Category Archives: Festival

Judaism Round Foods

Age – 20
Language – English
Nationality – American
Occupation – Student
Primary Language – English
Residence – Long Island, New York

Text: “In the Jewish religion, we use round foods to symbolize the cyclical process of life and renewal at lifecycle celebrations and events. Some examples include hard-boiled eggs or round challah bread. During Rosh Hashanah, we eat round challah bread to symbolize the nature of life. During Passover, hard-boiled eggs are served to represent life and renewal.”

Context: The informant describes how certain round foods are used in Jewish religious practices to symbolize life and renewal. They mention specific examples like round challah bread during Rosh Hashanah and hard-boiled eggs during Passover. These foods are used during holidays, and the round shape is a meaningful symbol within the Jewish tradition.

Analysis: This tradition of using round foods highlights how folklore can be carried symbolically in specific religion’s food. The round shape represents a cycle, suggesting that life is infinite. Rosh Hashanah’s round challah bread focuses on life as a whole, while the hard-boiled eggs during Passover signify rebirth. These traditions show how food in particular plays an important role in life’s cycles and during religious celebrations.

Las Posadas

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 23
Occupation: Supervisor
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English and Spanish

Text: “Every December, my family would take a trip to Jalisco, Mexico, from where we are from. For nine nights starting from the 16th to the 24th, we do Las Posadas. It starts with a procession, where kids and adults carry candles, sing songs, and walk from house to house, asking for shelter just like Mary and Joseph did. At each house, they will deny us entry until we get to the last house, and we all gather to pray, sing more songs, and eat food like tamales and pan dulce. The last night is the biggest; there’s a piñata usually shaped like a star and a lot of fireworks and kids running around playing games.” 

Context: My informant told me about this ritual that she does every year. As a kid, she started participating, dressing up as an angel, but now she helps her mom organize the singing and food. Las Posadas are elaborate with actors for Mary and Joseph and scripted songs. 

Interpretation: Las Posadas is a ritual that transforms sacred narrative into a performance. This ritual is rooted in Catholic tradition but shaped by local Mexican customs; it reenacts Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging as a form of communal empathy. The nine nights reflect both religious devotion and a buildup of community. The use of candles, song, food, and movement through space blends sensory experience with spiritual meaning, making the tradition memorable and multi-generational. The piñata is in the shape of a star, ties religious symbolism, and is indigenous. 

Annual Eastern Orthodox Church Festival

Text: “[At the festival], they have a “Middle Eastern” dance in a circle and everyone throws money into the middle to raise money for the church. Women cook ahead of time and men work the pots and pans during the ceremony. They sell baklava and hummus to raise money for the church. My dad and I [used to] work the games of chance.” 


Context: my informant is a Syrian-American and was a practicing Eastern Orthodox Christian as a child. He grew up in New Jersey, but went to a majority Middle Eastern Eastern Orthodox church where they would hold this festival. 

Analysis: As was described above, this was an annual festival held by my informant’s church when he was a kid. While he described it as simply an “Eastern Orthodox” church, it is important to note that he and the other people at his church were all of Middle Eastern descent. This is why he specifically mentioned hummus and “Middle Eastern” dancing: he was trying to communicate the idea that this festival relied on common Arabian heritage in a way that would make sense to my Western perspective. Heritage aside, this seems like a festival centered on fundraising. Every aspect mentioned above relates in some way to raising money for the church. The dance was meant to attract donations, the cooked goods were made to be sold, and the games of chance were meant to win money from gamblers. However, to my informant, he was simply recalling good memories of his childhood. He also never mentioned it being tied to any specific holiday, perhaps identifying the festival as something specific to that church. The festival, from an outsider’s perspective, seems to be a way for the church to raise money to stay afloat while also fostering the sense of community that truly keeps a church alive. 

Canadian Engineering Frosh Week Purpling – Initiation Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: University Student/Engineering Intern
Residence: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Language: English

Text:

Freshman orientation (also called Frosh week) is a week at the beginning of the semester where new students at the University of Toronto are toured around campus/city, doing various team building activities and getting to know other new students. As an engineering student, the informant had some engineering specific activities but the main one is called “purpling.” During this ritual, freshman engineering students get sprayed with purple dye in whatever amount they feel comfortable (some limbs or the full body). After, the new students go wash the dye off in a specific fountain nearby campus.

