Tag Archives: easter

Carnival – Italy

Nationality: Italian
Age: 38
Occupation: Professor
Residence: Venice, CA
Performance Date: April 07, 2008
Primary Language: Italian
Language: French, English, Latin, German

Carnival di Frascati

This is an Easter festival which is about 15 to 20 days in winter. People wear costumes during this time. The last day of the carnival, which is a Tuesday, is the most important. On this day a big statue the size of a building is put on a stake and burned. The statue is made of wood and paper. The statue imitates the Neapolitan character Pulcinella. The Frascati Pulcinella wears the all white costume like in Napoli but unlike the original it has a big penis. It is a way of mocking the Neapolitan carnival. The burning is accompanied by fireworks.

The whole day mimics a funeral sad music is played and people cry. The government and the big churches allow the people to do anything they want during the carnival, but once it is over the people of Frascati must go back to being responsible, law-abiding citizens. The people cry because their time of freedom has ended. I believe the burning of the statue signifies not only the end of freedom, but also as a representation of getting rid of authority and traditions which they have been forced to follow by the government and the dominating church.

Francesca attended the carnival when she lived in Frascati. She mentioned that it was lots of fun and that people truly cry at the end of the carnival because they are sad to be returning to work and school after having such a great time being free of responsibilities.

Holiday – Pamplona, Spain

Nationality: Spanish
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pamplona, Spain
Performance Date: April 06, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Holiday-Easter

“In Spain, Easter time is one of the most important times of the year, especially in southern Spain. For those who do not know, we have these big parades with this entity like an intrafraternity council that coordinates the different fraternities. They are each assigned to a different part of the parade. For example, one could be in charge of remaking the Last Supper. There will be over a hundred people carrying a monument representing the Last Supper because it is so large. Everyone in the community comes out and experiences an interpersonal moment as these fraternities display many of the great stories of the Easter holiday. Many of the people are in tears as they are moved by the great religious feeling. The parade shows the Easter holiday and its importance on the Spanish culture.”

Pablo said that Easter is very important to Spanish culture. He lives in northern Spain so it is not as important there as it is in southern Spain. However, he still feels like Easter represents an extremely religious moment for him and the rest of members of his community. He said that the fraternities are not like the ones you find at different universities. They are devout religious individuals that come together to make this event special. There are about fifty to sixty people in each fraternity, Pablo said, and depending on the size of the city in Spain, there could be few to many fraternities. Whenever he is in Spain, he always goes to the Easter processions because he has been going since he was a child.

When I asked Pablo what the parade meant to him, he said that it was a very interpersonal moment where he felt closer to God and the rest of his community. Pablo used to be an active member of one of the fraternities as he helped carry the monuments across the city. He said that this parade brings everyone into tears because of its overwhelming connection between the community and God. He enjoys Easter because everyone in the community comes out together to watch the fraternities parade through the city.

When I talked to Pablo about his Easter holiday, it made me visualize an entire community rejoicing together in the streets of their city. I agree that this would be a very interpersonal moment and that it also represents their culture. Not everybody has a parade with fraternities parading religious monuments across the city. This holiday shows that the people of Spain feel close to each other and God for the fraternities connect them all. I believe that this parade means that people of Spain want to show their religious practices not only to God, but to the world as well.

Holiday Tradition

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 6
Occupation: Student
Residence: Riverside, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Easter

“On Easter we hunt for eggs. After hunting eggs we get more eggs and hide them and ask our Mom and Dad to find them. We go to my cousin’s house and we play there and then we paint Easter eggs and then we go on the monkey pars with our hands ful of paint. After we do everything we eat chocolate eggs and cupcakes- I like the chocolate cupcakes.”

This interpretation of Easter makes me confused. There is no evidence of any church going or celebrating the belief that Jesus was resurrected from the dead on Easter. However, observing this child’s room, I find a shrine dedicated to La Virgen Guadalupe, adorned with rosary, bible, and pictures. She tells me she prays every night before bed. Yet, her account of Easter has no religious significance whatsoever. The non-religious westernized interpretation of Easter is spot-on to Roxy’s accounts.  Easter seems to have lost its religious significance to many modern day Americans. While in fact, as we discussed in class, Easter is also a celebration of spring and fertilization, for a Catholic girl, I expected her account of her Easter to include at least some mention of Jesus or reflection on the past. Yet for children, the ideas of eating chocolate and decorating eggs probably sounds much more enticing than going to church.

