Food's Spirituality
Xin Nian Kuai Le!! Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the Year of the Rat in China. Although I'm no longer in China, I will be having some people over for a big celebration. For the new year, dumplings and noodles are eaten. They are the specialty food for this celebration. A dumpling's shape resembles Chinese gold, so dumplings symbolize wealth. Noodles symbolize a long life because they are endless, and when you cook Chinese noodles, you never break them apart. And if you've ever seen the noodles made by hand, you know that each noodle's length is almost as long as three jump ropes. That's a pretty long life!
So as I've been preparing for this celebration, I've begun considering the meaning of food. In our society, we always talk about food from such negative perspectives. Anti-carb, anti-sugar, anti-calories, anti-fat....it goes on and on, and the "antis" change with each person you talk to. I am definitely a proponent of eating healthy, but the food culture we've created has nothing to do with food symbolizing wealth, long life, or anything else. What we instead consider is what it will do to our waistline. But what if we changed the perspective and looked at food as symbolic and even perhaps spiritual? Food is a raw product from our Earth -- organic just like us. This viewpoint is heavily embraced in California, and you can't enter any grocery store without seeing "organic" plastered everywhere. But viewing food as symbolic and spiritual goes beyond the organic label. It's a recognition that the food itself has an essence, a quality. It is eaten for a specific reason or for a ritual.
In the church, we hold communion as a sacred meal, but perhaps spiritual food should also enter our homes. We should embrace what we eat in the manner that we do with communion. Color, texture, taste, shape -- anything that adds to a food's quality gives it a spiritual essence. If you want to easily embrace this Chinese custom and understand food's spirituality, try cooking noodles without breaking them in half. Put the whole noodle into the pot -- it'll provide you long life :)
So as I've been preparing for this celebration, I've begun considering the meaning of food. In our society, we always talk about food from such negative perspectives. Anti-carb, anti-sugar, anti-calories, anti-fat....it goes on and on, and the "antis" change with each person you talk to. I am definitely a proponent of eating healthy, but the food culture we've created has nothing to do with food symbolizing wealth, long life, or anything else. What we instead consider is what it will do to our waistline. But what if we changed the perspective and looked at food as symbolic and even perhaps spiritual? Food is a raw product from our Earth -- organic just like us. This viewpoint is heavily embraced in California, and you can't enter any grocery store without seeing "organic" plastered everywhere. But viewing food as symbolic and spiritual goes beyond the organic label. It's a recognition that the food itself has an essence, a quality. It is eaten for a specific reason or for a ritual.
In the church, we hold communion as a sacred meal, but perhaps spiritual food should also enter our homes. We should embrace what we eat in the manner that we do with communion. Color, texture, taste, shape -- anything that adds to a food's quality gives it a spiritual essence. If you want to easily embrace this Chinese custom and understand food's spirituality, try cooking noodles without breaking them in half. Put the whole noodle into the pot -- it'll provide you long life :)
posted by Courtney Bruntz at
12:06 AM
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