Sacred food as offering

Sacred food as offering

A very recent realm of anthropology is the study of food. Hereby one of the most important elements of many religions is the sacred food.

All religions have prescriptions about the correct preparation and cooking of food, besides the taboos about forbidden subjects (for instance, animals for hinduism, pork for judaism and islamism, etc. Many ones have special spellings for the food, which sacralize it and, therefore, who will eat it; but there are foods sacred by its inner nature.In Brazilian candomblé by example, fishes are sacred for their connection to Iemanjá, horns given the relation to Iansã.Consequently those foods are considered offerings. This takes place in other religions too.Some examples:
*coconut: Ganeshin Hinduism
*Oxalá in candomblé (see above)
*bread: Saint Antony in Catholicism
*the challah in Judaism is symbol of divine presence in shabat
*chestnut: Befana
*Leola's Maize Corn: Amerindian goddess of prosperity in cajun of Louisiana.

ee also

*Anthropology of religion


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