But as an elder, I feel religious holidays should be a happy medium of remembrance, sacrifice (if called for), and then celebration. Although I cannot account for personal opinions to Christian holidays, I can relate to the variation of religiousness in my faith. As a conservative Jew, we have Passover, which bans us from eating leavened bread for eight days. Likewise, on Rosh Hashanna, the New Year, we fast to cleanse our bodies of sins. Then, after our sacrifice, reading of the prayers, and perhaps synagogue services, we feast. But, this comes only after we have done what is required of us as loyal Jews. Yet I have come across a few, (though not as abundant as those Christians I have met) who call themselves Jewish yet choose to skip the holidays which actually require some effort and sacrifice. Instead, they may get presents on Chanukkah, the most non-religious holiday in the Jewish faith.

While folklore draws on the way in which people celebrate and does not show a critical eye, I cannot help but think when evaluating this account of celebrating holidays that perhaps they have lost some of their significance. However, I cannot be one to dictate how people choose to spend their days, nor can I judge their overall devotion to their religion based on accounts like this.

Holiday Cuisine – Russia

Nationality: Russian-American
Age: 55
Occupation: Professor
Residence: New York
Performance Date: April 10, 2008
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English

Easter Food Tradition

Kulich and Pasha – Russia

On Easter, my mom would go to church and have a big Russian feast with her family. The traditional Russian dessert is kulich and pasha

Kulich is a cake baked for a long time in a coffee can. It is marked by its characteristic sweet dough made with egg yolks, sugar, and candied fruit. Her mother used to spend a long time kneading, punching, and letting the dough rise. After it baked, they would take it to the Russian Orthodox Church and have it blessed by the priest. On top of the kulich, they would write the Russian letters for “HB,” which stood for “Christ has Risen” in Russian.

They ate the kulich with the sweet spread, pasha, served on top. It was made out of cottage cheese, egg yolks, sugar, and raisins. Like the kulich, the pasha took a long time to prepare—it had to sit in the refrigerator for a week or two in a mold. They would pile bricks on top of it to drain the water.

My mom told me that the tradition surrounding kulich and pasha was very social. The community would go around and visit the different families, tasting each other’s recipes. Each family had its own secret recipe with an ingredient nobody outside the family knew. My mom’s family used saffron in their kulich. Afterwards, all the old ladies would sit together and gossip about the recipes, debating over which ones they liked. When I asked her how she felt about the kulich and pasha, she said they were delicious and suggested making them again soon despite the hard work.

I would definitely like to participate in this food tradition. It’s interesting how it starts off just with the family and by the end of Easter, becomes a community event.

The sheer length of time and amount of work put into making this dessert is probably what makes it so special. It also seems very rewarding to be able to show it off to other families after all the hard work.

Tradition

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa MAria, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English

Holiday Tradition

Easter Confetti Eggs

Every year, a few months before Easter, Antonio and his family start saving up eggs. They crack the tops and make a nickel-sized hole through which they drain the egg, leaving the shell intact. After rinsing them out and letting them dry, they are ready to be dyed.

They dye and decorate the shells and then fill them up with confetti, after which the glue shut the hole. On Easter, they hide the eggs so the kids of the family can go on Easter egg hunts. When the eggs are found, the discoverer finds a victim and cracks an egg on his or her head. The result is confetti—everywhere.

Especially cruel Easter-eggers will fill their eggs with glitter, which leaves residue over everything for weeks and sometimes months. Antonio finds this tradition fun and familiar, since he has been doing it for as long as he can remember.

This Easter egg tradition differs from what I am used to. The Easter eggs I used to hunt were plastic and filled with candy. I like how it combines the creativity of egg decorating with the thrill of the hunt and a humorous finale.

Today, Easter is just like all other commercial holidays. My family usually goes on a shopping spree for plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies, and bags of candy or marshmallow Peeps. After my sister and I opened these gifts, Easter was as good as done.

Antonio’s cost-effective, creative tradition brings the whole family together for months ahead of time in a group effort to prepare for Easter. When the day comes, they spend hours together searching for eggs and smashing them over each others’ heads, which undoubtedly keeps them talking for days. When a holiday like Easter starts to lose its original purpose, it should at least retain its sense of family unity and cheerfulness.