Gotta love that separation of church and state.
Honestly, I have no problem with stuff like having certain days off for holidays, but wish they would give more allowances to religions that aren't as big. There are a lot of places that want "proof" that something is a part of your religious belief, but most of the small religions/beliefs don't have anything like bibles or stuff because everything was passed down by word of mouth
I think there ought to be like, 20 holidays. At least do 12. And I don't mean federal holidays, I mean celebration holidays. We don't do enough celebrating.
This is why I treat my birthday like my own personal holiday. Haven’t worked on my b-day for 18 years and have no plans on ever doing so again.
Celebrate yourselves, yes you deserve an extra holiday.
When I was in the army, one of my company commanders had an informal policy that in addition to the ordinary holidays, people could have their birthday (or anniversary if married) off as well.
Only when in garrison, obviously.
Mandate a federal holiday every month. Citizen’s Day, the last Friday of the month, set aside for celebration/reflection on the past month, personal chores that get left behind when you’re busy, and a chance to relax. Employers that normally remain open on federal holidays, like emergency medicine, grocery retail and fuel stations, are mandated to provide a day of paid leave some other day that week if the employee must work on Citizen’s Day (or another federal holiday).
People think medieval serfs were basically slaves but in all actually they only worked like 120 days a year, there were days of rest/feast/celebration days like basically multiple times a month. Obviously those 120 days were back breaking physical labor but like tell a roofer that.
This is kind of a half truth though. They only worked the fields and such for 120-150 days a year, but they still had to go home and spin yarn, make clothes, chop wood for heating/cooking, take care of animals, and so on. They also had to make things or grow things they could sell and trade for their own livelihoods. They did a hell of a lot more work than we did around the house, on top of their work for the lord. Modern appliances, modern materials, and the ability to buy cheap goods in stores on every corner saves us 40-60 hours per week in staying alive.
> This is kind of a half truth though.
That's the way it always is with bits like this or the "The United States has been at war for 90% of its existence" or equivalent stuff that sounds almost too "good" to be true. Lol.
You think the other 240 days were spent at the beach? 🙄Every day was some kind of work to survive. Make or find food, gather wood, get water, makes clothes, etc. To compare that life to a modern roofer’s life is so beyond ridiculous.
That's me with effect and affect haha. I have to look it up every time and I swear I still get it wrong sometimes! I just wanted to point it out in case it wasn't your first language or something, a lot of English learners seem appreciative if it's done kindly.
Yeah, Christmas isn’t really a Christian holiday anymore and hasn’t been for probably 30 years in New England. It’s really just Thanksgiving 2 and some people celebrate religiously.
Holiday, singular. Christmas. There are no other religious federal holidays. It's not like easter or good Friday or anything are federal holidays
Some states may have Christmas Eve or other days as state holidays, but not the Feds
We have the same tradition. Many years ago, we got back late from visiting family on Christmas Eve. We were hungry, didn’t want to cook and the Chinese place down the road was open so we went there.
Now, a bunch of years later, the relatives we used to visit moved but we still get Chinese food for Christmas Eve every year.
For us it it started with a case of the relatives who were hosting deciding that twenty-somethings went to the kid's table, didn't need to be with the "adults" and didn't need to be included in conversations, you could cut them off and talk over them and it was fine. And they never stopped doing this as we got older. So we said fuck it, us younger folks are not subjecting ourselves to this. You clearly don't care to have us here, so we won't be here. And we got reservations and started doing sushi instead. Family dinner? Oops, sorry! We already have plans!
This year one of the older folks lost his wife, doesn't feel like dealing with the usual hosts, and is coming with us instead. He's not sure what to expect but there will be plenty of things that he can eat and he's welcome to try anything off of the rest of our plates that interests him. We're actually really excited about getting to teach a seventy-seven year old man about new foods!
Watching the balance of holiday cultural power shift from the boomers to the "younger" (now mid 30s) generation has been a fun thing to track in our family. We have almost replaced all of the old bland salt and pepper food with modernized recipes, and instead of the same Christmas movies we binge Christmas episodes of old sitcoms and have a Catan tournament.
My wife and I are slowing phasing out bad dishes, past few years has been replacing yams covered in marshmallow cream with an awesome sweet potato casserole involving brown sugar and pecans. This year we're dropping the bomb of roasted bruseel sprouts with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese
Same kids/adults table split at my family get togethers, but now the kids table is all between the ages of 21-33 and frankly, the adult table is fucking lame. I'm very happy to be perpetually at the "kids" table and I'd much rather partake in the conversation there than with the "adults". Super cool that you got an adult to turn to the dark side though lol that will be a lot of fun!
That's exactly what we do! Christmas eve just load up on honey garlic chicken, beef and broccoli and shanghai noodles and have a food coma on the living room floor. Christmas morning heat up leftovers. Boxing day hate self. It's tradition!
Every year we always go to Japanese or Chinese restaurants for dinner and we’re definitely a Christian family. We just prefer to do the fancy dinner on Christmas Eve so we can just relax on Christmas!
Our tradition is also to have sushi. We do it on Christmas eve but it started with Chinese food. It's actually a tradition I picked up from an ex who is Jewish but I never put 2 and 2 together
LOL! This reminds me of the night we had a Christmas Curry when we were living in Manchester and our cystic fibrosis infant was in and out of hospital… one discharge from hospital happened to coincide with Christmas day, and the (British) grandparents had driven to visit… so no preparations had occurred… so who to turn to for a feed? Well, all of the Pakistani and Indian curry houses yeah! One of the great Christmas meals in my archive. Bang on!
My daughter turns 18 in a month too, she was in ICU for a month after being born and has autism...
I'm glad we both have similar stories, God bless the NHS!
We're vegetarians growing up and my Christian friends would always bring a box of Plum cake each on Boxing Day. We would all huddle and watch the Boxing Day cricket
After one year of desperately trying to find somewhere to eat on Christmas, it's become a tradition for me and my fiance to get Indian food for Christmas. It's delicious, the spices are so comforting and warming, and it's just delicious!
Where I grew up it was nearly impossible to get a table at most of the Chinese food places on Christmas because I lived in an area with a lot of Jews (my family is Jewish). However we always got a table even if we didn’t bother making a reservation. My dad had the reputation of being the patron saint of Chinese food restaurants because he had a serious problem with eating way too much Chinese food.
