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Tom Crann

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Christine T. Nguyen

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Megan Burks

From now until Christmas, it's the time in these parts where diners in Norwegian sweaters crowd into church basements to partake in a holiday tradition: a dinner of reconstituted, dried codfish that's been preserved in lye, and then brought back to glistening life as lutefisk.

It's fading from Minn. households, but lutefisk is still king at Minneapolis' Mindekirken

A boy wearing a green bandana around his neck smiles at the table.

Christine T. Nguyen | MPR News

A man holds a metal pan of cooked fish as another man cuts raw fish. 

A man and woman put out bowls of meatballs and potatoes. 

A person cuts up pieces of fish on a white cutting board.

A crowd of people stand in line in a stairwell and hallway. 

A crowd of people sit at tables in a church dining area. 

A woman stands at a podium in a church dining area. 

A man offers a plate of lutefisk to a table full of people.

A close up of pieces of lutefisk, lefse, melted butter and cream sauce. 

A bumper sticker reads "This vehicle stops at all lutefisk supper." 

It's fading from Minn. households, but lutefisk is still king at Minneapolis' Mindekirken

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