What is Kutya and what does it symbollize?

Kutya is a warm porridge made of wheatberries, honey and poppy seeds. Some families will add chopped walnuts to the porridge. It is made at Christmas and typically children will go after divine liturgy on Christmas morning to their godparents' home and offer them a bowl of kutya. It is also traditional to eat it at the dinner on January 6th which is Christmas Eve and still during the time of the strict Nativity Fast. It is an Eastern Slav Orthodox tradition found in both the Ukraine and Russia.

Wheatberries symbolize immortality and hope and the poppy seeds and honey are symbols of happiness, success and peaceful rest.