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.

Splitting Xmas: Heritage and Tradition for the Eve and Day of Christmas

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Age: 24

Text: MF – “Christmas in my family is different because we split it into two days to represent both sides of my grandparents’ culture. Since my grandparents come from different backgrounds, they made it work so they could both spend time with their families while still being together. Because of that, Christmas Eve is centered around Mexican culture, and Christmas Day is more traditional American.”

MF – “On Christmas Eve, everything is focused on Mexican food and traditions. We usually have dishes like tamales, chili relleno, enchiladas, rice, beans, and other homemade foods that take time to prepare. A lot of the cooking starts earlier in the day, especially with tamales since those require prepping the masa, making the filling, wrapping them in corn husks, and steaming them. Chili rellenos involve roasting and peeling the peppers, stuffing them, battering, and frying them. Our enchiladas are a little different too. Instead of making them individually, my grandmother makes them in a big pan so there is more for everyone, which makes it feel even more like a shared family meal. It is more of a warm, cultural, family-centered night where everyone is eating, talking, and enjoying being together. Christmas Eve is also when the whole family exchanges gifts with each other, so it feels more like a big group celebration.”

MF – “Then Christmas morning is completely different. It shifts into a more traditional American-style Christmas. That is when it becomes more personal, where my parents give us our gifts (Under the tree for us when we wake up). We also have foods like ham, mashed potatoes, and other classic dishes. It feels more like what you would typically see in movies, with everyone gathered together, opening presents, and relaxing. The most important part of this holiday for me is definitely the food and being around family. The food brings everyone together, but it is the time spent with family that really makes it meaningful for me.”

Context: MF and their family each year break up Christmas into two separate days, where Christmas Eve is used to represent and celebrate their Mexican heritage and culture, and the latter day, Christmas Day proper, is to celebrate Americanized Christmas as is shown in pop culture and around the United States. The largest distinction between these two days would be the food that is made and consumed on the respective days, as well as the aura around the celebration itself.

Analysis: While being centered around a calendrical holiday, MF and their family made this truly their own ritual by the deviation of form, now having this repetition annually for them and their family. Taking a pre-existing holiday and molding it by one’s own community or folk group to align more with their vision, whether it be to express shared gift giving and family time, honoring the traditions of their Hispanic heritage with the food and style of family time but also celebrating the holiday as is done traditionally on the day itself. Within MF’s family, there really isn’t a Christmas Eve, but two separate holidays to treasure and cherish each side of their family. Through the communal act of making and eating food together, giving gifts throughout the whole family, or the traditional “ham, mashed potatoes, and other classic dishes,” lend the power of one’s own folk group, the rituals, traditions, holidays, and the foodways that fuel them to create something truly beautiful and unique.

Feast, Festival, and Fur – The rituals of a furcon

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Age: 27

Text: Interviewer – “When was the first time you heard of a furry convention?”

JP – “I’ve for sure sure known about them since I was younger but I didn’t really think positively about them until years later. I was a bit of an edgelord back in the day.”

Interviewer – “Have you been to one before or many?”

JP – “I’ve been to the same one, TFF, or Texas Furry Fiesta for 3 years as of now. So a couple times, I’d say.”

Interviewer – “What has been some notable elements of these, some highlights that you get excited about when traveling and going to these conventions?”

JP – “To me, the Artist Alley, a large room in the convention center where tons of different artists are posted up to sell their merchandise, get commissions in person, or advertise. It’s super cool. Besides that, the various community events that TFF has have been the highlights for me.”

Interviewer – “What rituals do you feel are active elements of every furcon, or you feel should be a part of them if not?”

JP – “Fursuiting for sure, and while it’s unnecessary I particularly have fun playing a bit of a character. I have 2 different suits, so I’m able to change up the characters I go as, which adds to the fun of it all since a lot of other people are doing the same. Some conventions even have events to show off all of the different attendees suits! Though despite it being a very integral thing, it’s still unnecessary and one doesn’t need a suit in order to attend.”

Interviewer – “What’s been your most memorable or best memory in the fandom or at a furcon?”

JP – “As far as my best memory, it would prolly be my first con just getting to spend time with some friends and having the opportunity to explore the city with them.”

Context: Similar to other fandom based conventions, a “furcon” is just that, a convention for furries or fans of the furry community to gather, go to panels, buy art, and be a meeting point for friends who would usually be online to meet up in person. When talking to JP about his involvement within the fandom, since I knew he recently went to Texas Furry Fiesta, I wanted to delve in and ask about the folk practices done at this kind of event, as I know other conventions akin to comicons have their cosplays, panels, celebrity features, and art galleries.

Analysis: Furries are one of the fandoms that have such deep cultural ties to industries, popular culture, media, and their own complex traditions, rites, and rituals. One of said rites of passage is attending a furry convention, or a furcon for short. Aside from this rite of passage, many traditional events occur, some mentioned by JP. These would include the sharing of community folk art at the artist’s alley, a dance competition, showing off the hard work and craft of fursuit makers by featuring your own, as well as being a pseudo-pilgrimage for a friend group all within the fandom to meet up. A furcon is a multi-faceted treasure trove of lore for all of those who attend, their passions, and particular interests in their characters, how they present themselves, and the boundless memories, activities, and events at their disposal.

La Cegua

Age: 54

Text:

Informant: La Cegua would appear to drunk men or mujeriegos (womanizers). When these men would walk alone at night where no one else is around after heavy drinking and being with other women and were on their way home, La Cegua would appear to them in the form of a beautiful woman. It would get really close to them. When the men would go to kiss her, instead of being beautiful, it was like the skull of a horse and her face was rotting. Some men would go crazy out of fear and sometimes even die of the pure shock of how ugly it was.

Context:

The informant learned about the legend of La Cegua while living in Nicaragua. La Cegua is a very beautiful looking woman that can be found in the mountains or woods. Typically, womanizing men who are out late at night, drunk, and cheating on their wives find her. At first, she appears to be beautiful but once she turns around, she has the head of a horse, terrifying men.

Analysis:

This Nicaraguan legend was functional, as it was likely taught to kids and teens to scare them from getting drunk, going out alone at night in the woods and mountains, and cheating on their spouses. They wouldn’t want to come across this woman with a horse face.

Nicaraguan Duendes “Elves”

Age: 74

Text

Informant: “When me and my brother were younger, we sometimes went to a farm with our grandparents and dad. At night, we used to sit in the back of a pickup truck as adults drove, and when we were sitting there, we saw little kids following us. I told the adults that I saw little kids following us on the road, but they were running really fast. They were running at the speed of the truck. Only me and my brother saw them but none of the adults could see them. My grandparents and dad asked what the kids looked like so we described them as little kids with a red hat and backwards feet. The adults told me that they were elves. I tried reaching my hand out to grab the elves and the adults told me not to do that and I couldn’t reach my hand out to grab them because they were elves and they took children.”

Context:

The informant was born and raised in Nicaragua until they moved to the U.S. at 16 years old. When the informant was young, they rode on the bed of a pickup truck with their brother. One night, they saw elves following them and tried reaching out to grab them but failed. When they told their dad and grandpa, they were advised not to reach out for them because they could grab and steal them.

Analysis:

The story is unique in the sense that it’s not a common one told to children across an area. It is a personal experience, or a memorate. This reminds me of Lydia Hamessley’s “A Resisting Performance…” where she describes murder ballads being told in first-person perspective. I think folklore becomes more interesting when you’re hearing the stories directly from the source. It provides details that can get left out or aren’t shared when someone else is retelling the story.