The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 86 - Candlemas, Culinary History, and the Sacred Symbology of Almonds

• Paul

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This episode explores the intricate relationship between food and faith, particularly within the context of Candlemas. We discuss the significance of dietary restrictions found in the Bible, cultural food traditions associated with Candlemas, and the deeper spiritual meanings behind certain foods, like almonds. 
• Importance of dietary laws in scripture 
• Symbolism of blood and its prohibition 
• The significance of almonds representing watchfulness 
• Cultural variations of Candlemas foods 
• Swiss, French, and Egyptian culinary traditions 
• Encouragement to try Candlemas recipes and celebrate the festival

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Candlemas-Through-Church-History-Project/dp/B0DQDPX2T9/

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Speaker 1:

Well, welcome to the next episode of the Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization. We're thinking about food in relation to, really, candlemas. We've still got PJ with us with his book Candlemas Through Church History, and there's a fair chunk of the book taken up with food and recipes. So those of you who bought the book may have tried some of them out and maybe send us a message to tell us how you enjoyed them or which was your favorite. Um, now then food. It's well, let's think a bit more about it, and we're going to get PJ to talk about some of the specific recipes that are used, variations that the swiss have a way of doing it, the french at marseille, egypt we'll ask him about those in a minute but why it's important to think about our food and why we actively pursue some foods and, uh, some foods are kind of indifferent. And then there's some things that we will not eat particularly.

Speaker 1:

Think about blood. Now, the Bible forbids the consumption of blood, and it does that in the three eras of legislation, sort of pre-eras of legislation, sort of. So there's pre the law of moses, when it's kind of the effect almost well, abraham has circumcision, but um, way back at a time of noah, when the lord is giving commandments to the whole of the human race and and he says to Noah don't kill people, because human beings are made in the image of God, so murders out. And then the only other command that he gives to the whole of humanity is don't murder and don't eat blood. Don't eat blood. So that is something he gives to the whole of humanity. And of course you do find all across the world all kinds of cultures have memories of that and have this sense that the consumption of blood is taboo and a wrong thing to do. And then some um religions, when they wish to make a statement, will can well, like pagan religions, drink blood as a specific kind of way of attracting the attention of the gods, because it's considered what drinking blood is considered like such an extreme action. Like you, pagans might do it because they know that will get the attention of spiritual beings, because it is such an outrageous thing to do, like a terrible thing to do by in paganism sometimes, and Wiccan thing to be an E like a dark thing to do, a terrible thing to do a significant thing to do. And of course Christians know it's a wrong thing to do. We don't consume blood. So that was given to Noah don't murder, don't drink blood, don't eat blood.

Speaker 1:

And then it's reinforced and given some more detail in the law of Moses, because the life is in the blood and it's to be used for atonement. Blood is the exchange, because if it's the life's in the blood and then the blood is poured out, what that blood, when it's poured out, is death, because the life's outside the person now. And then he's like saying now, when blood for you should be this very theological thing to do with atonement, salvation, redemption, the coming of the Lord Jesus, all of that should be in your mind so you won't be consuming blood. And then the law specifies don't eat an animal that's strangled because all its blood's still inside it. Or if you just find an animal that's like been knocked down or something, don't just eat that because its blood is all contained within it and you'll be consuming its blood. Rather, the blood's to be drained out and all of this. And then in the New Testament you get the reinforcement of this. And then in the new testament you get the reinforcement of this that, as the gentile peoples are joining church from all over the world, all sorts of different nations and things, some of whom obviously pagans would eat blood, sausages and things like that, so a sausage that is deliberately filled with blood and so on, or all sorts of other pagan activities involving blood.

