Hi,

At the same time as the Chinese Mooncake Festival, there holidays in other Asian cultures:

Chosuk is the Korean Thanksgiving:

Chusok, Korea's annual thanksgiving holiday, ... Festive occasions, such as Chusok, demonstrate the importance of family to Korean society. Family members, usually from the paternal line, get together to prepare food, honor their ancestors, and cherish relatives, both living and deceased. Chusok is a reminder that families are connected and bonded in the same fortune and ancestors live through the offspring as part of people's daily lives.

Holiday festivities begin many days before the actual holiday, as women busily prepare food to be put on the ancestral plate for the Chusok ceremony. They begin preparations for the festivities weeks in advance by going to the market to buy the newly harvested rice, apples, crisp pears, juju beans, chestnuts, sesame seeds, pine needles, and so on. You might wonder why people need pine needles. Koreans, like many people from traditional cultures around the world, celebrate holidays with special food. Pine needles are an essential ingredient of the Korean rice cakes called song pyun. These cakes are made with finely ground new rice as the basic dough, which is filled with toasted sesame seeds, chestnuts, or peas sweetened with honey or sugar.

Making song pyun is one of the most festive activities associated with Chusok. Several generations of women work in a big circle over bowls filled with glutinous rice dough and many wonderful fillings. The song pyun are then carefully arranged between piles of freshly washed pine needles in a huge steamer. The pine needles prevent the sticky rice cakes from clinging to each other and most of all infuse the whole house with the wonderful smell of pine trees ...

Simultaneously, in Vietnam they celebrate Tết-Trung-Thu:

In Vietnam, Tết-Trung-Thu (tet-troong-thoo) or the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most popular family holidays. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.

Vietnamese families plan their activities around their children on this special day. In a Vietnamese folklore, parents were working so hard to prepare for the harvest that they left the children playing by themselves. To make up for lost time, parents would use the Mid-Autumn festival as an opportunity to show their love and appreciation for their children.

... Like the Chinese, Vietnamese parents tell their children fairy tales and serve mooncakes and other special treats under the silvery moon. A favorite folklore is about a carp that wanted to become a dragon. The carp worked and worked and eventually transformed itself into a dragon. This is the story behind the mythical symbol, Cá hóa Rông. Parents use this story to encourage their children to work hard so that they can become whatever they want to be.

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Yam Festival popular in Nigeria and Ghana in September, 2005:

The Yam Festival is usually held in the beginning of August at the end of the rainy season. A popular holiday in Ghana and Nigeria, the Yam Festival is named after the most common food in many African countries. Yams are the first crops to be harvested. People offer yams to gods and ancestors first before distributing them to the villagers. This is their way of giving thanks to the spirits above them.

Yam
A yam is large root vegetable that looks like a tube. People often confuse a yam with a sweet potato. Yams come from Africa while sweet potatoes are from Asia. Yams can be stored for 2 months in dark and cool areas. They can also be dried and turned into flour for longer storage. Interestingly, Yams are associated with Thanksgiving in the United States. When you have yams at your Thanksgiving dinner, think about the villagers in Ghana and Nigeria. They too are giving thanks ... especially for this special food.

Succoth begins October 18, 2005:

The week long holiday of Succoth begins on the fifth day after Yom Kippur. For some it is the Jewish Thanksgiving because it is known as the "Festival of the Harvest." It is a time of rejoicing for the goodness and bounty of the earth and therefor food plays an important role in its celebration. The word "succoth" means booths and refers to the makeshift huts which the Jews called home during their 40 years of wandering. Today, it is customary to build a succah in one's garden or patio for this festival and decorate it with fruits and vegetables of the season. Sharing a meal with family and friends in the succah is considered very much part of the festivities.

I typically make black eyed peas and collard greens on New Year's Day. It is a tradition in the south to insure good fortune in the new year. Does that count?

Hi,

From the Philippines:

Pahiyas: the feast of San Isidro Labrador on May 15, celebrated in Lucban, Quezon by decorating the houses with food. In Madrid, Spain, the same feast is celebrated on the same day, and San Isidro Labrador is also the patron saint of Madrid.

On some online greeting card sites they list,for example,National Chocolate Day.Or something like that.I don't know if these are included in what you are looking for.

winebabe wrote:I typically make black eyed peas and collard greens on New Year's Day. It is a tradition in the south to insure good fortune in the new year. Does that count?

Somewhere, YourPalWill has a hoppin' john for New Year's thread, I believe...ah, here it is.

Anyone know anything about the traditional Umbrian lentil feast the original poster mentions?

Aaron Deacon wrote:Anyone know anything about the traditional Umbrian lentil feast the original poster mentions?

Lentils are eaten on New Years in much of Italy, with lentils and cotechino sausage originally a Milanese or more generally Lombardian tradition -- now I think that combination is eaten more broadly in the north and centre of Italy. Umbria is the source of the best lentils grown in Italy, so no surprise they too eat them on New Years.

Antonius

Hi,

I found this on the Icelandic Association of Chicago website. It's food as well as a bit of a different Christmas tradition:

[quote]There seems to be a misunderstanding that there is only one Santa Claus and that he lives on the North Pole but as all Icelanders know, all of the THIRTEEN Santas or J?lasveinar ("Christmas Lads") live in Iceland. Icelanders themselves have different opinions on where in Iceland they live which mostly depends upon where the Icelanders grew up. People from the capitol all claim that the Lads still live at home with their parents, Gr?la and Leppal??i, in the mountain Esja. Thirteen nights before Christmas they begin their descent from the mountain one by one until the last one appears in town on Christmas Eve. The first one to appear is Stekkjastaur and the last one is Kertasn?kir. The others are Giljagaur, St?fur, G?tta?efur, Hur?askellir, Bj?gnakr?kir, Pottasleikir, Kj?tkr?kur, Skyrg?mur (my favorite), Gluggag?ir, ?v?rusleikir and Askasleikir. They are a bit rough around the edges but all have a heart of gold and bring presents and the Christmas spirit to everyone. But be careful not to leave any food unguarded in your home since, as the names of most of them implies, it will be eaten. Everyone knows that carrying all these presents sure brings out your appetite if you are raised by trolls and only work 1 month out of the year. The day after Christmas they begin going back home until ?rett?ndann (the Thirteenth) when the last one leaves and Christmas is officially over. This is January 6th and is celebrated with ?lfabrennu or Elven bonfires where you dance around the fires accompanied by Elves, goblins witches and sometimes trolls who are all happy this awfully dreadful Yuletide is gone and life can finally go back to normal. That is, until next year when the circle is repeated all over again.
When the first Santa is expected to arrive, children in Iceland put a shoe in the window and every night (if they have been nice) they get a treat from the Santa that comes into town that night. If they are naughty they receive a potato in their shoe which is not cool. And if you are very naughty you will even not get any presents on Christmas Eve and will be eaten by the big, black and scary Yulecat. So, be nice and and have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.[/quote