Ham on Easter
The eating of pig is forbidden to any who would eat Kosher (as is shellfish, rabbit, certain types of fish and a host of other tasty treats). If you eat Kosher, you cannot enjoy a bacon sarnie, nor can you eat ham. So, what's up with the ham on the Christian table, anyway?
For answers, I asked the Internet, because if there is one god that I can believe in, it is the Internet. Just run with it.
According to the Daily Meal, we do it because this would be when pigs were in season. Turns out that this would be the time to take down the cured ham, which had been curing over the winter, in the spring, when it was ready to be consumed. The article also indicates that the size of a ham is great to feed a lot of people, so it is an easy push.
However, according to an article in the Laconia Daily Sun, it's a tradition thing. We serve the food that we grew up eating, and as such, if you parents or grandparents served ham, odds are you will too. Ok, that explains the now, and the curing time provides the how, but I'm more interested in the why. For that, we need to turn to some mythology.
An interesting article goes over the mythology of Ishtar:
What were these rituals and where did they begin? Noah's grandson (Cush) and his wife Semiramis had a son named Nimrod. Reports say that after Cush's death, Nimrod married his own mother and became a mighty king. He too was eventually killed. His mother then began the deceit of deifying her son/husband, claiming he had become a "sun-god" (the origin of "Easter Sunrise services), and he was then to be called Baal. (Baal was worshiped as a god of fertility and promoted sexual sin.)
She proclaimed that the people of Babylon should worship him and that he was with them in the form of a flame. This wicked Queen, doing the work of Satan, was creating a new religion and set herself up as the goddess called "Ishtar." Hence the root of the pronunciation "Easter."
After she became pregnant, she bore a son named Tammuz claiming he was the product of a sunray, which caused her to conceive. But Tammuz grew to be a hunter and was later killed by a wild pig. "Ishtar" then designated a forty day period (the source of Lent) to mark the anniversary of Tammuz's death.
During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. Ishtar also proclaimed that because a pig killed Tammuz, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.
This is, of course, a condensed version of the mythology, but it seems to be a mix of older mythology (Nimrod, Tammuz, and Ishtar) into the Christian mythos. It is repeated in many other articles, including one over at WND. I enjoyed this one because it once again goes back to my original point: why do you celebrate the resurrection of a Jewish rabbi by eating a food that is unclean according to their traditions.
Now, I know that while most Christians don't actually care about the Judeo part of their Judeo-Christian Ideals and Traditions (TM), this still strikes me as funny. I know the hypocrisy that they exhibit is part and parcel of the Evangelical beliefs, but still, you would think that for this one, ostensibly the most important holiday in their lexicon, they would get it right.
But I guess that I am asking too much.
In the meantime, it is a deep-fried turkey over here at the Mantis Shrimp household, because everything should be deep fried.
- MS
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