The Traditions and Beliefs Involving Food Essay

Very few foods are invented. Rather, food, and how we prepare and eat it, evolves.In China people eat eight, ten or twelve dishes of food at New Year. This is because an even number means double the luck.In Russia, there is lots of food on the table so the next year will be happy and plentiful. At 1159 p.m., people open champagne and wait for the clock to strike midnight, when they toast the new year and wish each other luck and happiness.In Spain, people get ready with 12 grapes. When the clock strikes midnight, they begin eating the grapes and try to finish by the time the clock stops chiming. The tradition began one year when there was a particularly bountiful harvest of grapes, and the king of Spain decided to give everyone grapes on New Years Eve.Oliebollen, a pastry similar to doughnuts, are a traditional New Year treat in Holland. Legend has it that a Dutch soldier would try to cut open the bellies of all she came across, but because of the fat in oliebollen, her sword would slide off the body of whomever ate them.The word honeymoon is derived in part from an ancient Northern European custom in which newlyweds, for the first month of their married lives, drank a daily cup of honeyed wine called mead. The ancient practices of kidnapping a bride and drinking the honeyed wine date back to Atilla, king of the Huns, from 433 to 453 AD.Sashimi is one dish served during a typical week in a typical Japanese family. The cost of food for one week for such a family is 317.Pasta with ragu, or Bolognese sauce, is an Italian favorite. The cost of food for one week for an average family in Italy is 260.The cost of food for one week for an average family in Germany is 500.Turkeys are thought to have been domesticated around 200 B.C. Food expenditures for an average family...

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