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Most southwestern Pennsylvania residents aren't likely to see a "Bethlehem" being carried around on Christmas Eve, or a priest blessing a coal patch home and then chalking an inscription above its doorway in celebration of the Epiphany.

But there are many older area residents who remember these Christmas customs and many young descendants of immigrants who still follow old traditions - although they might be unsure of their origin and meaning.

A Bethlehem was a Nativity scene carried in procession on Christmas Eve, which was a more important time in many households than Christmas Day since midnight marked the birth of the Savior.

If the practice were still widely followed, the chalked message marking this year's Epiphany above the doorways would be 20+G+M+B+01, designating the year 2001 and the initials of the Three Wise Men, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar.

These are only two examples of customs that Eastern European immigrants brought to southwestern Pennsylvania. The Bethlehem and the Epiphany message have faded, along with the sounds of Christmas carolers singing in the Slovak or Polish languages, and many of the old coal communities themselves.

Through the generations, however, many Christmas customs have survived and even spread to a more diverse population. One example is the Oplatek (in Polish), or Oplatky (in Slovak), which means Holy Bread. Once found almost exclusively in Slavic Christmas celebrations, the wafer is now distributed at such multiethnic Catholic parishes as St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Uniontown.

The Rev. William Kiel, St. John's pastor, said the Oplatek is a widely shared custom at area Catholic parishes. "The symbolism behind it is so beautiful," he said.

The Oplatek is about the size of a postcard, consisting of unleavened bread similar to an unconsecrated Communion host. On Christmas Eve the wafer is broken into pieces and dipped into honey.

The blessed wafers, often with embossed images of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, come in an envelope. A pink Oplatek is included with a number of white wafers.

Raymond Bittner, who imports the wafers through his Polish Art Center in Hamtamck, Mich., said the pink Oplatek was originally for the animals, signifying God's creatures at the manger the night of Christ's birth.

The Christmas Eve meal was, and remains, an important Slavic tradition, down to setting the table with a white sheet to represent the Christ Child's swaddling clothes. Some families still place straw on the table, or on the floor.

Carpatho-Rusyns are a distinct Slavic people from the region along the Carpathian Mountain range in Eastern Europe who migrated to southwestern Pennsylvania in the early part of the 20th century.

This group adheres either to the Orthodox religion or the Byzantine Catholic rite. Christmas Eve is a strict fast day free of meat and dairy products.

The Svjatyj Vecer/Velija, or Christmas Eve Holy Supper, includes a traditional 12-course meal. Bonnie Balas, a Uniontown teacher who has researched her Carpatho-Rusyn heritage, said that foods vary according to what was available at a home village. Among the items listed in a "Christmas Eve in the Carpathian Highlands" recipe book are wine, honey, garlic, Christmas bread, mushroom soup, pirohi, bobalki (bread balls), stewed prunes, fresh fruit, nut roll and poppy seed rolls.

Food is prepared with oils and Balas raves about the mashed potatoes. "They're better than regular mashed potatoes," she said.

Other ethnic groups also have their own special foods for the Christmas Eve meal. Italians eat baccala (a cured cod fish), smelts and calamari (squid), among other delicacies.

There were also plenty of treats in the coal patch at Christmas. Elaine Hunchuck DeFrank, 65, was raised in the small Fayette County coal patch of Amend where she still lives. She tells of trimming the Christmas tree with strings of walnuts, special cookies, and apples. "You ate off the Christmas tree," she said.

For the past two years, DeFrank, a volunteer at the Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State University's Fayette campus, helped to re-create the coal patch Christmas magic by staging a display at the center, including a Christmas tree trimmed in the traditional manner.

Most children of Slavic descent got their presents after midnight on Christmas Eve, after a few hours' sleep. Miners and their families would also walk long distances to celebrate Christmas Eve Mass.

Those Orthodox Christians who continue to follow the Julian calendar will have their Christmas celebration on Jan. 7.

The former coal communities also draw people home at Christmas.

Vincent and Mary LaPorte both passed away last year, but their son, David, a coal miner from the Lemont Furnace area, plans to celebrate Christmas Eve at his late parent's coal patch home. He said he and his wife, Nancy, will be sharing baccala, smelts, camalari and angel hair pasta with his two sisters, Angela and Maria LaPorte, who will be traveling to Fayette County from their homes in Phoenix, Ariz., and Prairie Grove, Ark., respectively.

Immigrants who came to the steel towns and cities in the area follow most of the same customs, but the traditions are deeply rooted in the coal patch.

The customs spread across different ethnic groups because they lived close together in the relatively isolated coal communities.

Evelyn Hovanec is co-director of the coal heritage center and author of the new book, "Common Lives of Uncommon Strength: The Women of the Coal and Coke Era of Southwestern Pennsylvania 1880-1970."

She said she has memories of her mother trying to master the recipe for her Italian neighbor's spaghetti sauce.

The spirit of sharing was heightened by the hardships and the possibilities of death in the coal mines, according to Hovanec.

Balas said shared traditions continue to this day. She cites a Christmas Eve visit to an Italian friend's home in the former coal patch of Buffington outside New Salem in Fayette County, and being served Slavic foods, along with traditional Italian dishes.

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