Christmas dinner most Poles spend the day feasting with their family. The Christmas meal is elaborate, served in the evening on 24 December, offering large quantities of food. This Christmas Eve meal is called Wigilia. After the first star appears in the sky, everyone shares the Christmas wafer (opłatek) and wishes good things for the coming year. Then supper begins. The meal is meatless, honouring Catholic tradition. Many households also prepare a great variety of special Christmas dishes, typically numbering 12 in honor of the 12 apostles. Dishes include: stuffed carp, fried carp, herring in wine sauce, herring in cream sauce, fruit
Christmas in Romania are Great Union Day, Saint Nicholas' Day, Saint Ignatius' Day, Christmas Eve (' in Romanian), Christmas Day (' in Romanian), Saint Stephen's day, New Year's Eve ("" in Romanian), and the Epiphany. The seven-week Advent season in anticipation of Jesus Christ's birth should be practiced by all Eastern Christian Romanians. It starts on November 14 yearly and ends up on Christmas Day. November 14, the first day of advent is traditionally called "Lăsata secului" (literally "the day the abstinence begins"). Any kind of products obtained from animal sources are prohibited. Also, on Wednesdays and on Fridays, oil among other products