December 26th, 2011 by Rachel | | No Comments »
It’s because Chinese restaurants are one of the few restaurants that are opened on Christmas day. Almost every place in America is normally shut down on Christmas day. So, Jews and also Chinese and other ethnic groups who do not celebrate Christmas are left with nothing to do but stay at home or go out to Chinese restaurants and perhaps see a movie as movie theaters are also normally open too. I am not going to deny that my family has been part of this tradition for years! This year, we didn’t do it as we flew to Florida on Christmas day. Airports are also usually always open on Christmas day.
If you watch American television such as Glee’s season 2 Christmas episode, you will often hear sayings, “Oh, so you’re Jewish and you’ll go out for Chinese on Christmas day?” Also, today, on my Facebook, I see a ton of statuses from my Jewish friends saying along the lines, “Out to Chinese restaurant for dinner!”
I also read an interesting article about why Jews love eating Chinese food.
It’s interesting that the article notes that Jews feel so comfortable about going to Chinese restaurants because there is no remembrance of hatred toward the Jews by Christians unlike Italian restaurants where crucifixes, Virgin Mary, and other Christian symbols are sometimes placed on walls. Plus, when Jews go to Chinese restaurants, they feel like they’re going to a museum and broadening their horizons as they see exotic decorations and a whole different type of cuisine. The best part of the article is that it says that Jews can eat pork with little issues at Chinese restaurants because pork is hidden inside the food such as egg rolls. Are you aware of “kosher?”