Traditional Food

Over the past couple weeks it has been both Canadian Thanksgiving as well as Eid. Both these holidays have traditional food associated with it along with various other customs. For example, thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, as the name would suggest. It started with giving thanks for the harvest but it has moved to a much larger north American scale. Eid on the other hand is a celebration for all Muslims who have finished their month of fasting. For thanksgiving the traditional food is Turkey, I’m not really sure why this is but I’m sure it has some symbolic value. Eid has the tradition of eating sweets along with other specific foods.

If one has always been observing a holiday in a specific way, eating traditional foods, why would one want to change what you eat? How can one appreciate thanksgiving without the turkey if you’ve had it all your life. What is eid without the sweets? Sure the point of the holiday is to celebrate something else, but traditional foods set the mood and atmosphere for these holidays. Yes I do realize that sometimes people forget the true meanings of the holidays and just concentrate on the traditions of gifts or food. But I still think its wrong for someone to take away the turkey or the jelabi.
To the mothers, institutions and whoever else seems to want to take away traditions, especially food traditions I highly urge them to leave the traditions as they are. We like our turkeys and jelabies so don’t take them away.