The Actual Reasons Certain Foods Are Associated With Specific Holidays

After the Second Temple in Jerusalem fell to the Seleucids in 70 CE, the Maccabees retook it on behalf of Judaism. To rededicate it, Jews needed to cleanse the Temple using pure oil. They only had enough to burn for one day but “the happy celebration lasted eight days” instead.

Jewish food historian Jayne Cohen said:

When [the Maccabees] retook the [Second Temple in Jerusalem], 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.

By that time, more oil had been prepared but Jews came to celebrate the miracle annually as Hanukkah. Fried foods, in this way, are linked to that oil and that miracle. Potatoes, eggs, onions, matzo meal, and oil or animal fat (schmaltz) are combined and fried and eaten with sour cream and applesauce.

The sour cream that accompanies latkes represents the “bitterness” of slavery. Applesauce likely comes into the tradition because apples were available and linked to the story of Adam and Eve. The dairy mixed with some animal fats used to make some latkes violates kosher law. 

Traditionally, lamb was the meat consumed at Easter. Christians ate lamb because it represented the “Lamb of God” or Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. The lamb had been sacrificed just like Jesus for the betterment of humanity.

With the passage of time and spread of Christianity, alternatives to lamb on Easter arose. Ham was especially popular because it was more affordable and readily available, especially in the United States. In Europe, there was an additional religious factor:

The connection of European Christians eating pork was a stark mark of identity: It proved that one was neither Jewish nor Muslim. In fact, one could be turned into the Spanish Inquisition for the seemingly innocent act of not eating pork.

Eating eggs on Easter may or may not be part of one's personal tradition. Eggs are, however, included in Easter celebrations because they represent renewal, fertility, and life - all of which are tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

With the advent of Christianity, many individuals modified existing non-Christian practices and incorporated them into the new faith. Eostre, for example, was an Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and and Spring. The Venerable Bede, writing in the 7th and 8th centuries, referred to her:

Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated ‘Paschal month,’ and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.  

While little else is known from Bede or other historical documents, with time celebrating Eostre included hares and eggs - two symbols associated with her. 

Eggs have comparable links to fertility and rebirth worldwide and, as a result, decorating them for Easter varies by location. Adding color, designs, etching, and even wax have been used at various times and in different places. As Stephanie Hall noted in 2017:

If you have decorated an egg, then you have participated in one of the oldest decorative arts. 

In the Jewish faith, lamb was a traditional Passover food. In the book of Exodus, lamb were sacrificed the night before the Lord brought devastation to Egypt. The blood of a lamb was smeared,

on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs… On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Matzo (or matzah) is unleavened bread that represents the haste with which Jews left Egypt. Unleavened bread became part of the Jewish identity. Egyptians, on the other hand, ate leavened bread. 

As a result, matzo was linked to the proper way to celebrate Passover, as seen in Exodus 12:15:

For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

They're kind of a joke, but fruitcakes were once of the most luxurious gifts someone could get for Christmas for centuries. The ingredients in fruitcakes vary, but usually include nuts, raisins and other dried fruit, honey, figs, and some sort of alcohol. 

Ancient Egyptians ate versions of fruitcake, as did Romans and people throughout the Middle Ages. Fruitcake was full of calories, it stored well, and was a sweet treat to pass around (a la Johnny Carson). Fruitcakes weren't just Christmas gifts, however. They were traditional wedding cakes and even Queen Victoria had one when she wed Prince Albert on February 10, 1840. Chef Chris Dodd explained:

A fruitcake was originally a symbol of wealth and prosperity because of its precious ingredients such as dried fruits, alcohol, and spices. Furthermore, the cake, in a way, represented the vastness of the British empire, using ingredients from far-flung corners of the globe.

With the mass production of fruitcake came the backlash, especially in the United States. As fruitcakes were made outside of the home, they were drier and heavier with less flavor. Mail-order fruitcakes were worse, arriving at one's doorstep with a hefty amount of disappointment included. All of this contributed to the widespread gifting of fruitcakes at Christmas, however, ultimately lessening its significance and contributing to its negative reputation. 

A new year brings new opportunities, so eating a meal full of foods thought to bring good luck is common. This is true whether the New Year being celebrated is Rosh Hashanah, the Chinese New Year, or the one on the Gregorian calendar, as Florence Fabricant explained in 1986:

The notion, for example, that eating gold-colored food will put money in your pocket is common in Peru, where papas a la huancaina, a potato dish tinted with turmeric or with a saffron-colored spice called tadillo, is served on New Year's Eve. In China, dumplings made from golden egg pancakes, crisply gilded spring rolls and oranges are the aureate foods appropriate for the Chinese New Year's celebrations in midwinter.

Additional foods include round cakes and breads to represent the whole year and lentils to symbolize coins. In the Southern United States, black-eyed peas and collard greens are commonly eaten. This is because “black-eyed peas are for good luck, and collard greens are for money.” Cornbread also accompanies the meal, another gold food to bring about prosperity.