[Sca-cooks] Funeral foods ...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Apr 6, 2006, at 11:39 AM, Christiane wrote:

> A bit of a morbid question, but having just attended a funeral for  
> a friend (only 45, gods rest her soul), and the family-hosted  
> gathering afterwards, I got to wondering about food traditions  
> associated with mourning in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
>
> These days in the United States, it's all about potlucks and  
> sweets, comfort foods. Not really ritual foods, but everyone knows  
> someone in their families or among their friends who can be counted  
> on to sustain the mourners with food. It's inevitable: if you're  
> having a memorial gathering, suddenly you have enough food to feed  
> an army.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is Hamlet's little joke  
about Gertrude and Claudius' wedding being so soon after the death of  
Hamlet the Elder that they could recycle the leftover pies from the  
funeral for the wedding feast...

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04