Passover Seder Meals

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 78
Occupation: Psychiatrist
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/16/2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece: Everything we eat in Pesach has a special meaning behind it. We eat an egg, a lamb bone, bitter vegetable herbs and fruits and nuts, all because it reminds of the deeds of good Moshe. The lamb represents the sacrifice of a goat that was offered at the Holy Temple, for which Moshe was responsible. The fruits and nuts are the mortar that our people used to build storage houses for Pharaoh. The egg, which is hard boiled, was eaten on the first Pesach Seder that took place in the Holy Temple after the sacrifice. We also sacrificed a chicken for the Lord, and ate the egg it laid behind to remind ourselves of our connection to Him. Finally, there’s the matza, the most important of all the meals. Bread with no yeast. The meal of our people for 40 years in the desert. When we eat it, we are reminded of the suffering and dedication of Moshe and the slaves that gave the Holy Land back to us. At the end of the night, we have a little game where the elders hide the matza in some place of the house and the children look for it. Whoever finds it first gets money from the grandparents, and they get to eat it. I don’t know if it has a deeper meaning behind it, but it was my way of keeping the children up for the entire thing. It’s very important to me that they celebrate the Seder with us and understand their history through our food and traditions.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Ethel is the matriarch of a Jewish family in Mexico City and always organizes the Seder dinners in her house. As she said, they are very important to her, as her grandchildren learn about their cultural history through it.

Context about the piece: Pesach, or Passover, celebrates the Biblical event in which Moses freed the Hebrew people from the slavery of Egypt. According to the Torah, they wandered 40 years in the desert before arriving to Canaan, or Israel, to build their Holy Temple.

Thoughts about the piece: Like many other Jewish festivities, it is celebrated and remembered through food. This goes on to show that the Jewish culinary tradition is not simply based on the ingredients available to the culture, but is rather strongly tied to the significance of their traditions. The game of the mazta in the end gives an interactive aspect to the Seder, which involves the younger participants of the ritual and draws in the younger generations to continue the tradition.

 

Dite from Madrid

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 27
Occupation: Cook
Residence: Madrid, Spain
Performance Date: 04/10/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

  1. Como cuando Franco.
  2. Like when Franco.
  3. Just like when Franco was here.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Jordi lives in a predominantly right winged neighborhood in Madrid where the former military dictator Francisco Franco is considered a hero. Jordi finds the dite baffling, as he is amazed at how people can still support a known mass murderer and oppressor.

Context on the piece: This is a common saying for people who believe that Spain was better under Franco’s rule. It is said whenever something they consider to be good happening in their land, and it could be something as big as a political move or something as minimal as the weather. For example, if they think they are having a nice day, they might say “Just like when Franco was here”.

Thoughts on the piece: It’s fascinating to see how people from a land are so attached to the politics that perspired in there. In this case it makes even more sense, as Franco’s ideals were nationalistic and populist. Thus, it would it is understandable that these people that feel attached to their land and nation glorify Franco to such a degree, as he protected the ideals of the nation state.

The Golden Temple

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tokyo, Japan
Performance Date: 04/01/2017
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

Main Piece: One of the most beautiful buildings in Kyoto is the Golden Temple of Kinkaku-Jin. It is a small shrine to Buddha that is covered in golden leaf and sits on top of a pond, where its reflection is mirrored by the water. But this is not the original temple. This is a second temple that they constructed exactly the same as the first, because its beauty came with a curse. Many years ago, a young monk arrived to Kyoto and he fell in love with the beauty of the gold temple. He loved it as if it were a spouse; he stared at it for countless hours, he talked to it, and it made him feel closer to God. He loved it so much that he became jealous of all the other monks that prayed in the temple, and he became to be tortured by this jealousy. In time, the only thing he could think about was the beauty of the temple. He couldn’t eat or work or even pray; he became consumed by it. So, one day, he decided he couldn’t take it any longer. He lit a steak on fire and there it in the temple, which was immediately consumed by the flames. After there was nothing left of it, the monk tried killing himself with a sword, but he was stopped by the local authorities, who arrived because of the fire. When they asked him why he did it he told them that he “could not stand the beauty of the temple”.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Ga Hyun was born and raised in Tokyo Japan. She and her family heard this story this from locals when they visited the rebuilt Golden Temple. They gave her no specific names or dates.

