April 2009 
April 4, Saturday, Tomb Sweeping Day (Qing Ming) : China.
This is the day for honoring ancestors by visiting and tending to their graves. Family members pay respects to their ancestors and leave offerings of flowers and food.
FOOD AND DRINK
Tea, noodles, and fruit are traditional offerings at the grave. The fruit is usually red or gold—tangerines, oranges, and jujubes are traditional bananas and apples are modern additions. Often pomelos, a type of grapefruit, are used in rituals. Afterward the family returns home and eats a meal that marks the separation of the living and the dead. The meal always includes pork as a tribute to the ancestors and a blessing to the living, and a grain to represent growth and renewal.
April 5, Sunday, Palm Sunday : Christian.
FOOD AND DRINK
Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese communities have a number of fast dishes made from salt cod. In Puerto Rico, it is traditional to make large amounts of escabeche, a marinated fish that can be kept refrigerated for many days. While salt cod is the traditional choice, the technique is also used with fresh white fish such as snapper and grouper. In this way, the cook of the household can observe the solemnities without having to spend a lot of time preparing meals.
April 9, Thursday, Passover (first day of 8-day observance) : Jewish.
Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jews from their slavery in Egypt and their return to Israel. The significance of Passover, explicit in the rituals and the Seder, the meal eaten on the first and second nights of the holiday, is the focus on the family and its religious roots. Passover signifies deliverance from affliction and slavery into joy and liberation. Because of this and because Jews make great efforts to get together as a family for Passover, this is an important family gathering as well as a religious festival. This holiday begins at sundown on the previous day.
FOOD AND DRINK
Passover has many observances and customs mandated by the Torah. Among the most crucial of these are the dietary rules, which, during Passover, are stricter than usual. Foods must not be simply kosher but kosher for Passover, following the passages in Exodus "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread" and "Seven days shall there be no leavened products found in your homes." During this time matzos replace bread and any other wheat product. These matzos are produced under rabbinical supervision, which ensures that the flour and liquid are in contact for less than the eighteen minutes required for moistened flour to begin to rise. Ashkenazic Jews (those originating in eastern and central Europe) also refuse to eat corn, rice, or beans, called kitniyot, because these, too, might rise due to natural fermentation. (See recipe for knoedel)
At the Seder, a plate divided into sections is used for foods that recall the Passover story. Bitter herbs such as horseradish or bitter lettuce symbolize the bitterness of slavery, while a fresh herb such as celery leaves or parsley and a hard-boiled egg symbolize spring. (See recipe for Bitter Herbs Salad.) A roasted lamb bone recalls the sacrificial offerings made in the Temple. Haroset, a brownish mixture of fruit and nuts, suggests the mortar the slaves used in Egypt for making bricks. Wine, also kosher for Passover, is important in the ritual. A sweet wine is customary, although not necessary. Sephardic Jews also make Sephardic Eggplant Balls.
For Passover menus, most people choose turkey, chicken, or lamb. Fish such as gefilte fish and salmon are also popular. Desserts and snacks include cakes, cookies, and macaroons, based on matzo meal and nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, and coconut rather than flour.
Rum Macaroons are also a favorite dish.
April 12, Sunday, Easter : Christian.
This Christian holiday, the most important of the year, celebrates the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus, who was crucified on the previous Friday (Good Friday). For Christians who have fasted during Holy Week or Lent, the joyousness of this day is celebrated by once more eating meat and other rich foods.
FOOD AND DRINK
Traditional Easter food varies from country to country, but spring foods are always significant. Among these, eggs are the most widespread. Not only are they newly abundant as hens move into the spring laying season but their perfect shape symbolizes eternity.
Many European countries have Easter breads or cakes. Frequently they are flavored with spices or citrus zest and enriched with eggs and dried fruits such as raisins. Hot cross buns are popular. Regional specialties include simnel cake, which is covered with marzipan and decorated with 11 marzipan balls symbolizing the apostles who remained true to Jesus.
