248: How food shapes our Easter celebrations

Easter is an important time of year for the food industry, and is one of the pillars of the calendar for any company working in the sector.

But the role of food goes way beyond planning stock or staffing restaurants, it has always played a key role in how Easter is celebrated.

Easter symbolism is laced with food at almost every turn, from Shrove Tuesday, to Lent, Easter Eggs and the Holy Communion.

In this episode of the Table Talk podcast, we explore the food-related traditions that go hand-in-hand with Easter.

Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday? Why is lamb the meat of choice on Easter Sunday? And when did chocolate Easter Eggs come to prominence?

We also learn how the hot cross bun rose in popularity in the UK, was banned, and then returned.

And we look further afield at the traditional Easter dishes being served up around the world.

Emma Wells, Historian and Archaeologist, University of York

Dr Emma J. Wells is an historian and archaeologist of the medieval Church based at the University of York. 

She is the author of Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles (Hale, 2016), and the imminent, Heaven on Earth: The Lives & Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals (Head of Zeus, 2022). 

Her next book, currently in the works, is on relic merchants of the Middle Ages.