LW is a retired 74-year-old woman who lives with her husband in Sunnyside, WA. She was born and raised there and came from an immigrant mother and father who came from Guadalajara, Mexico. She never went to college but became a mother to three children and a grandmother to several grandchildren. She was remarried twice and worked two minimum wage jobs to support her family. Her primary language is Spanish but her English is perfect as well.

Are there any special rituals that you thoroughly enjoyed growing up with?

LW: We used to have occasions with the whole family where we would get together and bury a whole pig in the ground to roast it. It is kind of the same ritual as Hawaiian luaus have but it is a bit different because it is a Mexican tradition. We had to eat all the parts of the pig that we could, even the gross insides and the feet. We used to cook the feet in a stew called menudo. It was kind of disgusting but some of it tasted really good.

What would you do at the get together?

LW: We would mostly just catch up with our relatives. It was more of a social event than a ritual to get all of the family together. I have twelve brothers and sisters so you can imagine that means a lot of cousins and grandchildren and the gathering of us all got huge. It was such a fun event and every year it seemed the family was growing more and more.

Do you still do these ‘pig roasts’ every year?

LW: No, we don’t do them anymore because too many people have grown old and moved away so the ritual has died off a bit but I still talk about the events with my brothers and sisters and look back on all the fond memories I have of them and associate the smells and tastes with amazing times.

Analysis:

These kinds of events are popular among cultures of larger families and they often create rituals to make a tradition and reason to see each other more often in the year. Mexican families are commonly larger than families in other cultures and tend to follow the big and loud stereotypes of the likes of Italian and Greek cultures. The food of the gathering is directly associated with memories and importance of the social event and is a huge factor of the significance of the event.

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

Are there any rituals you and your family practice together regularly?

KM: Well we have Shabbat every Friday night to Saturday. We have dinner together and sometimes other family members come like my grandfather. It is more of a day each week of rest. It is a day we liked to spend together and a day of prayer where I can feel connected to my religion even though I don’t go to the temple as much anymore as we used to.

Are there any special rituals you have that you carry out?

KM: We light candles and put them in our window every Friday evening. It is a way to tell that you are Jewish and you are celebrating the Shabbat. That is the kind of thing my parents taught me to do. We do not really consider ourselves as a conservative Jewish family anymore but this is something we still strictly do. Most Jews who are conservative are extremely strict about the Shabbat and temple as weekly things they find of importance. We don’t celebrate the Shabbat as much as we used to after me and my brother and sister went off to college but it is still something that is very important to me.

Analysis:

Shabbat is something that is commonly practiced by many Jews. The rituals and traditions of each family can vary as Jewish folklore often varies slightly from one culture or family to another. The lighting of candles is extremely important to the day of rest. The day of rest is to take away from your common everyday labor and to take it as a day to commit yourself more to your religious practices.

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

What other holidays do you find important to celebrate during the year?

KM: We celebrate a holiday called Rosh Hashanah, it is a Jewish holiday that we are meant to spend together as a family and we do it every year. Usually we go to San Diego for it as well.

What is the significance of the holiday and how is it related to Judaism?

KM: Well Rosh means ‘head’ in Hebrew and Shanah means ‘the year’ which kind of signifies the ‘head of the year’. So, we celebrate it as the Jewish New Year. It is the first high holiday in Judaism that is celebrated. It is kind of like an obligation for us to celebrate it every year but it is also really fun. We eat Hallah bread with honey and apples which is one of the most traditional Jewish foods. It is always in August or September when me and my siblings would be in school, but since we went to a private Jewish school, we always got the holiday off to spend with our family. It was a holiday I always remember being about spending time with your loved ones and celebrating all the things to come in the new year and next few high holidays.

Was this the most important high holiday to you? How does this tradition compare to the other high holidays?

KM: Well because we are all in college now we do not celebrate the holiday as a family anymore because it is too hard to get away from school during the week, especially now that my brother goes to school in Kansas. I have so many fond memories of the holiday but I am sad that we cannot spend it together as often anymore. This high holiday is not nearly as important to me as Hanukah though. That is one of the most well-known and widely celebrated holidays in our religion.

Analysis:

As one of the high holidays, Rosh HaShanah is extremely important in Jewish tradition. It is something that many Jews celebrate in the same way that Chinese people celebrate their own new year at a different time of the year than most Christians and Americans. The holiday is supposed to represent the anniversary of Adam and Eve and their realization of humanity’s role in the world according to God. In temples, you would blow a horn called the shofar in the temple as a ritual although KM does not use this practice.