Category Archives: Material

St. Patrick’s Day – holiday practices

Nationality: Irish, American
Age: 59
Occupation: Office Manager
Residence: California
Language: English

Text:

KT: “So St. Patrick’s Day is definitely a holiday. It’s a pretty popular holiday in the US and think in Ireland now too, but we celebrate it more traditionally American maybe. We [her family] usually try to go to mass. Sometimes it’s hard for you guys [her kids] because of school, but I always try to go if I can. It’s a Holy Day of Obligation, so technically you are required to go to mass. We also always wear green of some kind. I still jokingly pinch people if they aren’t in green, especially if they come to my house for dinner, they know better. St. Patrick’s Day is always during Lent, so when it falls on a Friday in Lent, it’s nice because there is no fasting on St. Patrick’s Day. We usually have dinner with the whole family. As you know, me, your grandmother, and your aunt always make corned beef, cabbage, and boiled potatoes. There’s also usually lots of good drinking going on too.”

Me: “Why do you make those dishes specifically?”

KT: “It’s what my family has always had. I mean even growing up that what’s we had. I know it’s a pretty cheap dish, which my family was pretty poor growing up, so it was kind a cheap meal, but still special. I mean it’s pretty famously what you eat on St. Patrick’s Day, but I think it had something to do with when all the poor Irish immigrants fled to America, it was what they could afford to celebrate with. Your dad and his family never celebrated much when he was little, so it’s pretty much the meal now. I like to keep the traditions the same.”

Me: “Did you ever go to bars to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?”

KT: “Probably when I was younger. When I lived in New York I could barely afford to fly home for Christmas and such, so me and your dad usually celebrated with friends in the city. I’m sure we went out to bars and stuff, as young people do, but it was always more of a religious and family centered holiday when I was growing up. We also watched the parade when we [KT and her husband] lived in the city, but we don’t really do that so much now. I didn’t really do it when I was younger either. As you know, now we obviously celebrate at home with a big family [aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.] dinner.”

Context:

KT is a 59 year old from California. She is from Irish descent, as well as Catholic. Therefore, for her St. Patrick’s Day is both a cultural holiday practice and a religious holiday practice. I gathered this information in an interview that I recorded and then transcribed.

Analysis:

St. Patrick is an interesting holiday because its many different practices hold many different origins. Most of the practices were popularized by Irish immigrants in the United States, rather than in Ireland. For example, corned beef and cabbage is a distinctly American custom that was started by Irish immigrants, which now serves a traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal. However, some aspects of the holiday practice, especially when religious in nature, stem from Ireland, such as going to mass to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, on his feast day. Feast days celebrates and venerates saints, usually on the day the died. The practice of St. Patrick’s in the United States developed to celebrate Irish culture. It is an interesting case of acculturation, as many traditional ways of celebration have been forgone and the more commercial aspects, such as parades, dyeing the river green, and bar crawls have overtaken to become what the holiday is popularly known for. In many ways, the holiday has become a sort of tourist attraction to Irish culture, one that is usually incorrect, a parody of, or an over exaggeration. Even so, for people from Irish or Catholic cultures, this day is often celebrated differently from the masses in order to give proper fidelity or honor to the cultural/religious holiday. While it is still a day of celebration, it is centered around family and worship, rather than parades or drinking. Therefore, the holiday practice varies widely based on the person who is celebrating because the cultural/religious holiday has become widely popularized and commercialized.

Russian recipes – Piroshkis, Borscht

Nationality: Russian
Age: 59
Occupation: Office Manager
Residence: California
Language: English

Text:

KT: “There are a couple recipes that I have memorized and these three I learned from my grandmother, so your great-grandmother, who I am almost sure learned them from her mother. Your great-great grandmother came from to America from Russia, so that would make sense.”

Me: “Where did you first learn them?”

KT: “I have memories of learning them from her when I was probably around your age, maybe a little younger, when she lived out in Lancaster. I learned how to make piroshki, and both hot and cold borscht from her. My mother knows how to make them too, so I’m sure I also made them with her, but I distinctly remember make them in my grandmother’s little kitchen with her.”

Me: “What are the traditional dishes called and how do you make them?”

KT: “Well piroshkis are kind of like little loaves of bread that are fried and filled with meat and rice. Your dad likes when I make those the most. My favorite is borscht. I know how to make both hot and cold borscht, which are kind of similar. They are both made with beats and cabbage, just one of them is a cold soup and one is a hot soup.”

Me: “How do have the recipe, is it hand-written or is it in a cookbook?”

KT: “I might have them written down somewhere, but I just have them memorized, so I never need to look up how.”

Context:

KT is a 59 year old woman from California. Her, her mother, and her grandmother have all lived here for most of their lives. Her great-grandmother immigrated from Russia and brought these recipes with her, which have been passed down the generations. She has the recipes memorized, so does her mother and grandmother. Usually, she or the other women in the family make all the meals, traditional or otherwise, for family gatherings. She still makes these recipes regularly. I have eaten all three of these dishes that she has prepared, but I do not know how to make them. She told me this in an in-person interview that I recorded and later transcribed.

