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Horse meat
So ! I was curious about the consumption of horse meat in the various regions of Europe. Just like in Judaism and Islam, it used to be forbidden by the catholic Church. As the text above explains, horse meat was on the contrary a highly prized and sacred meal among the ancient Germans, at such a point that the Church came to see it as an obstacle to their conversion.Hippophagy
Between the years 731 and 741 St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, complained to Pope Gregory III. that one of the chief obstacles to his success in converting tho Germans arose from their attachment to the practice of sacrificing horses and Christian priests to idols, the special inducement to offer the former being the partiality of the people for the meat.
He thought that if the horse could be brought into disrepute by a Papal censure it would be of much advantage to his mission. Gregory replied in these terms :—" You say that some eat the wild and very many the domestic horse. This, most holy brother, you must never allow to be done, but, with the assistance of Christ, prevent it by all means, and imposes suitable penance; for it is filthy and execrable."
This prohibition, strong as it was, nevertheless failed in its object; for about ten years later St. Boniface complained to Gregory's successor, Zachary I., that the horse still stopped the way to the complete conversion of the heathen, and his Holiness thereupon added his interdict to that of Gregory.
"Beavers," he said, " hares, and much more the wild horse, are to be avoided." Zachary seems to have taken a curious interest in cooking, for shortly afterwards jays, crows, and storks were forbidden by him; and in a letter to St. Boniface he says, " You ask me how long lard is to be kept before being eaten. The Fathers have ordained nothing on the subject, but the advice I myself give is that it should not be eaten till it has been smoke-dried or boiled over the fire."
In the greater portion of Europe, however, these Papal interferences ultimately were effectual, and gradually, when the prohibition was forgotten, the meat, from being merely considered forbidden on religious grounds, came to bo suspected as unwholesome and uneateable. Moreover, in the middle ages, when animals were generally numerous in proportion to the population, and food was plentiful, necessity did not indicate the advantage of employing the horse and ox otherwise than for those purposes to which they at first sight seemed by nature best adapted—the strong, lean, and active horse for draught, and the fat, sluggish ox for meat. Quite in our own day yet another cause for the aversion to horse-meat may be found in the sentimentalism engendered by the horse himself, which, by inducing many to proclaim him " the friend of man " and " our faithful servant," has invested him with a special protection.
In the far north, however, the sturdy Icelander defied the sovereign Pontiff. Neither the authority of Gregorv, Zachary, nor even the command of the Apostles "to abstain from meat offered to idols, and from blood," to which the missionaries pointed, could prevail against the strong attachment of these people to the customs of their forefathers. They were willing to be Christians, but insisted on remaining hippophagists, and in the year 1000 they triumphantly proclaimed that " all Icelanders should be baptised and adore the same God, continuing to expose babies and eat horseflesh ;" till at length the Popes, considering the case hopeless, yielded, and to this nation alone baptism was accorded with permission to eat the " execrable " food, a permission the Icelanders avail themselves of to the present day.
I was just curious because I noticed that in french Flanders and the rest of northern France (Artois, Hainaut, formerly germanic regions) as well as in belgian Flanders (I don't know about Wallonia), horse meat is some sort of local speciality. There are numerous butcheries dedicated in horse meat : "paardenslagerijen" in Flanders, "boucheries chevalines" in northern France.
But of course, even in my region, it's more of a 'familial' thing. In some families (like mine) they would eat horse steaks every sunday if they could, in others they would never dare to taste.
But still, it's quite common here. On the contrary, all the real french Frenchmen (I mean, ethnic Frenchmen from central France of gallo-roman heritage) I've met seem to abhor the very idea. And I've never heard of horse butcheries in the rest of France other than rare exceptions.
I came to the idea that the consumption of horse meat today might be a germanic thing, an old cultural inheritance, despite the christian taboo, of the ancient custom of eating this meal among the old Germans.
But I'm aware that in England, who also has a significant germanic heritage, it's definitely a taboo. Was the christianization in England much deeper than on the continent ? Are there any other factors ? Or am I just wrong.
Anyway, I'd like to know about your own experiences with horse meat. Do you personnally eat it ? If no, why ? Are you an exception, what's the general rule in your country ? (And of course any theories or explanations are very welcome.)
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), but I would not go so far as to say it's a taboo.
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