Why do many people eat ham on Easter?

[El Supremo]

Isn't that an affront to Judaism? Jesus was a law abiding Jew, you know.

I like to have lamb - a rack of lamb preferably. And, BTW, I'm a Presbyterian.

[still_one]

1. Interesting speculation

[Kip Humphrey]

2. we eat rabbit.

[Arugula Latte]

3. Like everything about Easter, it's a rip-off of paganism and Spring celebration rituals.

Ham eating is an Easter tradition among European (and European-Americans) because pigs were considered a symbol of luck in pre-Christian Europe.

The mythological and ridiculous Jesus story slapped on top of ancient Earth-centric and Nature-centric celebrations is just plain LAME.

[TM99]

13. Somewhat but pigs are actually more about fertility.

Freya rides a boar, and Freyr has a boar companion. These Vanir are associated among other things with fertility.

But research actually shows that Germanic paganism influenced and shaped Christianity at that time as much as Christianity replaced it as the dominant religion.

G. Ronald Murphy is the place to start reading on this particularly his translations and commentary on The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel.

It is modern neo-pagan/Wiccan myth that says that Christianity simply slapped the Jesus story on top of other pagan mythologies. Dig a bit deeper with more scholarly research and you find a nuanced interchange of various peoples, cultures, and religions shaping each other as they come into contact with each other as Europe emerged from the Roman Empire into the Medieval city states and finally the Renaissance countries closer to what we now know as 'modern' Enlightenment Europe.

[okasha]

22. Der Heiland--The Saviour--

brings Jesus and the Apostles into the context of the Germanic warrior-hero tale. Jesus is a "ring-giver," a chieftain, and the Twelve are the stout-hearted leaders of his warband. (Imagine Jesus in the Sutton Hoo helmet, with a bearskin cloak across his shoulders...)

[TM99]

23. Yes!

It is a wonderful saga. Think Beowulf meets the Passion of the Christ!

There are other Anglo-Saxon poems and short stories that show that the embracing of Christianity was definitely not always forced or unwelcome.

[okasha]

24. There's an Anglo-Saxon night-charm

for protection against the devil that illustrates the syncretism perfectly. In modern English it goes:

Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Nail the devil to this post.
With this mell (hammer) I thrice do knock:
Once for God, and once for Wod, and once for Lok.

Wod and Lok being Woden and Loki.

[upaloopa]

56. If you ate ham and didn't know any of that history

then that could not be why you ate ham. Maybe you just like ham.

[hrmjustin]

4. Peter said we can eat the good stuff.

[El Supremo]

9. I think that was Paul. n/m

[edhopper]

5. You never heard of

The Sacrificial Ham?

[Warpy]

6. No, it was just cheap meat

in much of Europe, piglets born around the beginning of Lent and big enough to roast whole by Easter. It was as much a sign of spring as lambs were and served for the same reason.

It wasn't done as a conscious affront to their Jewish neighbors, just the first real feast after the Lenten fast and trust me, they were hungry by then. Pork, pork sausages, ham, bacon and other things eaten by non Jews the rest of the year weren't an affront to anyone, either. It was just meat.

Jews weren't affronted unless somebody tried to force them to eat pork, something that happened often enough in an oppressive society with institutionalized antisemitism.

[El Supremo]

10. Reasonable answer!

[LuvNewcastle]

7. A lot of people eat ham because it's cheap.

In the South, people used to eat mostly pork or chicken because pigs and chickens don't cost much to raise. Our diet is much more varied nowadays, but old habits persist.

[TexasProgresive]

8. After a lent without meat the cured and smoked ham was

the last thing in the larder. That's one possible reason. The other possible reason was to prove one wasn't Jewish. In either case it just became a small t tradition.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. In order to make the new religion the religion of the Roman Empire

they had to get rid of all the judaic rules. There was no way not eating pigs or clipping foreskins was going to fly.