Analysis:

These three dishes are traditional recipes from Eastern Europe that have been collected and stored matrilineally. Cooking holds a special significance because it is a way to stay connected to older family members, a person’s culture, or enjoy foods that remind a person of their family/childhood. It is something that is often taught to a younger family member by an older or more experienced family member. Usually, these recipes are shared (especially in the 21st century) when a person is first entering young adulthood. Cooking is often viewed, especially historically, as a part of the domestic sphere which regulated it to a women’s role in the household. This means that much of traditional cooking is preserved through the women in a family line or culture. We can see the structure of domestic ideologies of Eastern Europe through the preservation of cooking as a female role, even into the 21st century. Many of these recipes also have spread and gained popularity. Often, different Eastern European countries will have the same dishes by different names. However, these dishes have also gained popularity in several non-eastern European countries due to Russian diaspora. The countries have collected the dishes as their own, often under a significantly different name, when at various times in history huge swaths of the Russian or Eastern European populations left and settled in new areas, such as is the case with my informant’s great-grandmother in the United States.

Christmas Eve Ritual

text: “Every Christmas eve, on my Italian side, we eat seven kinds of fish. My mom is Italian and her parents came to the U.S. from Italy. They taught her that eating the seven kinds of fish combines their old Italian traditions and unites them with their new ones in America. The fish we eat are, clams, mussels, halibut, shrimp, calamari, etc.” – Informant

context: This is a yearly tradition on Christmas eve done by his entire Italian family. Even when they’re traveling, if they have no access to all of these fish or any of them, they will jokingly buy Swedish fish candy in order kind of fulfill the tradition. The informant learned this from their mother, who is Italian, and she learned it from her parents, who moved to America from Italy.

analysis: This is a holiday ritual but also a cultural food tradition done yearly by Italian people and immigrants. Done by a lot of Italian/Americans, this tradition combines their old culture with a new culture.

Birthday Miyeok-Guk Soup

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/22/23
Language: English

Text:

Eating miyeok-guk (seaweed soup) every birthday morning to honor your mother.

Context:

After giving birth, Korean women traditionally eat a lot of seaweed soup because of its nutritional value. Based off of that, people eat this soup to honor their mothers for giving birth. JK mentioned that she does this every year and that this is a tradition that she shares with the wider Korean community: “It does feel like a way to not only honor my mother, but also honor my Korean culture because it’s not just something my family does.” Even though it was her first year in college, she was still able to have some miyeok-guk this year, since her Spring Break aligned with her birthday! This soup reminds JK of home and family–it’s a food of comfort alongside healing.

Analysis:

It is intriguing to see the various ways in which different cultures celebrate birthdays. In America, birthdays are very centered around the child: we are celebrating them turning a year older and reflecting on their past accomplishments as promises for a bright, successful future. Illustrative of our forward-driven society, we underscore this emergence into a new phase of life, which requires that we place full attention and focus on the person who’s aging. However, in past-oriented cultures, birthdays acknowledge the mother as the sole reason for the existence of a birthday. By drinking miyeok-guk, children are cherishing their mothers and recognizing the sacrifice and dedication that goes into motherhood. Thus, people are appreciating the past–the period of time before they were born, when their mother was carrying them.

After some research, I found that this tradition was most likely inspired by people noticing whales eating seaweed after giving birth. In this era of “posthumanism,” where we are understanding that humans are not the only ones with culture, it is fascinating to see how much of our practices are inspired by animals and the ways of nature. We share cultures across species and this “wealth of consciousness” can inform so many of our folk beliefs. Knowledge is very dynamic, and aspects of human tradition appear to be validated by animal customs, as we hold certain beliefs to be universal and beyond humanity.

New Year’s Day Sauerkraut

Age: 24

Text: “On New Year’s day my family eats sauerkraut for good luck. It’s a German thing. We have smoked sausage and mashed potatoes with it. We’ve been doing this since I was a kid, and my mom did it as a kid as well. We do it for good luck. To start the year off right.” 

Context: The informant grew up in Ohio and his parents did as well. His mom is part German, and passed on some of her German traditions to her kids. His mom grew up in Hamilton, Ohio where there is a portion of town called “Germantown” because a lot of German immigrants settled there. The German tradition is thought to bring about good luck and was brought to his Midwest my immigrants.

Analysis: For many people, the new year is an opportunity to make changes, set positive intentions, and start over, in a sense. And so, many rituals often surround the idea of prosperity and good fortune—This tradition does just that. Sauerkraut is believed to have certain healing properties including improved liver function, removal of bacteria and parasite, and is even thought to prohibit the growth of cancer. And so, I believe that the tradition of eating sauerkraut in the new year is done so in hopes of bringing good health and good luck in the new year.