A twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper is traditionally prepared in Ukraine(We celebrate Christmas on the 7 th of January)

Kutya

This first-course Christmas Eve pudding of sorts is typically made with wheatberries that are sweetened with honey

and sometimes augmented with poppy seeds, dried fruits and nuts. The kutya is eaten from a common dish to

symbolize unity and, in some families, a spoonful of kutya is thrown up to the ceiling. If it sticks, a plentiful honey

harvest can be expected.

KUTYA(recipe)

Ingredients: 2 cups of wheat, 3 quarts water, one cup poppy seeds, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup honey, dissolved in 3/4 cup of hot water, 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, and a 1/2 cup of chopped almonds or pecans.

Instructions: The day before preparation, wash the wheat and soak in cold water overnight.Place it in a pan and bake it at 250 F for one hour - stirring occasionally. Boil 3 quarts of water and add the wheat and chopped nuts. Stir until the water has been completely absorbed. Pour the mixture into a dish and add the butter and honey. Mix in the poppy seeds, saving a few to sprinkle over the top.

Fish

Freshwater fish, usually white fish, carp, lake perch, trout or pike, is always part of the dinner. It is served whole or filleted, breaded and fried, poached, baked, stewed or

glazed with aspic, depending on family preferences, and often several varieties appear on the table -- one fried

and one prepared another way.

Soup

Meatless soups like dried mushroom or sauerkraut (kapusniak) are popular as is beet borshch on the

Ukrainian Holy Supper table. Often, the soup is served with mushroom-filled vushka dumplings, which means

"little ears".

Cereals and grains

Cereals and grains show up as the filling for holubtsi or cabbage rolls. Another interesting vegetarian spin on this dish is bread-stuffed beet leaf rolls. Meatless varenyky, pyrohy and other dumplings abound. And a special treat

is savory pampushky.

Compote and other desserts

Dessert on Christmas Eve in the strictest Ukrainian Orthodox households is just dried fruits and nuts or a

fruit compote known as uzvar . This sweet concoction made of dried fruits, like apples, pears, sour cherries,

prunes, currants, raspberries, gooseberries and raisins, is mixed with honey and sometimes spices and boiled in water. It's half drink, half stewed fruit. Some families

serve more elaborate desserts like pompushky, which are fried dougnuts filled with poppy seed, apricot or

prune filling