Festival and Holiday Foods Around the World

That’s where this post starts: five celebrations, Eid, Diwali, Lunar New Year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and what ends up on the table. ## Eid Eid has its own rhythms. For us, one of them is Choti Eid sheer khurma. Bakra Eid means a different kind of meal, and a lot of time visiting family.

Something sweet first, then the feast After a month of fasting, plenty of Muslim families open Eid al-Fitr with dates and a bowl of sheer khurma. It’s vermicelli simmered in milk with dates, nuts and cardamom. In our house, Choti Eid has always meant sheer khurma. Across South Asia, it’s a familiar Eid breakfast. Make it the night before if you can. Leave it overnight so the dates and cardamom have more time to flavour the milk.

Fry the vermicelli in a little ghee until golden. Watch it, because it burns fast. I wait until serving to add the toasted almonds and pistachios, so they keep their crunch.

The big meal comes later. Biryani and pulao take the centre of the table, with kebabs, qorma and nihari crowding in around them. Sweets vary by region: 🍽️baklava and ma’amoul in parts of the Middle East, kahk in Egypt, jalebi, gulab jamun and kulfi in South Asia.

Bakra Eid, or Eid al-Adha, is a different mood, because it’s about the meat. Families keep some for their own table, then share the rest with relatives, friends and people in need. Jordan’s General Iftaa Department explains this way of distributing the meat. In our family, Bakra Eid always means liver, goat and cow both.

Biryani is where people get opinionated, so here are a few to choose from on World on Plate: 🍽️Chicken Biryani, 🍽️Classic Chicken Biryani, 🍽️Spiced Chicken Biryani, 🍽️Saffron Dum Chicken Biryani and 🍽️Lamb Biryani. If pulao is more your thing, there’s 🍽️Kabuli Pulao.

The plate that follows you home The best thing about Eid food is that it’s never only for you. Zakat al-Fitr is paid before the Eid prayer so everyone can eat well that day. Islamic Relief explains the tradition and its timing.

When you visit family, a plate lands in front of you at every house. Say no to a second helping and be ready to be talked out of it.

Diwali Diwali is called the festival of lights, but walk into a home that’s celebrating and you might notice the smell first: sugar, ghee, something frying.

Sweets, gifts and whoever drops by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhist communities all mark Diwali in their own ways. Food does a similar job in many of them. Sweets get passed around, sent to relatives and neighbours, and kept at home for anyone who drops in.

There are laddoos, barfi, kaju katli, jalebi, gulab jamun and rasgulla. Some are made at home. Others are ordered weeks ahead from the sweet shop. Boxes of mithai and dry fruits go to neighbours, colleagues and relatives, and sweets are offered during Lakshmi Puja, the prayer to the goddess of wealth. The Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art has more on Diwali customs.

Something salty, too After all that sweetness, chakli, sev, mathri, namkeen and samosas are a welcome change.

The savoury dishes change from one household to another. Puri, chole and paneer are common in much of the north. In the south, you might find a vegetarian meal with payasam. A Bengali Diwali table looks nothing like a Gujarati one, and many households keep the meal vegetarian.

One simple sweet to make Want to try just one? Make besan laddoo. Keep the gram flour moving in the pan over low heat. When the raw smell fades and the mixture looks golden, take the pan off the heat. Mix in the sugar and cardamom. Give it a few minutes to cool, then roll the laddoos while the mixture is still soft.

Lunar New Year In China, Spring Festival traditions traditionally continue for about 15 days. For many Chinese families, New Year’s Eve is when everyone tries to get together for reunion dinner.

What the food means Lunar New Year is celebrated in China, Vietnam and Korea, among other places, but the customs and food vary. In Vietnam it’s called Tết; in Korea, Seollal. Families choose some New Year dishes for their shape, and others for what their names sound like: - In northern China, dumplings are shaped like old gold ingots, which is why they’re associated with wealth. - Fish is a wish for abundance. The word sounds like “surplus,” so some families leave a little uneaten for the year ahead. - Nian gao is a sticky rice cake. In Chinese, its name sounds like “higher year.” It’s a New Year wish for things to go well. - Long noodles are served uncut as a wish for a long life. - Spring rolls resemble gold bars. Round tangyuan and mandarin oranges are associated with togetherness and good fortune.

