Category Archives: Foodways

Birthday Cake Tradition

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“In my family, we take birthdays seriously. One of the birthday traditions we never break, is that the birthday person must always take the first slice of cake. If they don’t, they will get bad luck. I don’t believe this is just a tradition within my own family however we never break it. When I overhear the birthday person say “I dont want cake”, I always make sure to explain to them that they have to take the first bite. I really don’t know how much I believe in that rule, but it is easier to take a bite of the first slice, than deal with the stress that I will get bad luck”

Context

My informant grew up in Miami in a family that takes birthdays very seriously. One unbreakable rule at every birthday is that the person celebrating has to take the first slice of cake, if they don’t, it’s bad luck. She doesn’t think the tradition is unique to her family, and she enforces it herself, stepping in to remind the birthday person of the rule whenever they try to pass on cake.

Analysis

The rule that her family practices is simple, but the logic behind it is a great representation of folk belief: the person being celebrated has to actively participate in their own celebration. The cake is symbolically for the birthday person, and refusing the first piece is a way of refusing the celebration itself, which folk belief treats as inviting bad luck for the year ahead. The informant’s role as enforcer is also very important to the passing of traditions. She doesn’t just follow the rule herself, she makes sure other people follow it too, even when they’re not part of her family. That kind of active transmission is how folk belief spreads beyond its original household. Additionally, the fact that she was unsure about whether it’s specifically her family’s tradition or a more widespread one is also typical of folklore because many people assume their family customs are universal until they encounter someone who doesn’t share them.

年年有余 (nian nian you yu)- Chinese Proverb

Text: 年年有余 (nian nian you yu)- which translates to “year after year, may you have abundance in your life”

Informant: “I know this proverb because my mom said it my whole life, it’s like a blessing and we say it for lunar new year. You eat fish when it’s the new year because of the play on words of “yu.” Fish and surplus are both pronounced the same. There’s also rules on how you eat the fish too, you’re not supposed to flip the fish over, if you flip it over, it’s like your ship capsizes. So you eat the top half and then you pull out the bones and then you eat the bottom half.”

Context:

The informant learned this proverb from their mother while growing up in a Chinese household. Their family would say it during Lunar New Year as a blessing for abundance and prosperity, often when serving the traditional New Year fish dish.

Analysis:

This proverb reflects a culture that places deep value on longevity and stability, prioritizing sustained fortune over short-term success. What makes the proverb unique is its wordplay, which allows it to function as a spoken blessing, pun, and ritual. Folk speech and verbal folklore like this is especially common in Chinese culture because the language contains many homophones, so different characters can share the same pronunciation but carry drastically different meanings. Thus, meaning is not only conveyed through definition, but through sound, and language itself can hold symbolic power.

Onam- Indian Festival

Age: 22

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Informant: “Onam is a festival about King Mahabali returning to visit his people once every year. One thing people do is make pookalam, which are flower carpets placed at the entrance of the house to welcome Mahabali. My grandma makes them and that’s where I first saw them. People usually get together to make one and it can take two to three hours. There’s also a big meal called Onasadya which we eat for lunch. People sit in rows with a banana leaf in front of them and volunteers serve the food. Someone will bring a big bucket of rice and scoop it onto everyone’s leaf, then another person comes and gives things like bananas. Everything is vegetarian and there is 25 different dishes, the number of dishes is important and you eat with your hands. There’s also boat races called Vallamkali with 100-foot snake boats. I’ve watched them on TV before.”

Interviewer: “How long have you been celebrating Onam?”
Informant: “Pretty much since I was a kid, maybe when I was six or eight. My family celebrates it and that’s how I learned about it. I don’t celebrate it as much anymore, but my parents still celebrate it.”

Context:
The informant grew up in India and learned about and participated in Onam through family celebrations during childhood. Their first encounter with the traditions was watching their grandmother prepare pookalam flower designs at home. The informant explained that their family regularly celebrated the festival when they were around age six or eight. Although the informant does not celebrate Onam as frequently now that they have moved to America, their parents still celebrate in India.

Analysis:
Onam is an example of festival folklore, which combines storytelling, ritual practices, food traditions, and communal gatherings. The festival is centered around the legend of King Mahabali and his annual return, showing how narratives help explain and structure cultural celebrations. The traditions practiced during Onam also express important Indian cultural values such as hospitality, cooperation, and community. Activities like making pookalam or sharing the Onasadya meal require many people working in tandem, which turns the festival into a collective experience rather than an individual one. The large vegetarian meal served on banana leaves and eaten in rows reinforces a sense of equality, since everyone receives the meal in the same way.

Ravioli Day

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“My family and I celebrate Ravioli Day every year during early December. It’s a family tradition passed down in our family for more than 100 years now. When it hits Decemeber my mom’s side of the family gathers at my grandparent’s house where we all bring ingredients for ravioli and cook as one family. This past year my family brought the cheese and my personal job was add the filling to the pasta dough that is rolled by my grandma, mom, and aunts. Sometimes when me or my cousins mess up the filling the ravioli explodes and it becomes a funny blame game to guess who did it. Everyone in the family helps whether its making the dough, rolling the dough, making the pasta shapes, making the filling, or making the sauce. Once we finish cooking everything we save it and enjoy it together for Christmas dinner.”

Context

“I never really found out about this tradition besides the fact that I have been doing it since I was a baby. My mom did tell me that it has been in the family for at least a hundred years and even she did not know when it started because she has been doing it since childhood as well. Ravioli day ties to our Italian culture and makes Christmas and the entire month of December unique to my family. I love to see all my relatives during December because they are all scattered throughout the US compared to my grandparents and I who live in California.”

Analysis

Traditions like these represent family customs that act as folklore because they are informally passed down through generations. As in this story, the folk group which is his entire family shares a common cultural identity of being Italian-American. The use of ravioli is a symbol of their ancestry due to the food’s origins and in that sense they are carrying on the legacy of their predecessors who created this tradition. This is called foodways because culture and memory is preserved through the sharing of food. Like him and his mother who learned about this tradition simply by habitually doing the tradition each year since birth, many of us don’t recognize the many things we do daily that are forms of folklore because it is so normal to us. From an outsider perspective, however, this family tradition is unheard of and is specific to their folk group.

Tomato and Egg

Context:

The informant is a Chinese woman in her mid-50s who was born and raised in China and currently lives in Beijing. She has primarily taken care of the domestic side of her family. Although she considers herself a poor cook, but the tomato and egg stir-fry is probably the best that I have ever tasted.

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西红柿炒鸡蛋 (tomato and egg stir-fry) is one of the most common home-cooked dishes in China. It is widely considered a “basic” dish that almost everyone learns to make at some point in their life. The informant recalls that it is often associated with everyday family meals, especially during childhood, because it is simple, affordable, and quick to prepare. The dish is usually made with just tomatoes, eggs, sugar, and salt, and is frequently served with rice as a main meal in domestic settings.

Analysis:

This dish reflects more than just domestic cooking practices in China; it is also tied to historical memory and changing social conditions. Its simplicity and low cost are often associated with earlier periods of economic hardship, when families needed to rely on accessible ingredients to sustain daily meals. Over time, however, 西红柿炒鸡蛋 has shifted from a “poverty food” to a cultural symbol of comfort and familiarity, representing home and everyday stability. In contemporary contexts, it is often framed with a sense of national culinary identity, as it is widely recognized, universally accessible, and deeply embedded in shared lived experience across generations.