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 StatesFeast of the Seven FishesFesta dei sette pesci
An Italian-American Christmas Eve seafood dinner marking abstinence from meat.Table custom · Dinner
🇺🇸 United StatesNalukataq
A spring whaling festival of the Iñupiat in Northern Alaska, featuring a blanket toss and communal feast.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇲🇽 Mexico and 1 moreTamalada
A gathering where tamales are the main dish or a communal tamale-making party in Mexican and Hispanic cultures.Festival · Lunch
🇺🇸 New Orleans, United States and 5 moreMardi Gras
A festive day of parades and rich foods marking the final celebration before the Christian fasting season of Lent beginsFestival
🇺🇸 Washington, United StatesThanksgiving
An annual American holiday of gratitude, family gatherings and an autumn harvest feastFestival · Dinner
🇺🇸 New York, United States and 1 moreFeast of San GennaroFesta di San Gennaro
A patronal festival of parades, street food and prayer honouring Saint JanuariusFestival · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇨🇦 CanadaThanksgivingAction de grâce
An annual Canadian autumn holiday celebrating the harvest with family feastsFestival · Dinner
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreSuper Bowl Sunday
The day the NFL championship is played, kept with gatherings and buffet foodFestival · 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
🇺🇸 United StatesRehearsal dinner
A meal the night before a US wedding, when the wedding party gathers to toast and thankRite of passage · Dinner
🇺🇸 United StatesLūʻau
A Hawaiian feast of kālua pig and poi, eaten by hand outdoors with music and hulaTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 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
🇺🇸 Cleveland, United StatesClambake
Shellfish steamed over seaweed in a pit, eaten outdoors along the New England coastTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇸 United StatesPotluck
A shared meal where every guest brings a dish, kept by churches, clubs and neighborsTable custom · Dinner
🇺🇸 Manhattan, United StatesJews and Thanksgiving
An American national holiday kept by most US Jews, and debated by their rabbisFestival · Dinner
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Thanksgiving: Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, Public domain, source
- Feast of San Gennaro: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Thanksgiving: Lars Plougmann, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Birria: Equipo 9mkt, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Feast of the Seven Fishes: GW Fins, CC BY 2.0, source
- Nalukataq: Floyd Davidson, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Super Bowl Sunday: Tech. Sgt. Steve Horton, U.S. Air Force, Public domain, source
- Lūʻau: Ralawami, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tailgate party: Ben Vardi, Public domain, source
- Clambake: inuyaki.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Potluck: Mack Male, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Jews and Thanksgiving: Executive Committee of Congregation Shearith Israel., Public domain, source
- Mardi Gras: Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Tamalada: Tania Solá (WMMX), CC BY-SA 4.0, source