6

W. Brown interviewing Susie Kosak -3-
8/12/72
Tape 3-1

but all of our people liked it and some(?) of people made (?) like a piece of paper and (?) and milk break that up and put honey and poppy seed and water and have that but I didn't like, that but my mother made it anyway.
WB Is this a traditional Slavish meal at Christmas time?
SZ Yeh, and some people, we'd have bean soup we'd have mashed potatoes, sour kraut and dried mushroom soup we'd have, my mother would have, but my mother wouldn't use butter, I use butter to this minute I got it on my own but she would just brown the flour on the stove, just dry she didn't like oil, see I would just as soon have butter, but she didn't like oil and nobody else did everybody had to eat it how she liked, you know, and the mashed potatoes didn't get no milk in or butter they just got mashed and the sour kraut
WB Now the way she did this was this traditional Slavish?
SZ See you're supposed to fast, it's not that we didh't have butter we had homemade butter because we had cows but you weren't supposed to eat butter
WB What was the name for this day was there a special name for this dinner?
SZ I think it was the Vigil of Christmas see like our Lord was going to be born and then at 12 o'clock we'd have supper and then we'd burn a candle too like the Slavish would get a volotkie I think I have some here I don't know the Greek didn't have a volotkie the Slavish did but it was like a wafer like communion only it was big so then we'd put honey on that and you'd eat that first
WB You'd eat that before the meal? What did that signify?
SZ Well that was blessed.
WB That was holy bread, how's come you ate it before the meal?
SZ Well you couldn't very well eat it any other way, here the organist from the church brought - that I have some in wax paper somewhere
WB Well then were there traditional foods that you ate at this meal
SZ Oh no some people would boil prunes you were supposed to have 12 like 12 apostles like 12 different things I made "3 comers" do you know what "3 comers"is