Food: Feasting and Fasting
The reasons for and why: a talk presented by Christian, Muslim and Jewish speakers at Northwood Methodist Church on 16 June 2004.

The Speakers
• Joanna Bogle, Christian, is a well-known Catholic author, journalist and broadcaster.
• Musa Admani, Muslim, memorised the Koran when in India and has studied Arabic and philosophy. He has set up a religious school and interfaith group in Edgware and is University Imman at the London Metropolitan University.
• Judith Kramer, Jewish, read for the Bar and worked as an employment lawyer in industry. She has studied anthropology, psychology and sociology and for the last 30 years has been a group facilitator and therapist in Europe and India. She is a member of the Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue and a committee member of the Hillingdon branch of CCJ.

A Christian Perspective

It is useful to think of the Christian year as a cycle – a cycle which connects with the next year and the next. At the top of the circle is Jesus Christ. Christ was born into a province of the Roman Empire, and when Christianity flooded the Roman Empire it took over the seasons and gave them new meanings. The birth of Christ, the “Light of the World” was ascribed to the shortest, darkest day of the year. Joanna then overviewed some major feasts in the Christian calendar such as the birth of John the Baptist, the Annunciation, when Mary was first told of the conception of her child by the Holy Spirit (and for obvious reasons celebrated 9 months prior to the celebration of Christ’s birth), and a number of other feasts and the logic underpinning their positions in the Christian calendar.

The high drama of Holy Week –– Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter –– connects with the Jewish Passover. For Catholics, 40 days of fasting and penance, during the period called Lent, proceed our commemoration of Christ’s death for us, and we have a serious obligation to fast. In the Catholic Church we are bound by the rules of fasting on certain days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. We are allowed one main meal only, and a light snack if we need it. It is a law which binds from the age of 14 to the age of 60. Also there is the requirement of penance, what Catholics call “Easter Duties” which involves confessing our sins to a priest, minimally once a year, and receiving absolution. Renewal of life comes from fasting and penance, and explodes into joy at Easter when we feast on chocolate Easter eggs, simnel cakes etc.

Christmas is the most popular feast, although not the most important in the Christian calendar and is, of course, celebrated with food and presents galore, but it too is supposed to be proceeded by a period of penance, a period we call Advent when we await the coming of the Lord.

Catholics also fast, although only now for one hour, before receiving Holy Communion.

Feast days come throughout the year, often they are a celebration of when a particular saint was born, and the calendar is still being added to and updated There are always new saints and new reasons for feasting, and there will always be sins and sinners and old reasons for fasting.

For Christians various occasions such as births, baptisms and weddings are a time for a party, a time to feast, and even a funeral should be followed by some kind of hospitality. But for Christians there will always be times when personally or collectively we fast, and we do penance for our sins. So feasting and fasting are central to the Christian faith.

When we meet people of other faiths we want to communicate something of the joy we have in our faith. Sometimes we can do it in words, it is nice to be able to talk, but it is a real pleasure to sit with Jewish, Islamic and other friends and share a meal. Sometimes enjoying the good things God has given us enable us to speak a language which is beyond words. So to finish with the words of a great saint “Preach always and just occasionally use words.” Joanna said that for her that is part of what feasting and fasting is all about.

A Muslim Perspective

There are two things which Islam, Christianity and Judaism have in common. One is prayer, and the other is feasting and fasting. We pray differently but we pray to the same God. We all bring our concerns to God, and at the end of the prayer we all say Amen.

Muslims fast and they also enjoy some specific periods which are called Festivals, Eids, and these calendar dates or periods are related to the Jewish and Christian religions. In the Koran it says “Fasting is prescribed to you as it had been prescribed to the nations before you.” This means that prehistorically fasting was prescribed and Muslims are not excluded from it, but also Muslims have no exclusive claim to it.

