Cheeses for feasts and holidays
Christmas Stilton, Easter paskha, Shavuot cheesecake and the cheeses of festival tables.
Feasts and holidays bring out special cheeses. A whole Stilton at a British Christmas, the cheese course of a French réveillon, Shavuot cheesecake and blintzes, Orthodox Easter paskha after the long Lenten fast, Diwali boxes of chhena and paneer sweets, and Ramadan nights of kunafa and cheese pastries. Cheese marks the days when a table is meant to be full.
Christmas and Easter
In Britain, a whole Stilton with port is a Christmas tradition, and in Yorkshire, Wensleydale is eaten with Christmas cake. In France and Switzerland, Vacherin Mont d'Or is baked in its spruce box. In Russia and Ukraine, Easter ends the long Lenten fast with paskha, a moulded sweet of tvorog, butter and eggs marked with the letters for Christ is risen. In Cyprus, flaounes, pastries filled with cheese, eggs and mint, are baked for Easter, and Naples bakes ricotta pastiera.
Shavuot, Diwali and Ramadan
On Shavuot, many Jewish families eat dairy meals, with cheesecake, cheese blintzes and, in Sephardi homes, cheese bourekas. For Diwali, Indian sweet shops sell boxes of sandesh, rasgulla, kalakand and barfi, many made from chhena or milk, and families exchange them with friends and neighbours. In Arab homes, Ramadan evenings and Eid bring kunafa and qatayef, small pancakes folded round sweet cheese or nuts.
Weddings, harvests and herds
Wedding feasts in Georgia are not complete without khachapuri, and Parsi wedding meals in India serve topli nu paneer. In the Alps, the return of the herds from summer pasture is a feast in itself, with music, decorated cows and stalls of mountain cheese. In the Swiss Justistal, the summer's cheese is shared out among the farming families in a September ceremony, the Chästeilet, held in the open air.
Worth knowing
- Stilton: The British Christmas cheese
- Vacherin Mont d'Or: Baked in its box at Christmas
- Paskha: Easter dessert of tvorog
- Flaouna: Cypriot Easter cheese pastry
- Cheesecake: Shavuot favourite
- Blintz: Thin pancake filled with sweet cheese
- Kalakand: Milk and chhena sweet for Diwali
- Qatayef: Ramadan pancake filled with sweet cheese
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Feasts and holidays on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Jāņi cheese: Xil, CC BY-SA 3.0, source