California Lemon Ritual: Visiting Family On The East Coast

Nationality: American
Age: 63
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Alameda, California

Informant Information

Age: 63

Date of Performance: 2/18/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: English

Residence: Alameda, California

Text

“If you grew up in California and all your family lives on the East Coast, you grow a lemon tree. When you visit family there, you bring lemons because it’s very exotic because you can’t grow lemons on the East Coast. You put them in a bag and then pack them in your suitcase. Eventually, some family members began visiting us on the West Coast when they got older, and they’d pick their own lemons from our lemon tree. I have a lemon tree in my backyard as a present for my husband because he’s from the South, and you also can’t grow lemons there.”

Context

The informant was born and raised in California, while her extended family remained on the East Coast. Her parents were originally from the East Coast, and she made frequent visits throughout her life. As part of those visits, she carried a seemingly simple but meaningful gift — fresh California lemons. This act became ritualized within her family, rooted in the regional differences in agriculture and climate. Lemons, while technically possible to grow in parts of the East and South, are far more common and thriving in California’s mild climate. In colder or more humid regions, lemon trees are vulnerable to environmental damage and rarely flourish.

For her family, receiving these lemons symbolized a piece of California, a vibrant, fragrant token of the West Coast lifestyle. When family members later visited her in California, they cherished the opportunity to pick lemons from her tree themselves. The ritual became a two-way cultural exchange, a reflection of rootedness and connection to place. Later, she planted a lemon tree in her own backyard as a housewarming gift to her Southern-born husband, making the tree not only a familial tradition but also a personal and romantic gesture.

Analysis

This lemon-gifting ritual illustrates how everyday items can carry deep cultural and emotional meaning, especially across geographic boundaries. What begins as a practical act of bringing fresh produce to family transforms into a ritual that marks identity, nostalgia, and care. The lemon tree functions as a living symbol of California, and its fruit becomes a physical expression of home, warmth, and abundance.

The act of transporting lemons across coasts shows the significance of regional differences in agricultural production while also emphasizing how natural resources can become symbolic commodities in family relationships. The ritual communicates more than just gift-giving. It speaks to the longing for home, the pride in one’s origin, and the desire to share that with loved ones who live far away. Furthermore, the informant’s continuation of the tradition by planting her own tree and offering it as a gift to her husband reflects how rituals evolve to include new meanings. The lemon tree is now both a bridge to her past and a symbol of unity in her marriage, showing how folklore adapts to new contexts while preserving its emotional roots.

Twelve Grapes, Twelve Wishes: A Central American New Year’s Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 31
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California

Informant Information

Age: 31

Date of Performance: 04/18/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Text

“It’s basically just a New Year’s tradition that, growing up, my mom always did. I thought it was just something unique to my family, but later I realized that a lot of families actually do it, especially Central American ones. My parents are Salvadoran, but I also know Guatemalan and Mexican families that do this too. So basically, for New Year’s Eve going into New Year’s Day, you get 12 grapes, and you eat them right at midnight, at 12:00 AM. Each grape represents a wish for the new year. It’s one wish for each month, 12 months, 12 grapes. Every year we do it, hoping those wishes come true.”

Context

The informant first learned this tradition from her mother when she was around 7 years old, which was around the time she learned to write. Her mother included a writing element in the ritual, having her write each wish down on a piece of paper as she ate each grape. This additional step not only reinforced the intention behind each wish but also allowed her to reflect on her aspirations later in the year and see whether they had come true. Writing the wishes gave the ritual a deeper sense of meaning and permanence. The informant originally believed the ritual was exclusive to her household, but she later discovered it was a widespread cultural practice shared by many Central American communities.

Analysis

The practice of eating 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight is a well-known New Year’s ritual in many Latinx communities, rooted in Spanish and Latin American cultural traditions. In the informant’s experience, the ritual serves as a bridge between personal belief and cultural heritage. What began as a family custom reveals itself to be part of a larger collective identity that transcends borders.

Her family’s unique addition of writing down the wishes transforms the ritual into both an oral and written tradition. This adaptation highlights how folklore evolves over time and reflects the values and practices of individual families within broader cultural norms. Writing down the wishes adds an intentional, reflective dimension to the practice, reinforcing ideas of goal setting and emotional renewal. The ritual embodies hope, aspiration, and the human desire for a better future, encapsulated in a symbolic and communal act.

