Family and Crisis: The Christmas Eve Dinner in Lithuania and Bulgaria

The aim of this paper is to compare the specific features of the Christmas Eve dinner celebrated in Vilnius and Sofia during the COVID-19 period. In order to reveal and compare the changes in the culinary traditions in the two capitals, my objectives are the following: (1) to explore the cultural specificities of Christmas Eve in Lithuania and Bulgaria, (2) to reveal the social aspects of pandemic 2020 Christmas Eve dinners in Sofia and Vilnius, (3) to analyse the specificities of cooking and the dishes of the 2020 Christmas Eve dinner, and (4) to compare the dishes of the 2020 Christmas Eve dinner and their correspondence with the cultural tradition of Lithuania and Bulgaria. In this paper I conclude that the deviation from the Christmas Eve culinary tradition in both countries is slight. The tradition developed in Lithuania and Bulgaria during the socialist period and was not a consequence of COVID-19. It can therefore be concluded that the culinary tradition of Christmas Eve remains stable in times of crises, both in Bulgaria and Lithuania.