Seafood is both the cuisine at celebrations and the theme of celebrations; as are many foods that we hold in high regard. Across the seaboards of this planet, people celebrate the bountiful harvest of the sea. They feast annually on crabs, oysters, salmon, cod, lobster, and the like in celebration of their good fortune to being human and not a lobster. They feast and drink and are merry; taking what the seas have offered for their feast and combine this with music, wine, and art. Life is good; seafood sometimes is even better.

Also, seafood is used in celebration of art. Poetic lines have been penned about oysters, clams, and the creatures that lurk in the dark depths of mysterious seas. Paintings, photographs, and sculptures try to capture the essence of seashores and the life that is found there. Some of the most realistic painters focus on the inter-tidal seascapes and are an educational enlightenment of what creatures inhabit the tide pools of our shores. Modernistic TV series capture the desperation of fishermen and women who struggle, sometimes with their lives, to bring to shore their bounty. Seafood touches the lives of multitudes of ordinary people who, in celebration, honor those who brave our oceans so that we may feast. A chef friend once told me that “food is love.” Not an original statement, I’m sure, but a fitting example of why we celebrate our most joyful and sorrowful times with food.

I encourage you to join the celebration of seafood and other festivities that support the harvest of our sustenance. Look around your area during different times of the year. You are bound to find Oktoberfest and Harvest festivals in late summer and fall; while corn, strawberry, peach, mushroom, watermelon, seafood, and a variety of other food festivals are spread over the entire year. We celebrate food in the same way that we celebrate a new birth – with love. Unfortunately, I did not find an “all encompassing” list to all of the seafood and other food festivals that are celebrated (maybe I will make that my next project), but it is easy to research your area to see what is going on during certain seasons. Go! Have fun! And celebrate the good fortune that you are human… and not a lobster.

Bon Appétit!