Speaker 1:

And it's interesting, isn't it? Similarly, just as the Lord had said to Noah, just make sure you don't kill people and don't eat blood, the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 does a similar thing, where they say look, let's keep it simple, don't get into sexual immorality, that's bad. Sexual immorality, that's bad. Sexual immorality is out, idolatry is out. We don't, that's out. And let's keep it absolutely basic no sexual immorality, no idolatry, no eating of blood. And they're just thinking look, obviously those things, obviously we can't have people in church worshipping idols or being sexually immoral or and it's considered the same level of obviousness consuming blood. So, all the way through the Bible, before the law, during the law, after the law, the whole of humanity is commanded not to do it. But the first ecumenical council convenes and just reinforces don't have people in church. If people join church, make sure they don't do this blood eating or sexual immorality or adultery. And why is this problem of blood? And it goes to were you gonna? Yeah, pj's got something, there was, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So saint philo of alexandria is someone we particularly love and he gets very passionate about this, and so he is appalled by the idea of eating blood and he does say one of the key ideas is like so he is appalled by the idea of eating blood and he does say one of the key ideas is like so there is that, as the Bible explicitly says, like you don't want to be getting your life from the animal. But there's also, he says, this real idea throughout loads of the law of Moses, of this idea of respect. And whenever there's food there's this idea of respect. So when Peter follows this Pharisee tradition, so he won't eat with Gentiles, jesus gets very angry with that and he says don't you dare call anything I've made unclean. And and then peter realized, oh, he's talking about my attitude with gentiles because I won't eat with them, and that, uh, so eating has this.

Speaker 1:

So philo says you have no right to bury an animal in your belly. So there's this idea there's got to be something returned to the earth, and so that will be usually like some bit of bones, but you're saying, like the blood as well, like the life. Blood has to go so you can get like nutrients and stuff that are in muscles, from the flesh. Yeah, the blood is the life of the animal and that is not yours. That doesn't belong to you. That belongs almost to the animal, is the life of the animal and that is not yours. That doesn't belong to you. That belongs almost to the animal, or the earth, not to you. That's Philo's point. Yeah, yeah, wow.

Speaker 1:

I find that very sensitive and we often lose sensitivity when it comes to how we treat animals. Yeah, and that would relate back to Cain and Abel that when Cain spills the blood of Abel and Abel's blood's in the ground, in the soil, that blood cries out, that blood belongs to Abel and the blood cried out from the earth and the Lord hears that and is like what's going on? And you get that idea all the way, actually through the Bible. That blood goes in, that if people have been murdered and there's been atrocities committed and the blood goes into the earth, that blood defiles the earth and there needs to be atonement so that the earth itself can be cleansed. It's all this tremendous sense that blood is the people, it's deeply associated, the life of a person or an animal and therefore the idea that I'm going to drink the blood of the animal. It's like you're taking the very animal's essence into yourself with total disrespect that that blood should go into the earth and be sort of set free. Almost it's life in death set free.

Speaker 1:

That's a very powerful point and this idea that I've heard explained that the association with atonement is especially important because in a way in Holy Communion, where Jesus says you must drink my blood, so there is this weirdly shocking thing that he says no, no, I, there is a blood for you to drink and it's mine. And and in the light of what pj's been saying there and philo and this idea that the essence of the creature is in its blood and it must be, you must not take it into yourself because it's like you are what you eat. And if you're saying you know you're almost wishing to become like an animal, if you are taking the essence of the animal into yourself, it's like I wish that, I want its life as my life. But when it comes to the living God and literally the Bible talks about the blood of God he redeemed the church with the blood of God. So we drink the blood of God in Holy Communion, of course, because we want that life, we do want that life in us. We do want to resemble, that, take the essence of God into ourselves by drinking the blood of God. And he says yes, you must do that, you must drink the blood of God so that you become like God, whereas don't do that with any other animal, because otherwise you're effectively saying I wish to have that life as my life.

Speaker 1:

And this side of the equinox, where we have longer nights, we are of course thinking a lot about vampires and they'll be out more often, and they, who have lost their humanity in one sense, are constantly trying to reclaim it enough to survive by drinking the blood of the life of somebody else to take to steal that life as your own. Yeah, I think I can't imagine anyone listening to the Christ centered cosmic civilization, whatever, consume blood. But I, just as a warning, like, quite sometimes, if you go to and have a fry up breakfast they occasionally do I've come across this and been absolutely appalled We'll include a thing called a black pudding and it's like a, like a disc usually that they'll give and that is a blood sausage and they'll quite shamelessly sometimes put it on you. But I assume they're doing it because they identify you visitors as Christians and wish to persecute the Christian by putting this thing, the blood sausage, on the plate, as if to deliberately upset and offend the Christians. But it is done Now. I mean, that's the sort of sick world we live in. But obviously, steer clear of that.