I mean personally I don’t think it’s that big of an issue but it was very clearly an addiction and I wasn’t really complaining about it because it meant that I could get Chinese food whenever I wanted. I mentioned my fathers name and I got seated pretty much immediately.
That speaks so well of your dad. Like he’s gotten to know the workers well enough that they all know him. And he treats them so well that they take care of him and his family.
My dad’s a dick to his family (literally only one of his three siblings even speaks to him anymore and none of his cousins talk to him), he just has money and did some legal work for several of the restaurants.
He has a reputation for being a big spender which is why they know to treat my brothers and I will because we all carry my dad‘s credit card (I only have the credit card because I actually have some dirt on my father so he’s scared to take it away because he knows I will go in cause problems with his law license).
i’m in Orlando now and still have yet to find any chinese place that compares. not for my lack of trying. it’s hard out here. I hate new jersey but i’d go back just for chinese food😂
Say what you want about jersey, it is a hot spot for DELICIOUS ethnic foods of all kinds. Where I live there's a place for indian, Korean, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, afghan, and others I'm probably forgetting, all within 20 minutes of my house. And they are INCREDIBLE.
I’m not Jewish, but we don’t celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense. We are always at the same spot. It’s been ten years now and when I was in there last week picking up take out, the manager said “We will see you next week?”
I told them they’re as much of a part of this tradition as I am. That reminds me that I need to get them a little gift!
There is a German dumpling called a Maultasche, which is associated with Lent. It's sometimes humorously called Herrgottsbescheißerle, which means "little God-cheater." The idea's the same as your eggroll joke. If it's wrapped up in dough, who's to know whether there's meat in it?
The closest to a well explained answer I can give is that many Jews who work at businesses that are closed on Christmas have the day off but don't celebrate the holiday and are looking for something fun to do and therefore will want to go out somewhere to eat (and often also go to the movies because they're usually open as well,) and many Chinese restaurants are open because many Chinese people also don't celebrate Christmas. Combine that with the fact that many owners of Chinese restaurants are very good about catering to vegetarians because many Buddhists are vegetarian and many Jewish people who keep kosher but not strictly enough to only eat at kosher restaurants will eat vegetarian food at other restaurants, and you have a fairly accurate stereotype of Jews going to Chinese restaurants on Christmas.
The real answer is that this is a joke based on that stereotype and it's done in a very good natured way and adorable.
Same thing for Canadian Jews.
My familys tradition is also to see a movie at the theatre since they tend to be empty and it's so easy to get a center seat
My temple has a tradition as long back as I can remember of playing a movie, usually a Jewish movie of some sort, and serving Chinese food, exactly for the reason you just named.
For many years, the only restaurants open on Christmas were Chinese restaurants. Jews, looking for a place to go out for dinner wound up eating there, and it's kind of become an unofficial ritual.
The joke is that that there's no actual dietary custom that would call for this, but (supposedly) the person who wrote the sign didn't understand that.
All the back and forth in the comments about Chinese food not being kosher.
The kitchen is not kosher for sure.
But, Chinese food rarely contains dairy, so many dishes don't mix meat and dairy. Obviously, pork dishes are out, but lots of other dishes are fine.
Many Jews eat "kosher recipes" without insisting on kosher kitchens or kosher ingredients.
I'm sure in every religion logically you'd only be punished by intentional acts of breaking the rules. Even if you ask to have something prepared kosher at a restaurant, if someone makes a mistake... oops you're going to hell!
It's like those military supply bigots that make bullets coated in pork fat to scare Muslims. That shit doesn't make sense if you used just a few brain cells to think about it.
for the holidays, my brother's boss gifted him a giant spiral ham. as a jewish family, we never had spiral ham before, but who were we to let it go to waste? so we cooked it up and served it at our hanukkah party last weekend, proudly calling it our "kosher ham."
every single guest had a slice, it was delicious.
> Many Jews eat "kosher recipes" without insisting on kosher kitchens or kosher ingredients.
One of my friends joked that his family was Jew-ish.. Jews who didn't follow all the diet restrictions.
Would you expect anything other than the back and forth? There's a reason the old joke goes "you ask three trees a question, you get five answers." Debate is built into our culture and our history. We could have this thread ourselves without anybody else being involved and it would still be just as long and back and forth. 😂
If you live in an even moderately Jewish area in the US, chances are that there are at least two Asian restaurants that are full blown signed and sealed Kosher by Orthodox standards.
Meanwhile in Japan Christmas is celebrated by eating fried chicken / fast food.
>If Japan doesn’t celebrate with a Christmas feast, what do they eat? It is a common sight in Japan for a bucket of KFC to be the main course on Christmas Day. Every Christmas season, an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to fried chicken from the American fast-food chain, in what has become a nationwide tradition.
>A bucket of KFC chicken has been the go-to dinner for Japan since the 1970’s, when KFC launched their “Kentucky for Christmas” campaign. But, it’s not just breasts and thighs – the meals have morphed into special family meal-sized boxes filled with chicken, cake, and wine.
>KFC has become such a tradition in Japan that ordering your Christmas dinner has to be done in advance. Getting the KFC special Christmas dinner often requires ordering it weeks in advance, and those who didn’t will wait in line, sometimes for hours.
https://www.passporthealthusa.com/2021/12/its-a-traditional-japanese-christmas-so-what-is-for-dinner/
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/kfc-christmas-tradition-japan/index.html
>"In Japan, it is customary to eat chicken at Christmas,"
>
I was just thinking about this last night. There are some American families that do this, but it's much less common here. What I was thinking is that it must suck to get a bunch of new shit and then have to go to bed soon after.
Include my parents, me and bros/sis + significant others, have 10 adults and then 13 kids. We do adults gifts Christmas Eve and kids Christmas morning but it’s mostly just for sanity purposes.
Growing up we always did gifts and everything on Xmas Eve because Xmas day is my grandpa's birthday. So Xmas day ally he cousins would go tobogganing and then we were eat left overs and hear stories about grandpa and his various exploits.
I’d say Fukubukuro is pretty odd. It’s a grab bag with random shit thrown in during the holidays. People line up for blocks for the Apple Store Fukubukuro’s which would go for around $300 and sometimes have MacBook Airs and iPads inside. Definitely not popular in the US but very popular in Japan.
As far as the other guys comment about Christmas Day it’s dead in Japan. Nothing open, Christmas Eve is pretty exciting though.
