Tag Archives: family tradional foods

“La Noche Buena” December 24th traditions in Cuba

Nationality: Cuban
Age: 84
Occupation: Social Worker
Residence: LA
Performance Date: May 2, 2021
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: english

Context:

My informant is an 84 year-old woman of Spanish / Cuban ethnicity. She grew up in Havana, Cuba and lived there until she had to leave due to the communist regime at the age of 22. This story was told as an explanation of what they used to do in Cuba the night of December 24th. She enjoys this tradition because it reminds her of young days in Cuba when things were good.

Transcription:

Informant: 

“The Christmas tradition… uh La Noche Buena (The Good Night) took place on the 24th in Cuba, the day before American Christmas. What happens is um ah its a family event where everyone is involved in the process of preparing a whole pig to eat. First the men in the family traditionally kill and clean the pig, and all family members are included in different parts of this process. Grandmothers are usually in the kitchen preparing spices and all sorts of dressings and other simple dishes, usually served with rice and beans and uh… plantains. The second part is a man’s tradition of roasting the pig in an outdoor area. While this happens towards the end, ah the women decide who is gonna sit where, where are the things going at the table, who is gonna serve, who is gonna carve. In this tradition women have 100% control of all of the things that occur ~ even after the meal, men will have zero involvement. A variety of desserts are fixed from Spain directly, usually you bought at someplace that the desserts were created in Spain. You know, now the food items are not there, you cannot find a pig, things from Spain, you cannot find beans, most people are hungry and hoping to find any food. Also, Santa Clause does not exist in Cuba, we have the 3 kings.”

Thoughts:

I thought it was really interesting to hear how this story reflected the times of the early days when my grandmother was still in Cuba. It seems as though women and men both had very distinct roles in this process and were extremely diligent in following these confines. Animal rights were also another interesting perspective from an American point of view. In the US, today it might seem inhumane for every household to slaughter a pig on Christmas. However, in a lot of other places, it is still totally normal to slaughter your own meat for a meal and can even be thought of as showing more respect for the animal, depending on how it is carried out of course. 

Cuban culture does put an emphasis on family events and the bonding and delegation of roles within a family. It is some of these ideas that help to keep the culture strong with lasting ideas and beliefs. Today my family still roasts a whole pig in my grandma’s backyard on Christmas. It is a huge tradition, we definitely are not as rigid and do not slaughter the pig ourselves, but it does feel like the Cuban heritage is still coming through in its own way.

Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Director of Administration
Residence: Tiburon, CA
Performance Date: 4/21/18
Primary Language: English

recipe

I’ll rewrite the recipe because the original recipe sheet is so tattered from use and time.

Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups flour, 1 teaspoon (baking) soda 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup butter, ¾ cup sugar, ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 eggs, 1 package chips, 1 cup nuts

Combine flour, (baking) soda + salt. Combine butter, sugar + vanilla (beat until creamy). Add eggs. Add flour. Add chips + nuts. Bake 375° 9-11 minutes.

The recipe above is for the Informant’s homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe. I asked it there were any special instructions left out of the recipe card and she stressed the importance of various ingredients and methods. Real butter should always be used, never margarine. The butter should be at room temperature to make the mixing process easier. It has to be light brown sugar, not dark brown sugar to get the flavors right. She says the most important mistake people would often make is to not pack the sugar down into the measuring cup. It is a dense ¾ cup.

Typically, it is the women in the family that bake. The men always make things to crispy, according to the Informant. The name on the top of the recipe is a bit of a confusing story. They were always “Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies,” but I was shocked to find out the recipe written above is from Toll House. When I asked, the Informant about this, she told me that she doesn’t really follow the recipe anymore, so the cookies are a little bit different every time. Baking cookies like riding a bike for her at this point. This prompted another question: then how she’s sure she has the right amount of any of the ingredients. She responded she just uses, “enough.”