For the main Easter meal, the most popular meats vary depending on the climate and topography of the country.
Baltic
Pork is the meat of choice in the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
English
In England, a roast leg of lamb or a large roast chicken is most common. Children receive chocolate eggs, often filled with candies, as gifts. Hot cross buns are the most popular baked good, but there are also some regional raisin breads and a marzipan-covered fruit cake called Simnel cake.
French
In northern France, jambon persillé—diced ham in parsley-flecked aspic—is the traditional Easter dish, while in southern France, the preference is for lamb roasted with garlic and rosemary. Salade de Pissenlits is also popular. Traditionally, families gather the necessary dandelion leaves for this salad while hunting for Easter eggs. The leaves are tossed with the chopped eggs and browned bacon to make the salad.
German
In Germany (and also in Switzerland), ham is the most common Easter dish. Chicken is an alternative. The German Easter cake is ostertorte, a sponge cake with a mocha filling and chocolate-egg decoration.
Italian
Lamb is the standard Easter holiday dish. Cookies and breads are also popular and vary from region to region. Roman Easter bread, pizza civitavecchia, is made from a ricotta-enriched dough flavored with anise. Another bread, pizza di pasqua, is flavored with the zest of oranges and lemons. From the area of Venice and to its east comes gubana, a bread shaped like a snail and filled with a sweet mixture of raisins, walnuts, hazelnuts, and pine nuts. Columba pasquala is an Easter bread made of a rich orange-flavored dough and baked in the shape of a dove. Panada di Milano is a northern Italian Easter soup made of beef broth, eggs, Parmesan, and bread.
A Sicilian Easter specialty, which has beome popular throughout the year, is cassata, a cake with a sponge base, almond paste sides, a ricotta cream filling, and a fondant frosting with candied fruits.
Torta Pasqualina, a tart filled with ricotta, Swiss chard, and eggs, is a traditional dish in Liguria. Unusually for an Easter dish, it contains no meat so it is suitable for vegetarians. Marzipan shaped into fruits (martorana) and lambs are popular Easter treats, especially in southern Italy.
Lebanese and Syrian
The Christian communities of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine make an Easter pastry called Ma'Amoul. The pastry is flavored with rosewater and filled with dates, pistachios, or walnuts.
Polish
A day or two before Easter, Poles take the food they plan to eat to church, where the priest blesses it. The Easter feast always features a large holiday kielbasa. Ham, turkey, and other large cuts of meat are also often served, as are hearty soups such as barszcz containing kielbasa with veal, pork, or other meats in a slightly sour broth. The idea of both the large pots of soup and the big meat dishes is that there will be food to offer visitors throughout the holiday. Another custom is for family and visitors to symbolize their unity by sharing one hard-boiled egg cut into many small pieces.
Portuguese
A roast pork loin or shoulder stuffed with a filling of rice seasoned with tomatoes and peppers and dotted with raisins and olives is the Easter dish of Portugal.
South American
In South American countries, beef is the typical center of the Easter meal. Cuts and preparations depend on the wealth of the family. In Uruguay and Argentina, affluent families roast a whole side of beef outdoors poorer groups most often make a beef and vegetable stew.
Leg of Lamb with Apple Mint Sauce is also a popular dish.
COLORS
The pastel colors of spring flowers, especially yellow and mauve, are associated with Easter in the United States and northern Europe. In Russia and Greece, red, symbolizing the blood of Jesus, is used for dying eggs and in other symbolic ways.
April 12, Sunday, Palm Sunday : Coptic Orthodox Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian.
In the Russian Orthodox Church, this day is the equivalent of Palm Sunday. It is celebrated with pussy willows instead of palms, which are unobtainable in northern Europe. Pussy willows are sold or picked in bunches of 7, a prime number composed of 4 for the points of the compass and 3 for the trinity. Celebrants take their bunches to church and then to the graves of their relatives. After cleaning the graves, they toast the dead with vodka. Pussy willow is also used in the Romanian Easter.
