A guy wrote to me yesterday and said that when he spent time in Bavaria he noticed that there was an almost unnatural emphasis put on pork. There were photos of pork, restaurants called Boar's Head, or Pig's Head, celebrations of sausage, etc.
He asked if it could be that this is a leftover from a time of Moorish incursions into Norther Europe. Could it be that the Infidels responded by doing what they believed would piss off the Muslims, and then, over time, as the threat subsided they simply carried on the tradition and forgot how it started?
I don't know history well enough to be able to say whether this may be true, or not. Does anyone else know?
9 comments:
I understand that the Spanish love affair with their dear jamon (ham) is a result of the reconquest.
Could well be.
I wonder if, during the Reconquest, one test was "Will you eat this pork?" I haven't read that such was the case, but I wouldn't be surprised.
MTS,
Thanks.
AOW,
Yeah, that makes sense.
Gotta wonder about Bavaria.
While the Bavarians eat a lot of pork and are excellent at cooking it, I have never seen an inn named after a pig/boar or part of a pig/boar. And I am German and used to live in Bavaria for almost twelve years. That doesn't mean that there are none, but they can't be all that ubiquitous.
And I don't know either what "celebration of sausage" the traveller you are quoting is talking about. There are "celebrations" of beer, for sure. The Oktoberfest comes to mind, which is opened by tapping a barrel of beer, not by munching a pork sausage.
By the way, the justifiedly famous "Weißwürste" (white sausages) are made predominantly from veal, not pork.
And I may be wrong, but as far as I know, the Moors did never invade Bavaria.
You sound a bit like White men in khaki shorts and topee who are watching with eerie fascination the tribal dances of some savages deep in Africa (or wherever).
;-)
Editrix,
It doesn't surprise me that I am wrong on this. I thank you for letting me know.
I just wanted to check.
You're very welcome!
Btw, I have seen worse. One person at an American message board informed the public there in all seriousness that the Germans in the Seventies of the 20th century still believed that "Negroes" had long tails. So your sausage celebrations are not quite that bad.
The coat of arms of the province where i am living is a wild boar.
Luxemburg, Belgium
As I am an immigrant from flanders here, i asked around today for the meaning.
Got to have something to do cause it's the most dangerous game in the woods.
Stands for: speed, courage and ability.
No one really can tell me. Nothing with the Moors.
Boars are mean and dangerous indeed. Due to changed ecological and agricultural circumstances, we have a wild boar pest in most regions in Germany now. In some big cities they are even haunting the suburbs. I am currently building up a small terrier pack for boar hunting. Boars are clever. They let the drivers literally overrun them and keep staying in the undergrowth, but they react to the dogs.
On a more topical note: The predominance of pork in Bavaria has got something to do with agriculture as well. In the rich, moist, flat pastures in the Northern states of Germany you will find more cattle and thus beef on the table. Bavarians can't cook potatoes either, because it's not potato-growing country. Ask for pasta-type of side-dish, or, if you have to have potatoes, for potato dumplings.
Well, there you go. It has nothing to do with the Moors.
In Spain, apparently, it does, however.
Case settled.
Thanks, everyone.
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