Five Things to Know Today: December 24

Merry Christmas Eve to all our readers and fans! If you’re Italian, enjoy your Feast of Seven Fishes

1. Merry Christmas Eve to all our readers and fans! If you’re Italian, enjoy your Feast of Seven Fishes. 2. Manna on Main Street in Lansdale will serve one meal today, between 1 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. 3. Bridges of Zion Thrift Store, 501 N. Line St., Lansdale, holds a bag sale today, beginning at 10 a.m. 4. Lansdale Library is closed today. It will reopen Dec. 26. Lansdale Borough offices and Montgomery Township offices are closed today. 5. Here are times of church services for some local congregations in our area: Advent Lutheran Church, 470 Landis Road, Harleysville, holds a Christmas Eve worship service at 3 p.m. and a candlelight service at 9 p.m. Trinity Lutheran Church , 1000 W. Main St., Lansdale, holds worship services at 1 p.m. and 3 …

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Car Stolen on Christmas Eve from Parking Lot

The silver Chevrolet Equinox was stolen from the parking lot of Stanbridge Apartments on Jenkins Avenue

Lansdale Police are searching for a silver 2008 Chevrolet Equinox, with Pennsylvania plate HMF-0871, that was stolen between 10:30 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. on Christmas Eve from a parking lot near Stanbridge Apartments. Police said they were called to 38 Jenkins Ave. parking lot for a report of a stolen auto. The victim, a 29-year-old male who resides at Main Street Apartments in Towamencin, told police he was visiting his parents at their apartment complex and had parked his SUV in the lot around 8:30 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., he placed an item in the SUV, police said. Upon leaving the apartment at 12:15 a.m., he noticed the vehicle was gone, police said. The Equinox has a golf ball-sized dent near the right rear taillight, police said. The interior…

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Off the Reservation

Tradizione Italiana

The Italian Christmas Eve is a tradition to be cherished and carried on

Traditions can be fun, and it feels good to learn traditions and to pass them down through the generations.  The Italian Christmas Eve dinner is one of my cherished traditions that I continue, and I hope my children will continue it long after I'm gone. There are stories galore about the origin of the fish dinner.  Some call it the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or Festa dia Sette Pesci. It typically involves seven fish dishes, but the tradition is wide and varied.  My grandmother brought the tradition from Castellfranci, a small village nestled in the hills near Avellino in the Italian province of Campania.  She did 12 fishes, each dish representing one of the Apostles.  She was a great cook, as was her mother before her, so maybe they did …