Festivals: spices that mark them
Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Nowruz and the other days of the spice calendar.
Festivals have their signature spiced foods, from Diwali sweets and Eid biryani to Christmas gingerbread, Lunar New Year dumplings and the Day of the Dead's pan de muerto.
Religious festivals
Eid, Diwali, Christmas, Easter, Passover, Hanukkah and Vesak each use spice in their own foods. Details differ by country and by family, and each is given its own page on the days calendar.
Seasonal festivals
Spring, midsummer and midwinter festivals use seasonal flavours. Nowruz uses sabzi herbs and saffron, Songkran uses cool herbal drinks and Thanksgiving uses sage, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Food as memory
Festival dishes are often passed down in families and tied to place. Many people say a festival smells of its spices.
Festivals on EveryMasala
The spices written up so far, best known first.
🇹🇷 Turkey and 5 morePoppy seed
The tiny kidney-shaped oilseed of the opium poppy, used in baking and cooking across Europe and South Asia.Seed · Earthy and deep
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreMixed spice
A British blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice for sweet bakingBlend · Warm and sweet-spiced · Sweet and mellow
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Mixed spice: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Poppy seed: Odedr, Public domain, source