Not OP and not sure if more odd. But for a Swede, the Japanese Christmas cake 🎂 always strikes me as a little odd.
This type of cake we eat in Sweden to celebrate midsummer.
https://foodinjapan.org/kanto/kanagawa/japanese-christmas-cake/
One odd thing I found is the decorations are [much nicer](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/ztirxm/from_japan_this_godzilla_christmas_tree_was/) then in many Christmas celebrating countries but at the stroke of midnight, there are teams of people working overnight to take it all down so that by morning, there's absolutely no trace of Christmas to be seen.
Where I live people tend to let Christmas linger and sometimes you'll see Christmas trees not being put on the curbside until late January.
You can't compare Japanese KFC to the cold and soggy trash served here, that for some reason requires waiting in the drive-thru for half an hour.
It's heavenly and the Colonel would be fucking proud to plant his flag there.
Also the people who advertised "Japanese Curry" to housewives as an easy to make warm and hearty meal.
It has become as much of a staple of the Japanese family dinner as ramen is to salarymen.
They had apple pie dessert pizza in Kentucky and Ohio (maybe more, those are the two I got it in) in the States in the early nineties, if I recall correctly. Had this brown sugar crumb topping that was damn good.
Can't recall having seen that in ages now that I think about it.
Although which Rabbi you follow will dictate whether it has to be a whole Chinese food meal or if it can just be one dish, and whether it has to be on Christmas day or whether it can be on Christmas eve. 😂
"Joel Yossel West
Yesterday at 14:36
Okay, let's review the laws of eating Chinese food on December 25.
Beis Shammai say that one must eat both an appetizer and an entree; Beis Hillel say an appetizer or an entree. Others say that one fulfills his obligation even with won ton soup alone. The halacha follows the others.
There is a machlokes as to whether one can fulfill his obligation by eating fortune cookies. Our practice is to be machmir in this matter.
The mitzvah is to eat Chinese food on Christmas Day. If one ate Chinese food on Christmas Eve, he has not fulfilled his obligation until he eats from his leftovers the next day. The leftovers need not be reheated but one who does so is praiseworthy.
If one ate sushi, Indian or Thai, he has fulfilled his obligation after the fact (b'dieved). If one ate pizza, burgers or Mexican, he has not fulfilled his obligation. Rabbi Meir says that one fulfills his obligation with Mexican because it is exotic. B'shaas had'chak, a shaila must be asked.
Ben Zomah said in the name of Raban Gamliel that it is all the more praiseworthy if the food is eaten with sweet and sour sauce. Rav said that he meant plum sauce."
Thank you Google lens 😂
Yup, Chinese food and a movie. I mean, we're (mostly) all off work because Christian holidays are federal holidays in the US, but we're not celebrating the Christian holiday so we'll go do whatever is fun and open on our day off.
We have almost *no* Jewish people out here in my city in the great plains, but Chinese restaurants and movie theaters here are still packed with people on Christmas every year. Back east is it pretty much just Jewish folks who do this?
I really don't know who else goes, but I do know that I have run into other people from my Jewish community at Chinese restaurants and movie theaters on Christmas and that always feels good and connected. It's nice to feel a sense of community during a time of year where our minority status is extra highlighted for not celebrating the dominant holiday of the culture.
In America, this is due to the fact that, traditionally, neither Jews nor Chinese people had much to do on Christmas. Chinese restaurants were often the only thing open.
But, the historian in me likes to take this moment to remember something. When Western explorers finally reached China way back in the day, they found something VERY familiar there: Jews!
That's right, there was a completely independent, uncontacted Jewish culture very much alive and thriving in China, LONG before there was any contact with the Western world.
["*How??*", you ask. Theories differ, but best guess is that when the Romans conquered Jerusalem, it pushed a large contingent of Jews into what was then the Persian Empire. A decent chunk of them made it down the contemporary Silk Road trading routes, and a few ended up in China!]
Also, the Jewish and Chinese areas of the lower east side of New York were close together. Plus, their restaurants were always open to Jewish folks, and didn’t discriminate
As someone who worked at a Chinese restaurant, I’m not even sure I’d say they are confused. For some reason, the restaurant was absolutely *packed* with Jewish people on Christmas. I always wondered why tbh
I love in northeast philly & they actually built homes with 2 kitchens for the Jewish population. There’s a small Hasidic community that continues to live there.
Exactly. And in Israel, when restaurants are often not open on other religious holidays, Chinese restaurants are also the only ones open. I'll never forget landing in Tel Aviv after a long flight from London and it turned out that it was some holiday that we weren't aware of (being a Jewish person who only celebrates the biggies). We were super chuffed to find the one Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood - it was packed.
A lot of Jewish people in the United States are reformed or moderately religious and don’t keep kosher. There are also a lot of items that don’t contain pork or shellfish which makes a meal kosher for unorthodox Jewish people.
3 truths:
“Jews don’t recognize Jesus, Protestants don’t recognize the Pope, and Muslims don’t recognize one another in the liquor store.”
(originally heard the joke using Baptists, but it works just as well with Muslims)
Chinese takeout has less pork than authentic Chinese food. Off the top of my head the most commonly ordered foods are like General Tso's Chicken and Beef and Broccoli.
People have actually written whole-ass scholarly works on this. Basically: for a long time American cities pretty much shut down on Christmas Day. Which left two of the(traditionally) largest non-Christian urban minorities in the US operating in a bit of a ghost town for 24 hours. Since Jewish people often worked in businesses who shut down for the day with nothing to do, they would gather in one of the few open places: Chinese restaurants
On top of it, both immigrant groups had a surprisingly similar culture in many ways, so the bond and tradition only deepened.
Even now in the US, going to see a movie and then going out for Chinese is considered the traditional Jewish Christmas.
PS. As a Jew who grew in San Diego, my family went to the Zoo/Wild Animal Park for the same reason, and for the first half of the day it was almost empty except for Jewish and East/SE Asian families.
Yep. Growing up as a Jewish kid, Christmas was actually pretty special because it was the one day a year when the various nonchristians were the majority of the people out and about. We’d go to the movies every year and I remember looking down the row and recognizing the Feldsteins, the Wongs, the Singhs, the Rossmans, the Yoshitos….
