October 11, Thanksgiving. Canadian

The Canadian Thanksgiving occurs on the second Monday of October, just before the first snow falls. It is a national holiday, so businesses are closed while people enjoy a three-day weekend. Unlike Thanksgiving in the United States, Canada's holiday is not a historical commemoration; it is strictly a harvest festival. Canadians do, however, share the American passion for watching football on this day.

FOOD AND DRINK

Canadian Thanksgiving food is quite similar to that in the United States. Salty snacks such as nuts and chips with soft drinks and beer accompany the TV game or precede the meal, while turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce is the main course, followed by pumpkin or apple pie.

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October 11, Columbus Day. United States

This holiday commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America. It is a national holiday when many businesses close.

FOOD AND DRINK

Italian communities in America, as well as many other Americans, celebrate by eating Italian foods such as pasta, tomato sauces, pizza, Italian breads, and Baked Ziti with Spinach and Gorgonzola.

COLORS

Green, white, and red (the colors of the Italian flag).

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Although Ramadan is a month-long period of fasting for Muslims, food is nonetheless very important due to the tradition of iftar, breaking the fast, which ends each day at sunset and resumes the next day at sunrise. In addition, Ramadan is a month of charity in which Muslims make special efforts to feed the poor and to offer hospitality to friends. Sweet pastries such as baklava and khadaife—a syrup-soaked confection made with strands that look like shredded wheat—are offered to neighbors and friends to mark the end of Ramadan. In order to have sufficient food available, it is common to stock up on foods before Ramadan, especially on luxury items. Pork and alcohol, as well as all foods containing pork or alcohol, are forbidden at all times to Muslims.

FOOD AND DRINK

Traditionally the pre-sunrise breakfast includes rice pilafs, meat turnovers, and poached meats. However, leftovers from dinner or regular breakfast foods are likely substitutes.In addition to the foods mentioned in the following section, see the recipe for Pomegranate Compote in the recipe section.

Indian

Biriani, a dish of saffron-flavored basmati rice studded with curried lamb or vegetables and enhanced with raisins, almonds, and sometimes apricots or peaches, is the festive dish of the Muslims of northern India.

Middle-eastern countries such as Turkey

The daily iftar is signaled by the purchase of freshly made flatbreads, sometimes filled with meat. The meal starts with an array of small items including dates, fruits, cheeses, and pickles, followed by soup, often with rice or vermicelli and eggs, and then by a dinner that includes meat— often lamb or stuffed roasted chicken or turkey—and several vegetable dishes—pastries and turnovers filled with vegetables, meat, or cheese of the feta type—followed by a light dessert of pastry or fruit, frequently scented with rose water.

Lamb is the most popular meat in the Middle East. Eid al-Fitr, a three-day event marking the end of Ramadan, is often celebrated with roast lamb, cooked whole when possible.

Moroccan

It is traditional among Moroccans to serve a luxurious sugar-dusted flat pie called bisteeya or pastilla. It is made of layers of thin pastry—filo is suitable—and filled with spiced pigeon or chicken. Before such celebration dishes people usually have harira, a soup made from lamb and chick peas, usually served with honeyed pastries or a sweet fruit, such as dates.

In Turkey, the Balkans, and Central Asia, the Ramadan soup is usually based on yogurt, while in Pakistan a bowl of yakhni, meat broth with vegetables, is common.

Saudi Arabian, Syrian, Afghan

Sweet items like baklava, kadaife and other syrup-drenched pastries, stuffed dried figs, and halwas with pistachios or almonds are often given as house gifts or served to guests during Ramadan. The sweet foods so common at Ramadan, and especially at Eid al-Fitr, symbolize the sweetness of this season.

Somalian

Baked kébabs are a favorite dish. Unlike kébabs in this country, they are not cooked on skewers. Rather they are small, sausage-shaped meatballs made of beef, onion, tomato, and hot pepper and cooked on trays in an oven.

Halloween, short for “All Hallows Eve,” is the day before All Saints (Hallows) Day. Traditionally ghosts and spirits walk on this night, doing mischief where they can. Small gifts disarm them, hence the custom of children dressing up as spirits and yelling “Trick or Treat.”

FOOD AND DRINK

Candies of every sort are essential for Halloween treats. Pumpkins for carving into jack-o’-lanterns to scare the ghosts away are also vital. Many people also serve pumpkin bread or cookies on this day. (See recipes for
Pumpkin Peanut Soup and Butternut and Coconut Soup.)

Other foods sometimes used for Halloween gifts are apples and popcorn.

COLORS

Orange, associated with pumpkins, and black, associated with witches, are the typical colors of Halloween.

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