List of foods with religious symbolism

Last updated

The list of foods with religious symbolism provides details, and links to articles, of foods which are used in religious communities or traditions to symbolise an aspect of the faith, or to commemorate a festival or hero of that faith group. Many such foods are also closely associated with a particular date or season. As with all religious traditions, some such foods have passed into widespread secular use, but all those on this list have a religious origin. The list is arranged alphabetically and by religion.

Contents

Many religions have a particular 'cuisine' or tradition of cookery, associated with their culture (see, for example, List of Jewish cuisine dishes). This list is not intended for foods which are merely part of the cultural heritage of a religious body, but specifically those foods that bear religious symbolism in the way they are made, or the way they are eaten, or both.

Christianity

Hinduism

Islam

Judaism

Shinto

Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion

See also

References

  1. Illustration and details at Good Food Stories website.
  2. Reference with picture at Adventures of the Kitchen.
  3. "Minne di Sant'Agata (Sicilian Ricotta and Chocolate Pastries)". Food 52. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  4. Theodore Kyriakou and Charles Campion, The Real Greek at Home, London 2004
  5. 1 2 Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. Eucharist
  6. History and recipe available here.
  7. Referenced at the About Food website.
  8. See entry at The Greek Glutton.
  9. Discussed at The Guardian website.
  10. Anne Jordan (5 April 2000). Christianity. Nelson Thornes. ISBN   9780748753208 . Retrieved 7 April 2012. Easter eggs are used as a Christian symbol to represent the empty tomb. The outside of the egg looks dead but inside there is new life, which is going to break out. The Easter egg is a reminder that Jesus will rise from His tomb and bring new life. Orthodox Christians dye boiled eggs red to make red Easter eggs that represent the blood of Christ shed for the sins of the world.
  11. The Guardian, Volume 29. H. Harbaugh. 1878. Retrieved 7 April 2012. Just so, on that first Easter morning, Jesus came to life and walked out of the tomb, and left it, as it were, an empty shell. Just so, too, when the Christian dies, the body is left in the grave, an empty shell, but the soul takes wings and flies away to be with God. Thus you see that though an egg seems to be as dead as a stone, yet it really has life in it; and also it is like Christ's dead body, which was raised to life again. This is the reason we use eggs on Easter. (In days past some used to color the eggs red, so as to show the kind of death by which Christ died,-a bloody death.)
  12. An account of the soup, and a journey to discover its origins, in published in New Yorker magazine.
  13. Mary Cadogan. "Galette des Rois". BBC Good Food. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  14. "Galette Des Rois". Paul. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  15. One recipe, with pictures.
  16. St George's Day cakes at Stork website.
  17. Turner, Ina; Taylor, Ina (1999). Christianity. Nelson Thornes. p. 50. ISBN   9780748740871. To mark the end of the Lent fast Christians eat hot cross buns. These have a special meaning. The cross in the middle shows how Jesus died. Spices inside remind Christians of the spices put on the body of Jesus. Sweet fruits in the bun show that Christians no longer have to eat plain foods.
  18. "History of King Cakes". New Orleans Showcase.
  19. Referenced at Diane Kochilas, Greek food for life.
  20. Referenced at The Guardian.
  21. See details at Spice Roots website.
  22. "Lussekatter må man ha når man skal feire Luciadagen". Aktivioslo.no. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
  23. "Luciadag". kristendom.dk. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  24. Randal W. Oulton (2007-05-13). "Michaelmas Bannock". Cooksinfo.com. Retrieved 2016-03-28.
  25. "About (Our Patron)". London: St Gabriel, North Acton. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  26. Shrove Tuesday inspires unique church traditions KATIE WALKER Archived 2016-02-14 at the Wayback Machine 7 March 2011
  27. Joan Halmo Celebrating the church year with young children Liturgical Press, 1988 ISBN   978-0-8146-1580-5. 159 pages. page 43
  28. Fakes, Dennis R. (1 January 1994). Exploring Our Lutheran Liturgy. CSS Publishing. p. 33. ISBN   9781556735967. Since people often gave up meat during Lent, bread became one of the staples of Lent. Bakers even began making dough pretzels--a knotted length of dough that represented a Christian praying, with arms crossed and hands placed on opposite shoulders.
  29. "une religieuse, un éclair". Pretty Tasty Cakes. 2008-08-31. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  30. See The Daily Meal website.
  31. Story and recipe at the Armenian Kitchen website.
  32. Recipe at The Daily Meal website.
  33. Recipe at The Armenian Kitchen website.
  34. "BBC Religions: Mothering Sunday" . Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  35. Simoons, Frederick J. (1998). Plants of Life, Plants of Death. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN   0-299-15904-3.
  36. Hood, Karen Jean Matsko (1 January 2014). Halloween Delights. Whispering Pine Press International. p. 33. ISBN   9781594341816. The tradition continued in some areas of northern England as late as the 1930s, with children going from door to door "souling" for cakes or money by singing a song.
  37. Stollen history
  38. Swieconka by Ann Hetzel Gunkel
  39. Margaret M. Hasluck, "The Basil-Cake of the Greek New Year", Folklore38:2:143 (June 30, 1927) JSTOR
  40. Chef Mandaar Sukhtankar (24 August 2017). "A modak by any other name". The Hindu . Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  41. Festival reference and recipe.
  42. The health benefits and symbolic purposes explained at Shia Chat.
  43. Reference from the Jakarta Post.
  44. Bramen, Lisa. "Why Honey Is Eaten for Rosh Hashanah, and Other Burning Questions". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  45. "Seder Preparations - Jewish Tradition". yahadut.org. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
  46. Claudia Roden, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day, Penguin Books, 1999, p.32 ISBN   0140466096
  47. "The Saga of the Citron". Reform Judaism.
  48. "In Calabria, rabbis and farmers continue a 2,000-year-old etrog tradition | the Times of Israel". The Times of Israel .
  49. Shurpin, Yehuda. "What is So Special About The 7 Species". Chabad.org. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
  50. "Purim". Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 7 May 2024. In this connection it may be mentioned that for the celebration of Purim there developed among the Jews a special kind of baking. Cakes were shaped into certain forms and were given names having some symbolic bearing on the historical events of Purim. Thus the Jews of Germany eat "Hamantaschen" and "Hamanohren" (in Italy, "orrechi d'Aman"), "Kreppchen," "Kindchen," etc.
  51. "Seder Preparations - Jewish Tradition". yahadut.org. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
  52. Minchat Chinuch 6:14 u'v'mitzvah
  53. Bradshaw, Paul F., and Hoffman, Lawrence A. Passover and Easter: The Symbolic Structuring of Sacred Seasons. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999.
  54. T. Goldberg "Picking the perfect Passover wine" MSNBC, April 19th, 2004.
  55. Smyers, Karen Ann (1999). The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN   0-8248-2102-5.
  56. Itoh, Makiko (30 December 2011). "Rice takes prized, symbolic yearend form". The Japan Times Online. Archived from the original on 11 April 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  57. 1 2 Ma, Guansheng (2015-12-01). "Food, eating behavior, and culture in Chinese society". Journal of Ethnic Foods. 2 (4): 195–199. doi: 10.1016/j.jef.2015.11.004 . ISSN   2352-6181.
  58. "The Significance of Dumplings in Chinese Culture". Z & Y Bistro. 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  59. Frederick J. Simoons (1998). Plants of life, plants of death. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 268. ISBN   978-0-299-15904-7 . Retrieved 28 June 2011.