[doc03]

12. My reason, I like ham. n/t

[bvf]

14. Ham is tasty.

Plus a whole year of eating Jesus once a week makes you want for something more savory.

[El Supremo]

16. We don't eat Jesus every week.

That's the Roman Catholics. However we both drink his blood too.

[bvf]

18. We didn't get the blood.

I remember being pissed off about that.

[niyad]

15. because it's on sale!

[PoliticAverse]

17. Because bunny rabbits are too cute to eat. n/t

[Historic NY]

19. Because its free if your spend enough at my market...

this year I even qualified for Passover , I'm getting matzo crackers that ought to shakes up the relatives and a couple priests at dinner. I would do a rack of lamb but most don't like it.

[yeoman6987]

20. This Catholic eats ham. My entire family does.

[Freddie]

21. Because it's a lot better than turkey IMO

And making a big holiday dinner with ham is way easier (no mashed potatoes or gravy!) and it makes great leftovers.

[TlalocW]

25. I don't know how true it is

But I read in one of those books like, "Do Penguins Have Knees?" that talk about stuff like this is that during the Inquisition in Spain - which probably ramped up during the Easter season - to prove they were Christians and not Jews, people would have a pig or a ham hanging outside their door showing any officials from the church what they planned to eat for Easter dinner.

Also, pork in Spain and the religious power struggle is where we get two sayings. When the Moors controlled southern Spain, pork was outlawed, setting up a black market for it. So suppliers would sell small piglets in a sack that was called a poke - but the overly-trustful would not open the poke to verify it actually held a pig, thus "pig in a poke" came to mean a deal that was foolishly accepted. However, if a person did open the sack to verify there was a pig in there, and it turned out to be a cat that the dealer put in there to cheat his customer, it was said he let the cat out of the bag.

At least according to what I read.

TlalocW

[Purveyor]

26. Well it is going to be 'Leg of Lamb' around here come Easter Sunday. ;) eom

[nichomachus]

51. Leg of Lamb of God? n/t

[JayhawkSD]

27. I don't know how you connect Easter and Judaism

The Jewish religion does not admit to the concept of Easter at all, does not admit to the divinity of Jesus or to him rising from the dead. Sort of like asking why Mexicans might eat tamales on Thanksgiving, when Mexico does not celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday.

[TexasProgresive]

32. Passover and Holy Week come very close together.

Jesus being the once and for all Paschal lamb. Jews would not make this connection but a lot of Christians do.

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. The Last Supper was a Passover meal; the dates of Easter and Passover both depend on

the northern vernal equinox and the phase of the moon. The bible claims the crucifixion of Jesus was hurried to be before the Sabbath started. Jesus was Jewish. Easter is fundamentally based in Judaism.

[upaloopa]

58. I don't think so. As a non practicing Catholic I learned that

Easter is a Christian Holiday celebrating the resurrection of Christ whom the Jews did not recognize as the Messiah

[pinto]

60. Jesus was a Jew. The Passover meal traditionally commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Unleavened bread (there was no time for a yeast bread to rise) and wine are key parts of a Passover meal. The Last Supper account echoed the tradition.

[muriel_volestrangler]

61. Matthew 26:1-3:

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26:1-3&version=NIV

Mark 14:1-2:

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+14%3A1-2&version=NIV

Luke 22:1-3:

Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+22%3A1-3&version=NIV

John 13 1-2:

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A1-2&version=NIV

So, all 4 gospels agree it was Passover.

How the Easter Date is Determined

About what do you 'not think so'?

[upaloopa]

63. Easter was not the last supper

Not that it really matters to me what people want to believe.

[muriel_volestrangler]

64. Well, he didn't order a takeaway from the Cross

If your claim is "the bible is wrong, I know the truth" then give us your scenario. I'm setting out what the bible says, which is the only thing that actually defines the 'last supper'.

[upaloopa]

65. I am not making any claim

I was taught Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ. If you have a problem with that take it up with the nuns!

