Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Christmas struffoli (honey balls)

Age: 50s Hometown: Bronx, NY

Performance Context: I experienced this recipe and performance firsthand every December/ around Christmas time as the informant is my father. He comes from a large Puerto Rican and Italian-American family from the Bronx. His Italian family’s side are from Sicily and Naples.

Recipe/Description:

According to my father (the informant) – dough is hand mixed with orange zest and it cools a large gathering, usually the kids/cousins, roll the dough into strips called the ‘snakes’ of a certain thickness of a finger. The snakes are then chopped into squares which are then rolled by hand. They are then deep fried and left to cool in a pot of honey with a splash of sambuca as the secret ingredient. This is usually done in huge batches meant to be tinned and given to neighbors, friends, extended family, and people like doctors, teachers, dentists, etc.

The rolling technique along with the size of the balls are highly specified as the smaller the piece the crispy they end of getting fried. The informant states that nowadays their family (myself included) “does not create the proper sized dough pieces” and that back in the day the informants grandmother would make them “re-do entire batches of them if they weren’t up to standard” .

My father mentions there were a staple among his childhood and grew up sitting at a table rolling dough all day in the weeks leading up to Christmas. He remembers the act so vividly because his hands would start cramping and he would be so bored when the younger cousins would give up and leave the ‘rolling’ table.

Analysis:

This is a classic example of family/holiday foodways. The making of the Struffoli becomes a whole day and entire family affair. Once the day is decided to be dedicated to making honey balls, nobody can escape the kitchen. I think the fact that it’s such a labor intensive process, repetitive and boring, keeps the memory of this tradition so vivid. “It’s a very unique tradition”, even among other Italian-American traditions, according to my Father.

The specific snake rolling technique is a perfect piece of kinetic folklore, it’s a physical skill passed down through imitation, using the “thickness of a finger” as a marker. My father’s grandmother, and then his own, role in ensuring the quality shows how this specific tradition is policed and ensured to be passed down consistently generation to generation. The act of gifting the honey balls also serves as social currency, showing appreciation and love as well as signaling those in the community of their Italian heritage.

Indian money-giving superstition

Context: The participant, my roomate (intials NS), comes from an Indian family that now lives in the Bay Area. Both her parents were born in India and partake in the pra

Text:

NS: Anytime you give money to someone for a wedding or birthday, let’s say around $100, you’re supposed to give $101 or else it’s bad luck.

Me: Who is it bad luck for: you or the person getting the money?

NS: the recipient

Me: And what is it about adding $1 that’s ‘good luck?

NS: It’s not really the $1 but when a number isn’t whole or even its harder to divide mathematically. So it symbolizes growth and prosperity.

NS: Whole numbers are like ‘flat’ and ‘finished’ so by giving a indivisible number you’re giving out wishes of growth and endless possibilities to the person.

Me: Wow, so do you partake in this or have you just grown up with people who have.

NS: Well, I don’t really give a lot of people money haha but for the Indian holiday, Raksha Bandhan, my brother gives me an uneven amount of money?

Me: Can you explain this holiday?

NS: Yeah, so a sister ties a bracelet around her brother and in return, the brother gives her money. It’s supposed to be before the brother goes off to war, and the money would help her survive if he happened to die at war. The bracelet is also supposed to be for good fortune and symbolizes their bond.

Analysis:

The practice of adding a single dollar is a type of blessing in Indian culture. In this form of numerology, a round number represents completion or a closed cycle, which can symbolically suggest the end of a relationship, wealth, or growth. By adding one, the giver creates an uneven and indivisible number that is hard to find an even split of. This acts as a catalyst for continuity, ensuring that the gift remains open and invites future prosperity to follow. It effectively shifts the transaction from a commercial payment to a sacred offering, signaling that the bond between the giver and the receiver is meant to be undying and ever-expanding.

Diaz de los Muertos and One’s Ancestral History

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Age: 28

Text: CB – “Known well as Diaz de los Muertos or day of the dead, its a very important holiday in the Hispanic calendar. It has a lot of crossover with the Americanized Halloween, but it’s distinctive differences go far beyond the costumes and candies. The point is to remember our dearly departed. During it, we bring out all the old photos from my grandmother’s family and my grandfather’s family, my mother side (Nana, and Tata respectfully). Specifically what we do is help my Nana and Tata arrange all their family photos on the banister and dining room table so that they may join us for one last meal. We offer our prayers to them and little candies of their favorite and light candles in their honor. As the photos come out, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles will begin telling stories about these people Somehow, we’ve heard 1000 times and never interrupt. Others are new to us and add another source of identity to where we came from.”

Interviewer – “What is the most memorable story you’ve heard about your ancestors?”

CB – “My big Nana (great-grandmother) was a loving, but firm woman. All her children learned to dodge at a very young age, for she was proficient with wooden chanclas. One time my mother snuck out at night to go see a movie when she got back they had closed and locked her window This wasn’t that unusual. Typically they would just spend the night on the roof at this time, however she went to big Nana‘s house, knocked on the door and gave her a sob story about my grandfather locking her out. This caused my great grandmother to storm over to their house (my Nana’s family lived very close to each other) and hammer on the door. When my mother’s father opened it, he was immediately hitting his head with a wooden chanclas. She chased him around the property for about an hour while my mom darted to her room and laughed from her window.”

