Category Archives: Foodways

Vietnamese New Year Celebration “Tet” Traditions

Context:

My informant is a 56-year-old woman of Vietnamese descent. She was born and raised in Vietnam, and immigrated to the United States when she was young. She was raised Buddhist, surrounded by Vietnamese culture and traditions, passed down from the generations of her family.

Text:

In Vietnamese culture, lunar new year is celebrated with a celebration called Tết. This celebration is often multiple days long.

The first day of Tết starts on the day before the start of lunar new year on New Year’s Eve. You are supposed to cook food and offer it to the altar to bring home your ancestors for the New Year. Her mom also waits for midnight to come and offer food and pray to the ancestors. The family also visits temple to ring in the New Year at midnight. 

On the second day of Tết, New Year’s Day, the family would cook food to offer to the altar again to send off the ancestors. Prayers are also involved. They again visit a temple to pray for a good, healthy year. 

On the last day of Tết, they visit families and relatives, to offer good wishes and give red money envelopes to younger children and young adults. It is also encouraged to visit ancestors at their gravesites to wish them well.

The celebrations and activities might go on for longer, but the three days are considered Tết.

Analysis:

Tết combines many forms of folklore together such as ritual, superstition, and material folklore. There is the ritual of going to temple, to cooking, and visiting family on specific days every year. There are also the superstitions of what day to do each action in order to bring prosperity and good luck into their homes in the new year. Then the food and red envelopes are material folklore that they use to bring wealth and prosperity.

Tamales at Christmas

Text: Making tamales every Christmas in an assembly-line style with family.

Context: The informant, who is Mexican American and grew up in Texas near the border, participates in a yearly Christmas tradition where family members gather to prepare tamales together. Each person takes on a specific role in the process (spreading masa, adding filling, wrapping), creating a collaborative, assembly-line system.

Analysis: This is a strong example of foodways folklore, specifically a holiday-based family tradition rooted in Mexican and Mexican American cultural practices. Tamale-making at Christmas is a tradition, but the assembly-line method highlights its communal nature, turning food preparation into a ritualized family activity. The repetition of this practice each year reinforces cultural identity and the intergenerational nature of the practice. Knowledge and roles of the activity are passed down within the family.

Colombian New Year’s Grapes

Age: 22

Text
“A tradition that my family has, it’s a Colombian tradition, is that on New Year’s Eve when it hits midnight I eat 12 grapes in the first 12 seconds of the new year under the table. So like my siblings and I will crawl under the table and literally just like, basically just stuff grapes into our mouths as fast as we can and it basically means good luck for the whole year.”

Context
CM describes a Colombian tradition that has always ran in her family for as long as she can remember. It’s a tradition that she does along with her siblings every New Year’s Eve to New Years transition, and it’s held in high regard in her extended family as good luck. CM also says that she isn’t sure when she started participating or who started it in her family, she just remembers participating every year.

Analysis
The 12 grapes tradition is a Colombian/family tradition that CM has participated in since she was young. She doesn’t remember when it started or who taught it to her and felt that it was always just a part of her life, which shows how folklore is disseminated informally through participation. This tradition includes aspects of sympathetic (specifically homeopathic) magic, with the relation between 12 grapes, 12 seconds, and 12 months of the new year working to create good luck. This tradition is also part of the holiday/festival that is the New Year’s celebration to transition into a new year filled with positivity and luck.

Matzo Ball Soup

Age: 21

Text
“My dad’s side of the family is Jewish so they had a lot of like food and meals that they would eat either for special occasions or like just throughout the year because it’s like Jewish food. And the one that’s carried through to my immediate family is matzo ball soup because it’s a really good remedy for like a cold or just general sickness normally in the winter so the cultural tradition here is getting lots of matzo ball soup and using it as like a cure to sickness when we’re not feeling well.”

Context
ML says that not a ton of Jewish customs carried over to her immediate family, but matzo ball soup was one that did because of their belief in its comforting and curing powers. She remembers eating it when her or her sister were sick, and she said that eating it did make her feel better.

Analysis
ML’s story is an example of material culture, specifically foodways, as well as folk medicine. The tradition of eating matzo ball soup contains religious and traditional values in her family, but also showed a long standing belief in its remedial and comforting powers. ML notes that not many other Jewish meals or traditions were passed on to her family, showing that some beliefs or pieces of folklore are stronger or hold more meaning and are able to be passed on more easily even as other traditions of the same folk group fade away. For ML, this belief was enforced by evidence, as she said that eating matzo ball soup did genuinely make her and her sister feel better, which only serves to enforce the folk belief. ML’s story with the soup is a great example of Kaptchuk’s discussion on healing rituals, as the soup represented a sensory experience, family, and hope along with the nutritional value, all of which combined to comfort ML. I think this is a very powerful idea, because my mom would make a specific noodle dish when my brothers and I were not feeling well, but I remember the love and the care that the meal represented more than how I felt after eating it.

Chicken Wishbone Tradition

Age: 22

Text
“So back when I was probably like eight to probably 12, my dad and I used to do, I know this is like a pretty common one, like pulling the bones apart on a wishbone on like, a chicken. So we used to, like, the first day we like, pick up food from Costco, we’d get a rotisserie chicken. We’d bring it home and we’d dress it whatever. We’d have the wishbone and the belief was we’d each hold an end of the wishbone. I don’t know how familiar you are, but it’s got like two ends. And we’d pull it apart and whoever got like the chunk at the end gets their wish granted. So you’d think of a wish, you pull it apart, and then you get your wish, or you don’t get it. There are no like, bad effects for like, not getting your wish. It’s not like the opposite would happen or like something bad would happen. But you really wanted to get that chunk at the end. My dad used to like hold it a certain way that he’d get it every single time. He’d hack it. I don’t know what he’d do, bro. But, yeah, I like, got my wish, like, twice. So, yeah.”

Context
RR participated in this tradition with his dad every time his family ate a whole chicken, and it was always he and his dad that did it. They would both think of a wish and pull on each side of a wishbone and the person coming away with the bigger piece would have their wish granted. RR notes that he has no idea how, but somehow his dad would almost always have the bigger side. He doesn’t mention if any of his wishes were granted.

Analysis
This is an example of a widely known piece of folklore that was passed down within a family. It’s a small ritual that happened between RR and his dad every time they ate a whole chicken, and shows how folklore can tie people together and build relationships through certain rituals and traditions. It’s pretty powerful, and speaks to the value of folklore, that even though RR would always lose, he still continued to participate because of the family meaning behind the ritual rather than the actual result of getting a wish granted. The wishbone tradition is an example of a magic superstition, as participants believe that getting the larger piece of the wishbone will result in a granted wish.