Food and Religious Dietary Laws

Explanation: Pork is qualified as haram (forbidden) in several verses of the Quran. The ban is shared with Judaism. For other meats, the animal must be ritually slaughtered (dhabiha) by pronouncing the name of God, without stunning, and the animal must be drained of blood.

Explanation: Kashrut requires not mixing milk and meat in the same meal, on the same dishes, or even cooking them with the same utensils. The rule is based on the verse "you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk", repeated three times in the Torah.

Explanation: Lent lasts 40 days, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (Sundays are not counted). This duration echoes the 40 days of fasting of Jesus in the desert, themselves an echo of the 40 days of Moses on Sinai. The biblical 40 again.

Explanation: The fast of Ramadan (sawm) runs from fajr (first light of dawn) to maghrib (sunset). In northern countries, the duration of the day varies enormously: in Iceland in summer, the faithful can go more than 20 hours without eating or drinking. Some religious authorities authorize following the Mecca schedule.

Explanation: The cow (gau mata, "mother cow") is considered sacred in Hinduism. Its consumption is forbidden in most Indian states, and its slaughter is even criminally punished in several of them. Ghee (clarified butter), on the other hand, is central to cooking and rituals.

Explanation: Vegetarianism follows from the first Buddhist precept: do not kill living beings. But it is not universal. In Tibet, where few vegetables grow, meat is widely consumed. In Zen Japan, there is shojin ryori, an extremely codified monastic plant-based cuisine.

Explanation: Friday abstinence recalls the day of Christ's death. For centuries, this is what boosted fish consumption in Europe: dried cod even shaped entire trade routes. Today the rule mainly applies during Lent.

Explanation: The Yom Kippur fast lasts about 25 hours, from sunset to nightfall the following day. No food, no drink, and according to tradition no leather on the feet or cosmetics either. It is the most important fast in the Jewish calendar, observed even by many otherwise infrequent practitioners.

Explanation: Jains avoid root vegetables (onions, garlic, potatoes, ginger) because uprooting them kills the whole plant and also destroys micro-organisms in the soil. Some monks even sweep the ground in front of them to avoid crushing insects. The principle of ahimsa taken to the extreme.

Explanation: Alcohol (khamr) is forbidden in the Quran. The ban was imposed progressively: three separate verses settle the question in increasingly firm terms. Linguistic anecdote: the English word "alcohol" itself comes from the Arabic al-kuhl, originally a fine powder of eye makeup.