Everyday Foods With Religious And Spiritual Significance - And Why

Fish is an important food within the Jewish and Christian traditions. In the Torah and the Talmud, fish represents fertility, protection, and abundance. The number of eggs fish lay at one time is thought to be why fertility and abundance are linked to them. Fish are limited to creatures with fins and scales, excluding shellfish and numerous other marine animals.

To celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, fish heads are eaten in line with the saying, “May we be heads, not tails.” Gefilte fish, or ground fish mixed with matzo mean, eggs, and various seasonings, is a Passover staple. 

Christians have similar thoughts about the connection between fish and abundance, not surprising given the Jewish foundations of the faith. Fish also is an acrostic for “Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter” or “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" that spells ichthys, the Greek word for fish.

It's widely believed that Christ ate fish and honeycomb after his resurrection, another reason fish has Christian importance. 

The way baklava is made differs by culture, but the food has significance in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In its simplest form, baklava features sheets of filo dough soaked in honey (or syrup) stacked with a mixture of nuts and cinnamon in between layers. 

Christians often make baklava with 40 layers during Lent, one for each day. Additionally, baklava with 33 layers can symbolize the life of Jesus Christ - one layer for each year.

Jews serve baklava at meals on Rosh Hashanah and Purim, a decadent treat consumed in celebration. Muslims make baklava during the month of Ramadan and, when the fast is broken, the sweet dessert is eaten in abundance. 

According to one tradition, the importance of baklava within Islam dates to the Ottoman Empire when the sultan gifted it to his elite Janissary troops. Food historian Mary Isin wrote:

The sultan ordered trays of baklava to be baked in the imperial kitchens. When the baklava was ready, the trays, wrapped in cloths, were laid out in the courtyard for everyone to see.

Not consumed so much as dyed and hunted on Easter, eggs represent new life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an obvious connection but eggs were important for pagan festivals and celebrations prior to the advent of Christianity.

One Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eostre, for example, is believed by some scholars to be the origin of the name of the Easter holiday. Eostre was the goddess of fertility, dawn, and spring. She was associated with both eggs and hares, two things now inextricably linked to Easter. 

Christians once sacrificed lambs on Easter and ate their flesh to symbolize the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ had sacrificed himself for humanity.

For many contemporary Christians, ham has replaced lamb. This is especially true in the Untied States, and there are practical reasons for this, as Dr. Beth Forrest explained:

To preserve pigs over the winter, our ancestors would smoke and cure them. Come late spring, before the first new foods sprout or livestock have been birthed, a ham could well remain in the larder [what we now refer to as a refrigerator].

Lamb is also eaten by Jews on Passover to recognize the sacrificial nature of the animal. In the book of Exodus, lamb's blood is used to mark the doors of Jewish homes, thus saving them from the destruction wrought on Egypt:

For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments - I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Latkes seem simple - they're just fried potato, onion, egg, and matzo meal. Two of the ingredients are especially important to Jews, however, making them a staple during Hanukkah.

Matzo is linked to Jewish identity through the book of Exodus; the oil used to fry the latke mixture represents the miracle of the oil burning for eight nights during Hanukkah. 

Food historian Jayne Cohen explained:

It commemorates the victory or the Maccabees, who retook the temple, and when they re-sanctified the temple and cleaned everything, they needed ritual oil for the candelabra, and the only ritual oil that was pure enough was only enough to last for one day, according to the story.

Dates are especially important in the Islamic faith because they are prominent in the Hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad reportedly,

used to break his fast before praying with some fresh dates; but if there were no fresh dates, he had a few dry dates, and if there were no dry dates, he took some mouthfuls of water.

Additionally, “the mixing of dates and grapes together, and mixing of unripe dates and ripe dates together” in drinks was forbidden, while simultaneously representing generosity and mercy:

A woman [was given] three dates. She gave each of her two children a date and kept one date for herself. The children ate the two dates and then looked at their mother. She took her date and split it into two and gave each child a half of it. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, [was told] about it. He said, ‘Are you surprised at that? Allah will show her mercy because of her mercy towards her child.’