Festive Food Research Articles

The Pastries of La Festa di San Giuseppe: Roots to Italian sweet foodways

Pastries and desserts hold an important place in Italian cuisine. They are more symbols of culture than sugary treats to savor, imbued with religious, mystical, and historic significance. This significance appears during holidays, family events, and festivals, such as feast days honoring patron saints. With Italy's long-standing tradition of distinct regional cuisines, the festival foods differ from place to place, though common traits link them to the season and holiday. Breads and pastries in unique and meaningful forms are a major part of festival traditions and their regional variations illustrate local heritage, typical ingredients, and cooking traditions. Examining the roots of the sweet foodways of La Festa di San Giuseppe in two southern Italian locales, Sicily and Naples reveals much about Italian food history and the evolutionary influence at the hands of invaders, courts, and peasants. Consumption patterns based on scarcity and annual feasting reserved for church holidays are illustrated by the rituals of this feast day. Regional identity is expressed through place-specific recipes, ingredient use, and cooking methods. Sustenance issues also surface though the liturgical calendar that allows for the occasional splurges that were once rare moments of abundance, a break from incessant hunger, and an opportunity for a community to feed itself and its poor. Sweets play an important part in the conception of abundance and celebration, serving as special treats consumed once a year, marking a meal as a festive one, spent with family and community in common observance of a holiday or special event. This group consumption reinforces social ties, creates common memories and defines regional practices while also elevating the status of pastries and desserts and honoring the cooks and saints that make this consumption possible. A seemingly unremarkable feast day gives a piece of fried dough much meaning to a local person, reflecting regional identity while celebrating abundance.

Fasting in the Life of Russians

In the 19th century the traditional diet of the Russians was a wholesome and stable complex of nutrition which included fast days set apart for partial or complete abstinence from food during a calendar year. Fast days were set by the regulations of the Orthodox Church and were linked with the major Christian feasts, church events and remembrance days of the Saints. In practice all days of the year were divided into the days of abstinence from meat and dairy products when vegetable food only was allowed (govenije - “fasting”), and the days when their use was not restricted (mjasoed - “time when it is allowed to eat meat”). To give a clear idea of the place fasting occupied in the life of the people it is enough to say that more than 200 out of the 365 calendar days, i.e., the greater part of the year, were set apart as fasting periods of one or many days. The food taken on fast days had both some general and locally specific features. The urban diet differed from the rural; festive food had its specifics compared to the daily diet; the nutrition of wealthy peasants was more diverse than that of the poor. The importance of fast days lay not only in their restricting the diet to certain sets of food products, they served also to consolidate the norms of morality, to foster positive qualities and the like. Fasting habits and customs were passed down from one generation to the next, and thus carried a great educational content. It is important to compare the practice of fasting in the 20th century during the atheistic propaganda and after 1988, the year of the millennium of Christianity in Russia. Thus the fasts can reveal the characteristics of the religious mood of Russian society in the past and the present. Thanks to a considerable mass of archival and field materials, as well as published sources, it is possible to demonstrate the great role of fast days in the life of the Russian people.

Roasted pigs and bao dumplings: Festive food and imagined transnational identity in Chinese-Vietnamese festivals

: This article explores the ways by which special dishes prepared for the Chinese community festivals in the Vietnamese town of Hoi An negotiate and expand the notions of ethnic identity and place of origin of migrant groups. Although the festivals stress specific regional identities in (Imperial) China, the food consumed in the communal feasts defines much wider scopes of ethnicity and territory. By discussing these alternative scopes and comparing the feasts in two festivals, the article suggests that a new transnational ‘greater-Chinese’ identity is celebrated in contemporary Chinese-Vietnamese community festivals. The scope and importance of this new identity is analysed in relation to an imagined ‘greater-China’ as a dominant player in the forthcoming ‘Pacific Century’. The position of the culinary sphere as a privileged arena for sociocultural negotiation, especially in post-socialist authoritarian regimes, is also discussed.

Nutrient Composition of Traditional Festival Foods of North Karnataka

India has a rich treasure of traditional foods specifica for festivals. An investigation was undertaken to document the different traditional foods prepared during Hindu festivals of North Karnataka and to assess nutritive value of such foods. Data were collected through a cross sectional survey of 200 Hindu families (100 each from rural and urban areas) of Dharwad Taluka. The study revealed that 78 traditional foods (45 sweet and 33 savory) were prepared which were characteristic to this region during the different major festivals. Typical to this region were the use of ingredients like wheat gluten, gum crystals, traditional pasta products, minor oilseeds such as linseed and niger, recrystallized special sugar, safflower milk and seeds of marking nut tree. A majority of festival foods were based on cereals in both sweet and savory categories. Boiling, roasting, pan baking or pounding were the common processing methods followed and deep frying was not a common method. It was observed that, the calorific value of the sweet items ranged from 115 to 283 K cal per serving. Bajra roti was found to be highly nutritious, providing higher levels of energy, protein, calcium, iron, magnesium, copper and zinc than rest of the savory festival foods. Foods low in fat, calories ,carbohydrates and sodium were identified.

Color, nutritive value and effect on a combination concerning festive food for the new year.

Color, nutritive value and effect on a combination concerning festive food for the new year.

Traditional Festive Cuisine of North Karnataka

Food is an integral part of any festival wherein, specific traditional festival foods are prepared, both in rural and urban India. An investigation was conducted to document the major Hindu festiva...

