Customs of food and drink
The customs around eating and drinking: feasts, fasts, hosting and ceremony. Not recipes.
EveryParampara follows the customs around food, not the dishes: the blessing before a meal, the order in which guests are served, the feast that marks a day, the fast and how it is broken, the ceremony of pouring tea. A named food appears here only where it has a role in the custom, such as the sweet offered at a shrine or the bread broken at a Sabbath table. For dishes, recipes and cuisines, see Thali, our food guide.
Meals as rituals
Many meals are ritual in themselves: the Passover seder follows a script, the iftar ends a day of fasting with a prayer, a wedding feast has toasts in a set order. EveryParampara lists these by country and by meal, with the dates where the day moves each year.
Manners at the table
Table customs vary widely: eating with the right hand, sharing a single dish, waiting for the eldest to begin, leaving a little on the plate or clearing it entirely. A guest learns the rules by watching, and a host will forgive mistakes. Behind the rules is a simple idea: the meal is a way of showing respect.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Customs of food and drink (kind of tradition). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇬🇧 United KingdomLammashlāfmæsse
A harvest festival marking the blessing of the first baked bread from the new wheat cropSeasonal
🇷🇺 Russia and 1 moreRussian tea culture
The everyday cup of Russia, brewed strong and diluted to taste, with jam and sweetsTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreElevenses
A short mid-morning pause for a drink and a small bite, kept in many countriesTable custom · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreKoulourakiaΚουλουράκια
Sweet butter pastries baked for Greek Easter and shaped into rings and braidsTable custom · Sweets given and shared
🇸🇪 Stockholm, Sweden and 2 moreSmorgasbordsmörgåsbord
A Swedish table of hot and cold dishes where guests serve themselvesTable custom · Lunch
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 4 moreKorovaiкоровай (Ukrainian), каравай (Russian)
A round wedding bread of Eastern Europe, baked with songs and shared by all the guestsTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇵🇱 PolandWigilia
Poland's meatless Christmas Eve supper, begun when the first star appearsTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇷🇺 Russia and 5 moreBread and saltхлеб-соль
Bread and salt offered to a guest: a welcome kept from Russia to AlbaniaEtiquette
🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom and 4 moreAfternoon tea
A late-afternoon spread of tea, small sandwiches and cakes, kept across BritainTable custom · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇷🇺 Russia and 1 moreZakuskiзакуски
A laid-out table of cold small dishes that opens a Russian festive mealTable custom · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇳🇴 NorwayJul
An eight-week Norwegian midwinter season of feasts, family gatherings, and gift-givingSeasonal · Lunch
🇮🇪 Dublin, IrelandBarmbrackbairín breac
A sweet Irish fruit loaf with charms baked in, eaten at Halloween and on New Year's EveTable custom · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇬🇷 GreeceSymposiumσυμπόσιον
An ancient Greek post-meal gathering for diluted wine, debate, music and lively gamesTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇷🇺 Russia and 3 moreOld New YearСтарый Новый год (Russian), Стара Нова година (Macedonian), Српска Нова година (Serbian), Hen Galan (Welsh)
An informal holiday marking the start of the Julian calendar year, celebrated on 14 January in the Gregorian calendar.Festival · Dinner
🇸🇪 Sweden and 5 moreMushroom hunting
Gathering wild fungi for food and other uses, relying on careful identification to ensure safety.Table custom
🇵🇱 Zakopane, PolandKulig
A traditional Polish winter sleigh ride party celebrated during the Carnival seasonFestival · Feasts and festival meals
🇸🇪 Stockholm, Sweden and 2 moreGustavus Adolphus DayGustav Adolfsdagen
A Swedish flag day on 6 November, marked with a pastry topped with the king's likenessCeremony · Sweets given and shared
🇮🇹 ItalyMeditrinalia
An ancient Roman festival on October 11 to bless the new wine harvest with libations.Festival · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇭🇺 Miskolc, HungaryKocsonya FestivalKocsonyafesztivál
An annual winter food and culture festival held in Miskolc, HungaryFestival · Feasts and festival meals
🇮🇸 IcelandChristmas in IcelandJól
A winter festival of mountain folklore, family feasts and thirteen mischievous visitorsFestival · Dinner
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreShielingÀirigh
Seasonal summer pasture living and traditional dairying in the Scottish hillsSeasonal
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreTsiknopemptiΤσικνοπέμπτη
A Greek Carnival feast of grilled meats held on the second to last Thursday before Lent.Festival · Dinner
🇪🇸 Madrid, Spain and 4 moreFeast of Saint Isidore the LaborerFiestas de San Isidro Labrador
A May festival honoring the patron saint of farmers, marked by processions and harvest gratitude in Spain and former colFestival · Feasts and festival meals
🇩🇪 Munich, GermanyO'zapft is!
The civic barrel-tapping ceremony that officially launches Munich's OktoberfestCeremony · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇬🇧 Penzance, United KingdomGuldizeGool dheys
A Cornish harvest supper after the last sheaf is cut, with pork, pie, singing and gamesSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇵🇹 PortugalMissas do Parto
Nine morning Masses in Madeira that follow Mary through the last days of her pregnancySpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Lammas: Paddy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Russian tea culture: Boris Kustodiev, Public domain, source
- Elevenses: Sam Hood, Public domain, source
- Koulourakia: foodistablog, CC BY 2.0, source
- Smorgasbord: Jordan Klein, CC BY 2.0, source
- Korovai: Olli Niemitalo, CC0, source
- Wigilia: Przykuta, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Afternoon tea: joyosity, CC BY 2.0, source
- Zakuski: Timothy Post, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Barmbrack: Solo Beckett, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Gustavus Adolphus Day: Jacob Truedson Demitz for Ristesson, Public domain, source
- Christmas in Iceland: Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0, source
- Kocsonya Festival: Szalax, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Symposium: Nikias Painter, CC BY 2.5, source
- Missas do Parto: Porto Bay Events, CC BY 2.0, source
- Old New Year: ceridwen, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Mushroom hunting: Игорь Лебединский, CC BY 3.0, source
- Kulig: various, Public domain, source
- Meditrinalia: Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Shieling: Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Feast of Saint Isidore the Laborer: Ángel Lizcano Monedero, Public domain, source
- O'zapft is!: Michael Lucan, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
- Tsiknopempti: C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0, source