Ham on Easter? An Interesting Tradition.

[TlalocW]

6. During the Inquisition

It was a good idea to have your Easter ham hanging outside your door so Inquisition officials or even your own neighbor didn't turn you in for being suspected of being a Jew.

Also, supposedly, this is where we get the phrases, "A pig in a poke," and "Letting the cat out of the bag."

When the south of Spain was under Muslim rule, ham was of course verboten so there was a black market for it. A poke was a type of sack big enough to hold a small pig. Of course, you never knew who was around, even in secluded places so you bought the pig sight unseen, which is what the phrase refers to now - buying something sight unseen or without proof it is what it is. Unscrupulous sellers would sometimes put a cat in the bag instead of a pig, make the sale, then scram. Once the seller opened the poke, the (unfortunate in this case) secret was revealed, and that's how the term letting the cat out of the bag came to be.

TlalocW