's symbolism- the white table cloth symbolic of Christ's swaddling clothes, hay in the center to remind of the poverty of the cave where Jesus was born, a large loaf of bread as a centerpiece symbolizing Christ as the Bread of Life, and a candle in its center to recall the Star of Bethlehem.

We pray the Our Father, then sing a Troparion. What follows is a series of prayers, each set being followed by a specific action- blessing the food with holy water, placing incense on the coal, setting of the empty chair, all holding hands, a traditional toast, tracing the cross on each other's forehead with a clove of garlic, dipping the clove in honey, bread broken and passed to each member, then sharing of the 12 foods.

After the meal, the reading of the Gospel: St. Matthew 2: 1-12, then the Troparion is repeated, carols are sung, followed by closing prayers of Thanksgiving.

It is a very meaningful, reverent evening. I am reminded of the Jewish Seder at Passover, with its ritual foods, statements, etc. It is because of the highly ritualized nature of the observance and its direct link to ancestors that I am very cautious about introducing any changes, believing that food changes need only be made after eveyone understands the real significance of the occasion, and then only as a means to make participation more fulfilling for all. Preserving the true meaning of the Holy Supper is what matters most. It's what sets it apart from all other parish dinners. If introducing different foods serves to blur the difference, it's better not to introduce them, IMHO.

Benedictine:

" . . . perhaps some other members of the forum remember or know about a type of host that was popular decades ago made of highly refined white flour that would melt in your mouth . . ."

I do remember them. If you weren't careful, they'd dissolve enough to stick to the roof of your mouth.

BOB