Pastafarianism, aka Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, is a monotheistic worldview founded in 2005 by American physics graduate and self-described ‘concerned citizen’, 25-year-old Bobby Henderson, who wrote and posted an open letter to the Kansas School Board on his website and shortly afterwards established the online Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The letter reads as a satire of the Kansas School Board’s decision to include the teaching of Intelligent Design alongside the Theory of Evolution in science subjects in the curriculum of its public schools. Pastafarianism has received some official recognition as a religion, e.g. Pastafarians have been allowed to wear colanders on their heads in ID photos (e.g. driver’s licences) as religious headgear in Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, New Zealand and in some US states. However, in 2021 an application for formal recognition of Pastafarianism as a religion was rejected by a South Australian legal authority on the grounds that it was a ‘hoax’ with ‘some surprising articulations […] many expressed in racist and sexist terms’. Self-proclaimed prophet Bobby Henderson published the tenets of Pastafarianism, evidently modelled on the Christian Bible, on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster website and in a 2006 book The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Pastafarianism took off quickly and today may have tens of thousands of followers, located mainly in North America, western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. According to Pastafarian doctrine, our imperfect universe was created by the FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster) aka Quob while drunk. Quob is a genderless supernatural being reminiscent of a big, floating blob of pasta noodles with two eyeballs on top and two meatballs at either side of its body. In Quob’s divine nature, Quob cannot be seen, or touched; nor is Quob God, but Being itself. Pastafarian doctrine states that Pastafarianism stands for ‘all that is good’, rejects dogma and is based on equality and inclusion. Worship of Quob is not commanded or even expected. Pirates are deemed sacred and many Pastafarians choose to wear full pirate regalia to help the environment as they believe climate change and the preponderance of natural disasters is linked to the declining number of pirates worldwide. Other Pastafarians just enjoy wearing colanders on their heads. There are no dietary restrictions. Every day of the year is a designated Pastafarian holy day, with themes such as 1 January, ‘Another Friggin Year Day’, 26 March, ‘Make Up Your Own Holiday Day’ and 1 April, ‘All Fools Day’. Around the time of Christmas, Pastafarians have a holiday of their own, vaguely referred to as the ‘holiday’, and as such, they claim that the greeting ‘Happy holidays’ is, in fact, a Pastafarian blessing. ‘Pastover’ occurs around the time of Passover and ‘Ramendan’ around the time of Ramadan.