Download Religion and food choice

Education
Phase 2
Religion and food
choice
Around the world, people follow different religions.
Religion can affect the foods we choose. Some
religions have certain food restrictions. Some
religions have festivals where special foods are
eaten.
What religions can you think of where people eat
different foods?
Christianity
Christians do not have any restriction over what
foods they eat.
There are a number of occasions in the Church year
where special food may be eaten. This includes:
Shrove Tuesday, Easter and Christmas.
Shrove Tuesday
Lent is the 40 day period leading up to Easter,
where Christians remember the time Jesus fasted in
the desert and often give up certain food
themselves during this period. Shrove Tuesday was
traditionally the last chance to use up the foods
Christians would not be eating during Lent (e.g.
eggs, fats).
Shrove Tuesday
In the UK, Christians celebrate Shrove
Tuesday by making pancakes.
In Poland, Fat Thursday is celebrate
by making and eating pączeks,
a round filled baked good fried in fat.
In Denmark, Fastelavn is celebrated by
eating fastelavnsboller, buns made from
pastry dough and decorated with icing.
Easter
Easter celebrates Jesus’ resurrection from the dead,
three days after he was killed. The foods below are
often consumed at Easter to celebrate.
Chocolate eggs
La Mona de Pascua
Hot cross bun
Christmas
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. Different
countries have their own traditional foods which
are consumed at Christmas.
Dresdner Stollen
Christmas pudding
Oplatek (Christmas wafer)
Saint Lucy’s/Lucia’s day
Saint Lucy's Day or the Feast of St. Lucy is marked
by Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Celebrations take place in the USA and Europe,
especially Scandinavia. In Sweden, Lussekatts (St
Lucy's day buns) are commonly eaten to celebrate.
Lussekatts
Judaism
Jewish people only eat food that is kosher – this
means it meets their dietary laws. Dietary laws
include:
• no pork or shellfish;
• animals must be killed in a kosher way;
• meat and dairy cannot be consumed in the same
meal or prepared in the same utensils.
Judaism
A number of Jewish festivals have associated food
customs.
Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)
Sweet foods are eaten to symbolise a sweet new
year, e.g. apple dipped in honey and honey cake.
The traditional plaited challot is replaced by round
ones, to symbolise the cycle of a the year.
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
A day of fasting and prayer for forgiveness.
Pesach (Passover)
A week long festival which remembers the exodus
from Egypt of the Hebrew slaves. No leavened food
(food which contains yeast) can be eaten for the
week. A special unleavened bread called matzah is
eaten.
Hinduism
Hindus which come from certain areas may be
vegetarian and not eat meat, fish or eggs.
However some Hindus now eat meat. The only
meat they will not eat is beef as the cow is
considered to be the most sacred animal.
Divali
Divali marks the end of the Hindu year and the
start of a new. Special divali sweets are eaten.
Islam
Muslims do not eat pork or any pork product. Other
types of meat (e.g. lamb) have to be killed in a
particular way, making it halal.
Ramadan
A month of fasting from dawn to sunset for
Muslims.
Eid
• Eid-ul-Fitr- day celebrating end of Ramadan
• Eid ul-Adha- day that celebrates the end of the
Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah).
Eid can be celebrated with special foods shared
with friends and family, such as Eid sweets.
Sikhism
Sikhs cannot eat ritually killed meat. There are no
other restrictions on what Sikhs can eat.
Sikhs believe in sharing food. Every gurdwara (place
of worship) has a langar (common kitchen). The
congregation eats together here after the service.
Divali
Sikhs also celebrate Divali. For Sikhs it is a festival
marking the time when the sixth Guru was released
from prison.
Buddhism
Buddhists believe in avoiding killing and being kind
to all living things. Some Buddhists choose to be
vegetarian or vegan because of this. However this
is a personal choice. Many Buddhists are not
vegetarian.
Wesak
Wesak is a festival celebrating the birth,
enlightenment and death of Siddhartha (who some
people believe to be Buddha).
Foods such as eight treasure rice can be eaten on
Wesak. Eight treasure rice consists of boiled rice
with 8 different varieties of fruit, nuts or sweets for
the treasures.