Korea has tteokguk, a rice cake soup eaten for Seollal. For Tết in Vietnam, families make banh chung, a sticky rice cake. The Smithsonian writes about Chinese New Year foods such as fish, noodles and dumplings.

Get someone to help fold Lots of families cook the reunion dinner together, and children get red envelopes of money. If you try one dish, make dumplings. Make the filling ahead, then get people around the table to fold. No two will look alike. If you make too many, freeze the extras for another day.

On World on Plate, you can start with 🍽️Jiaozi Dumplings or 🍽️Rice Paper Dumplings. For noodles, World on Plate has 🍽️Ramen Noodles With Boiled Egg and 🍽️Cold Rice Noodles With Peanut-Lime Chicken. 🍽️Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls are a lighter take.

Thanksgiving In the United States, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November. The dishes may be familiar, but families have their own versions of the meal.

The familiar meal, with family arguments There’s turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls and [pumpkin pie](/recipes/pumpkin-pie). Pecan or [apple pie](/recipes/apple-pie) might turn up, too. Canadian Thanksgiving comes in October. Some dishes are familiar, but families still make the meal their own.

The holiday grew out of harvest celebrations in early colonial New England and became a national holiday in 1863. You can read Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation at the National Archives. Canada’s public holidays page lists its Thanksgiving date.

Cornbread or bread stuffing? The cranberry sauce can start a debate of its own. Do you make it from scratch, or reach for the jellied kind that slides out of the can? Marshmallows on the sweet potatoes or no marshmallows? Cranberry sauce can divide the table, too. Some people make it from scratch; others want the jellied kind straight from the can.

Give yourself a head start If you’re hosting, most of the work is planning. Decide when dinner will be on the table, then figure out what can be made ahead and what needs the oven at the last minute. A turkey needs roughly a day in the fridge for every 2 kg (4 to 5 lb), so move it from the freezer sooner than you think.

On World on Plate, the 🍽️Thanksgiving Turkey Cake Recipe and Pumpkin Pie cover the holiday itself.

Tomorrow’s turkey sandwich The leftovers are the other half of the fun. The day after Thanksgiving, leftover turkey often ends up between two slices of bread.

If you’re cooking turkey beyond Thursday, there’s also Turkey Bánh Mì, 🍽️Turkey Soup With Lemon And Barley and 🍽️Turkey [Meatloaf](/recipes/turkey-meatloaf).

Christmas Christmas doesn’t have one menu. Some families sit down to a roast, others gather over a completely different meal. In plenty of countries, the main meal is on Christmas Eve.

One holiday, many tables In the UK, the US and much of the Commonwealth, the centrepiece is a roast: turkey, goose, ham or beef, with roast potatoes and gravy. Christmas pudding and [mince pies](/recipes/mince-pies) are often made weeks ahead. Germany and Scandinavia have gingerbread and stollen; in Italy, it’s panettone. Fruitcake still has its place on Christmas tables, jokes about it or not.

Elsewhere, there are tamales in Mexico, bacalhau, or salt cod, in Portugal, and the julbord, a Christmas buffet, in Sweden. In the Philippines, queso de bola and bibingka are holiday favourites. Poland’s Wigilia is a twelve-dish meatless supper on Christmas Eve. The Horniman Museum has more examples of Christmas feasting around the world.

For a drink, there’s eggnog, mulled wine or a mug of hot chocolate.

Don’t cook everything on the day If you’re hosting, pick one showpiece and keep everything else simple. A make-ahead pudding or a tray of gingerbread takes some pressure off.

For a festive bake, World on Plate has a 🍽️Christmas Wreath Cake.

Where to start A whole holiday feast is a lot of work, so start with one dish: sheer khurma, laddoos, dumplings, a pie or a tray of gingerbread. Make it for people you like.

That’s one way recipes travel. Someone tries a dish at a friend’s table and asks how it was made. Later, they make it at home.