Kolyva
A boiled wheat dish offered at Orthodox memorials and at Christmas Eve.
Also: koliva, kutia
Kolyva, or kutia in Ukraine and Poland, is a dish of boiled wheat grains, mixed with honey, nuts, raisins and pomegranate seeds. In the Orthodox Christian world it is prepared for memorial services, where it is blessed and shared in memory of the departed, the wheat standing for the resurrection, as a seed that dies and rises again. In Ukraine and Belarus, kutia is the first dish of the twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper, and a spoonful is thrown at the ceiling for luck in some villages. The dish is simple, ancient and shared, and families keep their own recipes.
Region: Europe