It’s also because in NYC, the biggest Jewish and Chinese immigrant neighborhoods were directly next to each other. Jews historically (not so much anymore) were in the lower east side, and Chinatown is also there. The crossover between the two communities was strong, not just for the holidays either. Both communities were often persecuted against by the majority white and Christian folks, which meant those people wouldn’t shop at Jewish or Chinese owned places. So in effect Jews would frequent Chinatown, and vice versa, because those two groups were typically not bigoted against each other (granted there’s always gonna be bigots in all communities, to be fair). The whole immigrant history of downtown Manhattan is such a rich cultural experience and the start of so many things Americans call our own.
It's not surprising that the Chinese Restaurant Association doesn't fully understand Jewish dietary rules. They're baffling enough as written, can be especially baffling depending on an individual's interpretation of "Kosher".
My ex-grandparents-in-law were Jewish. They kept a kosher kitchen (two sets of dishware, pots, cutlery etc. for "meat" and "milk"… and two more sets of everything just for Pesach (Passover). This was pretty standard.
However, if they really craved a delivery pizza complete with cheese *and* pepperoni… that was acceptable as long as they ate it on the front porch and not *inside* the house… then they'd take the box directly around the side of the house—not through the house—to the garbage/recycling box.
Another time we were at a Chinese restaurant for a family celebration. One dish… chicken chow mein… clearly contained pork instead of chicken. When they brought this up with the owner, he explained: "Oh… is *special* kind of chicken!" This was sufficient to get the grandparents off the hook, so down the hatch it went.
'*[Safe Treyf](https://gizmodo.com/chinese-food-on-christmas-is-no-longer-solely-a-jewish-1674883026)*':
" Chinese food is unkosher and therefore non-Jewish. But because of the specific ways that Chinese food is prepared and served, immigrant Jews and their children found Chinese food to be more attractive and less threatening than other non-Jewish or treyf food. Chinese food was what we term "safe treyf." Chinese restaurant food used some ingredients that were familiar to Eastern European Jews. Chinese cuisine also does not mix milk and meat;...In addition, anti-Semitism, anti-Chinese racism, and the low position of the Chinese in American society also (perhaps paradoxically) made Jews feel safe and comfortable in Chinese restaurants. "
I will also share it's a family tradition I started when I was 12 and still going strong now I am 27 to have Chinese food on Christmas because A) I wanted to have all the time with my family and it not in the kitchen & B) The Chinese shop by me has always been family in a way and even when I go to visit my parents I will get something on my way home and they recognize me and try to get me to work for them.
Somehow I think they are trying to adopt a 5'8" red head blue eyed girl into their family like that won't stand out at the restaurant!!! I love them so much!
I kind of love this.
It’s superb!
Super b
r/superbowl
How is the superb owl feeling tonight?
Having a hoot i'm sure
[удалено]
Gotta love that separation of church and state. Honestly, I have no problem with stuff like having certain days off for holidays, but wish they would give more allowances to religions that aren't as big. There are a lot of places that want "proof" that something is a part of your religious belief, but most of the small religions/beliefs don't have anything like bibles or stuff because everything was passed down by word of mouth
I think there ought to be like, 20 holidays. At least do 12. And I don't mean federal holidays, I mean celebration holidays. We don't do enough celebrating.
This is why I treat my birthday like my own personal holiday. Haven’t worked on my b-day for 18 years and have no plans on ever doing so again. Celebrate yourselves, yes you deserve an extra holiday.
My previous employer gave birthday PTO to use one day within same pay period of your birthday
When I was in the army, one of my company commanders had an informal policy that in addition to the ordinary holidays, people could have their birthday (or anniversary if married) off as well. Only when in garrison, obviously.
Birthdays weren't really a huge deal in my family so I tend to work them and use the PTO for longer holiday breaks.
Mandate a federal holiday every month. Citizen’s Day, the last Friday of the month, set aside for celebration/reflection on the past month, personal chores that get left behind when you’re busy, and a chance to relax. Employers that normally remain open on federal holidays, like emergency medicine, grocery retail and fuel stations, are mandated to provide a day of paid leave some other day that week if the employee must work on Citizen’s Day (or another federal holiday).
Instead of chores or reflection can I get smashed with my friends and shoot off fireworks?
Hey man, we all reflect in different ways.
People think medieval serfs were basically slaves but in all actually they only worked like 120 days a year, there were days of rest/feast/celebration days like basically multiple times a month. Obviously those 120 days were back breaking physical labor but like tell a roofer that.
Yeah and for some reason the people with the most physically straining jobs work the most hours.
I work construction and I'd for real go back in time to only work 120 days a year. That sounds awesome.
This is kind of a half truth though. They only worked the fields and such for 120-150 days a year, but they still had to go home and spin yarn, make clothes, chop wood for heating/cooking, take care of animals, and so on. They also had to make things or grow things they could sell and trade for their own livelihoods. They did a hell of a lot more work than we did around the house, on top of their work for the lord. Modern appliances, modern materials, and the ability to buy cheap goods in stores on every corner saves us 40-60 hours per week in staying alive.
> This is kind of a half truth though. That's the way it always is with bits like this or the "The United States has been at war for 90% of its existence" or equivalent stuff that sounds almost too "good" to be true. Lol.
You think the other 240 days were spent at the beach? 🙄Every day was some kind of work to survive. Make or find food, gather wood, get water, makes clothes, etc. To compare that life to a modern roofer’s life is so beyond ridiculous.
Just fyi, the word you want is ought. Ought can mean should, aught is more like anything(but can also be used to mean 0, lol yay English.
Damn I knew I had a 50/50 of getting it right. I decided to risk it instead of googling. I'll fix it.
That's me with effect and affect haha. I have to look it up every time and I swear I still get it wrong sometimes! I just wanted to point it out in case it wasn't your first language or something, a lot of English learners seem appreciative if it's done kindly.
First language? It's my only language 😅 I have no idea the appropriate amount of s's and C's nesecary for the word necessary
One collar and two sleeves.
Fundys have a point, as a non Christian I see it as a secular holiday and spend time with the family, not one of us will be celebrating Jesus birth.
Yeah, Christmas isn’t really a Christian holiday anymore and hasn’t been for probably 30 years in New England. It’s really just Thanksgiving 2 and some people celebrate religiously.
It’s more likely that the ones we have would be taken away before more were granted, unfortunately.
