SPIRITUAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE DIVINE  

Food has always played a significant role in worship. Probably the best known sacraments are the bread and wine of the Christian Eucharist but puja offerings in Eastern religions are equally blessed. While rooted in traditions and religious texts, the choice of sacred foods is clearly dependent on climate, availability and financial status. Hence a poor Hindu lights a simple butter lamp for a favourite deity while a wealthy Daoist family will order roasted suckling pigs for a grand send-off at a Chinese funeral. Edible offerings from temple ceremonies are not wasted: they are distributed among the less well off. Animals and birds receive a share as do sacred eels in certain cultural beliefs. Special status is accorded some foods such as the honey used in Jain purification rites. Simple water becomes sanctified in Christian baptismal ceremonies, Ganges water is flown to Hindu festivals far from its source. Beans are thrown during Khymer wedding rituals, eggs are offered to Taoist temple gods, milk is poured on Shiva linga. Once sacrificed on Aztec altars and pre-Islamic shrines, Mortal Beings were the ultimate sacred offerings to the `Divine.`

Breast milk is held sacred to be sacred in all religious persuasions. Christians believe that while nursing Jesus in Bethlehem, a drop of the Virgin's milk fell to the floor of the cave, turning the rock white. Milk is especially revered by Hindus who accord divine status on the cow using its milk in many purification rituals. Here a Hindu priest is bathing a statue of  Ganesh, the god with the elephant head. The erect Shiva lingum  worshipped in temples throughout India is especially venerated at Shivaratri when it is bathed with the five sacred offerings of a cow, the panchagavya - milk, curds, urine, butter and dung.

Turmeric plants were cultivated by the Harappan civilisation in India as long ago as 3000 BC. Since then the golden spice has been used in countless rites and remedies. Hindu brides use it cosmetically to achieve a glowing look, it is rubbed on a baby`s head for good luck and is widely used in Indian cooking and worship. In some temples, bags of turmeric can be bought by devotees to offer to their favourite deity. It is famously used in puja at the Mannarsala Nagaraja (God of Serpents) Temple in  Kerala which counts some 30,000 images of Snake-Gods dotted around the courtyard (pictured).

Hot Cross Buns originate from Pagan culture when the cross represented the four quarters of the moon. Early missionary efforts saw them adopted by the Christian church when the symbol was reinvented as a cross. The custom of distributing buns on Good Friday began in 1361, when a monk handed them out to the poor of St Albans. Many people attributed miraculous powers to the buns hanging them in the kitchen to protect their home from evil. In the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I sanctioned their consumption on festivals such as Easter. Hot Cross Buns are today sold all over Britain are and distributed to the congregation  before the Good Friday service at the Church of St Bartholomew in London.

Ancestor Day is celebrated in Buddhist societies throughout Asia, the Catholic equivalent being the Day of the Dead. In Japan it is called Obon and in Cambodia Pchum Ben. Chinese tradition holds that on the 14^th night of the 7th lunar month, the gates of Hell open allowing ghosts to visit the world. Offerings are made to appease their hunger and on the fifteenth day people visit the temples and cemeteries to perform religious rituals. Ancestor Worship is a very solemn occasion for Taoists when young and old sweep out the tombs, light incense, burn paper money and leave food offerings for the spirits of their relatives.

The origins of the Chinese mid-autumn Moon Cake Festival date from the 14^th century AD when a plan was devised to overthrow the oppressive Yuan dynasty of the Mongolian Emperor Genghis Khan. Moon cakes were baked as gifts for people backing the plot: each contained a piece of paper informing the date of the revolt- the fifteenth night of the eight month of the lunar calendar. Chinese people commemorate the event with Moon Cake offerings in the  temples and family reunions indulge in eating the pastry cakes filled with almond, lotus and bean seed paste.

Nowruz  is an ancient Zoroastrian festival celebrating the first day of spring and the Persian new year, a holy day also recognised by adherents of Sufism and the Bahai` faith. Central to ceremonies is the `Haft Seen`table laid with special items all starting with an S in Farsi: senjed, dried lotus fruit (love), sabzeh, sprouted wheat or grass (re-birth), seer, garlic (protection from illness) serkeh, vinegar (patience), seeb red apples (knowledge), sekkeh a coin (wealth), samanoo wheat porridge (sweetness) and sumak crushed burgundy berries used as a flavouring (sunrise). Flowers, the Qur`an, a book of poems and a goldfish are other items on the `Haft Seen`.

Eggs symbolise fertility and `new life`. Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Persian and Chinese cultures all revered the egg as a symbol of earth`s re-birth in spring-time. The Gauls offered them to Eostre, the Saxon Goddess of Fertility. Ostrich eggs cap the spires of the great Mud Mosque in Mali, eggs are offered to Taoist temple deities and Asian societies present them to newly-weds to remind of the purpose of their union. Saint Augustine drew a comparison with Christ’s resurrection from the dead to a chick breaking out of an egg. Today Easter eggs are big business: gift-wrapped, chocolate coated, painted, hunted, presented and finally eaten.

Succot the Hebrew Feast of the Tabernacles commemorates the wanderings of the Children of Israel following their Exodus from Egypt when  dwelt in makeshift shacks or tabernacles. The event focuses on building a hut and decorating it with the fruits of the harvest. `Four kinds` of species are associated with the religious rituals: etrog, a citrus fruit, lulav, a date palm frond, hadas a sprig of myrtle and aravah the branch of a willow tree. Street markets do a brisk trade in the hadar (splendid fruit) until the start of Succot when devout Jews retire to the tabernacle for a seven day period - Deuteronomy 16:13-15.

Bread is considered a sacred food by all `peoples of the book` none more so than by Christians where the `host` distributed at the Eucharist represents the body of Christ. The parable of the `loaves and the fishes` is one of the most colourful miracles in the Bible. In the Qur`an, the Prophet Muhammad decrees that bread be treated with the utmost respect. Bread - khoubz- is especially revered  in North African society. The torah  requires Jews to eat challah, the plaited white loaf at the beginning of a Sabbath meal. Tashlich, casting breadcrumbs into the water - symbolising the casting away of sins  - is  performed by devout Jews at Rosh Hashanah -  new year.