Context:

The informant is from the United States but goes to college at U of T for engineering. They learned about this tradition as they did it when they came to the school as a freshman. As an American engaging in this, they were a little apprehensive about it because they didn’t grow up in the culture where this was normal. The informant told me that their partner is from a family of Canadian engineers and they was really excited about the ritual. The informant only got purple dye on their arms but their partner did their full body. Even though the informant was a little worried at the start, they see it as a good introduction to the community where everyone bonds over sharing in the history as well as the ritual. It also works to introduce people to Canadian engineering which the informant says has a very strong and tight community bond. The informant told me that the ritual harkens back to history as the reason it is done is to honor engineers of the past. They told me that engineers in the military would wear purple armbands and as they sweat, the purple dye would dye their skin. If engineers died during the war, the purple dye was the way they were identified.

Analysis:

The apprehension that the informant felt about the ritual likely comes from the fact that they are a newcomer to this culture. As an American, they did not grow up with the culture of Canadian engineering, unlike their partner. After getting to Canada and getting this very sudden introduction into the culture, they were slow to embrace it but did still engage by getting the dye on their arms. In contrast, their partner, who grew up with the culture and most likely already knew about the tradition, fully embraced it and got the purple dye on their whole body. It is possible that their partner also felt a deeper connection to the historical aspect as their family has a lot of engineers so they might feel a responsibility to honor them by getting more purple dye. Additionally, they could have felt already part of the culture of engineers and therefore wanted to show their dedication to the community by getting fully covered in dye.

The ritual as an initiation is very effective as it immediately brings everyone together with a very unique experience that no other group has. It also ties new people to the history of the group as there is historical basis. It teaches newcomers to celebrate and honor the engineers before them. As the informant said, Canadian engineers have a very tight bond and this experience helps to bring them together by engaging in an activity together that commemorates the bond of engineers before them. It also acts as an introduction to anyone who is unaware of the community, like the informant. As this happens before classes even start, it tells anyone new that this is the type of thing to expect out of engineering culture in Canada so they are prepared for this level of connection and team building. For the informant, it worked well to introduce them to what to expect and they enjoyed their experience.

It is important that the dye is purple because of the armbands that the military engineers wore. By connecting new engineers to their past, the ritual tells the new generation what their past was. It connects people across generations as every engineer is marked by the fact that they got purple dye on their skin. Engineers in the past were given a purple armband as they began their careers in the military, engineers now are covered in purple as they begin their education. In both cases, the purple marks the beginning of an important step in an engineer’s path.

Lechon

Age: 51
Occupation: English
Residence: Corona, CA

Text

“When I think about big Filipino parties like weddings, baptisms, birthdays, Christmas, and even some funerals, the first thing that comes to mind is the lechon.

Lechon is a whole roasted pig, skin golden and crispy, head and all. It’s not just food; it’s also a spectacle. When the lechon arrives, someone always yells, “andiyan na ang lechon!” (the lechon is here), like someone famous just arrived. People gather around it, phones out, kids ready to grab, and family members grabbing their plates to have a piece.

Here in California, we usually order it from a caterer. It arrives crispy and ready to eat. The most important part of the lechon is the skin. It’s crispy, salty, and slightly sweet.

Lechon isn’t just something we are eating. It is a real celebration that marks abundance, pride, and hospitality. It shows that you spared no effort to feed your guests, too. Sometimes it can become a competition of who had the best lechon.

Even when there are other yummy dishes like pancit or lumpia, the lechon is always the centerpiece. It almost feels like the lechon is the guest of honor.

When I see lechon on the table, I don’t see just food. I see a tradition. I see a family showing love the Filipino way, which is full of laughter and full bellies.”

Context

The informant of this narrative was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from the Philippines and grew up attending traditional Filipino gatherings in both domestic and community settings. Her story centers on lechon, which is a whole roasted pig that serves as the focal point of large celebratory events. The presence of lechon transforms an ordinary gathering into a culturally significant event, and its performance carries a deep symbolic and social meaning.

My Interpretation

From a folklore perspective, lechon functions as a material symbol of abundance, kinship, and collective identity. While it is technically a food item, it is best understood as a ritual object within the context of Filipino celebrations. Its preparation and presentation serve as a ritualized performance, where cultural meaning is enacted, remembered, and passed down.

The centrality of lechon to the events positions it as a symbolic quest of honor. The pig, therefore, is not just food but a performative symbol that embodies both economic investment and cultural pride. Its role aligns with the folkloristic principle that everyday practice scan function as nonverbal, expressive culture, encoding shared beliefs and values.

Lechon also serves as a visual and sensory expression of Filipino-American identity in diaspora. Even when the preparation changes from backyard firepits in the Philippines to pre-ordered catering in California, the core symbolic structure remains there. This demonstrates the multiplicity and variation that define folklore: traditions persist not because they are static but because they adapt meaningfully to new environments while preserving key elements. 

In this sense, lechon is more than just a cuisine. It is a ritual marker of festivity, community, and cultural continuity.