Context on the piece: Historically, the building was burned down in 1950 by a 22-year-old monk who did try to commit suicide. The part of the story which gives it its status as a legend is the motives that the monk had for doing this. In reality, he was trialed on the accounts of mental illness, and there are no official documents in which he is recorded saying that he did it because he couldn’t stand its beauty.

Thoughts on the piece: The motive that the story gives to the monk for burning the temple shows an emphasis on the aesthetic beauty on the Temple. It makes me wonder if the story is not actually folklore, but rather a fakelore to attract tourists by using the beauty of the temple as a plot device.

Proverb from Cecina

Nationality: Italian
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cecina, Italy
Performance Date: 04/17/2017
Primary Language: Italian
Language: English

Main Piece:  Better to have a death in the family than a guy from Pisa at the door.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Lorenzo was born in raised in Cecina, Italy, which is a small rural town in the Tuscan region. For unspecified reasons, the town has a rivalry with the town of Pisa, which is also in Tuscany. According to Lorenzo, part of the resentment comes form the fact the Pisa has “sold out”, becoming too indulgent to the tourists because of the famous “Leaning Tower” and loosing its original traditions to this. Lorenzo hates the use of this proverb as he sees it as intolerant, but it is common among his family members and colleges.

Context on the piece: The proverb is generally used to insult people from Pisa. It can also b used as a joke to lighten the mood when there is an actual family death.

Thoughts on the piece: It is interesting how one of the defining proverbs from Pisa is meant to specifically insult an entire group of people. It is the way of the people of Cecina to create bonds with each other, as they establish the “us” and “them” with proverbs like this. It also provides insight to how these locals see capitalised tourism, as they think that it ruins the authenticity of the region.

 

The Little Goat

Nationality: Mexcian
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/16/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece: Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the wolf, so that he gets the goat out of there.

The wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the stick, so that he beats the wolf.

The stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the fire, so that he burns the stick.

The fire doesn’t want to burn the stick, the stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the water, so that he wets the fire.

The water doesn’t want to wet the fire, the fire doesn’t want to burn the stick, the stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the cow, so that she drinks the water.

The cow doesn’t want to drink the water, water doesn’t want to wet the fire, the fire doesn’t want to burn the stick, the stick doesn’t want to beat the wolf, the wolf doesn’t want to go for the goat and the goat doesn’t want to get out of there.

Get out of the cave little goat. Get out of that place. Let’s go call the farmer, so that he tames the cow.

The farmer wants to tame the cow, the cow wants to drink the water, water wants to wet the fire, the fire wants to burn the stick, the stick wants to beat the wolf, the wolf wants to go for the goat and the goat wants to get out of there.

And that’s how the little goat got out!

Background information about the piece by the informant: Daniela is a resident of Mexico City and this is a song that she remembers from her early childhood. She claims that her kindergarten used to make her and his classmates sing it.

Context on the piece: Although there are many variations to the song, it is popular for children in Mexico City. This type of song is popular in other countries and cultures. For example, Russia has “The Giant Turnip” about a turnip that doesn’t want to get out of the ground and the singers call on different characters to help it get out.

Thoughts on the piece: Despite it being used as a distraction for children, the song can show how individuals and cultures think of the idea of power. In this case, it is the human who is in power, as he is the one that makes a decision and gets every character to do their job in a chain reaction. This shows a high regard for humans in the culture, but there are versions of the song in where the chin gets to God and he makes everyone do his job. This would imply a more deist sensibility than this version of the song.