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EveryParampara

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.

About this page

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.

RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
MealBreakfastLunchDinnerSupperTea-time and snacking customsTea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesSweets given and sharedFeasts and festival mealsFasting and breaking the fast
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreTailgate party Grilling, sharing and drinking beside a car before the game, mostly in North AmericaTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇦🇷 Argentina and 4 moreAsado A slow fire, a grill and a shared table: how people gather to cook and eat meatTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇮🇩 Jakarta, Indonesia and 3 moreRijsttafel Many small dishes around rice: a colonial-era banquet still served in the NetherlandsTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇺🇸 Cleveland, United StatesClambake Shellfish steamed over seaweed in a pit, eaten outdoors along the New England coastTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇭🇷 Zagreb, Croatia and 1 moreLicitarlicitarska srca A hand-painted honey biscuit given as a gift at weddings and on Valentine's DayCraft · Sweets given and shared 🇰🇷 South Korea and 1 morePyebaek폐백 A Korean wedding rite where newlyweds bow to elders and share dates, chestnuts and wineRite of passage 🇹🇷 Istanbul, TurkeyTurkish tea culture Two stacked pots, tulip glasses, and a choice of strong or weak tea in TurkeyTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies 🇪🇨 Quito, EcuadorFanesca Ecuador's Holy Week soup of grains, beans and salt cod, made for Good FridayTable custom · Lunch 🇦🇹 Vienna, AustriaViennese coffee house cultureWiener Kaffeehauskultur A Viennese social ritual where patrons linger for hours with a single coffee and newspapers.Etiquette · Tea-time and snacking customs 🇮🇷 Ashtian, Iran and 5 moreSamanuسمنو A sweet sprouted-wheat paste stirred through the night for NowruzTable custom · Sweets given and shared 🇯🇵 Japan and 1 moreBento弁当 A single-portion packed meal in a lidded box, carried to school, work or on a trainTable custom · Lunch 🇮🇩 Bali, IndonesiaTumpengꦠꦸꦩ꧀ꦥꦼꦁ (Javanese); ᬢᬸᬫ᭄ᬧᭂᬂ (Balinese) A tall cone of rice ringed with side dishes, central to Javanese ceremonies and partiesTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan and 4 moreBeshbarmakбешбармак Boiled meat and noodles, eaten by hand from one platter, with a set cut for each guestTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇬🇷 Greece and 4 moreVasilopitaΒασιλόπιτα A New Year bread or cake with a coin baked inside, shared out slice by sliceTable custom · Sweets given and shared 🇰🇷 South KoreaKorean tea ceremony다례 (茶禮) Tea served in Korea as a rite of courtesy, now mostly grain and herbal brewsTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies 🇺🇸 United StatesPotluck A shared meal where every guest brings a dish, kept by churches, clubs and neighborsTable custom · Dinner 🇵🇾 Paraguay and 3 moreTereré Paraguay's cold yerba mate drink, passed around in one cup with a metal strawTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies 🇧🇩 Dhaka, Bangladesh and 5 moreSuhurسحور The pre-dawn meal Muslims eat before a day of fasting in RamadanTable custom · Breakfast 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreChristmas dinner The festive family meal of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, with roast meats and puddingsTable custom · Dinner 🇦🇷 Mendoza, ArgentinaFiesta Nacional de la Vendimia Argentina's national grape harvest festival, celebrated each year in MendozaSeasonal 🇱🇧 Beirut, Lebanon and 7 moreEid il-Burbaraعيد البربارة A winter feast of costumes, sweet boiled wheat, and sprouting seeds across the LevantFestival · Feasts and festival meals 🇮🇪 Galway, IrelandGalway International Oyster Festival An annual autumn gathering in Galway honouring native oysters with shucking contestsTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇳🇴 NorwayJul An eight-week Norwegian midwinter season of feasts, family gatherings, and gift-givingSeasonal · Lunch 🇩🇿 AlgeriaMawlid in Algeriaيوم المولد النبوي The Prophet Muhammad's birthday celebration in Algeria with family feasts and prayersFestival · Feasts and festival meals 🇲🇹 Valletta, MaltaMaltese Carnivalil-Karnival ta' Malta A lively week of costumed parades, dancing, satirical floats and sweets across Malta.Festival · Sweets given and shared 🇸🇪 Sweden and 3 moreGlögg A spiced, warm winter wine served across Nordic countries around ChristmasTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies 🇳🇴 Norway and 2 moreJulebord A Scandinavian Christmas banquet of traditional dishes, festive drinks and celebrationTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇨🇳 Suzhou, China and 3 moreDongzhi冬至 A midwinter festival celebrating the return of light with family feasts and dumplingsSeasonal · Dinner 🇮🇳 Hyderabad, India and 3 moreBonalu An annual festival of thanksgiving to Goddess Mahakali across Telangana, IndiaFestival · Feasts and festival meals 🇰🇭 CambodiaPchum Benភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ A fifteen-day Cambodian Buddhist festival honouring ancestors with food and prayersSpiritual 🇷🇺 Russia and 5 moreBread and saltхлеб-соль Bread and salt offered to a guest: a welcome kept from Russia to AlbaniaEtiquette 🇵🇱 Poland and 5 moreŚwięconka The Polish Holy Saturday blessing of baskets filled with Easter morning foodSpiritual 🇬🇧 United KingdomLammashlāfmæsse A harvest festival marking the blessing of the first baked bread from the new wheat cropSeasonal 🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Netherlands and 4 moreSinterklaasSinterklaas / Sint-Nicolaas A Dutch winter feast on 5 and 6 December, when Saint Nicholas brings gifts to childrenFestival · Sweets given and shared 🇸🇪 Sweden and 3 moreCrayfish partykräftskiva Boiled crayfish, snaps and paper lanterns at a late-summer party in Sweden and FinlandTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇲🇽 Tijuana, Mexico and 1 moreBirria A rich, seasoned meat stew from western Mexico, cooked for gatherings and holidaysTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇮🇱 Israel and 5 moreChallahחַלָּה A braided Jewish bread, blessed and shared at Shabbat and holiday tablesTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇸🇪 Stockholm, Sweden and 2 moreSmorgasbordsmörgåsbord A Swedish table of hot and cold dishes where guests serve themselvesTable custom · Lunch 🇨🇳 Guangzhou, China and 1 moreDim sum點心 (traditional Chinese), 点心 (simplified Chinese) Small dishes shared with tea, eaten as brunch in Cantonese teahouses and restaurantsTable custom · Breakfast 🇯🇵 Kyoto, JapanJapanese tea ceremony茶道 (Sadō / Chadō), 茶の湯 (Chanoyu) The formal serving of powdered matcha, shaped by Zen, Shinto and wabiTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies 🇷🇺 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 🇷🇴 Romania and 2 morePlăcintă A traditional thin, filled pastry baked across Romania, Moldova, and parts of Ukraine.Table custom · Sweets given and shared 🇮🇳 Palani, IndiaPanchamritaपञ्चामृत (Sanskrit); பஞ்சாமிர்தம் (Tamil) Five sacred foods mixed and poured over temple images in Hindu and Jain worshipSpiritual · Sweets given and shared 🇮🇪 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 🇮🇱 Israel and 3 moreKashrutכַּשְׁרוּת (Hebrew) The Jewish dietary laws: what may be eaten, and how it is preparedTable custom 🇹🇷 Turkey and 5 moreCoffee culture The habits and etiquette of drinking coffee, and the cafés built around itTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies 🇯🇲 JamaicaItal A Rastafari way of eating: food from the earth, kept to raise livityTable custom 🇬🇷 GreeceSymposiumσυμπόσιον An ancient Greek post-meal gathering for diluted wine, debate, music and lively gamesTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly EveryParampara

Every week: one tradition from somewhere new, what is being celebrated around the world this week, and one idea explained.