Speaker 1:

And the history of it is so distinctly pagan, isn't it? Because it was the Vikings brought it in one stage, but then the Normans, who were Vikings and that's why it has the name Pudding, it's from, like Poutine or something. It was a French word, so the Normans kind of imposed it on the once fully Christian and sacrallo-saxons and celts, um, and so there's a sense in which it's like, what's it doing? But it's this direct line of pagans. So these people who had just recently converted, and so we think there's often, you know, we see, sometimes in you know, in the bible, there's israelites who might have recently joined and might have some problems integrating, but strangely they, the church just has not cracked down. You know, they, like normandy is, um, at least nominally christian and has been for quite some time, but uh, this practice wasn't cracked down on and it's a strange thing, but it's literally pagan.

Speaker 1:

It is literally pagan, isn't it? Yeah, literally from the vikings with their blood sausages and and quite often, uh, it's quite owned. I find that sometimes, when I've spoken to other people who there's a blood stew that I it was an eastern european thing, that's like a blood stew and, and and it quite openly, is associated with pagan roots of the nation and I'm like what? You're owning it as a godless, antichrist dish and then you eat it. I mean, it's enough to make you sick. But the point of all this is to simply say the bible does bother about what we eat.

Speaker 1:

And there's a very strong example that because I remember talking this has happened to me twice actually where I've spoken to a person who was apparently a mature Christian and when we were sort of beginning to touch on this idea, the importance of what we eat and don't eat they said, oh, I can't be bothered with that, I've got maturity in Christ. I eat whatever I want, I just eat anything. Well, looking, looking at the person, that was obviously true. But you think, but that's literally what a pagan would say. How is that in any way distinctively christian to go? I don't care. To me food is meaningless, I eat just anything, uh, all things got. And you're like, wow, that's like literally, a pagan couldn't put it better.

Speaker 1:

So we do take food seriously and this comes out at candlemas were, first of all, let's think about almonds like we've thought about a food that not to eat, blood, obviously. But almonds Now, notice, they come up in the book and they're in quite they're popular in candlemas recipes. Now, they've got biblical roots, haven't they? This, jeremiah, have you got the references? Jeremiah talks about them. They're in Genesis, they're in the tabernacle and are on staff. Let's just think about these elements of why almonds? Because the point, remember, is springtime food, it's food that's kinder, to do with waking up from the sleep of winter, leaving the old behind, pushing into like a new life, a new creation, a new beginning, and almonds are a fantastic food to embody that. Do you want to say about that? Pj? Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

There's one very helpful thing about almonds in that the Bible actually explains kind of what they mean. Sometimes we're having to look around in different books and we're trying to piece things together, but in Jeremiah, chapter 1, verses 11 to 12, it kind of just said like yeah, it means watchfulness, um, which is like so interesting, but then so obviously the reason then in candlemas, why watchfulness or waiting, or wakefulness is associated with candlemas is um, simeon and anna is primarily, I think, what we're thinking about that they're these people who waited for centuries to meet jesus, and so they um. So almonds are obviously a great thing if we've got a food that the bible says eat this to remind you of being watchful and wakeful. Um and just. Jeremiah 1, uh, 11 and 12 the words of the lord came to me. What do you see, jeremiah? I see the branch of an almond tree, I replied, and the lord said to me you've seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled. So it's that watching to see the faithfulness of the lord, his word fulfilled, brilliant, yeah, yeah. So in that sense, like quite um, a simple meaning and like in in that sense, quite a simple meaning in that sense, but there is obviously a lot to it elsewhere we think about.

Speaker 1:

It's called the best among fruits in Genesis 43, verse 11. So it's a great kind of thing in terms of doing an offering, showing we're going to give our best to Jesus, and it's interesting that that verse it's when Jacob is actually called Israel there, one of those unusual times, and Jacob Israel says let's take the best products of the land in the bags take them to. Well, it's Joseph, isn't it? But? And it's honey, pistachio, nuts and almonds with some spice. It's very candlemas diet, isn't it? It's very much of a candlemas gift that he sends. Yeah, that is very interesting.