Family customs during Lunar New Year

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 79
Occupation: Retired professor
Residence: Taiwan
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: Japanese

The informant is my grandmother from Taiwan, her hobbies are going to church and cooking. She says because Chinese tradition is very custom and done in certain ways it is weird to “stray” off on doing certain traditions. However, our family has done many of the same traditions, except starting from my great-grandparents time (4 generations), we had done some of these Lunar New Year traditions differently.

Informant:

Our house has specific dishes that we make:

蛤蠣 (Ha Li)- These are small clams. After eating the clams, we put the clam shells under the table. this is to signify having money, as olden times clams were a symbol of money and wealth with pearls and such.

年糕 (Nian Gao)- This is rice cakes. This is a homophone to 年高 (Nian Gao) which implies promotions or prosperity year after year.

鯧魚 (Chang Yu) – A type of butterfish. we are supposed to eat fish because it is also a homophone in an idiom 年年有餘 (Nian Nian You Yu). This means to wish abundance year after year, so every lunar new year we eat fish. In my family, we eat this specific type of fish.

I personally do not know why we eat that specific fish, I do not think it was because it was anyone’s favorite or anything. I think it was just a really cheap fish back in my grandparent’s time so it kind of became custom to eat that specific fish. We still practice all of these traditions today, including putting the clams underneath the table. This was interesting to hear because I had never asked or understood what doing all these actions implied, because I was rarely in Taiwan to celebrate lunar new year, I had no idea what or why my family would do such specific things.

 

Lunar New Year Traditions

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 79
Occupation: Retired professor
Residence: Taiwan
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: Japanese

The informant is my grandmother from Taiwan, her hobbies are going to church and cooking. She says because Chinese tradition is very custom and done in certain ways it is weird to “stray” off on doing certain traditions. However, our family has done many of the same traditions, except starting from my great-grandparents time (4 generations), we had done some of these Lunar New Year traditions differently.

Informant:

We also eat a whole chicken but cannot eat head, legs, butt. We leave the leftovers to the 5th day, this means keeping your leftovers like your money.

Day 1 – eat only vegetarian for breakfast, a tradition that is still practiced in our family, but do not know the reason for it. Leftover rice is always made into dry rice, making into porridge will bring about rain. For breakfast, we have to eat boiled spinach. When boiling it, we put the whole spinach piece in as a symbol of living longer. 羅波糕 (Ruo Buo Gao) – In the Taiwanese dialect it means being “lucky winning lottery”. This is radish cake that we eat every Lunar New Year, specifically on the first day.

A lot of the traditions are practiced still, but in some cases, the meanings were lost. Although that may be the case, our family still blindly continued the rituals. Our family mainly continues to do many of the traditional rituals, but if it is too complicated or annoying we would rather change it to accommodate our preferences. This was interesting to hear because I had never asked or understood what doing all these actions implied, because I was rarely in Taiwan to celebrate lunar new year, I had no idea what or why my family would do such specific things.

 

Moon Festival

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 54
Occupation: Consultant
Residence: Taiwan
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

The informant is my father who has always grown up in Taiwan but came to America for grad school. Understanding both cultures, he has a very wide understanding of the traditions in our household and its practices.

Informant:

中秋節 (Zhong Qiu Jie) – It is a celebration of when the moon is the biggest during the year. We celebrate it by eating 月餅 (Yue Bing) which is moon cakes. We also have a tradition to go outside and have barbecues with friends and family while enjoying the beautiful moon. In our family, we do not go do barbecues outside because it is too much of a hassle, so we usually just go to a barbecue restaurant to eat. After that, we always go home and eat fruits, one particular fruit we eat is pomelo. When you were a child we used to eat the fruit and use the shell of the fruit as a hat for you to play around with. As a kid, we even used the fruit shell as slippers to save money. It also has a great smell so we always leave it outside as a fragrance.

I have sometimes been in Taiwan during this time, I for one personally love this holiday because I get to eat delicious barbecue. I definitely do not remember doing such a tradition of putting fruit on top of my head, but it does sound like something I would do as a kid.