What is the name of the traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner featuring seven seafood dishes?

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is the traditional Italian-American Christmas Eve dinner featuring seafood dishes.

The meal is associated with la Vigilia, or Christmas Eve’s vigil. Its seafood emphasis reflects the Roman Catholic practice of abstaining from meat before an important feast day. Families may serve fish, shellfish, or both, often across several courses and over many hours. Common dishes include baccalà, salted cod, calamari, shrimp, eel, clams, mussels, and seafood pasta.

Despite its familiar name, there is no single official menu. Some families serve exactly seven preparations, while others serve more, fewer, or do not count them at all. The number seven has been linked to ideas such as the seven sacraments or Rome’s seven hills, but no explanation is universally accepted.

The phrase is especially associated with Italian-American communities and became prominent in the United States during the era of Italian immigration, particularly from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It is sometimes incorrectly described as a standard Italian national tradition; regional Italian Christmas Eve seafood meals are real, but the English name and fixed seven-dish format are most strongly tied to Italian-American practice.