Today is Christmas Eve according to the Julian calendar, and Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate this date with a meatless dinner. This will be the first Christmas without my Baba, and although I am not yet ready to host the dinner this year, I will beginning next year, as I loved the tradition and want to continue it. For today, I will simply make two of the twelve traditional Ukrainian dishes:
borscht, and k
utia. The
kutia will not be done in time, because I didn't realize it would have to boil for six hours, but it will be done before I go to bed tonight. Baba always told me that it had to boil "for a long time" which I thought was about four hours, but I looked it up in a recipe book today and it said six. If it doesn't work this time, I will just try again next year.
Kutia is one of my favorite foods, and it is a ritual food. It is the first food that is to be eaten for Christmas Eve dinner. It is made from wheat berries, honey, and poppy seeds. Some people add nuts.
The dinner is to begin once the first star is spotted.
When I was young, one year my Baba told me that when she was younger, she and her siblings would take a spoon of k
utia, and throw it at the ceiling. However many pieces stuck would signify how many years of good luck one would have. I loved this idea, and she told me to take a spoon of
kutia--she was going to let me throw it at the ceiling. She said we could do it on the back porch, and we did. This exemplifies the way my Baba loved me, and how she taught me. She taught me by letting me do things. When she ironed, for example, she gave me a handkerchief to iron, because I wanted to be just like her. She didn't tell me I was too small, or that I would burn myself, or that it was too hard for me. I loved being at her house and being with her because of this, and so many more reasons.
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