Religion
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If you're looking for a new low-fat, low-sugar, low-salt snack, why not consider Remnants of Hosts? Yes, that's 'hosts' as in "Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate." These replica communion wafers have been a Quebec snack-time tradition, and a thorn in the side of conservative Catholic leaders, since the mid-1980s. Disrespectful, maybe, but apparently quite popular as the two companies producing these altar bread scraps churn out two million bags per year.
Original article in French: http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/lepicerie/niveau2_5435.shtml
Crappy Google translation: http://goo.gl/IklmO
dimbear
(6,271 posts)That's what this leaves traditionalists.
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)pardon the pun...
oldhippydude
(2,514 posts)what pun?
Goblinmonger
(22,340 posts)so why do the Catholics have their undies in a bunch?
salvorhardin
(9,995 posts)They quote Fracois Trudel, a sales manager at a company that produces actual communion wafers, who says, that some religious communities feel that Remnants of Hosts contributes to the eroding of respect for the Eucharist. Maybe they just feel that their religious tradition is being mocked, rather than the snack food being an outright sacrilege.
I'm not trying to justify it; I'm just trying to understand his thinking.
BiggJawn
(23,051 posts)Been a while since he's abused a Magic Cracker...
Durn thing's nothing but hardtack.
longship
(40,416 posts)and Bill Donahue!
salvorhardin
(9,995 posts)I found this article which originally appeared in The Globe and Mail which explains, to me anyway, how this came about in Quebec:
Link: http://www.dailygrail.com/blogs/Paul-Collins/2006/1/Communion-Wafers-sold-diet-snack-food-Quebeckers-find-nostalgia-Host-Piece
I bet this evolved from monasteries giving leftover unblessed bread to the poor. As Catholicism lost its hold on Quebec citizens, it was only natural for those monasteries to start selling it. Add in a dash of nostalgia, shifting health concerns, and good ol' capitalistic entrepreneurship and suddenly it becomes a snack food. Utterly fascinating.