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. And the point is that the nun's bible says Jesus was a Jew, crucified at the passover

and resurrected the day after their sabbath. You can ask any nun about it.

[upaloopa]

68. I think religion is superstitution even though

my brother is a Catholic priest. I don't give a shit what he or any other member of the faithful believes!
But I was taught what I told you I was taught. Even though you have a problem with that. It reinforces what I think about religion.
A bunch of people insisting the truth is something they can't really prove is! And who are willing to beat other people over the head about!

[muriel_volestrangler]

72. Someone wanted to know the connection between Easter and Judaism. I told them.

You can ask your brother. He'll tell you the same.

I'm an atheist; I'm just telling you what Christians believe about Easter.

[upaloopa]

74. You are telling me what you think christians

believe about Easter.

[muriel_volestrangler]

75. Mainly, I'm telling you what the bible says.

That is the basis of what Christians believe on this subject. If you want an example that is specifically Catholic, try this:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20070405_coena-domini.html

[pinto]

73. The lamb of god may may also be a poignant metaphor in the Jesus scenario.

Jewish tradition holds that those who marked their door ways with the blood of a lamb would be "passed over" in the Egyptian routing of Jewish male children.

[SheilaT]

28. I'm thinking that growing up we alternated between leg of lamb and ham.

I was born in 1948, and was raised Catholic, if that matters.

I do not like lamb at all, and haven't eaten it in a good 40 years. Back when I was married and was fixing a special Easter dinner, I'd fix ham. I love ham. I fix it several times a year. I also love turkey and fix it outside of Thanksgiving every chance I get.

[Enthusiast]

29. It wouldn't be Easter without ham.

I kid.

[cbayer]

30. My experience has been that jews pretty much don't care what other people eat.

It would be an affront to invite someone who keeps kosher over for easter (which they don't celebrate) and service ham, but otherwise it's a non-issue.

Enjoy your lamb! I prefer a rib roast.

[AtheistCrusader]

31. I eat whatever the fuck I want whatever day of the year it is.

I don't need an excuse to eat ham.

[demwing]

33. and I bet God is duly intimidated by your brazen hamming

[AtheistCrusader]

34. First, said god would have to exist.

Then I could massively piss it off.

[demwing]

37. If God exists?

hell, I'm not even sure that you exist.

Or me, I guess...

But I do think that in an unlimited multiverse, the chances that God (or something so close to what we think of as God, that it might as well be God) "exists" are pretty close to 108%

[Marrah_G]

49. God Exists!

He is on Facebook and he is very funny

[Act_of_Reparation]

35. I'm more curious to know why eating meat on Friday is a sin...

...but a Filet-o-Fish is just peachy in the eyes in the almighty.

Dead animal is dead animal, ain't it?

[El Supremo]

36. It is not a sin. Don't think it ever was.

It is just one form of fasting. Which is one form of penance. It is supposed to give you an appreciation for those who go hungry or suffer.

[Act_of_Reparation]

40. It's canon law for Catholics.

In the eyes of the church, that shit ain't optional.

[cbayer]

41. That rule was changed when I was about 6 years old.

[El Supremo]

43. EVERY Friday was changed to just...

during Lent, Good Friday and Ash Wednesday. I think. I'm Protestant, so what do I know? I've not been eating meat on Friday since Ash Wednesday, because we also promote fasting as a way of penance.

[cbayer]

44. I think you are correct.

When I was very young, it was every friday. I had a lot of catholic friends and didn't like fish, so avoided their homes on fridays.

Vatican II changed that and it was just during Lent.

I did not know there were protestant denominations that had similar practices. Fasting was never a part of my protestant upbringing. We were encouraged to give something that we liked up for lent, but nothing else.

[El Supremo]

47. I decided on my own to give up meat.

This Friday I will try to not eat much. Then I will act like a Muslim during Ramadan and eat too much for Easter.

