Holidays and Festivals

Just as Australian cooking is a combination of tradition and experiment, holidays in Australia bring together new and old customs. Before the arrival of Europeans, Australia’s aborigines had their own set of beliefs and rituals. Later, most of the British colonists and settlers were Christian, and the majority of modern-day Australians follow one of the branches of Christianity. For them, Christmas, on December 25, is one of the year’s biggest holidays. Because Australia lies in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas falls right in the middle of summer. Kids are on a six-week vacation, the beaches are packed, and many people are busy shopping for holiday gifts and making preparations. Although some families have Christmas trees, wintry decorations such as pine boughs and holly are often replaced by native Australian plants. Christmas bells, a
brightly colored flower with bell-shaped blossoms, and branches of the Christmas bush, a flowering tree, adorn many Australian homes.

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The Careful Cook

Whenever you cook, thee are certain safety rules you must always keep in mind. Even experienced cooks follow these rules when they are in the kitchen.
• Always wash your hands before handling food. Thoroughly wash all raw vegetables and fruits to remove dirt, chemicals, and insecticides. Wash uncooked poultry, fish, and meat under cold water.
• Use a cutting board when cutting up vegetables and fruits. Don’t cut them up in your hand! And be sure to cut in a direction away from you and your fingers.

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The Food
The aborigines were experts at using the fresh, natural foods of their native land. Fruits, seeds, nuts, vegetables, and flower nectars all had their places on aboriginal menus, alongside seafood, meat such as
kangaroo or possum, and various insects. Later, rural Australians—who were known as bushmen because
they lived in the Australian wilderness, which is also known as the outback or the bush—ate hearty, simple food that they called “tucker.” Bushmen usually carried a tucker bag containing some flour, from which they made a simple bread called damper. Though damper was nothing but a flour-and-water dough cooked on a
stick held over the campfire or baked in the ashes, to hungry bushmen, it was delicious.

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The History
Place names such as Meekatharra, Innamincka, Oodnadatta, and Wagga Wagga dot the Australian map. These colorful names were used by the aborigines, nomadic people who have inhabited Australia for at least forty thousand years. An important part of the aborigines’ culture is the idea of the Dreamtime. Aborigines believe that the first beings on earth lived during the Dreamtime. According to aboriginal legends, these first inhabitants were spirits who created natural wonders such as fire, rain, and land formations. The Dreamtime spirits told tales that guided daily life, from fishing and hunting to finding shelter. From these stories, the aborigines learned how to live in Australia’s environment, which was very dry and sometimes harsh. Modern Australian history dates to January 1788, when Europeans first landed just north of Botany Bay—later named Sydney Harbor. At that time, Britain imprisoned many people for fairly minor crimes, such as being unable to pay debts. As a result, British prisons were badly overcrowded. To solve the problem, the British government created a colony in Australia. About seven hundred prisoners and two hundred British soldiers—some with wives and children—established the first European settlement in what became the city of Sydney. Read the rest of this entry »

The Land
Australia, the world’s biggest island and smallest continent, is called “down under” because it lies entirely within the Southern Hemisphere—south of the equator. Australia also includes the island of Tasmania, which lies south of Melbourne. The waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans lap Australia’s shores. The island of New Guinea lies to the north, and New Zealand is to the southeast. Australia is part of the group of countries called the Pacific Rim.

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