Tag Archives: Christmas Eve

Catalan Christmas

Nationality: Spanish
Age: 35
Occupation: Spanish Professor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2013
Primary Language: Spanish

“I wanted to tell you about Catalan traditions, which are very different from the rest of Spain and not that well known. When I say Catalan traditions I mean those that originated in Cataluña, in the North of Spain. Um, I mean there are several that I can share because I grew up with them. One of them is, well, I grew up and I didn’t grow up, my family moved to Germany to work, but they made a point of telling us things from Cataluna when we were in Spain. So I was living them, but outside of Cataluna, I was living them in Germany. The first of them, which was very unique and weird to a certain extent, happens in the night of the 24th, so you have to think in the context of Santa. So kids, um, bring home, um, strange creatures made of wood, with four wooden legs, and then it has, you know, decorated with a red barentina, which is a red baret, and you bring that piece of wood in, and you generally put it next to a fire or next to a Christmas tree these days, and you cover it with a blanket so it’s comfortable and warm, and you feed it every morning. So the kids usually put some fruits or vegetables or candies, and they magically disappear during the day, so you’re kind of feeding that little creature. And then the night of the 24th, everyone gets together around it, and you know parents have to make sure that something is put underneath the blanket so it looks like it’s getting fatter and stronger as its eating. And the weird weird tradition is that you get a stick and the kids hit the little creature with the stick and you sing a little song in Catalan, and literally the pig “shits” the presents. So traditionally, it was more candies and little books, this day is a lot of parents are using it as Santa so kids are getting bigger and bigger presents and, then it depends on families, some families do it all at once, so the kids go to the kitchen and wet the stick and then they go back and they hit the piggy and all the presents come out at once, some families do it kid by kid, so as the kid gets the stick wet the parents make sure that underneath the blanket comes the present that is assigned for that kid, but it’s a very strange tradition in how it is delivered.”

Informant Analysis: “One thing that’s interesting about it too is that I grew up with it in my family because my dad is from Cataluna, my mom is not, but we did it in my dad’s side of the family, and I thought it was the normal thing in Spain, so when I was ten and I returned to Spain, I moved to Northern Spain and I talked about this and people looked at me as if I was crazy, you know, because they don’t do it over there and during Franco’s time during the dictatorship it was forbidden, so many kids of my generation grew up during Franco’s time and were not allowed to do that unless they were doing it in hiding at home, so for me something that was very normal was not necessarily for everyone.”

Analysis: I think this is a fun way to include the children in the present giving process, because they are “feeding” the small animal that they create, so they have a part in it. Usually the parents are the ones buying and giving the presents, so this way its more of a group effort. This ritual was obviously important to the informant because it helped her hold on to her Catalan heritage even when she wasn’t physically there.

Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve

Nationality: Cuban, Hungarian
Age: 49
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Woodland Hills, California
Performance Date: March 20, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Some Hungarian

Informant: “On Christmas eve children are not allowed to enter the room where the Christmas tree is going to be in, until given permission by their parents. Children are told that Baby Jesus brought the tree and the gifts for them. Though, sometimes it is just the gifts that Baby Jesus is responsible for”

 

The informant is a first generation American who was born in Danbury, Connecticut. She is a middle aged woman with two older children. Her father was born in Oriente, Cuba and her mother was born in Mór, Hungary. The informant did not believe in this baby Jesus lore herself, but heard about this belief from her mother. Her mother told the informant and her sisters of this lore when they were young children approximately six or seven years of age.

Although the Baby Jesus tradition was not actively practiced in the informant’s family, it was actively practiced and believed in her mother’s family when her mother was a child. The informant said that her mother and her family “would go to church and when they got back Baby Jesus would have magically decorated the room and brought gifts.”

The informant and her sisters found the lore to be amusing, and they would sometimes say to things to each other such as “Baby Jesus wouldn’t like that” to jest about the idea of Baby Jesus. She also liked the idea of Baby Jesus because it was different from her cultural experience and “sparked the imagination.” Furthermore, the informant felt that the idea of Baby Jesus really cemented the concept of Christianity during Christmas because belief in Baby Jesus took the focus away from figures like Santa Claus and reemphasized the “real point of the holiday of Jesus’s birth.”

I agree with the informant that this lore effectively brings Christ back into the focus of Christmas because now Baby Jesus is responsible for the Christmas tree and the gifts rather than a character like Santa Claus. As an Episcopalian, I am not a very devoutly religious Christian, but my family and I do go to church on Christmas Eve. Oftentimes, the pastor will spend some time to discuss how people (in reference to other Christians) can forget the reason behind the celebration of Christmas, that it is ultimately the day of Jesus’s birth, rather than just a day of gift-giving and festivities. It seems some Christians consider overlooking the importance of Jesus on Christmas a very serious problem, and methods like this can help alleviate this perceived problem.

