What is Easterpage 4 / 4
Easter has many symbols and traditions, food among them. Eggs, first blessed by a priest, were among the first Easter foods to be consumed after Lent, during which people abstained from eating both meat and dairy products. In many parts of the world, roast lamb is the centerpiece of dinner on Easter Sunday. This harkens back to the first Passover when the sacrificial lamb was roasted and eaten together with bitter herbs during Seder. Lamb is also symbolic of Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the Lamb of God in Christianity. Ham is also a traditional dish in the United States due mostly to a lack of refrigeration in colonial times. Slaughter was a fall event and any fresh pork that went uneaten during the winter months was cured for spring. The curing process takes several months and the cured pork, or ham, was typically ready for Easter.
Ham