As I was observing my first food offering ritual, I had this thought: Food is such a celebrated item that even the gods and the dead want it. Taoists and Buddhists celebrate the Hungry Ghosts Festival where food is offered up to the dead. For the Muslims, Ramadan is a time of abstaining from food altogether during the day while much feasting occurs when the sun goes down Closely tied to almost every religion, food is as vital to our belief system as the god behind it and for some folks, food is their religion.

The gods in India are facing a crisis. No, it’s not due a lack of belief but due to inflation. Hit by low growth rates and high food prices, Indian devotees are finding it hard to perform the religious ritual of bathing their God in milk and offering food in the temples. From a practical point of view, feeding one’s child should be more important than feeding one’s god but I think the heavens above does have as big a compassion for the needy and the poor too. So it’s not just about skimmed or full cream milk, but about the respect for the almighty, in the best way you can.

During Chinese New Year, there is the “lucky” factor thrown in to give restaurants an excuse to serve mediocre food and provide even more mediocre service – all in the name of fortune and prosperity of course. No one will question the price or taste as long there is an auspicious element. Some lucky dishes include Yu Sheng, fish and long life noodles but we can end up getting raw deal salads and fishy creations that take a long time to arrive.

Thanksgiving, a festival widely celebrated in America and Canada, is a time for families to give thanks to their maker, their families and friends. However it seems that the bulk of Thanksgiving is spent preparing and eating dinner. Some of the usual dishes include turkey (lovingly doused with cranberry sauce), mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. A quick prayer is said before the family partake the stuffed fowl – one of the few traces of the festival’s semi-religious origins. But isn’t every meal spent with family and friends a thanksgiving, in many ways? You have all necessary faculties intact, the ability to have a good meal and with friends and family. Someone just felt the need to have a holiday to celebrate it, we suppose.

Just think of any religion and somehow there’s food involved. So is it possible to be religious without involving any form of food? Maybe that is where enlightenment comes in. However even Buddha was only able to achieve enlightenment after accepting a meal from a stranger. So maybe we should start writing a makan wishlist for our future descendants to offer up to us once we are no longer on this earth. I would like some char kway teow and laksa please!