In Lithuania, the Christmas Eve dinner with twelve dishes is called Kūčios.
Kūčios is Lithuania’s traditional Christmas Eve family meal, held on December 24. The number twelve is commonly understood in Christian tradition to represent Jesus’ twelve apostles, although older Lithuanian customs used different numbers and meanings for the dishes.
The meal traditionally follows a fast: meat and dairy are excluded, while fish is allowed. Typical foods include herring, smoked eel, mushrooms, potatoes, sauerkraut, cranberry kissel and kūčiukai, small poppy-seed biscuits served with poppy-seed “milk.” Recipes vary by region and family, but the meal is defined by ritual as much as by its menu.
Traditionally, dinner begins after the first star appears, echoing the Star of Bethlehem. Hay may be placed beneath a white tablecloth to recall the manger, and an empty place can be set for an absent or deceased family member. Kūčios is therefore more than a twelve-course dinner; it combines Lithuanian pre-Christian customs with Christian symbolism.