Christmas in Poland the Twelve Apostles, or perhaps, an odd number of dishes for good luck (usually five, seven, or nine). A traditional Wigilia supper in Poland includes fried carp and borscht (beetroot soup) with uszka (ravioli). Carp provides a main component of the Christmas Eve meal across Poland; carp fillet, carp in aspic and gefilte fish. Universal Polish Christmas foods are pierogi as well as some herring dishes, and for dessert, makowiec or noodles with poppy seed. Often, there is a compote of dry fruits for a drink. The remainder of the evening is given to stories and songs around the Christmas
A Christmas Eve deals heavily with the exploration of vanity, this time the vanity of a trashy prostitute and a young man obsessed with his dead sibling. And sharing a similarity with Boito's earlier work "The Body", the tale delves heavily into necrophilia, made only more disturbing with the connotations of incest, since Giorgio's obsession with Emelia is sexual. Since Giorgio is psychologically disturbed and suffering from a painful illness and delusional fantasies, "A Christmas Eve" can also be described an example of a short story with an unreliable narrator. A short film adaptation, updated to 1945 and titled "Christmas Eve '45" (in