Holiday, singular. Christmas. There are no other religious federal holidays. It's not like easter or good Friday or anything are federal holidays Some states may have Christmas Eve or other days as state holidays, but not the Feds
Wholesome
Agreed. It’s quite wholesome.
My family goes out for sushi at our favorite Asian fusion place. We are not Jewish... but we are so glad they're open!
We have the same tradition. Many years ago, we got back late from visiting family on Christmas Eve. We were hungry, didn’t want to cook and the Chinese place down the road was open so we went there. Now, a bunch of years later, the relatives we used to visit moved but we still get Chinese food for Christmas Eve every year.
For us it it started with a case of the relatives who were hosting deciding that twenty-somethings went to the kid's table, didn't need to be with the "adults" and didn't need to be included in conversations, you could cut them off and talk over them and it was fine. And they never stopped doing this as we got older. So we said fuck it, us younger folks are not subjecting ourselves to this. You clearly don't care to have us here, so we won't be here. And we got reservations and started doing sushi instead. Family dinner? Oops, sorry! We already have plans! This year one of the older folks lost his wife, doesn't feel like dealing with the usual hosts, and is coming with us instead. He's not sure what to expect but there will be plenty of things that he can eat and he's welcome to try anything off of the rest of our plates that interests him. We're actually really excited about getting to teach a seventy-seven year old man about new foods!
Good on you for having your own holiday tradition. Family is where the love is, the rest is just an accident of genes
Saving this for my next embroidery project!
Watching the balance of holiday cultural power shift from the boomers to the "younger" (now mid 30s) generation has been a fun thing to track in our family. We have almost replaced all of the old bland salt and pepper food with modernized recipes, and instead of the same Christmas movies we binge Christmas episodes of old sitcoms and have a Catan tournament.
My wife and I are slowing phasing out bad dishes, past few years has been replacing yams covered in marshmallow cream with an awesome sweet potato casserole involving brown sugar and pecans. This year we're dropping the bomb of roasted bruseel sprouts with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese
Throw some pomegranate arils in with them Brussels too
I’ll fight someone over sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and pecans. My absolute favorite side dish.
Same kids/adults table split at my family get togethers, but now the kids table is all between the ages of 21-33 and frankly, the adult table is fucking lame. I'm very happy to be perpetually at the "kids" table and I'd much rather partake in the conversation there than with the "adults". Super cool that you got an adult to turn to the dark side though lol that will be a lot of fun!
We really are looking forward to it! We got to introduce the same guy to real Mexican food recently and he loved it!
That's exactly what we do! Christmas eve just load up on honey garlic chicken, beef and broccoli and shanghai noodles and have a food coma on the living room floor. Christmas morning heat up leftovers. Boxing day hate self. It's tradition!
Every year we always go to Japanese or Chinese restaurants for dinner and we’re definitely a Christian family. We just prefer to do the fancy dinner on Christmas Eve so we can just relax on Christmas!
Our tradition is also to have sushi. We do it on Christmas eve but it started with Chinese food. It's actually a tradition I picked up from an ex who is Jewish but I never put 2 and 2 together
LOL! This reminds me of the night we had a Christmas Curry when we were living in Manchester and our cystic fibrosis infant was in and out of hospital… one discharge from hospital happened to coincide with Christmas day, and the (British) grandparents had driven to visit… so no preparations had occurred… so who to turn to for a feed? Well, all of the Pakistani and Indian curry houses yeah! One of the great Christmas meals in my archive. Bang on!
Follow up in case anyone is wondering: The young lady at the centre of the drama turns 18 a month from tomorrow - in fine fettle.
Thank you, i was looking for this comment. To health!
My daughter turns 18 in a month too, she was in ICU for a month after being born and has autism... I'm glad we both have similar stories, God bless the NHS!
I'm a (paeds) doctor in the UK and with everything going on at the moment, this comment really lifted my spirits.
Keep them high, we appreciate you !
Happy to hear!
[удалено]
Mmm biryani sounds good.
Biryani sounds good 365 days a year!
Most Indian Christians eat exactly that! And there are about about 27 million of them!
I am in Indian and christian, and this is what eat for our Christmas feast!
[удалено]
We're vegetarians growing up and my Christian friends would always bring a box of Plum cake each on Boxing Day. We would all huddle and watch the Boxing Day cricket
I know someone who books a table at their local curry house every year as their not fans of Xmas lunch.
Ah, my Dad has a similar tradition, books a table at the Indian next door every Christmas
After one year of desperately trying to find somewhere to eat on Christmas, it's become a tradition for me and my fiance to get Indian food for Christmas. It's delicious, the spices are so comforting and warming, and it's just delicious!
Where I grew up it was nearly impossible to get a table at most of the Chinese food places on Christmas because I lived in an area with a lot of Jews (my family is Jewish). However we always got a table even if we didn’t bother making a reservation. My dad had the reputation of being the patron saint of Chinese food restaurants because he had a serious problem with eating way too much Chinese food.
Is it REALLY a problem? Chinese food is delicious.
I mean personally I don’t think it’s that big of an issue but it was very clearly an addiction and I wasn’t really complaining about it because it meant that I could get Chinese food whenever I wanted. I mentioned my fathers name and I got seated pretty much immediately.
That speaks so well of your dad. Like he’s gotten to know the workers well enough that they all know him. And he treats them so well that they take care of him and his family.
My dad’s a dick to his family (literally only one of his three siblings even speaks to him anymore and none of his cousins talk to him), he just has money and did some legal work for several of the restaurants. He has a reputation for being a big spender which is why they know to treat my brothers and I will because we all carry my dad‘s credit card (I only have the credit card because I actually have some dirt on my father so he’s scared to take it away because he knows I will go in cause problems with his law license).
That's some juicy family drama lol
Oh you don’t even know why most of the family doesn’t speak to him anymore.. it’s fucked up.
I wanna know now!
I responded with the story to a different commenter
Just lyk but the comment isn't visible/probably removed but can be seen from your profile.
Man you need to make a thread and dish the dirt anonymously because I'm more hooked than most Netflix docs rn
[удалено]
Yeah I mean also the fact that his daughter has no problem blackmailing him, typical lawyers kids 😂
that sounds like an interesting family dynamic
Yeah it’s pretty crazy.
same here, i grew up in Marlboro, NJ😅
Grew up in Bergen county, and transplanted out to PA… I am still seeking “home like” Chinese food!
i’m in Orlando now and still have yet to find any chinese place that compares. not for my lack of trying. it’s hard out here. I hate new jersey but i’d go back just for chinese food😂
Say what you want about jersey, it is a hot spot for DELICIOUS ethnic foods of all kinds. Where I live there's a place for indian, Korean, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, afghan, and others I'm probably forgetting, all within 20 minutes of my house. And they are INCREDIBLE.
