Whether you are travelling overseas or just around the big city or out to the countryside, your hosts are likely to offer you food and drink and you may wish to take food or drink.
Kosher Guests
For many years I had been in a puzzle over this. I went to visit a kosher family, who were not bothered normally, but one of their children married somebody who would not visit and eat in their house unless they kept kosher. So the hosts, and visitors, had to know the rules and observe them.
Seder Time
I arrived for a Seder meal during the period of Passover. I had brought flowers and an edible herb plant instead of food. To my surprise even the flowers and herbs had to stay out in their garage until the end of Passover. The word Seder means order.
The first night of Passover is celebrated with a large meal, an annual gathering. Imagine it's the Jewish equivalent of Christmas or Chinese New Year. Naturally it is a big event in Israel.
Contamination Rules' History
According to the Discovery Channel programme I watched, the food rules we still see observed by Jews for Passover date back to the time the Hebrews were in Egypt under Pharaoh.
Passover and Seder
The word Passover is the celebration of the passing over of the Angel of Death during the first of the ten plagues. The Discovery programme consulted various experts in causes of death. The cause of death could not have been slaughter by a violent assailant in every house, or this would have been resisted and recorded and unlikely that the oldest son would have been selected in every house.
The cause of death was from inside. Most likely a poison. Not an unfriendly act, but accidental contamination of food. Affecting every house, it would have been in a central supply (like a modern wholesaler or catering company.
The reason the oldest child succumbed was that the oldest was given a larger portion of food, not just because they were older but because the oldest child was favoured. (As I wrote that, it occurred to me that the smallest child could also have been breastfeeding.)
Lent And Diet Restriction
The tradition of banning foods for Passover evolved into giving up foods for Lent.
That led to the UK tradition of pancake day, when you use up flour to make pancakes.
To sum it up, food given up for lent - hence Pancake Day using up flour, date back to some disaster in the time of the ten plagues in Egypt. Then flour or crops ready to grind into flour or food from a previous year's harvest went mouldy during a wet spring.
To prevent it happening again, everything in the house from the previous harvest was removed before crops from the fresh spring harvest were imported. Either the origin is forgotten, but the panic to obey is transmitted through the generation. Or to ensure that citizens obey the important rules, you create a superstition or rule which does not give the reason, but instead make it a commandment by God. the rule has to be obeyed 'religiously', strictly.
St Vitus's Dance
According to the Discovery programme, if I remember rightly, this contamination of the harvest happened again, in the USA in more recent times. Contamination resulted in symptoms, in what was called St Vitus's Dance.
Nowadays with so many people being gluten-free, it is thoughtful to ask your hostess or host what food the family eats, and to mark food when serving to visitors and overseas guests.
Useful Websites
visitbritain.com
visitbritainshop.com
visittheusa.co.uk
visitsingapore.com
visitlondon.com
https://www.amazon.co.uk (slogan 100% kosher teeshirt)
http://www.contemporaryjudaica.co.uk
www.lonelyplanet.com/Australia
https://new.goisrael.com/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on Kosher food, Israel, food worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Kosher Guests
For many years I had been in a puzzle over this. I went to visit a kosher family, who were not bothered normally, but one of their children married somebody who would not visit and eat in their house unless they kept kosher. So the hosts, and visitors, had to know the rules and observe them.
Seder Time
I arrived for a Seder meal during the period of Passover. I had brought flowers and an edible herb plant instead of food. To my surprise even the flowers and herbs had to stay out in their garage until the end of Passover. The word Seder means order.
The first night of Passover is celebrated with a large meal, an annual gathering. Imagine it's the Jewish equivalent of Christmas or Chinese New Year. Naturally it is a big event in Israel.
Contamination Rules' History
According to the Discovery Channel programme I watched, the food rules we still see observed by Jews for Passover date back to the time the Hebrews were in Egypt under Pharaoh.
Passover and Seder
The word Passover is the celebration of the passing over of the Angel of Death during the first of the ten plagues. The Discovery programme consulted various experts in causes of death. The cause of death could not have been slaughter by a violent assailant in every house, or this would have been resisted and recorded and unlikely that the oldest son would have been selected in every house.
The cause of death was from inside. Most likely a poison. Not an unfriendly act, but accidental contamination of food. Affecting every house, it would have been in a central supply (like a modern wholesaler or catering company.
The reason the oldest child succumbed was that the oldest was given a larger portion of food, not just because they were older but because the oldest child was favoured. (As I wrote that, it occurred to me that the smallest child could also have been breastfeeding.)
Lent And Diet Restriction
The tradition of banning foods for Passover evolved into giving up foods for Lent.
That led to the UK tradition of pancake day, when you use up flour to make pancakes.
To sum it up, food given up for lent - hence Pancake Day using up flour, date back to some disaster in the time of the ten plagues in Egypt. Then flour or crops ready to grind into flour or food from a previous year's harvest went mouldy during a wet spring.
To prevent it happening again, everything in the house from the previous harvest was removed before crops from the fresh spring harvest were imported. Either the origin is forgotten, but the panic to obey is transmitted through the generation. Or to ensure that citizens obey the important rules, you create a superstition or rule which does not give the reason, but instead make it a commandment by God. the rule has to be obeyed 'religiously', strictly.
St Vitus's Dance
According to the Discovery programme, if I remember rightly, this contamination of the harvest happened again, in the USA in more recent times. Contamination resulted in symptoms, in what was called St Vitus's Dance.
Nowadays with so many people being gluten-free, it is thoughtful to ask your hostess or host what food the family eats, and to mark food when serving to visitors and overseas guests.
Useful Websites
visitbritain.com
visitbritainshop.com
visittheusa.co.uk
visitsingapore.com
visitlondon.com
https://www.amazon.co.uk (slogan 100% kosher teeshirt)
http://www.contemporaryjudaica.co.uk
www.lonelyplanet.com/Australia
https://new.goisrael.com/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on Kosher food, Israel, food worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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