Understanding the Experience of Household Food Insecurity in Rural Bangladesh Leads to a Measure Different from That Used in Other Countries

This research aimed to gain in-depth understanding of the experience of household food insecurity in rural Bangladesh and to develop a direct measure of it from this understanding. Using naturalistic, emergent inquiry, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 rural women living in diverse situations using a semistructured interview guide. Two analytic strategies classified households on food insecurity and elicited themes that were the basis for classification. Survey questions were developed to capture themes, and were revised after review, field testing, and ranking and pile-sorting exercises. Four gradations of severity of food insecurity resulted, based on nine themes: meals, cooking, rice, fish, perishable foods, snacks, festival food, other expenditures and management strategies. The emergent conceptualization of food insecurity differs from that found from naturalistic research in other countries. The developed food insecurity measure has 11 questions. This research affirms the value of gaining in-depth understanding of household food insecurity. In many situations, this approach, rather than translating questions developed elsewhere, may best lead to suitable experience-based measures of food insecurity.

Bainbridge Festive Foods

Lara Owens and Kathleen Pegram were starting to worry about their newly acquired business, Bainbridge Festive Foods. Bainbridge, a supplier of specialty jams, jellies, and pickles, sold its product through many outlets but relied heavily on a relationship with Cracker Barrel (a restaurant usually accompanied with a country gift store). Many issues face Bainbridge Festive Foods and its new owners. This case offers the opportunity to examine a small agribusiness facing many common issues: reputation (food quality and safety), change in ownership, reliance on one outlet, and a price structure that had not been examined since the firm's inception.

Réflexions sur les fondements de la diététique dans le monde grec ancien (à propos de l'interdit de la fève)

The aim of this thesis is to study the prohibition on the use of the fava bean in the orphic, pythagorean and dionysiac cults. Followay a botanical description of the bean and of the homeric plant, molu, which is associated with it, there is a full account of the greek an latin texts that refer to this prohibition. The texts are the subject of a linguistic analysis which allows varied access, by means of different approaches, that of classical autors as of contemporary semiologists, to the meaning of kuamos. The study of the fava bean is linked to that of food in general and to the social and religious practices from an anthropological perspective. The study of the theory of the phusis of empedocle examins the different analogical procedures which provide the dynamism behind the reality in particular as pointing to the fava as a source of fertility. The alimentary regime diet is replaced in the more general frame of the diaite, accord to the hypocratic approach , refering to the ethical and philosophical roots. One chapter is devoted to the idea of the incorporation of food and its psychic consequences : onirism. The social function of the fava is discussed : alimentary marker ; social differentiation ; ritual and festive food. Later, the basis of the prohibition and rejection are explored. The hygienic and medical reasons (favism) are set aside. The religious ones are retained (the rejection of the olympic sacrifice on the grounds of the phonos). The account continues with the mental representations of the fava : the paradigm of the blood, of generation, of sex, the agent of the process of metensomatosis. For all these reasons, the fava acquires a religious status and is employed in rituals. It draws from this status, in opposition to that as prohibited object, a certain ambivalence. One chapter, recurrences and similarities discusses the practices in other civilisations. In conclusion, it is possible to keep the appearance of the homologies for the bean, the validation of the speculative and religious correlations and at the same time the acceptance of the ambivalent attributes towards. These are resolved in the principle of the one in presocratic philosophy. The fava becomes an object emblematic of codes, of conventions and of social an religious praxis.

Japanese festival foods

More than 100 foods associated with 21 Japanese festivals were examined in two populations: elderly Japanese living in Yamaguchi and Hiroshima (n = 154) and elderly Japanese‐Americans born in Yamaguchi or Hiroshima, currently residents of Los Angeles, California (n = 54). More Japanese‐Americans than Japanese respondents considered rice cakes, sushi, and vegetables mixed with meat/chicken as foods traditionally associated with New Years Day, Adult Day, Girl's Day, and Cherry Blossom Festival. In contrast, significantly more Japanese than Japanese‐Americans reported no foods were associated with these holidays, or with Star Festival, Festival of Joy (Obon), weddings, or for the 60th birthday (Kanreki). Japanese respondents regularly associated six foods with New Years Eve, spring equinox, and celebrations for 3, 5, and 7 year olds: buckwheat noodles, candy, devil's tongue herb, sardines, whale meat, and glutinous rice coated with sweet red‐bean paste. While Japanese‐American respondents continued to eat traditional foods on most Japanese festival days, they evolved in the United States a mixed cuisine pattern that blended Japanese, Western, and Chinese ethnic foods when celebrating Christmas, Thanksgiving, and weddings.

The Plate Model: A Visual Method of Teaching Meal Planning

Dietitians from Canada, Finland, France, and Sweden have explored methods of teaching meal planning to persons with diabetes and dyslipidemia in the Diabetes Atherosclerosis Intervention Study. The Plate Model, a method commonly used in Europe, is a simple alternative to the traditional exchange-based method for teaching meal planning. In this visual method, a dinner plate serves as a pie chart to show proportions of the plate that should be covered by various food groups. Portions of foods and appropriate food choices can be depicted for meals and snacks in assorted forms of the model. Methods of presenting the model range from professional photography to hand-drawn sketches and displays of food replicas. Benefits of the model for adult learners include enhancement of the connection between dietary theory and practice, promotion of memory retention and understanding through visual messages, and experience of a positive approach to nutrition counseling. Various cuisines and festive foods can be incorporated into the model. The Plate Model offers a meal planning approach that is simple and versatile. The effectiveness of the model and its applications to other populations need to be evaluated. J Am Diet Assoc. 1998; 98:1155–1158.

Sharing Teaching Ideas: A Celebration in Honor of Isaac Newton

Many of us wish we could find cause to celebrate the coming of winter break with our students as our foreign-language colleagues do by cooking and sharing festive foods. For those of us who teach calculus to high school students, Isaac Newton presents a wonderful opportunity for a celebration