Why do (some) Japanese eat KFC on Christmas?
Definitely. Too many of âthemâ threatens âus.â
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Which parts? With respect, neither you nor I was actually there when this originated. The simplest explanation is most likely to be right, except when thereâs good reason to believe that the simple one is false. And in this case, the two basic explanations arenât mutually exclusive - âa bit of bothâ is plausible.
Itâs certainly easy to see that local circumstances play a big part when you consider my hometown, which by chance (and/or just plain statistical unlikelihood) had none of the necessary elements. (Well, it did have a population of mostly Christian people who were mostly at home eating mostly the same thing on that day, but none of the other parts.)
Well⌠I think history can verify that the overwhelmingly vast majority of Jews lived in the major cities / metro areas and still do.
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Speaking for NJ, there are large Jewish communities in suburbia. You just need to locate a temple to understand your neighborhood. These ideas we all have about our neighbors need healthier updating. Iâm trying to be educated.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/new-jersey-jewish-history
Written in 2017âŚ
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That there was a Chinese restaurant in every little burg. Or a Jewish population, for that matter. Thatâs what wasnât and isnât true. The far West has always had a smattering in various places owing mainly to railroads being built, but where I grew up in KC we had but a few Chinese places. Nixonâs opening of trade with China along with Vietnamese refugees and Thai immigrants in the 70âs really set the stage for the explosion/expansion of Asian food of all varieties all over the country.
So, Nixon did one thing right!
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He also created the EPA. And he resigned, soâŚthree things!
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I agree with you completely on those. I got the impression you were disagreeing with what I thought was my main point, that convenience and coincidence were likely major factors why this started in the first place. (More like Edmund Hillaryâs famous response âBecause it was thereâ, and less like a fully-formed complex intercultural meeting of the minds. Not saying thereâs no complexity, just itâs probably a subsequent development.)
I read that originally they were the primary non-Christian populations in NYC at the time, and since neither was celebrating a religious holiday, the Chinese restaurants were open and a lot of others werenât. I think I read that in an old issue of Gourmet, along with the idea that it became a âcheat dayâ of sorts for a lot of folks that ordinarily observed kosher dietary laws.
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Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas because Jews and Chinese are lived close together.
Speaking only for myself because I can barely do that well.
I eat Chinese food because I like it.
I used to eat Chinese on Christmas and Thanksgiving because those restaurants were open.
Today more restaurants open for the holidays so thereâs more choices.
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That is the key for a lot of people. In our area, the Indian restaurants are also open, and we used to go there. (I canât remember if if was Mark or I who first noted that the red and green chutneys they served made it particularly apt.) Now we get together with close friends, and itâs back to Chinese, albeit take-out.
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We probably have different definitions of small town.
My small farming village in the American heartland didnât get an Asian restaurant until about 2000. The only choices up to then were a couple diners, a pizza place, tavern food, gas stations, funerals, and then every few months the American Legion had a fish fry.
Itâs really weird to read this and to see it revived. I get the feeling that amongst the posters, not so many are Jewish and not so many read the piece in the Forward.
There are a few reasons why it has become a thing for (American) Jews:
- Two large immigrant communities
-Two large immigrant communities that do not follow a Christian calendar (and hence have types of overlap )-- this leads to a recognition of each otherâs communities as patrons and businesses. - Safe Treyf: Unlike Italian restaurants (for example), Chinese restaurants were not adorned with Christian decorations and the treyf (non-kosher) foods were unrecognisable and hidden and as such could be ignored by those who really didnât want to think about this.
- Familiarity and Cosmopolitanism: Jews were patrons of Chinese restaurants many other days out of the year. The advertisements one sees in Yiddish papers is telling. Also: Dumplings look like Kreplach (same!) yet the food is totally different to what one gets at home (excitement, wordiness).
Obviously things have branched out and there are some changes that have happened over time, but to look at the U.S. and Jewish history there, youâll find a longstanding relationship. Itâs great youâre all having the conversation and taking guesses according to what seems logical, but work has been done on this and the reading is great, especially in the Forward which uses their access to Yiddish archives.
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Being born Jewish and not eating Chinese food on Xmas is yet another reason to consider myself a bad Jew. As if I needed more reinforcement. Oy veh!
(ok⌠for those of you who donât know me and, therefore, are not going to realize that this post was intended as humor, please consider it as âReform Jewishâ humor⌠weâre a sarcastic people too. Well, those of us still in non-Hasidic Brooklyn are).
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Eh, that read very Jewish. You might not be eating Chinese food, but yeah, suspecting one is a bad Jew seems very Jewish.
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I donât mind revived (zombie) threads. Iâve only been here a short time so revived threads are typically new for me too.
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Because Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas.
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And my mother (Eastern European Jewish origin) explained to me that there was a similar sweet and sour flavor profile between the two foods. Recreating Chinese food Jewish-style (no pork, no seafood) was a popular cooking pastime with her and her friends.
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