Speaker 1:

But also the tabernacle, in the lampstand that represents the Holy Spirit, has almonds on it, and that again, that sense of life, new life, the spirit that they, the spirit, is very much the, this one who brings regeneration and new life, and almonds. Whenever we eat an almond we should be thinking, ah, you know the the lord's. The lord has promised life and we are watching for that to be fulfilled. It's one of these best things. But really it's because it's about the Holy Spirit and the life that the spirit gives. That's when the tabernacle lampstand has almond buds, and then, of course, aaron's staff, yeah, and it buds as well, and it's particularly the budding of the almond that, um, it is quite important because, like in iberia and I think, quite a lot of other places, you will get the first kind of buds of an almond tree showing on candlemas eve.

Speaker 1:

So in valencia there's a celebration called lentra de la flor, where they will take the first budded almond you know bud, uh and offer it in a church, as a, you know, they'll do like a first fruit kind of offering. That, like we see in, they do that a wave offering of the, the very first fruit. And so there is a sense of which of this almond it gets quite early, like a lot of stuff will be budding a lot later, but almonds kind of don't wait, they just as soon as they can, and maybe that's why they they represent watchfulness. There might be quite a lot more to it, um, but in that they just wake up. So like everything goes to sleep over winter, but it's like almonds do wake up very quickly. Um, so they represent the like a fruit, that's like yearning for the spring, for the new life, the new season, to yearning to push into that new creation, future. And that's, and that is the thing, isn't it when? Uh, how did the? The eron is representing the high priest, the lord jesus christ, filled with the spirit without measure, and all the others had to put their staffs in and their staffs remain lifeless, like winter, like when all the trees look like that, a lifeless piece of wood in the winter, but then like when the spring comes and the leaves start to come and budding, and if it's an almond tree, it's the earliest one, it's a very early one to do it. And then, of course, aaron there, representing that he is the anointed priest, the one who is to be filled with limitless life to represent Christ, christ, uh, it does say that, um, his staff, uh, not only sprouted but budded, blossomed and produced almonds. So this is a fabulous reason to have almond based uh products at candlemas.

Speaker 1:

Almonds, um, and they also supposedly look like halos is one thing. People say like that, like the taborian light. They say it looks like an almond. Ah, okay, I'll take their word for that. And because quite a lot of the things that are the foods of candlemas are disc shaped, kind of representing the light of the sun, because it's to do with the darkness being defeated and light. You know, by once you get past in march 21st, you're into like much more sun. Then, like it's, the days have already been lengthening throughout epiphany tide and then you're into more light than dark, and so part of that is to embody that in the food, almost to have food that is golden and bright and almost resembling a sun. I noticed that that came up quite a bit, yeah, and like citrus is like a part of that? Oh, obviously that we we always think that ends up being a practical kind of element as well and obviously getting lots of good nutrients in citrus. You know, like sailors would do that, but then it is like if you have a lemon or an orange or something, that will look like a sun yeah, a bright, a bright thing.

Speaker 1:

I noticed that, um, these plants, because a lot of it is plant-based food, like the grains and these pudding things, because plants look upwards to the sun and they have this upward dimension. And, if you you can, I used to have a plant on my desk when we lived in Wales and the light the only light came in from a window and I found that the plant would orientate itself and be stretching towards up, upwards and and towards this window, and then sometimes I'd turn the plant around and then it'd be facing the wrong way, but over the next days or week it would move its branches and stretch up to the light again and that plants have this upward sun orientation. So in the scriptures they're're clean. Eating plants is a clean thing to do, but I remember in the book you make the point that, um, about these, the quality of foods, that there are some foods that are unclean in the bible because the, like a creatures that, like that, crawl along the ground and are only looking downwards or straight ahead. They're unclean because they don't look up towards the sun. So you know, that is that relevant. Yeah, absolutely, uh, yeah, definitely that the, yeah that upward thing and getting your life from really jesus and like because we thought about ambrose, has a massive effect on how candlemas was thought about in the west, and so we've thought about the influence he had in keeping wax as a key part of cannabis.