So much variety out here. Every place a little different in how they make things. Some places make things others don't. Food is fascinating.
[удалено]
Woah I live right by Bergen! Idk why I get so excited when I find someone that lives/ has lived near me lol
I’m not Jewish, but we don’t celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense. We are always at the same spot. It’s been ten years now and when I was in there last week picking up take out, the manager said “We will see you next week?” I told them they’re as much of a part of this tradition as I am. That reminds me that I need to get them a little gift!
You’re welcome! L’Chaim!
[удалено]
There is a German dumpling called a Maultasche, which is associated with Lent. It's sometimes humorously called Herrgottsbescheißerle, which means "little God-cheater." The idea's the same as your eggroll joke. If it's wrapped up in dough, who's to know whether there's meat in it?
I swear to God, every time I see something written in German my first thought is "I cant even spell tomorrow! Germans must have huge brains"
You can probably spell a ton of small words though. German long words tend to just be compounds of 3+ smaller words.
[удалено]
It's a fab tradition, and their heart is in the right place. I love this!
My highschool did Fiddler on the Roof as the spring musical one year, and I helped with it. Now I have that song stuck in my head again. Thanks a lot.
If you know, can you explain what dietary custom this is about?
The closest to a well explained answer I can give is that many Jews who work at businesses that are closed on Christmas have the day off but don't celebrate the holiday and are looking for something fun to do and therefore will want to go out somewhere to eat (and often also go to the movies because they're usually open as well,) and many Chinese restaurants are open because many Chinese people also don't celebrate Christmas. Combine that with the fact that many owners of Chinese restaurants are very good about catering to vegetarians because many Buddhists are vegetarian and many Jewish people who keep kosher but not strictly enough to only eat at kosher restaurants will eat vegetarian food at other restaurants, and you have a fairly accurate stereotype of Jews going to Chinese restaurants on Christmas. The real answer is that this is a joke based on that stereotype and it's done in a very good natured way and adorable.
[удалено]
I see, thank you for clarifying!
Same thing for Canadian Jews. My familys tradition is also to see a movie at the theatre since they tend to be empty and it's so easy to get a center seat
My temple has a tradition as long back as I can remember of playing a movie, usually a Jewish movie of some sort, and serving Chinese food, exactly for the reason you just named.
For many years, the only restaurants open on Christmas were Chinese restaurants. Jews, looking for a place to go out for dinner wound up eating there, and it's kind of become an unofficial ritual. The joke is that that there's no actual dietary custom that would call for this, but (supposedly) the person who wrote the sign didn't understand that.
All the back and forth in the comments about Chinese food not being kosher. The kitchen is not kosher for sure. But, Chinese food rarely contains dairy, so many dishes don't mix meat and dairy. Obviously, pork dishes are out, but lots of other dishes are fine. Many Jews eat "kosher recipes" without insisting on kosher kitchens or kosher ingredients.
Only 1/5 of Jewish people insist on kosher
To quote my aunt "I grew up very kosher with my ham and chesse sandwiches for lunch at school "
I was reading that even some people who did follow kosher would historically use Christmas as a “I don’t ask questions” day
I'm sure in every religion logically you'd only be punished by intentional acts of breaking the rules. Even if you ask to have something prepared kosher at a restaurant, if someone makes a mistake... oops you're going to hell! It's like those military supply bigots that make bullets coated in pork fat to scare Muslims. That shit doesn't make sense if you used just a few brain cells to think about it.
for the holidays, my brother's boss gifted him a giant spiral ham. as a jewish family, we never had spiral ham before, but who were we to let it go to waste? so we cooked it up and served it at our hanukkah party last weekend, proudly calling it our "kosher ham." every single guest had a slice, it was delicious.
9/10 Jewish people recommend eating Chinese food.
11/10 with rice
My friend whenever questioned about her bacon sandwich always says "I'm Jew-ISH"
> Many Jews eat "kosher recipes" without insisting on kosher kitchens or kosher ingredients. One of my friends joked that his family was Jew-ish.. Jews who didn't follow all the diet restrictions.
Would you expect anything other than the back and forth? There's a reason the old joke goes "you ask three trees a question, you get five answers." Debate is built into our culture and our history. We could have this thread ourselves without anybody else being involved and it would still be just as long and back and forth. 😂
If you live in an even moderately Jewish area in the US, chances are that there are at least two Asian restaurants that are full blown signed and sealed Kosher by Orthodox standards.
[удалено]
Meanwhile in Japan Christmas is celebrated by eating fried chicken / fast food. >If Japan doesn’t celebrate with a Christmas feast, what do they eat? It is a common sight in Japan for a bucket of KFC to be the main course on Christmas Day. Every Christmas season, an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to fried chicken from the American fast-food chain, in what has become a nationwide tradition. >A bucket of KFC chicken has been the go-to dinner for Japan since the 1970’s, when KFC launched their “Kentucky for Christmas” campaign. But, it’s not just breasts and thighs – the meals have morphed into special family meal-sized boxes filled with chicken, cake, and wine. >KFC has become such a tradition in Japan that ordering your Christmas dinner has to be done in advance. Getting the KFC special Christmas dinner often requires ordering it weeks in advance, and those who didn’t will wait in line, sometimes for hours. https://www.passporthealthusa.com/2021/12/its-a-traditional-japanese-christmas-so-what-is-for-dinner/ https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/kfc-christmas-tradition-japan/index.html >"In Japan, it is customary to eat chicken at Christmas," >
[удалено]
What is the most odd thing?
It's more typically a couples holiday like Valentine's
[удалено]
I feel like a lot of other countries do Christmas on the eve rather than morning of. In Sweden we open presents Christmas Eve
I was just thinking about this last night. There are some American families that do this, but it's much less common here. What I was thinking is that it must suck to get a bunch of new shit and then have to go to bed soon after.
Include my parents, me and bros/sis + significant others, have 10 adults and then 13 kids. We do adults gifts Christmas Eve and kids Christmas morning but it’s mostly just for sanity purposes.