[Act_of_Reparation]

48. That's a common misperception.

According to Canon Law:

Can. 1250: The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251: Abstinence from eating meat or some other food according to the prescripts of the conference of bishops is to be observed on, of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year of age. The law of fasting, however, binds all those who have attained their majority until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors of souls and parents are to take care that minors not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are also educated in a genuine sense of penance.

Can. 1253: The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in the whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

This is from the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Our esteemed colleague refers to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' 1966 Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence:

12. Wherefore, we ask, urgently and prayerfully, that we, as people of God, make of the entire Lenten Season a period of special penitential observance. Following the instructions of the Holy See, we declare that the obligation both to fast and to abstain from meat, an obligation observed under a more strict formality by our fathers in the faith, still binds on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. No Catholic Christian will lightly excuse himself from so hallowed an obligation on the Wednesday which solemnly opens the Lenten season and on that Friday called "Good" because on that day Christ suffered in the flesh and died for our sins.

Long story short: YMMV depending on your bishop, but by no means has Friday fasting been eliminated from the books.

[nichomachus]

53. When I was in (Catholic) college back in the '60s

When the no meat on Friday things was still in effect, some Latin scholar in my class delved into Canon Law and subsequent church rulings. He found that you were allowed to eat up to three ounces of meat on Friday without breaking the rule. This was apparently for cooks who would have to taste food while cooking it.

We also discovered that the cheapo burger from the local burger joint was less than three ounces. So on a Friday night, we'd grab some beer and get a burger. The burgers were probably horrible, but (a) We were college students and didn't know any better, (b) We had beer, and (c) It was made more delicious knowing that we had found a loophole in the law.

[Act_of_Reparation]

62. If you find that amusing, allow me to introduce Mr. Capybara:

This is a capybara:



He is a rodent. The biggest rodent in the world, to be exact. He's South American, and is known to nest alongside rivers and lakes.

16th century European missionaries to the region complained that limited food supply made Lenten abstinence a particularly hard sell and requested that the Vatican make a special exception for the capybara.

And so the capybara has become a favorite Lenten treat in Venezuela, where it is served alongside ride and plantains.

Adventurous eater though I may be, rat is decidedly off the menu for me. I'll take the shitty 3 oz. burger.

[muriel_volestrangler]

67. And laurices - newly born rabbits (or fetuses) were classed as fish

Credit for the actual domestication of rabbits goes to the early French Catholic monks. Because they lived in seclusion, the monks appreciated an easily obtainable meat supply, and their need to find a food suitable for Lent caused them to fall back on an item much loved by the Romans - unborn or newly born rabbits, which are called “Laurices.” (Laurice was officially classified as “fish” in 600 A.D. by Pope Gregory I, and thus permissible during Lent.) This strange taste, combined with the need to keep rabbits within the monastery walls, created the conditions that led to proper domestication and the inevitable selection of breeding stock for various characteristics and traits.

http://albc-usa.org/cpl/rabbits.html

[Act_of_Reparation]

69. And alligators..

As of 20120, Louisianan Catholics may rest assured they are not breaking Canon law by consuming alligator meat on Fridays during Lent.

Dear Jim:

Thank you very much for you letter of February 24, 2010 concerning the question if alligator is acceptable to eat during the Lenten Season.

Yes, the alligator is considered in the fish family and I agree with you, God has created a magnificent creature that is important to the state of Louisiana and is considered seafood.

Wishing you God's blessings, I am

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Reverend Regory M. Aymond
Archbishop of New Orleans

Alright, lissen up. AoR teachez u teh Catholic biologeez:

This is a fish:



This is a fish:



n e questionz LOL?

[AtheistCrusader]

78. HAH wow. That's hilarious!

[Act_of_Reparation]

80. Don't get me started on puffins.

Also fish, according to the dubiously dressed officials of God's own PR firm.

Or half-fish, rather.

...

Because water and stuff.

[AtheistCrusader]

81. Someone should slap him with a platypus.

[Act_of_Reparation]

82. Incorrect: Platypus is not fish.

But, according to the RCC, beaver is.