Swedish Lutefisk Recipe

Nationality: Finnish, Swedish American
Age: 77
Residence: Temecula, CA
Performance Date: 4/8/12
Primary Language: English

The informant is 77 years old. She was born in Minnesota, and is of Swedish and Finnish descent.

Over Easter Brunch, my informant supplied me with some traditional Swedish folklore. The first thing that came to her mind was a recipe for Lutefisk that her family used to make. This is what she told me about the traditional Swedish recipe:

“Lutefisk is an old Swedish fish dish. It’s cod preserved in lye. I think my mother used to soak it in milk, or actually probably water. The only time she would make it was Christmas Eve. I used to help a little bit, but I think I mostly got in the way. It was actually really disgusting. No one liked it, not even my mother who spent the time making it every year! I don’t know why we kept making it for so long, but it was a traditional thing that made us feel more connected to our roots. After leaving the old country, it was nice for my parents to have a little something traditional, even if no one really enjoyed it!”

I agree with my informant’s reasoning about why the tradition continued. If no one actually enjoyed eating the lutefisk, then it was most likely made as a way to stay in touch with the family’s Swedish heritage after moving to America.

Recipe:

1 piece dried lutefisk, sawed into 6 lengths

2 tablespoons lye

Prep: Soak the fish in water for 3 days. Add two Tbsp. lye into a gallon of water. Soak for 3 days in this solution. Then soak for 4 days in water, changing water every day.

Cooking: Tie the fish loosely in a square of cheese cloth. Drop in a large enamel pot of boiling water. Cook 10 minutes or until well done. Remove cheese cloth put on a platter and debone. Serve with a mustard sauce.

Munlie Men

Nationality: European, Lebanese
Age: 56
Occupation: Children's Book Writer
Residence: Brea, California
Performance Date: 8 April 2012
Primary Language: English

After discussing a few traditions on Easter Day, this informant told me about her own holiday tradition that she started with her family. A few years ago, this informant found a recipe to make Munlie bread men in a magazine.  

This is the recipe for making a sweet German bread that is shaped into “little men” which is what Munlie or Mannlein is translated into in German. The informant discovered that these “little men” were a German Christmas Eve custom. Children would decorate this bread into little shapes and leave the bread out for Santa, the German version of cookies and milk.

There is actually also a German Children’s song “Das bucklige Männlein”, which translates to “The Hunchbacked Little Man” and this is why the bread men are twisted into outrageous looking shapes. After finding this recipe, my informant started sharing it with her family and now they make them every Christmas without fail. Every Christmas Eve, they make the bread and then Christmas morning, they shape and eat the bread.

This recipe consists of ingredients like lemon peel, honey and anise seed, which gives it the signature sweet flavor. And then to make a Munlie, there are much more specific directions, which were found with the recipe.

“To shape each munlie, start by cutting 3/4-inch notches on opposite sides of the log about 1 1/2 inches from an end (this marks the shoulders). Twist 1 1/2-inch section over 1 full turn to define the head. If desired, pinch and slightly pull the tip to make a pointed cap. To create arms (step 2), make slighty slanting cuts on opposite sides of the log starting about 3 1/2 inches below shoulders and cutting up about 2 3/4 inches (leave about 1/2 to 1 inch across center for chest). For legs, cut from end opposite head, making a slash through middle of the log and up about half of its length. To animate each little man, pull and twist the arms and legs into active positions, making at least 5 twists in each limb (step 3). Keep the limbs well separated for good definition of activity. Space the prancing munlies about 2 inches apart on the baking pan.”

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_v173/ai_3538967/

I believe this custom emphasizes the idea of family during a holiday. This is a recipe that allows the children to join in and make the food with their parents and then use their creativity to decorate it after. As with many holidays, Christmas time holds so many unique traditions and just like people make  Gingerbread men and leave cookies and milk out for Santa, this is the German way of celebrating the festivities.

 

Bayberry Candle

Nationality: American
Age: 51
Residence: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

My Mother said that growing up, her mother would always burn a bayberry candle on Christmas Eve for good luck and that they would also burn it on New Years Day for good luck. It would burn the entire day until it the wax ran out.

According to my mother, this tradition comes from England, and then was continued as a New England tradition during colonial times. My mother told me that her mother’s side was English, and had the last name of Trasp, which is where the tradition of burning the candle came from in her family. She was not sure why it was a bayberry candle was burned, however.

My mother said that it wasn’t a tradition to make the candle, they usually just bought it. But the candle comes from the wax scraped off the berries of the bayberry shrub, and the bayberry plant is found in both Europe and North America.

This is interesting because in earlier colonial times the bayberry wax would be collected, perhaps because the animal fat used to make candles was scarce. Now the candles are made from other materials, with the bayberry scent, and burned for the sake of tradition.

The interesting thing that I found was that there were many traditional things that my mother did for good luck that came from different regions, and the bayberry candle was just one of them. There were multiple traditions around the holidays and my mother said they did them all, from burning a bayberry candle to a traditional German New Year’s dinner.