The timing and methodology of Muslim observance may be different, but the same concept is there, and has always been there. This is illustrated by the following historical event: One day when the Prophet Mohammed was out walking he came across some Jews who were fasting, and he asked them why. They explained that they were commemorating the day when the Jewish people were liberated from the bondage and oppression of Pharaoh. So the Prophet addressed his followers and said that they should also fast on that day. So Moses liberated the Jews on a particular day and it is this fact that the Jews are celebrating. Mohammed, when he learns of this event, thinks that the Muslims have a right to share it, to adopt it, so there is a connection between Judaism and Islam. Similarly, in the Koran (Chapter 3) it relates that Jesus’s disciples asked him to try and get them some feast from heaven. They ask this because when the feast comes it would be classed as a festival for them, for those who went before them, and those who come after them. Now you find parallels in the Christian Bible, the language and wording is different, but the substance is the same. So here we have a connection between Islam and Christianity.

In Islam there is prescribed fasting, but fasting only takes place during the daytime. All people fast except those who are sick and travellers. The fasting lasts for a whole month and is known as Ramadan. There are many aspects to it, but primarily it is to cleanse the body once a year. If you cleanse the body once a year you gain spiritual concentration.

Musa related details of a student who lacked concentration. Musa advised him to cut down on the quantity of his food, and to adopt a routine whereby some of his studying was done for a short period in the early hours of the morning. Judging from the student’s improved exam results this advice had proved beneficial.

The month of Ramadan was designed to make sure that people adopt a positive attitude to hunger. If you can voluntarily accept hunger you have control over your body and mind. But if you eat and eat then you become a slave of your own body. Also when you have control over your body, the hunger you feel enables you to empathize with those who are hungry not through choice but on account of circumstances. As you share the feeling of hunger you become more sympathetic to other human beings regardless of their race, colour or religion.

After the month of Ramadan there is an immediate period of feasting which lasts two or three days. Even then, before you go for prayer after the thirty days of fasting, there is the obligation not to forget the poor. So you have to give some money so that even they can celebrate as proud Muslims. But now is the time for you to celebrate. You have to wear nice clothes, if possible new clothes, It is the time to reward yourself and have nice food. The feast period marking the end of Ramadan is called Eid (the full name is Eid ul-Fitr) and this is followed by another celebration, Eid ul-Adha, two months after Ramadan when people go on pilgrimage. It is a ritual related to the Prophet Abraham and his wife and centred round Koran and Bible narratives. At Eid ul-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, you feast, you sacrifice animals and you share with your neighbours.

In everything you do you always include humanity. Humanity is inclusive. If you exclude people then it is no celebration because God is understood to be present in your relationship with fellow human beings, and it is in that relationship that we celebrate and share a common experience that is not exclusive to the Muslims, or to the Jews, or to the Christians.

Musa ended by saying that the CCJ meeting tonight has presented a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss and explain aspects of the three faiths, and he was grateful for having been given the opportunity to take part.

A Jewish Perspective

Judith Kramer commenced by saying that she has been feasting and fasting for many decades. She joked that her emphasis had been more on feasting and said that as far as feasting is concerned she had learnt much from her mother and grandmother and others, because that is how the learning is passed on. In turn Judith had passed the knowledge on to her children (of which she has three) and her grandchildren (of which she has five).

Feasting is about eating and drinking and a beautiful table, a beautiful table which inspires a feeling of giving something to God. Why Jews feast begins in the Torah. The first reference to feasting is the story of Abraham making a feast when his first child was weaned. It is, however, a custom which is no longer observed. Other examples are the story of a feast on the occasion of Jacob’s marriage to Leah, and the feast that Lot made for the angels when they visited Sodom. “Like everyone else,” Judith explained, “we still make the same feasts for parties, dinners, marriages, birthdays, friends, etc. It is also a means of making friendship with someone whom we want to be a friend, and for unexpected guests who after all might be angels!”

