Christmas at Autumn Cottage
Food and drink are much more than fuel for the body, aren’t they? They’re food for the soul as well.
We had supper with our son and his wife last night; we gathered around their table, to share food grown by themselves, in their own garden and a menu prepared from both a different and a shared culture. We shared family stories about other times we had been gathered around other tables, about the time we ended up eating macaroni marzipan , rather than macaroni cheese, and how particular family rituals around the table defined the identity of that family.
When we travelled to their wedding in Romania last year, we delighted in exploring different cuisines, and when we gathered around the table there en famille before the wedding, the sharing of food was very much also part of the welcome into their family . We encountered unusual combinations of foods considered delicacies (pork fat and raw onions for breakfast?! ) and interesting, home made (Palinka!) beverages. It was clear that the preparing and sharing of food bound that family together as much as it binds ours. In sharing food, two families began to link closer together .
We share food and drink at the most transient and the most important times of our lives, don't we ? We grab a coffee and maybe a sandwich with a friend when we meet for an hour. Balmy summer days? I remember them for long lunches on the patio as much as anything. A favourite way to meet up with work colleagues? In the canteen or out for a curry.
In British culture, Baptismal/naming parties, Wedding breakfasts, Wakes and Funeral food mark Rites of Passage - we gather together to break bread and drink water and wine. The fundamental ceremony of the Christian Church – that of the Eucharist/Holy Communion, is based upon a gathering around a table to break bread and drink wine in memory of a beloved person, in a mirroring of the occasion when that person broke bread with His loved ones; meeting together and eating together is fundamental to the bonding up communities.
It occurs in most other religious traditions; consider the celebrations of Eid ('the breaking of the fast') after the fasting month of Ramadan, for our Muslim brothers and sisters; consider the weekly (Friday evening) Shabbat meal for members of the Jewish community and their guests, and the great commemorative act of Pesach - the Passover meal. Hindus regularly make offerings to their Deities of food and drink; my Buddhist friends see that consideration of what and how they eat as a very important part of their religious observations.
It is a very deep belief of mine that it is difficult to make an enemy, or remain an enemy with someone with whom you sit down, face to face, break bread, drink wine and share conversation. I think it's an experiment in reaching out that could be so successful - to invite members of communities of groups with whom you may feel difficulty and difference - just sit down, eat, drink and speak with them . (f you can do this in a garden, even better!)
I consider myself privileged to have had an insight into different cultures through the gateway of food and drink (nothing is more welcome, when your feet are burning and your mouth is parched as you walk through a a hot, dusty Greek village, than to stop for a meal and instantly be offered a bowl of olives and a glass of water, before ever a food order is thought about) and I can only hope that the traditions of sharing food, drink and conversation, not only remain but flourish – or as a medieval toast from the City of London declares – ‘For good food, good wine and good company, Godde be thanked !’
(...though always remember - *someone* has to do the washing up!!)
Journal prompt
when do you sit down and break bread around the table with others ? What does it mean to you ? What do you share when you do this ? Communal baking ? Recipes? Family stories? National traditions? Write about some of the most significant meals you have had together with others; write about times when you have eaten alone. Which would you prefer ?
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