When I was a girl, Christmas started on December 4, when we celebrated St Barbara's Day. I used to come back from school and the house would be full of the smells of aniseed and fennel and cinnamon.
I knew, then, that my mother had been cooking a traditional dish in celebration of St Barbara -- as sure a sign as any that Christmas was coming soon. We call the dish burbara, which is Arabic for Barbara, and it is made of wheat cooked with water, those anise seeds, fennel seeds and cinnamon, as well as raisins, dried apricots and sugar.
It's like a sweet porridge, with a powerful, friendly smell. It is wonderful in cold weather, and I can still recall the fun of the season.
My father was the only breadwinner in our family, and it was not easy for him to provide us with all the Christmas extravagances, but he always managed to save a little money to spend on extra food. Very little was spent on presents. That said, our Christmas tree was always a real one -- on Christmas Eve, my father would cut a branch from the pine tree in our garden and put it in a pot.
They'd decorate it at night, when we were asleep. We would wake up to the scent of pine filling the house and my heart would run out of my chest -- the emotions of that day were so strong, as was the warmth of the whole atmosphere.
After we'd been to church, we would rush home for breakfast, a special Christmas soup made of chicken stock with rice, parsley and meatballs cooked with spices, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Then my uncles and grandparents would visit and give us money -- small coins only. I used to collect them and count them many times a day to make sure I hadn't counted wrongly or lost one. I put them under my pillow. They gave me a feeling of independence and contentment.
The main Christmas meal itself would start with savory pastries -- a bit like pizza, only with meat on the top -- and kubbeh, which is burghul stuffed with meat and onions, then shaped like an egg and fried. The pastries always came first, placed on the table as an appetizer while we drank arak (a strong alcoholic brew made with fermented rice and molasses).
After that, there was chicken (or turkey) stuffed with rice and meat, then baked in the oven. Chicken always had a different taste on Christmas Day -- somehow, it was more delicious and more perfect. In addition, there were always stuffed courgettes and vine leaves (kusa mahshi and warak dawali), both also stuffed with rice and meat.
There were salads, too, especially aubergine salad made with baked aubergine that is peeled then dressed with lemon juice, garlic and tahineh.
There was also wine -- my father used to make his own. Whenever friends came around they'd be offered wine and chocolate. At Christmas, they'd get special biscuits, called makoroni, that I helped my mother bake. They'd be offered with coffee or tea each day until the end of the festivities, January 6, when we celebrate Christ's baptism.
On that day, too, the tree was dismantled and, in the evening, my family and friends got together for mother's zalabya, a soft dough deep-fried until golden brown and then dipped in a semi-thick syrup. Dipping the dough was the symbol of baptism.
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