Friday night is the beginning of the Sabbath, and in Judith’s household they sing a beautiful song, the Lecha Dodi Likrat Kallah – Come my friend to greet the Sabbath bride. The idea is that they are welcoming the Sabbath with much love and joy as if it were a bride and, therefore, the table is laid with a white cloth. Among other things on the table are candles, wine and a special loaf of bread called a chola which is eaten sprinkled with salt. Judith then removed a cover to reveal a very large and decorative loaf, saying that the loaf was much larger than the chola which would be eaten at a normal family Sabbath meal, but she wanted one that was big enough to share with us all. So on the Sabbath they celebrate with a nice meal, but they have to make sure that other families have enough chola, food and wine so that they too can celebrate in the same way. The actual food that is eaten depends to some extent on the part of the world that your grandmother came from. So the Sabbath celebration is a joyful occasion and all the Jewish Holy Days are joyful ones.

In the diaspora –– Jewish communities outside the land of Israel –– most of the feasts are celebrated as domestic events in the home rather than the whole community celebrating together. That said, however, “lifecycle” events are often marked by community celebrations. Traditionally, when there is a circumcision it takes place in the Synagogue at the early morning service, and a magnificent spread is provided for the whole congregation. Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs entail a feast of many courses, and within the Synagogue after the morning service at the weekend of that celebration there is a Kiddish, normally consisting of chola, wine and a blessing. Every feast has to contain wine, which is taken very much in moderation, and there is always an associated blessing.

The first feast that God decreed is the one now known as Pesach (Passover). When Moses told Pharaoh that God said “Let my people go” the next clause in the sentence is “so that they can make a feast for God in the wilderness”. That was why they had to be let go, so that they could celebrate and make a feast, and they certainly did. Passover is a Springtime festival at the same time as Easter. Unleavened bread – matzah – is eaten to commemorate the fact that the Children of Israel didn’t have time to wait for the bread to rise at the time of the Exodus.

Three of the feasts were decreed by Moses – Passover, Shavout and Succot. All of them are harvest festivals. They commemorate different harvests and are spoken of as “pilgrimage festivals” because the people of the land of Palestine would come with some of their harvest to the Temple in Jerusalem and share a feast there. Passover, of course, is a celebration of the Exodus from Egypt. Shavout is the Festival of Weeks and celebrates the giving of the 10 Commandments. Succot is the time of the autumn harvest festival and families often have their own little shelter or succah in the garden, and it is a reminder of when the Children of Israel lived in temporary dwellings in the desert. Judith also outlined the rationale for the feasts of Chanukah and Purim.

Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the New Year is a time for celebration, but it is also a time for reflection and repentance for the sins of the previous year. This time of reflection and repentance occurs only once a year and it’s not just an individual thing, it is a communal activity based on prayer in the Synagogue. People may be thinking of things that they wish they hadn’t done or they wish they could master. But all are declaring themselves responsible for anything that anyone may have done as if the whole community is collectively responsible for one another’s actions. At this time God is thought to be deciding the fates of each individual according to reports from his angels. The Jewish fast, which everyone knows about, comes 10 days later, and that’s the day when the book of your fate is sealed. Whether you will live or die, whether you’ll have a good year or a bad year. Everyone comes together to pray in the Synagogue after their early evening meal. Then all return the next morning having traditionally abstained from food and drink. Prayer, communal confession and remembrance of the dead fill the day until the Shofar (Ram’s horn) is finally blown, and all go home to break their fast. The duration of the fast is from sunset on the first day until three stars are visible the following evening. So the fast lasts around 25 or 26 hours by the time you get home. There are also some minor fast days in the Jewish calendar to which Judith made reference.

Judith concluded her talk by saying that the way in which we partake of food and the way in which we abstain from food is part of our identity. It is part of who we are, it is part of what binds us together, what makes us similar and what makes us different, just as much as the prayers and traditions of our respective faiths.

Conclusion: We all feast and fast and pray to the same God
The three speakers gave interesting insights into the reasons and practices of feasting and fasting within their own faith. There is much that is held in common, and the situation can be summed up by taking and paraphrasing a couple of sentences from Musa’s talk as follows. “We all feast and fast and pray to the same God. Our language and methodology are different, but our objectives are similar.”

- Bernard Tiley