Christmas Eve. What is primary and what is secondary, and what does it say about “12 dishes on the festive table”

CrimeaPRESS reports:

It’s almost Christmas Eve. Even the guns will be silent this evening. Believers are preparing to celebrate one of the most important Christian holidays and are thinking at this time … No, not about a candle in a boor “desire to make a wish”, not about a betrothed-career-money (underline as necessary), not about the table “breaking” , and exactly 12 dishes were presented on it … Christmas Eve is a time of peace of mind, kindness and purity. Do not believe us — listen to the expert opinion.

Christmas Eve is, first of all, a time of strict fasting, when Christians, on the eve of the greatest event, spiritually and bodily prepare themselves for the meeting of the Divine Infant Christ, Who is to be born sacramentally in our hearts. Therefore, the primary for a believer is always prayer and the spiritual meal of Holy Communion, which is taught on this day at the Divine Liturgy, while the secondary is the Christian tradition of preparing and using kutya (in other words: koliva or sochiva), i.e. boiled wheat, which symbolizes death and life, because wheat, thrown into the ground, first decays, and then grows and bears fruit , — says the head of the press service of the Crimean Metropolis, Archpriest Vladimir Kashlyuk

This, he is sure, is a symbolic reminder that the Savior is born into the world in order to die for all of us and through the Resurrection to give us eternal life.

The explanation is logical, accessible and quite rational, by the way. Where, then, does the tradition of the “Festive Table” with 12 various dishes, even with strong drinks come from? The post lasts until January 7th. Christmas Eve, to put it mildly, in this sense does not at all imply oversaturation …

I want to note right away that there can be no symbolic parallel with the 12 apostles of Christ, by definition — the God-man has not yet been born, but it also should not be forget that … this is a gross violation of the last day of the Advent, since the entertaining process of a feast with tasting 12 skillfully prepared dishes and often drinking alcoholic beverages leads at least to satiety, which, of course, harms not only the body, but also the human soul . Vladimir Kashlyuk says. — Thus, it is quite obvious that this “folk tradition” popularized in the media sharply contradicts the church-statutory liturgical tradition, which in essence determines the extremely negative Christian attitude towards it.

So the evening feast will have to be canceled, and at the same time forget about «12 dishes on the table.»

It seems to me that an alternative and harmless option is to postpone such festive dinners for the period of Christmas time (from January 7th to 17th January). Well, for those people who, for some reason, cannot abandon this mythological tradition, I would advise reformatting it in the following direction: abilities, but exclusively spiritual, therefore, if anyone has to visit their relatives and friends on January 6, do not forget to talk about spiritual (evangelical) values; secondly, you can surprise even more with your prepared “culinary masterpieces” by charitable treats, first of all, the poor, hungry, sick and unfortunate , the clergyman emphasized.

What remains to be added… Whatever tradition a person adheres to, it is important to remain in the system of moral priorities, where preference should always be that which creates, and not that which destroys. Do not overshadow secondary — «external» manifestations of triumph — 467 primary — the inner content of the holiday.