As the city leaps into springtime this month, it is also a special month of prayer, reflection and festivities for Christian, Jewish and Muslim Londoners. Jewish Passover, also known as Pesach, began this year on 5 April, while Christians celebrated Easter Sunday four days later. Both fall during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, which lasts until 21 April this year. Each celebration carries its own history and traditions, but one recurring theme in all three festivals is the significance of coming together for a meal.   

As supermarket giants stock up on chocolate eggs, lamb shanks and rabbit-shaped treats for Easter, let’s not forget the kosher delis and halal outlets which are also preparing for festivities. From unleavened bread, Matzo, during Passover seder to sweet Medjool dates during iftar after fasting, food (and the avoidance of it) is a core element of Passover and Ramadan, both of which are seeped in tradition and rituals.   

Ramadan

The holy month of Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, acts of giving and the strengthening of family and community ties. Observing Muslims abstain from eating and drinking after a pre-fast meal (suhoor) every day at dawn; a hearty post-fast meal (iftar) is often shared with family, friends and members of the congregation at sunset. 

“It’s almost like medicine. Fasting resets our body and mind, and gives us time and headspace for reflection and gratitude for what we have. As much as Ramadan is the month when Muslims abstain from eating and drinking, it is also a coming-together of family and friends sharing iftar over food,” says Sufia Alam, who leads the Maryam Centre in Whitechapel.  

A typical fasting day starts at around 3.00am when Sufia, who is originally from Yorkshire, has her pre-fast meal (suhoor) with her husband and three young-adult daughters before starting the fast at around 4.20am. “I’m a big foodie but since I’m also diabetic, we try to have a healthy balance of food in the morning that’s going to sustain us. My daughters and I usually have porridge with chia seeds, lots of fruit, or my favourite toast with avocados and eggs,” says Sufia. “My husband usually finishes the leftovers from iftar parties the day before. If I’m really tired that day, sometimes three dates and some milk will do the trick.” 

The fragrant scents of fenugreek, ginger, onion and cumin seeds from traditional Bangladeshi cooking waft through the house in the evenings, as Sufia recreates her mother’s treasured recipes that have been passed down in the family. “For iftar, we’ll make Kesuri, which is a traditional dish made of rice and lentils with lots of ginger, black seed oil and fenugreek. It has a porridge-like consistency, so it’s really easy to digest after a long day of fasting,” says Sufia. 

From lentil fritters called daler bora and channa chickpea curry to samosas and a variety of tagines, Sufia prepares a mix of South Asian and Middle Eastern dishes. “My Egyptian brother-in-law introduced Molakhia soup, a spinach soup with tomato and garlic which my sister makes well. And my girls and I love it. I’ve also got this Syrian okra and chicken broth soup recipe that I learned from this Syrian soup cookbook. The food we eat has a lot of South Asian and Middle Eastern influence,” says Sufia. “Although with the girls growing up, sometimes they’ve got us trying other cuisines like Korean food that’s now a big trend on Instagram and Tiktok.”

The spirit of sharing has been nurtured since she was growing up in a small, tight-knit community in Yorkshire. “We lived on a street with houses in front and at the back, and everybody bonded through sharing food. I remember we made lots of samosas during Ramadan, it felt like a big samosa factory. We would give them to neighbours and my father would donate some to the mosque.” 

This Ramadan, Sufia and her brothers and sisters in Islam at the Maryam Centre and the East London Mosque are hosting a green iftar, where 600 iftar meals are served every day on metal plates and paper cups. “It’s a really lovely atmosphere. Families come, we pray and then break fast together. You’ll see a lot of bazars and suks, which are these huge tents in the area, selling dates, milkshakes, burgers and other Ramadan delicacies as well,” says Sufia. “Everyone, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, comes together and it’s a whole experience.” 

Passover

The eight-day Passover celebration marks when the Israelites were freed from slavery in ancient Egypt. The highlight is the Pesach seder, a festive ritual meal that happens in the first two nights of the celebration. Jewish families gather around the table to enjoy each other’s company over the story of the slaves’ exodus from Egypt, songs from the Haggadah, and an elaborate ritual meal.

“Pesach is very much defined both by the food that we eat, and the food that we deliberately don’t eat. The primary restriction is to avoid eating chametz, which is leavened foods like wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye, in memory of how our ancestors left Egypt without having the time to let the bread rise,” says Rabbi Roni Tabick of the New Stoke Newington synagogue. 

Preparations start as early as a month before Passover, with the whole family slowly finishing and clearing out food with chametz until the day before Passover. “We like to do a fun ritual of chametz hunting for the kids where I’ll hide 10 little bits of crackers and bread around the house. So the first thing we do is go around the house with a torch to make sure we found all the chametz in the house,” says Rabbi Roni who has two children aged nine and seven. “I remember having breakfast on the day of Pesach on the stairs when I was a child. My parent’s house had a small kitchen and so the only other space in the house that wasn’t kosher for Pesach yet was the stairs. Now it has become a little family tradition.”

The table is set with new Passover plates and cutlery and as family members arrive at their home, the traditional Passover dishes are served, except lamb which is not eaten by Ashkenazi Jews. “As Ashkenazi Jews with roots from eastern Europe, our custom for the seder is to have matzo ball chicken soup, chicken and potatoes, and lots of matzo pudding,” says Rabbi Roni. “Although the ingredients used vary wildly among families, part of the game is everybody has to think their family recipe is the ideal chicken soup recipe, and nobody else’s can possibly measure up to their own family.”   

Seder is not complete without traditional foods that symbolise an aspect of the Passover story. Hard-boiled eggs and karpas, representing springtime, are dipped in salt water which signifies freedom from slavery and death. Morar, a bitter herb that’s often horseradish or bitter lettuce, signifies the bitterness of slavery. To represent the mortar used by the slaves to build pyramids in Egypt, Charoset is a sticky sweet dish made out of apples, cinnamon and walnuts. All of these are served along the course of the merry evening of camaraderie over food and stories.

“We say at the beginning of seder, ‘let all who are hungry come and eat’,” says Rabbi Roni. “The intention of Pesach is supposed to remind us all that slavery continues to exist; slavery to ideology, money, objects, or even people, and we need to be liberated from that. We need to remember to be kind and do what we can to help those who are in need.”

Easter

On Easter, which marks the resurrection of Christ, families come together for a big feast which often includes lamb or ham, hot cross buns and chocolate eggs. Lamb is traditionally eaten as the main dish of the evening in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday to take away the world’s sins. It is often slow-roasted with a variety of spring veg and served with a fresh mint sauce. 

“With hot cross buns, the clue is in the name,” says Dr Dafydd Mills Daniel, who teaches divinity at the University of Edinburgh. “The cross on those buns popping out of your toaster symbolises the sacrifice Christians believe Jesus made when he was crucified on a cross in 1st century Palestine.” 

You may ask where did the chocolate eggs come from? The indulgence of chocolate and cake comes as a treat for Christians after when they had to give up their favourite food during Lent in memory of Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. Dr Daniel says that moulding the celebratory chocolate into an egg shape began in the 19th century.

“In the ancient world, eggs were often used to celebrate birth and fertility. Easter not only marks Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, but the belief that his death on the cross allows all human beings to enter into a new eternal life free from sin,” says Dr Daniel. “In celebrating the possibility of such new birth, early Christian communities brightly decorated eggs – just as you may have painted the shells of boiled eggs at primary school, and in the same way that chocolate eggs remain colourfully wrapped on supermarket shelves today.”

This article is part of our series, Food Without Borders: Taste of East London, check out more stories here. #ELLFoodWithoutBorders