The end-of-the-year holidays in 2021 are likely to be memorable in counting the pandemic from an entire generation.
After a long season of confinement, spikes in contagion, vaccination and uncertainty about the course of the pandemic and social reactivation, these end-of-year festivities take a different tint in relation to the festivities.
The pandemic has been a great lesson for many of us in the human condition. Specifically, the dimensions of sociability and maintaining social ties were more apparent to many of us. The need for sharing, meeting and recreation around food, went from being considered by many as something banal, to something fundamental in matters of mental health and well-being in general.
Last year there was a common consensus based on the restrictions: in many countries of the world it was recommended not to meet even as a family, not to travel and even cancel the celebrations. This year, despite the threat of the omicron variant, the festivities took a different tint, partly because of vaccination, and also because of a fundamental fact: there is no evil that lasts 100 years or a body that resists it. In many instances, after vaccination we try to rejoin our activities with the appropriate care, but in the general population there is a reluctance towards confinement restrictions.
Food preparations for these holidays also suffered the ravages of the pandemic: with the global crisis in logistics and production, many of the ingredients of Christmas dinners suffered the effects of inflation and many others those of shortages. As part of marketing campaigns, some products in the United States even offered economic rewards to consumers so that, for example, they would choose to prepare a dessert other than cheesecake, whose cream cheese is scarce. This is a sign of how even food sales strategies have had to change in the wake of the pandemic.
The omicron threat has already changed the plans of different government instances: in England they have canceled public celebrations and in the United States the authorities have issued serious warning messages about the danger of omicron for people who have not yet been vaccinated.
Although the celebrations and massive events were reactivated in the middle of the year, the celebration of Christmas is much more symbolic and transcendental for a large part of the population of the West. Christmas is one of the few holidays of Christian – religious origin that over time became a civil tradition, regardless of the creed that is professed.
The human condition and need to celebrate through food, in addition to the above functions, is also symbolic because it marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Although in these cases, only the end of a period is marked in the Gregorian calendar and not necessarily the end of a pandemic, people have the need to mark beginnings and ends, although in this case they are essentially symbolic, probably because of the uncertainty people need to get back to the essential basics of humanity to keep going through tough times. To all the followers of this column, I wish you that these holidays regain the strength and hope necessary to be resilient in the period that comes.
rrg
Food and society columnist
POINT AND HOW
Food and society columnist. Gastronaut, observant and foodie. She is a researcher in the sociology of food, and a nutritionist. She is president and founder of Funalid: Foundation for Food and Development.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx