Why Strenafoods

On a festive day, the very ancient Romans used to give (vegetal or cereal) gifts to their masters and customers and later on even to their Emperor, for the sake of a good omen.

That present, usually on the occasion of a New Year, already by Plautus (ca. 254-ca. 184 B.C.) was called bona strena, the high-quality or healthy gifts. Domitius Ulpiānus, the famous Roman jurist born of a family long established at Tyre, in Syria, was first banished by the emperor Elagabalus (218–22 C.E.); but freed from the next emperor, Alexander Severus, explained that Strena is a very important Sabine voice and stands for “salute”, or “health” or “life”.

Nowadays the Italians label it Strenna natalizia (the best Christmas present to be placed under a Christmas tree). Strena is Istrina in Sardinian vernacular. Estrena in Spanish. Étrenne in French. Estrenia in Portuguese. In the Biblical tradition, “special gift” (= mattanah) is used, for instance, in Esther 9:22: “as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor”.

But “gift” or “present” can be also an ambiguous word. “Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.” (see Ecclesiastes 7:7); though the better Biblical gift of all is “bread and wine”, which really represent the body and blood of Christ, the Son of God. Strenafoods then stands only for “the best gift” or for “the most meaningful present” which are “foods” for all.