Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Easter Culinary Tradition

Nationality: Armenian
Age: 56
Performance Date: 04/08/18

During Easter time in the Armenian community, there are a number of pastry recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. I lived in an extended family… I lived with them, two aunts, grandparents and parents, my sister wasn’t born yet. I was only six years old, living in Aleppo (Syria).   It was a tradition to make special cookies every Easter. They’re called ma’amoul and karabij. Choereg is Armenian Easter bread. They also made that. Karabij is a crushed pistachio filled cookie, and ma’amoul is a date filled cookie. Both the karabij and the ma’amoul are served with natef.

All the ladies in the house would prepare the cookies getting them ready for Easter Sunday.

In the Armenian community, family and friends would visit each other after church and during the week between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. It was tradition to serve guests these holiday pastries. My aunt was especially good at making choereg whereas my grandma did much better with Easter cookies. The ladies would purchase the ingredients to make the cookies, however they would have to take it to an outside place to make them. We didn’t have an oven at home so they had to go to an outside bakery. It was a local bakery, many of the people would come to the bakery to have things baked. Not only on Easter, there would be many different types of food being baked there at all times. There’s this Middle Eastern version of what today we call marshmallow fluff, and we would dip the Easter cookies in it. It’s called natef. It’s literally Arabic marshmallow fluff.

 

  1. Of all the pastries, which one was your favorite?

There were all so good, but I think my favorites were Karabij and Ma’amoul

  1. Did you ever go to anyone else’s house who made a better Karabij or Ma’amoul?

We didn’t really go to anyone else’s house we always had them over at out house?

  1. Were there a lot of people who came to visit?

I mean not that that many but on Easter especially we had a good amount of people come

  1. Why was your house the gathering place?

Most of the family was already there so it seemed easier to meet where we were.

My Thoughts:

I personally have had these Easter pastries. It’s not really that much of a pastry compared to American style desserts like sugar cookies and ice cream per say. They definitely aren’t as sweet. Of all three mentioned, my favorite is choereg, which is great for breakfast with a cup of coffee. It’s also the sweetest of the three.

Wedding Pilaf

Nationality: Armenian
Age: 77
Performance Date: 04/02/18

The recipe calls for:

Butter

Slivered Almonds

Raisins

Pitted Dates

Long Rice

It’s a fancier kind of pilaf that’s used for weddings, celebrating momentous things like that. It’s just fancier. Instead of rice and noodles, you top it with raisins and dates and various nuts. Sometimes you have it at weddings and sometimes you have it on other special occasions and its really just fancier than regular rice.

  1. Is it difficult to make?

I’ve never made it myself however I know how to, it’s fairly simple. I’ve made rice pilaf before, it’s essentially rice pilaf with a topping of cooked raisins and almonds and such. It’s quite good?

  1. What other occasions do people eat this?

It depends. It’s a kind of celebration dish… not something you make every day. Sometimes at Thanksgiving we eat it. I don’t know it’s a special occasion food.

Beer Pong Rules (Common underage drinking game).

Nationality: American.
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Flemington, New Jersey.
Performance Date: 4/22/18
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

Michael Gordon, a junior studying Pop Music at the University of Southern California, who hails from Flemington, New Jersey, provided four pieces of folklore for this collection.

The interview was run, within his studio, at Orchard Avenue, on the outskirts of the University of Southern California.

Folk Performance: Beer Pong Rules (Common underage drinking game).

Folk Type: Folk-Practice.

“How do you play pong where you’re from?” – Stanley Kalu

STORY: Oh My God, everyone plays it so different. The thing that’s different, I remember…like if you shoot the shot and you or your partner makes it. The other team is supposed to take the cup away, like immediately. If they don’t and you or your partner sinks another shot in the same cup then its game over cause the other team didn’t take their drink. How people play here is if you get the ball into the cup, the other team will just leave it there until your partner takes his shot.

Background Information: Michael enjoys this piece because the drinking culture on the east coast is particularly strong. He learned of it in high-school while drinking with his friends.   

Context of Performance: The context was illustrated in the story section.

Thoughts: I’ve never understood drinking games. Why not just drink? Why go through such a process for the same effect? seems inefficient.