Dragon Boat Festival

“Every year, in China or whoever celebrates [the Dragon Boat Festival], people ride on boats and eat Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).” 

The Dragon Boat festival is celebrated mainly by people from China on the fifth day of the Lunar month. The holiday was created to celebrates a former prime minister of China, Qinyuan because he had committed suicide by jumping into the river. After his death, the people of China decided to dump a lot of zongzi into the river so the fish would eat the dumplings and not his body. My friend had mentioned that he did not really participate in this holiday other than eating the food, but he knows about it though his schooling in Taiwan. 

When I asked my Taiwanese friend about any rituals or traditions that he celebrated, I had expected one that I would have at least heard of such as the Lunar New Year festival or Mid-Autumn festival. I was intrigued when this was the first one that he thought to tell me. Although I know he didn’t put too much thought into, the decision to share this event with me made me realize how much of his culture I really don’t know, despite having knowing him and both of our closest Chinese friends for years. I also thought it was interesting that he had limited knowledge about this festival. He had never really participated other than knowing what the event is for and eating the zongzi. It made me wonder about how other people celebrate the event, and the variation in how people celebrate events are in general. 

Korean-American Lunar New Year

“Oh, I say [happy new year to my grandmother in Korean] and bow before her on Lunar New Year. Then my mom makes all of the traditional ‘New Year Korean food’ and we eat well.” 

Lunar New Year looks different across the many countries that celebrate. It’s also quite different for those who celebrate in America. My boyfriend had told me how him and his Korean-American family celebrate the Korean Lunar New Year. He told me that he doesn’t know a lot of the tradition other than eating a lot of the traditional Korean food and bowing before his elders. He also mentioned that it’s a lot more popular among people and online now. He said that when he was younger, he feels like no one knew what a Korean person was much less knew about their culture. Nowadays, everyone knows a lot more about the culture and especially about Lunar New Year; almost more than he knows himself. 

As someone who is actively learning Korean, I think it is interesting to see my knowledge compared to my Korean-American boyfriend’s knowledge. A lot of times, I come back to him mentioning some things and he would either be clueless or ask me to elaborate so he can also learn. The first instance this happened was when I first told him that I learned about the Korean Lunar Year in class. We had learned how to say happy new year, ate a lot of the snacks that they eat at that time, and also looked at a presentation on what Korean people usually do in the day and what food they eat. My boyfriend had known some of the food and snacks that I mentioned, but I remember him saying that his mom wouldn’t normally make that food for this family when this event happened. After learning about how this event was celebrated this specific way in my class, I was curious about how all Korean-Americans celebrate, especially with being in LA, one of the biggest Korean-American cities in America. It makes me think about the traditions developed in the states and how similar these Korean-American traditions are to the Korean ones. 

40 Days After Death

“We do it because [the soul of someone has passed away recently] wanders around for 40 days before they settle on where they want to go. That’s why we pray to help them find their way to Heaven to because they don’t know where they are.” 

As a Filipino-Catholic, my family has many rituals that we perform at different life events. One of the most recent ones that my family has performed is the “40 days after death” prayer ritual we perform after a family member has passed away. For the first 9 days after the person has passed, my family comes together to pray the rosary together and recite the Novena for the Dead. After that, it’s usually the older relatives and those closest to the recently deceased who continue to pray the rosary daily, leading up to the final day when everyone comes together again to repeat the ritual one last time. 

The contents of this ritual are very heavy and the environment is usually quite solemn when this happens. However, when talking to my mom about it, she then started talking about how my whole family only comes together for weddings and funerals. These types of life events provide enough of a reason for people to reshuffle their busy schedules to come out and partake in the event. She then proceeded to talk about the fun memories with cousins that she doesn’t really hang out with and the dinners that occur after the prayer is done. It made me think about my own memories with this prayer, and how I also have had fond memories with my cousins and relatives that I didn’t meet until that time. Ironically, thinking back to these heavily sad periods of time where my family had lost someone, my mom and I first remember the memories of our family coming together for this person and to take part in this ritual. This 40 day of death ritual is ironically something that brings me a bit of happiness and community in a dark time, and I love my family for keeping that tradition alive for I believe that this familial togetherness is something that we value strongly.