Speaker 1:

But he also has this brilliant point in his commentary on genesis is hexameron, where he says that when, um, when, god made the sun after making plants, basically he made all plants fast so that basically everyone was just getting their life from Jesus. So actually plants in the Bible we know are capable of just totally living off of the life of Jesus. They don't even need the sun. So we would think they do, because a lot of our science may point towards that at the moment. But we in fact know with the biblical account that plants can just live trusting in Jesus and they did, all of them did at one point in time, and so that's a specific thing where we think, like, when they look up, it is really specifically to Jesus. When they were made, they were made to look up to Jesus and just get life from him, not even from the sun. So when we think about that, it's very specific. When we're thinking about plants, so that they will look to the S-U-N because that's available to them, but what they really want is the S-O-N, that's a great point. But what they really want is the S-O-N, that's a great point. All plants really are yearning for Jesus, but we'll settle for this witness to him that the S-U-N is.

Speaker 1:

Let me then, just because we're going to use up the time again, what about these things that the Swiss do, the French do and the Egyptians do? Tell us a little bit about that. You had quite a lot, because one of the recipes you have is a swiss one. What do they do? They have schlenkel veal noodle. All right, I'll leave. I, I wasn't going to say that, I'm just saying what do the swiss do? Yeah, so what is that? So they have?

Speaker 1:

Uh, what they did which is very interesting and a very Old Testament based is because in loads of medieval societies you had these jubilees, were basically all contracts had to end. And so in the Bible they say you only got to have it like every 40 years. But in medieval period they kept them more and more until each quarter day. Every contract basically has to end on a quarter day. So you know, a candlemas is one of them. So every quarter in the year you've got one day and then all contracts, all debts have to be cleared. So you can't just keep making money off of interest of other Christians. That's not allowed. So it's all got to be settled four times every year. So there can't be long standing things and you can't have long lasting predatory contracts and things. So all contracts end.

Speaker 1:

So basically in the Alps they all decided well, let's not sign on for any new contracts for five whole days from the first to the fifth of February. So candle must becomes important every year as and. So they'd all go back home to their families and spend time with them, and they're not even thinking about getting a job. They all made that decision. It feels very much kind of like trade unity, but it happened so long ago. But they're all like no one can break this kind of pact that none of us are looking for work for five days. So it kind of celebrates a kind of Jubilee thing to bring in a whole nother mosaic concept of like Christians should have this sort of society where we don't have contracts that force each other to do anything like that, we can all just be free. And so we do have some there's conduct, we have to expect some things, but we can't have these things go on forever. We can't do that.

Speaker 1:

And so schlenkenville noodle whenever. So we've got the recipe for it in the book. Um, whenever you make it it's something to remember. Like they would eat this to celebrate the fact that they're not under the kind of slavery of, you know, banks and interest and contracts and things like that. That was something medieval christians did. So that's the swiss. They like to celebrate the financial freedom really at that time and there isn't a kind of perpetual tyranny.

Speaker 1:

What about the French? I remember you said something that in Marseille they have something called navettes or something. Yeah, actually they're shaped like boats to represent the apostles that came on these boats. The three marys were among them, who you know? The mer bearers. They went to gaul what was then gaul, what's now france, and to preach the gospel, and they set up a nunnery there and they were all preachers and they are very well loved by the French people. So they have these boats they make to represent the little boats they came over to preach the gospel in France and they're called navettes, and so there's a secret recipe by the original bakery, but it's that.

Speaker 1:

You know, we've got a version, so it's not. You know, if you want the book, yeah, um, we've done the best we can. But if you want the full, authentic thing, you'll obviously have to go to marseille. But, um, you can get a little taste of it, literally. Yeah, the and the recipes in the book. Just give us one last thing, but as we come to a close from uh, for our candlemas studies, the in the egypt is associated obviously with the flight to egypt of the holy family and then the magi, um, because of that.