TMB Band Name: Venti Four Logo

Nationality: Japanese, Mexican, American
Age: 23
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/18
Primary Language: English

While interviewing my informant, Peter, I decided to document his Band Name. He got his Band Name from the upperclassmen of his section in the Trojan Marching Band (TMB). Peter is a member of the Mellophone section. I asked him to perform his band name to me as if he were asked to “introduce himself” by another member of the band:

 

“Once upon a time my name is Venti Four Logo.

Someone then asks me ‘why?…’

Because I’m a Marshal Snake.”

 

My informant would usually perform this Band Name/Joke ritual in a social setting with other members of the TMB. Sometimes he is asked by alumni of the band who are interested in hearing the new Band Names their section has come up with. Members of the band also frequently ask each other because they are often humorous or come with humorous jokes attached. It is also used to test the band Freshmen to see if their jokes are up to par with the standard set by current band members.

 

According to my informant, everyone in the band has a Band Name that they have been dubbed by their older section members. The Band Names are different in each section. Some sections give their members short names that function as traditional nicknames (example: “Egg”). My informant was mostly able to give me knowledge of how the Mellophone section names its members.

 

My informant’s section gave him a long, complicated name because they have to figure out how it applies to them/ what the other section members know about them. My informant is dubbed ‘Venti Four Logo’ because of a few reasons: 1. He’s tall, hence the ‘Venti’ part. 2. He has a history of getting coffee at Starbucks, hence the ‘Venti’ part. 3. He’s obsessed with Apple, hence the ‘Logo’ part. He does not yet know how the ‘Four’ part fits into his name, although he recognizes that “Four Logo” is a play on the drink “Four Loko.”

 

Analysis

I have seen my informant introduce himself on many occasions with a few different Name Jokes. The particular joke he gave me is a little tame compared to the usual raunchy, outrageous jokes the section normally uses. I personally enjoy this social band tradition. Everyone has a name, so it’s fun to get to know all the members of the band just to hear them. The tradition of Band Names also further unties the band as one entity.

 

Jewish Festival/Ritual: Non-Traditional Passover/Seder

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/10/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece: Jewish Festival/Ritual

“My family hosts Passover dinner every year, but our celebration of the holiday is nontraditional in that we perform only a 10 minute seder. When we begin the seder, we always start with a reading of the Haggadah, which recounts the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and helps us to remember the suffering the Jews experienced as slaves and their happiness and celebration upon being freed. The leader of the seder, my mother, starts of the reading of the Haggadah and then each person around the table reads the paragraph following the previous. The Hebrew prayers we recite together, and upon reciting the prayer for wine, we drink our cup of wine or grape juice. To remember our ancestors tears, we take bitter greens, which are parsley, and dip them in salt water. To remember our ancestors’ hard labor and the bricks Pharaoh forced them to build, we break the matzah and create small matzah sandwiches by adding charoset, a chunky mixture of apples, matzah, and nuts, and horseradish. Before we finish reading the Haggadah, we stop to eat dinner which always starts with matzah ball soup and then we move onto the main courses. In my family, we make some of the same dishes every year, including my aunt’s arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette and pine nuts, beef brisket, and kugel, a sweet-tasting baked noodle casserole. After everyone finishes eating, we finish reading the Haggadah and then prepare dessert. It is during this time too that one of the men in the household, usually my dad, would hide the afikomen, a wrapped-up piece of broken matzah that is to be hidden and searched for by the children of the house those younger than 13 years old, but we don’t do this anymore since there are no more children in our family. Our Passover ends with dessert. Because we are forbidden on Passover to eat foods containing grains like wheat, oat, barley, spelt, etc., we have flourless desserts, including spongecake, fresh fruit, macaroons, chocolate, and flourless cookies.”

Background Information:

-Why does informant know this piece?

The informant is Jewish, and the Seder festival has been celebrated in her family for generations.

– Where did they learn this piece?

She learned about these traditions because she participates in this festival every year

– What does it mean to them?

This event is a way for her distant family to meet up each year.

Context:

– Where? The Seder happens at the dinner table in the informant’s home.

– When? The Seder tradition happens on Passover, which often falls near Christian Easter.

– Why? The Seder serves as a reminder of the Jewish people being freed from Egyptian slavery.

Personal Thoughts:

This year, my friend invited me to attend the Seder at her house. It was a very warm and pleasant experience. According to her, the Seder that happens at her house is very relaxed compared to a traditional Seder which can last up to four hours or more depending on how religious the family celebrating it is. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I think this tradition of bringing the family together and eating a ritualized meal is very important for the preservation of Jewish culture.