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Need help - old world food and drink rites

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BobForPresident:
Hey guys. I'm creating a pseudo-religious ceremony. Fantasy genre, magic and swords an' stuff, metropolitan, just post-DaVinci.

The Scene: A spitfire of a noblewoman is holding a party to commemorate the end of a terrible famine. Very posh, but very ceremonial and respectful.

What I need: some suggestions of real-world but lesser known ceremonies having to do with concepts of food, drink, having plenty to eat, being communal and remembering the dead. It would be easy to just write a scene having them eat and drink a lot and dance around with wheat threshes, but I'd like to go deeper.

Just toss out ideas!!! Thanks!!!

Fyrchick:
The tradition of "breaking bread" can and has fulfilled some of those criteria for a long time.
One of my favorites is exactly that- gathering around a table with a fresh loaf and a bowl of salt and oil. Each person breaks a piece, dips it in oil and salt and then eats it. Once everyone has had a bite then you go on with whatever else you want to do.
You break the bread with your right hand and pass it with the left... thus signifying an empty hand (no weapons) and that now you have consumed food as a family does, thus protecting everyone during the course of the meal.

The oil and salt have various meanings, but any combination could work.

Its always very cool and seems to have some kind of magical thing no matter who is there or what the environment is.

meg_evonne:
interesting exercise. 

The Christian bread and wine ceremony are actually far older than Christianity. The Roman and Greeks celebrated the harvest and the shaft of wheat and wine are symbols that are found on all sorts of artifacts. 

Then there is the 'Children of the Corn' route.  Human sacrifices to fertilize the fields for next years crop.  Not what you had in mind huh?  LOL

Another thought.  At a workshop, someone told about someone who was oriental who savored every bite.  It made everyone late on their planned schedule, but the guy would not be rushed in his almost religious style of eating.

On Star Trek, they kept ringing a gong right?

Honoring the four winds before eating is native American, I believe.

Pioneers collected the prairie grass seed, and would dance in the seed.  I think that was fall.

Barn Dances and BBQ on long tables. 

A part of the first crops dedicated to the gods.  (Probably several early cultures.)

My rural roots are showing none of those are metropolitan.  Fall isn't fall until my first symphony or orchestra.  Music as a backdrop to the meal.

Anything with pumpkins...  pumpkin pies, pumpkin cake, pumpkin & squash soup.

In Italy there is a town that puts the fresh wine into the town center fountain for common consumption and enjoyment.

uhm, my others ideas are getting into the hunting/butchering stuff.  Again not what you had in mind.

The Baldwin boys play football with the frozen turkey. LOL

Pioneer weddings had all the guests bring a round layer cake.  Then they stacked them up with frosting.

How about the practice of drying flowers.  Usually they are cut, tied together in bouquets and then hung upside down in a dry dark place.  You could use them overhead on some sort of awning over the table.  It would smell great!

How about a simple potluck?  That has to be a practice back to the Neolithic era!

Necklaces made of fall flowers? 

Food that is not freezable, nor able to being dried, that would be a special treat only available immediately after harvest.

Someone else can pick it up from there....





 







 

LizW65:
The book Fabulous Feasts by Madeline Pelner Cosman has a lot of information about medieval and Renaissance food culture, table manners, ceremony, and so on, as well as recipes.  Books on monastic life might be helpful for the quasi-religious component.

Kris_W:
I'd recommend geting the film "Babette's Feast" and watching it. You won't get the details you need, but I think you may find the feel and tone will inspire you to find something that fits well for your story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette's_Feast

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