Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at times when people have either chosen to restrict their food intake, or had food taken away from them, and considered what that tells us about the history of food. Here are our thoughts:
What Are God’s Food Rules?
Fasting has been a very common practice in religion for centuries, but there’s always been debate on whether or not fasting is pleasing to God. Julia Herzberg discusses a significant debate within Muscovite society about whether strict fasting genuinely pleased God. While the Orthodox Church promoted fasting as a way to deepen one’s spiritual life, not everyone agreed that simply following the rules of fasting truly honored God. Many people believed that inner faith and kindness were more important than strict adherence to dietary rules.
For some, fasting felt like an empty ritual if it was done only to avoid punishment rather than to grow spiritually. This raised questions: Did God care more about someone’s heart and actions, or about whether they stuck to complex rules around food? Critics argued that genuine faith meant loving others and living morally, not just following a diet. On the other hand, church leaders believed that fasting was an important spiritual exercise that showed discipline and respect for God. To them, skipping or bending the fasting rules reflected a lack of commitment to faith.
This debate made the concept of fasting a source of tension in religion. It highlighted a larger question in Muscovite society: Should religion be about strict obedience, or should it be about personal spirituality? This ongoing conflict complicated the role of fasting in people’s lives, showing that religious practices can sometimes be a source of division rather than unity.
The Fish Fry
An important part of fasting is the religious aspect and the comparisons between the way different religious groups look at and incorporate fasting. There are differences in the reasoning behind fasting, the length of the fast, which foods are being fasted, and how strict fasting is taken in the religious culture. In Christianity, fasting is frequently observed during Lent as a way to recreate Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness, symbolizing repentance and self-discipline. The first image represents a Fish Fry, a common tradition in Christianity during Lent, when people gather to consume fish, because they are abstaining from meat on Fridays. In Islam, fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and is seen as a way to develop self-control, spiritual awareness, and empathy for the less fortunate. Fasting involves abstaining from food, drink, and other needs from dawn until sunset, and it is broken each evening with a traditional meal called iftar. Overall, fasting is a meaningful and diverse spiritual practice across different religious traditions, each with its unique customs and significance.
Remembering Famines
The importance of famine in history is greatly shaped through the influence of memory politics. The way a famine is remembered or forgotten can be seen by how politicians and elites influenced history to gain more power and create a new future. In the case of the Kazakh famine of 1930-1933, Soviet authorities manipulated the event as a natural disaster, to avoid blaming the state and their policies, which had actually caused mass starvation. By controlling the narrative, the Soviet regime minimized public awareness and suppressed critical discourse about the human suffering that resulted from its policies. It wasn’t until after Kazakhstan gained independence, that the memory of the famine was reexamined and the truth about the soviet actions was revealed. This shift in narrative helped to reinforce national identity by highlighting the resilience of the Kazakh people and drawing attention to the trauma inflicted during Soviet rule. The influence of memory politics surrounding the famine shows how historical events can be reinterpreted or even changed over time to reflect the needs of different political contexts.
Soviet Famines
In the 1930s, forced collectivization in the Soviet Union led to horrible famines, hitting Ukraine and Kazakhstan especially hard. In Ukraine, this famine, known as the Holodomor, is remembered as a tragic event where millions died, seen as a brutal move by Stalin’s government to crush Ukrainian independence. This tragedy has become a big part of Ukraine’s identity, with many pushing for it to be recognized as genocide.
In Kazakhstan, the famine was also devastating, causing huge losses and forcing nomadic Kazakhs to settle into farming. But unlike Ukraine, the Kazakh famine isn’t as widely recognized, and it doesn’t play as big of a role in national politics. These different ways of remembering the famines show how each country’s experience has shaped their identity and politics today.