European Festival Food Traditions and History

Festival Foods
Europe and England

European influences in holiday foods developed in a much different direction than that of Asia, but harvest and food production festivals, like the Moon or Matsu Festivals, and spring celebrations, such as Qing Ming are universal in any country. Wine, beer, sausage, cheese and olive festivals seem to be unique to Europe, particularly in Mediterranean areas like Italy, Sicily and Greece. If the Middle East is the seat of civilization, than the Mediterranean is the seat of modern civilization, and later Europe as a whole. Christianity played a tremendous role in the influence of European holiday traditions, not unlike that of Islam or Judaism, and subsequently, the Western world. Colonization of the Americas by European Christians established religious holidays and, thus, holiday foods and traditions that the West enjoys today.

The major Christian holidays are Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter, All Saint’s Day, Christmas and Epiphany. Because Italy, Sicily and Greece catapulted Christianity into the known world, it is no surprise that most sweets are named for religious holidays. Sweets were usually made by nuns who regularly used honey, ricotta cheese, pistachios, almonds and candied fruit to conjure their confections. Sweetmeats were made several weeks ahead of the holiday and when they were made in the home, hymns were sung and prayers recited to keep the children occupied. Two very distinct Sicilian desserts are associated with Easter: marzipan which means sheep, and cassata. The sheep refers to the “Lamb of God” that was sacrificed or Jesus and this symbolism is seen in many other European Easter dishes, like the Ukrainian paskha or Barashek iz masla. Lamb itself is served in most of Europe for Easter. (Pupella 1999).

Examples of food found in Italy and Sicily during the Easter are rings of yeast bread with hard boiled eggs baked into it, marzipan, a sweet almond paste time consuming to make, cassata, sponge cake with candied fruit, ricotta and pistachios, cannoli, a hard pastry shell filled with sweetened ricotta, panetone, a sweet yeast bread with candied fruit, pizzelles, a thin waffle cookie flavored with anise, and biscotti, a hard sliced cookie similar to the Jewish mandel bread. (Kremezi 1994).

Meat-based second courses were usually for feast days. The animals were worked to the utmost and were always tough. This is why meat used in most holiday recipes were minced or ground to make sausage, meatballs and meat rolls or cooked for hours in stews or sauces. During certain times of the year, lambs, chicken, pig, rabbit and game were used in tasty dishes. Lamb was consumed at Easter, pork at Christmas and game when they passed within shooting range.

Italian Christmas Eve is likely to host a seafood spread, with dishes like frutta del mar or "fruits of the sea,” a spicy tomato stew made with fish, mussels, clams, calmari, shrimp or lobster. Stuffed calmari or squid may appear baked or cooked in a marinara, a meatless tomato sauce, and served with pasta. Another traditional Italian dish is smelt, a small white fish battered with egg and seasoned flour and fried in olive oil. On Christmas Day dinner, gnocchi or potato dumplings may be served with bechamel or Bolognese sauce, a tomato sauce with ground meat. Another traditional dish is cotechino, fresh pork sausage served with stewed lentils. Many of the same sweets of Easter are offered. An interesting food made just for weddings is the Italian wedding soup made from chicken broth, tiny meatballs, pearl pasta and spinach. (Clark 2002).

Neighboring Greece celebrate Easter and Christmas with similar traditions and foods. Tsourecki, is the Greek version of panetone, except with less spice. An Easter greeting game is played with hard-boiled eggs dyed red to signify the blood of Christ. When a person is given an egg, someone will challenge them. One holds their egg point up and the other person holds their egg point down. The challenger will gently tap the first egg with their egg and say "Christos Anesti," Christ is risen! and the first person replies "Alithos Anesti," Truly, He is risen! One egg will crack and become the loser. The person with the intact egg wins and goes on to challenge someone else. (Tavlarios 2001).

Greek Christmas foods include Christopsomo, a decorated bread-like cake similar to tsourecki, baklava, a honey and nut philo pastry, and kourambiedes, toasted almond butter cookies flavored with ouzo or anise. Before the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century, all Greek sweets were made with olive oil. The use of butter became exclusive for most sweets after this, but during Lent, when animal products are forbidden, it is made with olive oil. New Year or St. Basil's Day honors the Greek Santa Claus or St. Basil. The traditional food for this day is a moist sponge cake called vasilopeta with a coin baked into it. The person who gets the slice with the coin will have prosperity and good luck in the New Year. An interesting fertility rite springing from pagan traditions is still practiced in Greece on Jan 8. Women lock husbands in house to do chores. While men work in the home, women go out drinking with friends, probably ouzo, a licorice flavored alcohol. (Loewen 1991).

In Spain, the influence from the Mediterranean is still seen. Christmas foods include, almonds, marzipan, turrón, a nougat-like sweet made from honey and almonds and besugo, dried white sea bass. Portugal serves a similar food to besugo, bacalhau, which is a national holiday dish of dried codfish, also eaten in Italy. A sweet Portuguese dessert, rabanadas, consists of slices of white bread soaked in eggs and wine, dredged in sugar, and fried. Children ask the Infant Jesus for gifts, place their shoes by the fireplace, and hope to get a piece of Bolo Rei, a cake coated in candied fruits, crushed nuts and sugar icing. (Epicurious 2002)

A French Christmas Eve will likely be celebrated with Bûche de Noel, a cake rolled to look like a log, filled with chestnut cream and coated in marzipan. The burning of ritual Yule logs throughout Christmas Eve inspired a French chef to create this first edible Yule Log. The Christmas Day feast should include a roasted goose or turkey. Pithiviers is a delicately complex puff pastry cake baked with lucky bean and topped with crown for the Epiphany. The crown symbolizes the three kings or wise men finally arriving to pay tribute to the Christ-child, the King of kings, with their gifts. Whoever finds the bean is king or queen for a day. (Rowney 2002). (The Chestnut Cookbook 2000).

England is probably one of the few European countries that do not revere marzipan. The Christmas Day table will serve roast goose or turkey with bread sauce, uniquely English, fruit and nuts, trifle, a custard, cake and jelly dessert, puddings and custards of all shapes and the ubiquitous English plum pudding made from flour, raisins, currants, brandy and suet. Diners wear paper crowns at the Christmas dinner table. The meal ends with the spectacular plum pudding, raisins and currant are plumped up or plummed with brandy, and is set aflame for dessert and served with hard sauce, a rich butter and confectioner’s sugar icing. Plum pudding, like suet duff, a popular boiled pudding, and mincemeat derives much of its favor from the use of suet or animal fat. Mincemeat pies made with scraps of fatty meat are spiced and sugared to make them palatable and to preserve them.

- Elizabeth D'iAmico