Dinner with the Dead - OMA

My relatives - grandparents, aunts and uncles - died back in the 90s. My mother, like my grandmother, who was taught the old traditions, always set the table for Christmas at night. She left spoons, plates, kutya, jelly, dumplings and glasses of wine. There were about 4 people. All this was ready, as if for living people who were supposed to come to the kitchen and sit down at the table.

I lived then with my twin brother, we were 15 years old, I did not pay much attention to this ceremony. When I asked my mother why it was necessary to set the table at night, she answered that on Christmas the heavens were open and all our dead came to see and dine (dine). But I never thought that they really come to eat, it seemed to me that it was an invention and an ordinary tradition.

P.S: I did it just like that, and so I know that it is very mediocre.