Speaker 1:

But the, the, what, what is the particular food that is eaten at candlemas in egypt? So, yeah, anise is one. Is that aniseed? Yes, there's two things that taste almost exactly the same aniseed or anise and star anise. So star anise comes from East Asia, anise is native to Egypt, and so they star anise, you would kind of. Even though they have the same flavor, star anise has a kind of epiphany theme to it. It comes from the Far East. So the three wise men, much more like the Bajar yeah, they obviously would have had lots of food that has star anise in it, whereas anise is native to Egypt and they used it in incense for worship, they used it in their food, they used it in fragrance. They loved the stuff. They used it in their food, they used it in fragrance. They like, loved the stuff. They. They used it for basically everything.

Speaker 1:

So but yeah, as we think about egypt, it's very important and we thought about saint simeon, how he had a big career, the prophet simeon, a big career in egypt. You know, he translated the septuagint version and we think about the septuagint candlemas and all of this, and so there's a lot of egypt stuff around that, um, and so anise is like a flavor. I mean, if you, if you think about you know, and people often, when they want to engage in a culture and they're traveling, they often think about getting food somewhere, and if you can have a flavor, you'll remember where you were, even if you've never been. Loads of people think about pizza when they think about Italy and things, and that might not be totally wrong. There might be a lot of flavor. That's like Italy and it gives you a feeling of what the country is like. And so there's a sense in which, when we've got a feast that has so much to think about Egypt, that this spice that's native to Egypt, that the Egyptians used in so much stuff, if you get a taste of that, it's like you're being a part of it. As we thought, emulating Christ, he would have eaten loads of food with anise in. Yeah, when the Holy Family in Egypt.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give you one last quick thing. Tell us about obel cake. Okay, so that I've got quite a big section, a massive section, on obel cake. What is this? So there's, it's kind of there isn't. So it's like a word I've kind of coined um, because there isn't a word for it in english, but there are in other languages. It's basically a kind of bread where you have two hot irons and then you squeeze the bread and it cooks it that way. Is it like a waffle? No, a waffle is leavened, so it's nothing like a waffle.

Speaker 1:

So that's the thing throughout the kind of continent of really everywhere, especially in parts of the world where the byzantine empire was active, because the byzantine empire had a sort of food called an obelia, named after an obol, which is a byzantine empire, had a sort of food called an obelia, named after an obol, which is a byzantine coin, or I think they're even in scripture, you know right. So it's a coin. It was meant to be coin shaped originally and often they are kind of that shape an obol, so it's like a crepe. Uh, no, because the crepe's too thin, okay, crepes are like thick, so it's a pancake. Crepe's too thin, okay, crepes are like thick, it's a pancake. No, pancakes can be leavened as well and they definitely can't be leavened.

Speaker 1:

So oval cake is different. It's light, it's round and it has to be crispy. Pancakes really aren't crispy. You can crisp a pancake. So crispy, yeah, crispy. Thicker than a pancake, yeah, and unleaveneded is it. So you can have like thinned version, but basically it's got to be thicker than a wafer, so a wafer.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes people get a confusing wafer, but then sometimes, because, like, you might have had a Dunkirk waffle and that is a kind of like, they call it a Dunkirk waffle, but then you think it's totally unleavened, so it's not a waffle, but people call it. You know it's what it's called. So a dunker waffle is a noble cake. Yeah, ah, we've got there. Yeah, so that's one type, but there's loads of different types and you've given us the recipe for a noble cake, yeah, in the book.

Speaker 1:

So you have your dough and then there's different things you can do, so it's a very kind of versatile thing. So there's different types of dough. You can add more or less flour, more or fewer eggs, and then anise or star anise, you know, vanilla, things like that. It's very much like in the law when you could offer a grain offering and you were allowed to bring it in the form of waffles or an oval cake maybe, and all these kind of possibilities for offering grain.

Speaker 1:

That's very candlemas, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely so. If you want to see the full history of oval cakes, if you're just thinking, is there a whole category of food? English speakers basically miss out on um, you can find out all about it because I've written maybe a little too much, but no, no, it's good, I enjoyed it. Um, there's a lot in the book. Well, I think that's it for Candlemas for now, but I'm hoping everyone will maybe get the book and enjoy all these things and make these recipes and by the time you get to the next Candlemas. You'll be ready to celebrate it.