Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays and holiday traditions

Chinese Lunar New Year

Context:

A, 18, is a student at USC. He is a French citizen of Chinese descent; he told me about how his family celebrated Lunar New Year when he visited China. He told me he grew up in France, so he seldom celebrated this tradition, only when he was in China back when he was young.

Text:

Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice, so it’s usually around the end of January or the beginning of February. Every Lunar New Year is about a different zodiac animal, this is the year of the rabbit (2023). We usually wear red or red clothes and use traditional Chinese red paper lamps. We also put up fish posters to symbolize wealth in China, we put them on walls and doors to bring good fortune. We eat dumplings and blow-up firecrackers and fireworks.

Analysis:

Chinese Lunar New Year is a very common celebration among the Chinese diaspora throughout the world. It celebrates the New Year, and just like many other cultures, it lines up with the life cycle calendar beginning with spring (birth) and ending in winter (death). It is a liminal time between two cycles, so it is a magical time outside of the norm filled with superstitions, feasts, and celebrations. This festival is annually celebrated, as one might assume by its name; however, contrastively to the Solar year and Gregorian Calendar, this festival aligns with the Lunar Calendar, which is why it is on a different day every year. The rituals and superstitions that are celebrated during this festival often are practiced to bring good luck; similar to most cultures around the world that also have “good fortune” superstitions during their new year celebrations as well.

Gingerbread Christmas Tradition

Nationality: United States of America

Age: 23

Occupation: Musician

Residence: Los Angeles

Text:

“Every Christmas on my mum’s side of the family we made these little gingerbread houses and it, until the last couple years it was at my grandparent’s house, my mum’s parents’ house, and it would be me and my mum and my dad and my brother and then my mums two siblings and their families and my grandparents obviously. And my grandma would bake all the houses and then you know we each bring some candies or something to decorate them with. And she would always have a crockpot full of cinnamon and apples and orange peels and stuff, not to eat just to kind of smell nice and it was also kind of a potluck thing so pretty much like everyone who was coming would bring some food, it might just be like picking up some you know like chips and salsa from a restaurant or someone might bake something, but my grandma usually made a casserole and like a dessert or something and my grandpa would, like my grandma would bake the houses and my grandpa would put them together with the icing. And also, my mum and my uncle and my grandpa are all engineers so usually their houses are very intricate and very put together. And you know it had been going on since, I think it started in the 90s, in my family, it might’ve been a little later than that actually I think it was mostly for the kids so when my brother and I were young and my cousins who are a little younger than my brother, my brother is the oldest, and even though it was oriented around the kids all the adults *laugh* would really go hard and put a lot of effort into the houses and again a bunch of engineers it was hyper-detailed like intricate ornate houses um.

This was mostly just my mum’s side of the family. It was organized by my grandparents, my dad was there but not really his side of the family. It wasn’t just to build the houses either, especially when the kids got older and busier and so did the adults and parents, it kind of became an excuse to socialize and see everyone around the holidays, and we would also, after that around the 24th and 23rd we would also see that family but yeah it was mostly an excuse to get together and the food and the houses and the smelly stuff was just kind of an accessory, an excuse to get together and stuff. But yeah, it has pretty much only been the people who I’ve mentioned. My grandma didn’t have the best family life growing up so I think it was really important to her to try and cultivate that as best as she could. She is like very giving and wants good things for people so I think this was kind of her yearly way to make the little house for everyone. So everyone made a house except for her because she was replacing the icing bags and things like that, so for her, I think this was honestly a stressful time, but it was worth it because the family was all laughing and stuff.”

Context: The informant has always participated in this tradition and continues to participate yearly. The informant’s family has lived in Southern California for several generations. The informant believes that the purpose of the gingerbread tradition is to bring family closer together and to create happy memories.

Analysis:

I agree with the informant’s analysis explaining the purpose of the gingerbread tradition as cultivating a loving family environment and encouraging family bonding. The informant’s grandmother appears to have designed the gingerbread activity to be as enjoyable for everyone participating and likely wanted to primarily strengthen family relationships and create pleasant memories. The gingerbread serves as an opportunity for the family to all partake in a festive activity together while eating, creating a very hospitable environment for families to enjoy each other’s company.

Tamales Christmas Tradition

Nationality: United Sates of America

Age: 23

Occupation: Musician

Residence: Los Angeles

Language: English

Text:

“This one is definitely a traditionally Hispanic cultural thing, which I’m not, I’m white, but on my other side of my family so my dad’s side, my grandma remarried and her husband had kids coming into that marriage so my uncle Bobby, my dad’s stepbrother married my aunt Hilda and they actually got divorced so they’re not together anymore which I’ll talk about more in a second, but when they were together um every Christmas we would make tamales and you know that’s a particularly common thing to do in a group and tamales especially are a very Christmas time kind of thing. Um but you kind of build them in an assembly line kind of thing, so the whole family was in the kitchen and my family was like completely white, and the people who—my grandpa who married by grandma was white, it was just my aunt Hilda, but she was kind of sharing that culture with us. We would all be like one step at a time, you know fill the tamale, wrap it in the corn husk, you know the whole process, and when that was happening, I was too young the be in the kitchen actually helping, but I would still see my mum and my dad and my aunts and uncles all kind of in the kitchen making food together, talking and smiling. Um and yeah again, even though it wasn’t like my culture I still grew up around it and it meant a lot to my childhood and was a central part of the holiday experience. They did divorce, I don’t know how long ago, I was probably 8 when they split up, but I’m still um my aunt Hilda um I still call her aunt Hilda even though she isn’t technically my aunt anymore, but she had two children with my uncle and I guess my uncle isn’t my blood uncle anyway my dad grew up with him, but anyway but we’re still on good terms with her and I’m pretty close with my cousins still um my cousin Tory and Ariana, two sisters. Even though I don’t see them as much anymore at least my aunt and uncle, I see my cousins semi-regularly still, but um every Christmas she still drops off tamales or like a soup, and even though we’re not making it like we used to in the kitchen in an assembly line kind of thing there’s still a part of that tradition that carries over even though the family has kind of fractured. Um so yeah I don’t know it’s still kind of nice to have a piece of that tradition still intact. Also, Ariana the younger of my cousins is a vegan so I get vegan tamales at Christmas which is nice. I really, I don’t know it was a very important part of my Christmas. I’m sad it’s not the same as it was but you know my aunt still drops them off and it’s sweet to stay in touch.

I think seeing everyone in the same room all together working on something together and then we get to make it all together and eat it all together it’s just a really good community thing. I think it brought everyone physically close. Making food I think is pretty important to that kind of thing, making it and eating it. Like building relationships—and there’s some relationships pre-built in and I don’t know I think those are the time where you get to really feel close and it’s not just biological and with this group, I wasn’t biologically related to most of them, but they were my family. I feel like it really helped me get close and made my cousins and aunt more than just family I appreciated it, the community that it created, and I’m glad that my aunt shared that part of her culture and upbringing with us.”

Context: The informant has experienced this tradition since they were born until their aunt and uncle divorced. The primary reasoning as to the purpose of the tradition is to bring family closer together through the sharing of activities. and another’s culture. Ultimately, the informant believes that their aunt just wanted to bring the family closer to her by sharing a part of her upbringing with the rest of the family.

Analysis: The informant’s tradition primarily serves as a way for a family to bond and strengthen their relationships. Furthermore, the fact that tamales are being prepared is significant because the informant’s aunt is sharing her culture and a part of her upbringing with her new family. Sharing part of one’s own culture can help foster intimacy and allow people to get to know each other on a deeper level. The use of tamales as a method of sharing culture is particularly useful because it is a communal cooking process and further encourages family bonding. The fact that the informant’s aunt continues to bring food to the family despite being somewhat distanced since her divorce only further shows how the use of food is used to create connections and send the message of love.

Mardi Gras

Text (festival)

“A week-long festival celebrating New Orlean’s culture and heritage.”

Context

My informant has lived in Louisiana for 4 years and attended the Mardi Gras festival two times.

Q: “What exactly is Mardi Gras?”

A: “The celebration originated in New Orleans and people travel from all across the country to celebrate Mardi Gras here in New Orleans. Basically, it’s a week-long festival/series of parades that happens at the beginning of January lasting until Fat Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday.”

Q: “What is the significance of the celebration?”

A: “It’s essentially a ‘last hoorah’ before lent so it’s the last time you indulge, drinking, eating sweets, especially king’s cake, before you give it up for lent.”

Analysis

Mardi Gras is a French phrase meaning “Fat Tuesday” translated into English. This comes from the custom of using up all of the fats in the home before lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence. Important families will create floats and dress up in extravagant glittery costumes driving the float around the city throwing out beads, coconuts, candy, etc. There is jazz music, performers, and people in costumes. New Orleans has a lot of French culture stemming from the Louisiana Purchase which gave the United States new land, including New Orleans. People typically dress up in the Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold, and green. People not coming from “important” New Orleans families will typically just wear comfortable clothes aligning with the Mardi Gras colors and walking shoes as they’ll be outside walking a lot. Different parades are happening throughout the week at different times and the streets are filled with people in celebration. The celebration marks the beginning of Lent, a yearly 40-day fasting period leading up to easter. This is exemplary of the connection between festivals and yearly cycles/the calendar as well as religious folklore. Festivals are often symbolic of cyclical time and the calendar year as Lent is a practice occurring yearly in Christian communities and the festival serves as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Christian practices and beliefs. Larry Danielson, a religious folklorist explores these themes of religious rituals and practices including communal groups participating in religious originating festivals representative of shared belief. Mardi Gras specifically has Catholic roots and people use festivals as a way to come together and provide a more deep appreciation and nuanced understanding of religious tradition.

Wear Green on St. Patrick’s Day

Text:

In the United States on St. Patrick’s day people are encouraged to wear green or else they’ll get pinched. It is thought that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns because they like to pinch anyone they can see. Also some people think wearing the color will bring good luck as green represents the Irish Nation.

Context:

Growing up in America K.L. would always be told to wear green on St. Patrick’s day or else he would get pinched by a leprechaun. He said, ” in actuality if I didn’t wear green one of my friends would probably pinch me and not an actual leprechaun. I never believed it was real but it was just fun to go along with the superstition”.