In prerevolutionary Russia, Lent was observed with a strict fast with limitations not only on meat but also on cheese, milk, eggs, butter, and other fats. As in the western tradition, Holy Week, starting with Willow Sunday and continuing until Easter Sunday, was the strictest period of the year for Christians. The post-Soviet revival of the Orthodox Church means that many old observances, once frowned on by the government, are returning.
April 13, Monday, New Year : Cambodia, Laos.
This is one of the most important holidays for Cambodians. The festive meal invariably includes meat, either pork or chicken, though in Cambodia men often hunt for game such as rabbit, deer, and snake. Desserts, often based on sticky rice or coconut, and fruit are especially significant at this time of year. Large platters of red and yellow fruits, including mangoes, bananas, papayas, and pineapples, are often a centerpiece.
April 19, Sunday, Easter : Coptic Orthodox Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian.
The Orthodox Easter, like the Easter of the western Christian tradition, celebrates the belief in the resurrection of Jesus. This holiday is the most sacred in the Orthodox calendar, while in the western tradition Christmas is of equal importance—if not doctrinally, certainly in the secular community.
FOOD AND DRINK
In Greece, bean dishes that can be made in large amounts ahead of time are staples during the week preceding Easter. Because of the long period of fasting that traditionally precedes Easter, Easter foods are lavish. The main dish is always a celebratory meat dish, often lamb. There are many accompanying dishes, and as in the western tradition, eggs, often lavishly decorated, also play an important symbolic and decorative role.
Armenian
Lamb, often roasted whole, is the customary meat. The preceding soup is made traditionally of the lamb's innards and other scraps. Another holiday dish is potato and chickpea dumplings filled with raisins and nuts.
Bulgarian
The Easter lamb is preceded by or accompanied with tarator, a mixture of yogurt, walnuts, and garlic.
Greek
Spit-roasted baby lamb is the traditional center of the Easter meal. The lambs are often dusted with pink or yellow powder before slaughter. The soup that precedes the meal, mayeritsa, is made of scraps of the lamb plus carrots, celery, onions, and other seasoning vegetables; its characteristic flavoring comes from the final addition of eggs whipped with lemon juice. Greeks also have a braided Easter bread called Lambropsomo. Hard-boiled eggs died crimson and rubbed with oil are pressed into the bread before baking. More crimson eggs are given to visitors who play a ritual game of knocking them against each other. The one with the shell that doesn't crack is the luckiest. (In Greece the eggs are dyed with cochineal; in this country people use either red food color, which cannot produce the traditional deep red, or red textile dye, which makes the finished eggs inedible.) Greeks also make large numbers of cookies and desserts for Easter, including honeyed pastries such as baklava and khadaife, butter cookies, and wine cookies. The latter are a sugar cookie with cognac and white wine; they are made by joining three strips of dough at the top or bottom to symbolize the Trinity. Another Greek Easter cookie is made from circles of dough flavored with masticha and filled with a mint or cinnamon-flavored cheese mixture based on mizithra or ricotta cheese.
Russian
Russians dye eggs red. They have two important Easter dishes—kulich, a tall bread enriched with eggs, raisins, and candied peel, accompanied by pashka, a cream cheese confection studded with candied fruit and nuts such as walnuts. Other typical Easter dishes include stuffed eggs flavored with mustard and chopped cucumber pickles, and a variety of salads such as cucumbers with sour cream, Salad Olivier made from chopped cooked potatoes, carrots, peas, chicken, pickles, and mayonnaise, and a herring and beet salad.
April 24, Friday, Genocide Memorial Day : Armenia.
FOOD AND DRINK
Armenian cooking has influenced the cuisines of other peoples in the Caucasus. It features many dishes of minced or chopped meats, lots of wild herbs, trout, and flatbreads such as lavosh cooked on a hot cast iron stove called a tonir.
(See the recipe for Armenian Lamb and Apricot Stew.)