So, if you get hungry tomorrow afternoon, remember:

Eat this:



Not this:

[AtheistCrusader]

83. Ow my brain

[nichomachus]

70. In Detroit, it was muskrats

Catholics in Detroit were allowed to eat muskrat on Friday -- and they did.

[kwassa]

71. Muskrat Love.

Captain and Tennille were right.

[LiberalAndProud]

38. Interesting question.

I wonder if this is true.

Why do some people serve ham for Easter dinner?
Historians tell us religions sometimes use food (taboos/traditional holiday meals) to forge identity and create community. Early Christians embraced ham, in part, to proclaim their religious beliefs.

According to the Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade editor in chief [MacMillan:New York] 1987, volume 5 (p. 558):
"Among Easter foods the most significant is the Easter lamb, which is in many places the main dish of the Easter Sunday meal. Corresponding to the Passover lamb and to Christ, the Lamb of God, this dish has become a central symbol of Easter. Also popular among European and Americans on Easter is ham, because the pig was considered a symbol of luck in pre-Christian Europe."
http://www.foodtimeline.org/easter.html#easterham

[Igel]

39. Probably not.

Most such things are "feel good" research built on scant information.

The "proclaim their beliefs" would fit well into similar arguments I've heard from the other side. Passover and Eastern weren't well distinguished, with early Xians keeping one or the other depending on location, "religious ancestry," etc. Passover-observers were more likely to not eat ham; Easter-Sunday observers were more likely to eat pig.

Pure speculation. First it would have to be shown that this distinction in habits went back that far, to when the Church was pushing Sunday and making Saturday into a bad day for religious observance, when they were pushing the Western Easter instead of the Eastern Passover.

It's like the business about Germanic customs influencing Easter. Those influences would have come later.

[LiberalAndProud]

42. I tend to agree, though I found the second speculation the more interesting.

If pigs were considered lucky, seems it would be unlucky to butcher one ...

Oh well. It's not ours to know. I eat ham at Easter for much the same reason that I eat turkey at Thanksgiving. It feeds many for less. Lamb -- good heavens around here it's pricier per pound than beef.

I have heard it argued that the prohibition against pork originated in economic disparities. That pig farmers were more likely to be poor, therefor "unclean" much the same way the poor are demonized in today's right wing rhetoric. Mind you, this was not my assertion so I can't defend it. I just thought it was an interesting point of view.

[cbayer]

45. I've always thought the pork thing had more to do with trichinosis.

Once they started shunning it, the demand went down and so did the price, so poor people would buy it.

Chicken or egg?

[LiberalAndProud]

46. That's seems like the intuitive cause.

We draw conclusions from what we now know. Since these sort of conversations really can only be speculative because nobody ever bothered to record the why of the law (except, of course, god said so) it's interesting to consider other possibilities.

[KansDem]

52. Just give me an anchovy & jalapeno pizza with a few glasses of beer...

...and I'm set!

Also the same for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

[upaloopa]

54. I eat Peeps and chocolate bunnies and cream eggs

Nobody eats ham as an afront to somebody else! Geez! Quite an imagination there.

[misterhighwasted]

55. Turkey's for Tksgiving & I couldn't eat ..

..the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world.
Had that prayer stuck in my head since i was a baby.
Religion messes with the human psyche!

[Pendrench]

57. Ham tastes good....bacon tastes good ;)

[Jester Messiah]

59. Because it's just a day like any other and ham is delicious. [nt]

[old guy]

76. I can't add a thing to that.

[immoderate]

77. Because they are hungry.

That was easy.

--imm

[2naSalit]

79. Don't eat ham

or any cured or smoked meats because my gall bladder doesn't like them, can't digest them. In fact I don't eat meat much nor do I celebrate so called christian holidays. But while many are doing something "special" and are either at church or doing a family thing, I have more room to play outside with fewer humans to encounter!