This post was originally published in 2015. It still makes us hungry.
Christmas Eve’s Feast of the Seven Fishes is, by Italian Catholic tradition, supposed to be a penitential meal, and it may be, depending on your view of eel, smelt, anchovies and snails. But for most Italians and Italian-Americans, the feast (also called Il Cenone or La Vigilia) is a call to arms for fish and seafood lovers, a bivalve bacchanalia, a crustacean celebration, a shrimp, squid and scallop saturnalia. But how much do you actually know about the tradition?