For example, in Poland the Christmas Eve meal or "Wigilia" is strictly ordered-in setting, in number of courses and dishes, and in the kinds and mixtures of food. The meals prepared in every land on these occasions include traditional dishes, made from recipes handed down for generations, and sometimes the entire meal is prescribed by custom, often its least detail being symbolic in meaning. And in many countries the homeless and the stranger are bidden to the holiday board, or a portion of food is set aside for the poor and the needy, later to be taken to them. It would be impossible to find a land where there is no such celebration of holy days, where families and friends do not gather to honor events in the life of Our Lord, such as His birth at Christmas or His Resurrection at Easter, or feasts of the Blessed Virgin or the saints in heaven. Saint Augustine refers, of course, mainly to the religious observance of feast days, but the custom of gathering together for a meal after the ceremonies and the processions, the prayers and the devotions, of offering thanksgiving for divine favors and sharing the warmth of home and hearth in the name of God is in the ancient and honorable usage of centuries.
"We have received these days by tradition from our forefathers," says Saint Augustine, "and we transmit them to those that follow to be celebrated with like devotion." THE CELEBRATIONS surrounding festival days are a definite part of our Christian tradition.
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