Context: Diaz de los Muertos is an annual Hispanic holiday to celebrate the dead of one’s family. Typically it involves large gatherings, bringing together members of extended family to celebrate and share stories about those who have passed. In the case of CB and their family, some stories pop up and stay the same each year, and each year each family member listens on with respect and fondness. Besides, the candy, feasts, and decorations this holiday is additionally anointed with, at the heart of it rests the tales of those gone to show that they are and never will be forgotten. CB has been told this story about his mother sneaking out a number of times, year after year, and it never gets old.

Analysis: Being both an annually calendrical holiday, there is an air of spiritualism, belief, but also prolonged familial ritual for Diaz de los Muertos for CB and their family, as is with most families who celebrate it traditionally. The art and act of gathering around to tell stories about those who have passed to allow their spirits to not fade into obscurity is a prime example of continued tradition and using a holiday as the medium to come together to do the sharing. This family-based festival, where food is offered and made, candy is eaten, stories are exchanged, and to take pride on those who have passed is a wide mixture of many folk group mediums, from foodways, to folk belief, to folk speech and narratives, and finally this annual holiday which encompasses it all. Diaz de los Muertos is a rich example of folk culture for the Hispanic community, and continues to shine on for each family regardless of how they celebrate it.

Tamales as an Annual Christmas Tradition – Foodways

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Age – 28

Text: CB – “Every Christmas, my family come together to make tamales in a very specific way. Precise amounts of masa, sauce with potato, cheese, meat, and a green olive. This blend is very important to the tradition as it’s what was grown in the garden when my grandmother was little. They grew up very poor and tamales can keep for a very long time so they would all go over to my big Nana‘s house to make hundreds of tamales for everyone to enjoy throughout the year.”

Interviewer – “That’s really cool, is there a specific method to making them? Is it a whole team effort or is it just a few people?”

CB – “It’s that, a team effort. The whole family turns up and we divide into stations. Team one is unfolding the cornhusks. Team two is putting in the Masa and then every other team puts in a separate ingredient! It’s an assembly line to make that much, taking a whole day. This whole train is actively coordinated by my Nana. It’s a family effort, but her operation.”

Context: This annual holiday ritual around Chistmas food ways was shared by the informant, CB, during a discussion about their family, the holidays, and if any kinds of special events took place every year like clockwork. CB and their family are of Latino origin, with them and their family partaking in this massive production line for tamales each year on Christmas, though the tradition originally came from CB’s Nana and has since been passed down throughout their family.

Analysis: The act of making tamales is a food-based annually calendrical ritual during Christmas, marking its importance in the symbolism of the holiday itself, while also allowing the entire family tree to reflect back on their humble upbringings. CB’s Nana grew up where this ritual was out of necessity to ensure enough food was put on the table, and has since transformed into a craft to commune with their own family members and large extended family, recollecting the history they actively draw from, and as an immense gesture of care, love, and familial belonging as feasts are ritualistic in their own right. Being a force to bring people together, for discussion and intimacy, the art of constructing tamales en masse acts as the foundation or precursor, establishing the connection between each family member, their lineage, and the love they all share for one another, the holiday, and the food they make.

Breakfast Casserole – A Christmas Tradition

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Text: Interviewer – “What kind of meals do you make around the holidays?”

JL – “Every year we make the Jimmy Dean sausage casserole for Christmas breakfast.
We’ve done this for as long as I can remember.”

Interviewer – “What is the ritual for making this dish? Is it a full-team effort, are the same ingredients used each year? When do you prep or bake it?

JL – “We prepare the casserole after our Christmas Eve dinner. The entire family is involved, everyone helping with the preparation. Chopping tomatoes, cutting bread into cubes, browning the sausage, beating the eggs. Everyone’s roles have changed over the years, now that kids are older and can be comfortable using the stove and knives. We all chip in, and come together as a family. The same ingredients are used every year. We’ve occasionally make minor variations (original or maple sausage), but have found the original is still the best. We prepare it the night before Christmas, and put it in the refrigerator overnight, allowing everything to soak into the bread and “come together”. On Christmas morning I’ll wake up and take it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature a bit (over the years we’ve found putting it from the fridge directly into the oven overcooks the bottom in order for the rest of it to be cooked through). We go to church on Christmas morning, and we’ll put the casserole in the oven when we leave for church. When we get home from church, the casserole is perfectly baked. Then we eat our delicious casserole as a family and watch football.”

Interviewer – “What does this Christmas tradition mean to you and your family?”

JL – “I can’t speak for the rest of the family, but I really value this tradition. When the kids were young I kept trying to force traditions I grew up with, and most just didn’t stick. I love that something as simple as our Christmas casserole has become a family tradition. We’ve created something that’s uniquely ours. Do I hope everyone will keep making this casserole every year, even if we’re not together? Of course. But I’m happy knowing that we do it now. No matter what good times, bad times, stressful times we’ve had, the world stops when we’re making it and eating it, and it brings us together.

Context: Talking to JL specifically about family traditions around the holidays. And alongside a typical Christmas Day or Eve dinner, them and their family makes a casserole, prepping it on the Eve of Christmas and then baking it day-of. Holiday based meals, especially those that have become traditions for family are common, and this example is no different.

Analysis: This example being both an instance of utilizing foodways to express a folk group, or in this case the family of JL, but also a representation of ritual around the holidays where each member of the family chips in their own ways, some more, some less to make something together to then eat together the next day. While there is no narrative or underlying story beneath this tradition, it’s something that has managed to stick around for years and years, becoming synonymous with Christmas and Christmas Eve itself at this point in the views of JL and their family.