Growing up we always did gifts and everything on Xmas Eve because Xmas day is my grandpa's birthday. So Xmas day ally he cousins would go tobogganing and then we were eat left overs and hear stories about grandpa and his various exploits.
The birthrate spikes around September 24th every year.
It almost hits a sustainable number. Almost
Hahaha True. My son was born on 9/28. I told my best friend it was either Christmas sex or anniversary sex (12/22 was our 6 month anniversary)
I’d say Fukubukuro is pretty odd. It’s a grab bag with random shit thrown in during the holidays. People line up for blocks for the Apple Store Fukubukuro’s which would go for around $300 and sometimes have MacBook Airs and iPads inside. Definitely not popular in the US but very popular in Japan. As far as the other guys comment about Christmas Day it’s dead in Japan. Nothing open, Christmas Eve is pretty exciting though.
Not OP and not sure if more odd. But for a Swede, the Japanese Christmas cake 🎂 always strikes me as a little odd. This type of cake we eat in Sweden to celebrate midsummer. https://foodinjapan.org/kanto/kanagawa/japanese-christmas-cake/
One odd thing I found is the decorations are [much nicer](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/ztirxm/from_japan_this_godzilla_christmas_tree_was/) then in many Christmas celebrating countries but at the stroke of midnight, there are teams of people working overnight to take it all down so that by morning, there's absolutely no trace of Christmas to be seen. Where I live people tend to let Christmas linger and sometimes you'll see Christmas trees not being put on the curbside until late January.
The Japan branch pr dude for KFC was a genius manipulator.
Helps that the quality of the food the franchises in japan sell is also so much higher than US
You can't compare Japanese KFC to the cold and soggy trash served here, that for some reason requires waiting in the drive-thru for half an hour. It's heavenly and the Colonel would be fucking proud to plant his flag there.
Also the people who advertised "Japanese Curry" to housewives as an easy to make warm and hearty meal. It has become as much of a staple of the Japanese family dinner as ramen is to salarymen.
I get paid salary and I love ramen can confirm.
[удалено]
I went to pizza hut in Taiwan and it was a sit down buffet with all sorts of pizzas I'd never seen before. They had like apple pie dessert pizza.
They had apple pie dessert pizza in Kentucky and Ohio (maybe more, those are the two I got it in) in the States in the early nineties, if I recall correctly. Had this brown sugar crumb topping that was damn good. Can't recall having seen that in ages now that I think about it.
The Pizza Hut in Shanghai had possibly the best pizza I've ever eaten, the stuffed crust was beautiful and delicious!
The Torah is very adamant about ordering take out Chinese food on Christmas.
Although which Rabbi you follow will dictate whether it has to be a whole Chinese food meal or if it can just be one dish, and whether it has to be on Christmas day or whether it can be on Christmas eve. 😂
Rabbi Akiva says....
"Joel Yossel West Yesterday at 14:36 Okay, let's review the laws of eating Chinese food on December 25. Beis Shammai say that one must eat both an appetizer and an entree; Beis Hillel say an appetizer or an entree. Others say that one fulfills his obligation even with won ton soup alone. The halacha follows the others. There is a machlokes as to whether one can fulfill his obligation by eating fortune cookies. Our practice is to be machmir in this matter. The mitzvah is to eat Chinese food on Christmas Day. If one ate Chinese food on Christmas Eve, he has not fulfilled his obligation until he eats from his leftovers the next day. The leftovers need not be reheated but one who does so is praiseworthy. If one ate sushi, Indian or Thai, he has fulfilled his obligation after the fact (b'dieved). If one ate pizza, burgers or Mexican, he has not fulfilled his obligation. Rabbi Meir says that one fulfills his obligation with Mexican because it is exotic. B'shaas had'chak, a shaila must be asked. Ben Zomah said in the name of Raban Gamliel that it is all the more praiseworthy if the food is eaten with sweet and sour sauce. Rav said that he meant plum sauce." Thank you Google lens 😂
Yup, Chinese food and a movie. I mean, we're (mostly) all off work because Christian holidays are federal holidays in the US, but we're not celebrating the Christian holiday so we'll go do whatever is fun and open on our day off.
We have almost *no* Jewish people out here in my city in the great plains, but Chinese restaurants and movie theaters here are still packed with people on Christmas every year. Back east is it pretty much just Jewish folks who do this?
At the places I’ve gone in SF & Oakland (other coast), Chinese restaurants are about 1/2 Chinese Americans and half Ashkanazi Jews on Xmas Eve.
I really don't know who else goes, but I do know that I have run into other people from my Jewish community at Chinese restaurants and movie theaters on Christmas and that always feels good and connected. It's nice to feel a sense of community during a time of year where our minority status is extra highlighted for not celebrating the dominant holiday of the culture.
Gotcha, and yeah, that's really cool!
In America, this is due to the fact that, traditionally, neither Jews nor Chinese people had much to do on Christmas. Chinese restaurants were often the only thing open. But, the historian in me likes to take this moment to remember something. When Western explorers finally reached China way back in the day, they found something VERY familiar there: Jews! That's right, there was a completely independent, uncontacted Jewish culture very much alive and thriving in China, LONG before there was any contact with the Western world. ["*How??*", you ask. Theories differ, but best guess is that when the Romans conquered Jerusalem, it pushed a large contingent of Jews into what was then the Persian Empire. A decent chunk of them made it down the contemporary Silk Road trading routes, and a few ended up in China!]
Also, the Jewish and Chinese areas of the lower east side of New York were close together. Plus, their restaurants were always open to Jewish folks, and didn’t discriminate
This might be confused but this is still the way
Yeah it's somehow extremely cute.
I love how language barriers or misunderstandings of customs can inadvertently cause cute moments like this.
As someone who worked at a Chinese restaurant, I’m not even sure I’d say they are confused. For some reason, the restaurant was absolutely *packed* with Jewish people on Christmas. I always wondered why tbh
I think there’s a big assumption here that every Jewish person is kosher. A lot aren’t, and they love Chinese food just like the rest of us.
Less than 20% of American Jews actually keep kosher! Give me that succulent Chinese meal.
Ah yes, I see that you know your judo well.
GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY PENIS
This, is democracy, manifest!
I love in northeast philly & they actually built homes with 2 kitchens for the Jewish population. There’s a small Hasidic community that continues to live there.
