Knowing someone’s religion just by looking at their food?

Series: What can foods tell u about? - ABOUT RELIGIONS

Can you guess someone’s religion just by looking at their food?

– Totally. If the name of the restaurant can’t tell, take a closer look at the utensils they use — and if that’s still not enough, pay attention to what days they eat, and what ingredients are in the food. Back in the day, the Nazis hunted down Jewish families by checking who cooked a lot on Fridays in preparation for Saturday meals.

✡️ Judaism

Judaism is the cradle of both Islam and Christianity — it’s the second oldest religion after Hinduism. Jews follow the Kosher diet, which is pretty similar to Halal — the main differences being that they don’t ban alcohol, but still can’t eat meat and dairy.

They fast 6 times a year:

• 2 “Major Fasts” (no food or drink all day)
• 4 “Minor Fasts” (you can eat after sunset).

Every Friday, they prepare food ahead for the Sabbath on Saturday, when all forms of cooking are forbidden — which is why the Nazis used that clue to identify Jewish households.

Sabbath dinner in Judaism

☪️ Islam

It’s the world’s second-largest religion, with some well-known dietary restrictions. Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan and only eat Halal foods. Halal basically means: no alcohol, no pork, no bugs or insects, and any other meat must be slaughtered in a specific way to drain out all the blood.

Halah food store

⛪ Catholicism (Western Christianity)

Catholic followers are supposed to fast for 40 days (Lent) before Easter, which includes no meat on Fridays, eating just one full meal per day, and full abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. But in reality, most followers aren’t that strict about it, so when it comes to Catholicism, diet restrictions are often not a big thing.

Lent fasting in Catholicism : no meat and animal products

☦️ Orthodox Christianity (Eastern)

Its diet is kind of similar to the Catholic one, but Orthodox followers are way stricter and fast more often. Besides the pre-Easter fast, they also fast before Christmas and a few other periods, totaling up to 150–180 fasting days a year. In general, I find Eastern European countries that follow Orthodox Christianity to be more conservative, and their cultures richer and more distinct — probably because modernization like in Western Europe often comes at the cost of cultural identity. Countries where Orthodox Christianity is the main religion include Greece (the birthplace of Orthodoxy), Russia, and others with Soviet roots like Romania, Ukraine, and Serbia.

Preparing food for Orthodox fasting

🕉️ Hinduism

Hiduism is the cradle of Buddhism, and a religion super famous for its food culture — which I’ll tell you more about in Episode 4 coming sooooon!

Rain praying festival in with lots of food offerings in Hinduism