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Food Holidays and Festivals

Pancake Day, Pączki Day, Lunar New Year, Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah and more: what people eat at the world's food festivals, and why they eat it.

Almost every big celebration comes with a food. Sometimes the reason is practical, like using up eggs before a fast; sometimes it's a pun or a wish for the year ahead. Here's what's on the table, and why.

Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday)

The Tuesday before Lent, somewhere between 3 February and 9 March. Lent was traditionally a time of giving up rich foods like eggs and dairy, so Shrovetide was the chance to use them up 1. Flour, eggs and milk make pancakes, and the rest is history. Olney in England and Liberal in Kansas have held a pancake race against each other since 1950 1.

Pączki Day

In Poland, Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek) is the last Thursday before Lent, and the treat is pączki: rich, filled doughnuts. They were a way to use up the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house before the fast 2. Polish communities in the United States celebrate on Fat Tuesday instead, and Hamtramck, Michigan, holds a Pączki Day parade 2.

National Tortellini Day

Every 13 February, mostly in the US, Canada and the UK 3. One legend from Castelfranco Emilia, between Bologna and Modena, says an innkeeper spied on the goddess Venus through a keyhole, saw only her navel, and shaped a pasta in its honour 4. Tortellini in clear broth is a festive classic 3.

Lunar New Year

The biggest meal of the year is the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve 5. Families fold dumplings, a custom dating back at least to the Ming dynasty, sometimes hiding dates or sweets inside for a sweet year 5. Long, thin "longevity noodles" wish for a long life 5. Nian gao, the "year cake", is made from glutinous rice, and one story says its stickiness glues the Kitchen God's mouth shut so he can't badmouth the family to the Jade Emperor 6. Malaysia and Singapore toss yusheng, a raw fish salad, for prosperity 5.

Diwali

The Hindu festival of lights, in October or November. Homes glow with diyas (oil lamps), families share feasts, and mithai (sweets) are everywhere 7. Ladoos and barfi use milk, nuts and cardamom. More in our Indian food guide.

Eid al-Fitr

The festival that ends Ramadan's month of fasting is nicknamed "Sweet Eid" 8. Across the Middle East, people bake ma'amoul and kahk cookies. In South Asia, the table often holds biryani and sheer khurma, toasted vermicelli in sweet milk with dried fruit 8. In Indonesia, Lebaran means ketupat rice cakes and rendang 8. And baklava appears on Eid trays from Turkey to the Levant.

Hanukkah

The Jewish festival of lights remembers a small jar of oil that, the story goes, burned for eight days. So the food is fried: potato latkes, jam-filled doughnuts called sufganiyot, and Sephardic bimuelos 9.

Mid-Autumn Festival

When the moon is at its fullest in the autumn of the Chinese calendar, people share mooncakes: rich pastries filled with lotus-seed or sweet-bean paste, often with a salted egg yolk in the centre for the full moon 10.

Anzac Day

Our own. On 25 April many Australian kitchens bake Anzac biscuits from rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter, golden syrup and coconut. Women's groups are thought to have sent them to soldiers because they kept well on the long trip 11.

Christmas

Northern winters mean mulled wine. In an Australian summer, save it for Christmas in July and put white chocolate cream on the pavlova instead.

Sources

  1. "Shrove Tuesday", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday
  2. "Pączki", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%85czki
  3. "National Tortellini Day", Days of the Year. https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/tortellini-day/
  4. "Tortellini", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortellini
  5. "Chinese New Year", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year
  6. "Nian gao", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nian_gao
  7. "Diwali", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali
  8. "Eid al-Fitr", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Fitr
  9. "Hanukkah", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
  10. "Mooncake", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake
  11. "Anzac biscuit", Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_biscuit