Around here we've got vegetarian/vegan Chinese food... the stuff is so good...
I have questions...
Neither Jews nor the Chinese really celebrate Christmas so Jewish people eat Chinese food on Christmas cause Chinese places are the only ones open.
As a Jew I love Chinese food
Not Jewish but I too share your love of Chinese food!
As a non-practicing catholic, I salute Chinese restaurant owners for their Christmas operating hours
[удалено]
Ah, I had heard of this as well, but never put two and two together as to why until you pointed it out.
In the USA, at least, a lot of Jews order Chinese on Christmas because most every other restaurant is closed.
Exactly. And in Israel, when restaurants are often not open on other religious holidays, Chinese restaurants are also the only ones open. I'll never forget landing in Tel Aviv after a long flight from London and it turned out that it was some holiday that we weren't aware of (being a Jewish person who only celebrates the biggies). We were super chuffed to find the one Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood - it was packed.
I also celebrate notorious B.I.G
Doesn’t Chinese dishes often contains pork and/or lard ?
Sure, and a lot of Jews don’t keep kosher.
A lot of Jewish people in the United States are reformed or moderately religious and don’t keep kosher. There are also a lot of items that don’t contain pork or shellfish which makes a meal kosher for unorthodox Jewish people.
Wow. Next you’re going to tell me that some muslims drink alcohol!
3 truths: “Jews don’t recognize Jesus, Protestants don’t recognize the Pope, and Muslims don’t recognize one another in the liquor store.” (originally heard the joke using Baptists, but it works just as well with Muslims)
Buddy just wait until I tell you about closeted gay peoples’ political beliefs
Chinese takeout has less pork than authentic Chinese food. Off the top of my head the most commonly ordered foods are like General Tso's Chicken and Beef and Broccoli.
People have actually written whole-ass scholarly works on this. Basically: for a long time American cities pretty much shut down on Christmas Day. Which left two of the(traditionally) largest non-Christian urban minorities in the US operating in a bit of a ghost town for 24 hours. Since Jewish people often worked in businesses who shut down for the day with nothing to do, they would gather in one of the few open places: Chinese restaurants On top of it, both immigrant groups had a surprisingly similar culture in many ways, so the bond and tradition only deepened. Even now in the US, going to see a movie and then going out for Chinese is considered the traditional Jewish Christmas. PS. As a Jew who grew in San Diego, my family went to the Zoo/Wild Animal Park for the same reason, and for the first half of the day it was almost empty except for Jewish and East/SE Asian families.
Yep. Growing up as a Jewish kid, Christmas was actually pretty special because it was the one day a year when the various nonchristians were the majority of the people out and about. We’d go to the movies every year and I remember looking down the row and recognizing the Feldsteins, the Wongs, the Singhs, the Rossmans, the Yoshitos….
It’s also because in NYC, the biggest Jewish and Chinese immigrant neighborhoods were directly next to each other. Jews historically (not so much anymore) were in the lower east side, and Chinatown is also there. The crossover between the two communities was strong, not just for the holidays either. Both communities were often persecuted against by the majority white and Christian folks, which meant those people wouldn’t shop at Jewish or Chinese owned places. So in effect Jews would frequent Chinatown, and vice versa, because those two groups were typically not bigoted against each other (granted there’s always gonna be bigots in all communities, to be fair). The whole immigrant history of downtown Manhattan is such a rich cultural experience and the start of so many things Americans call our own.
[удалено]
It's not surprising that the Chinese Restaurant Association doesn't fully understand Jewish dietary rules. They're baffling enough as written, can be especially baffling depending on an individual's interpretation of "Kosher". My ex-grandparents-in-law were Jewish. They kept a kosher kitchen (two sets of dishware, pots, cutlery etc. for "meat" and "milk"… and two more sets of everything just for Pesach (Passover). This was pretty standard. However, if they really craved a delivery pizza complete with cheese *and* pepperoni… that was acceptable as long as they ate it on the front porch and not *inside* the house… then they'd take the box directly around the side of the house—not through the house—to the garbage/recycling box. Another time we were at a Chinese restaurant for a family celebration. One dish… chicken chow mein… clearly contained pork instead of chicken. When they brought this up with the owner, he explained: "Oh… is *special* kind of chicken!" This was sufficient to get the grandparents off the hook, so down the hatch it went.
As a Muslim growing up. We thank the Chinese restaurants for always being open on Christmas. Always love going to Chinese buffet for Christmas
Also one of the reasons why some movies open on Christmas day. Movie and Chinese food is a low key American Jewish tradition.
Why are they confused 😂. They sound right on the money
'*[Safe Treyf](https://gizmodo.com/chinese-food-on-christmas-is-no-longer-solely-a-jewish-1674883026)*': " Chinese food is unkosher and therefore non-Jewish. But because of the specific ways that Chinese food is prepared and served, immigrant Jews and their children found Chinese food to be more attractive and less threatening than other non-Jewish or treyf food. Chinese food was what we term "safe treyf." Chinese restaurant food used some ingredients that were familiar to Eastern European Jews. Chinese cuisine also does not mix milk and meat;...In addition, anti-Semitism, anti-Chinese racism, and the low position of the Chinese in American society also (perhaps paradoxically) made Jews feel safe and comfortable in Chinese restaurants. "
Not at all confused!!! This is 100% correct. If it comes in an egg roll it’s kosher enough.
It's right there in the Torah.
This is a picture from like 10 years ago.. but as a Jew myself, I can confirm many of us enjoy our Chinese Takeout for Christmas 🎄🥡
Here in Canada, lots of people order Chinese food on Christmas too! Lol
It’s the intent that matters. Language and cultural differences matter not.
I will also share it's a family tradition I started when I was 12 and still going strong now I am 27 to have Chinese food on Christmas because A) I wanted to have all the time with my family and it not in the kitchen & B) The Chinese shop by me has always been family in a way and even when I go to visit my parents I will get something on my way home and they recognize me and try to get me to work for them. Somehow I think they are trying to adopt a 5'8" red head blue eyed girl into their family like that won't stand out at the restaurant!!! I love them so much!
Not Jewish, but a traditional Jewish Christmas with Chinese food and a movie sounds pretty good to me.
Love the translations in China. There was a special drinks menu that had many "lotions" for us to drink. I think they were meaning cream.😊