Christmas, 7 January 2007

A happy Christmas to everyone marking it today.

By now I have sat at enough of these tables to notice which parts are negotiable. The number of dishes can slip. The order can be shortened. Whether the whole family gets there depends on the roads.

The kutia does not move. Wheat, honey, poppy seed, in the same bowl at the same point in the evening, in houses that agree on very little else. It is the oldest thing on the table by a wide margin — older than the holiday it now belongs to.

A good evening to your household, and to whoever is travelling to reach it tonight.