Tag Archives: food

Rice For The After-Life

Nationality: Chinese/Vietnamese
Primary Language: English
Other language(s): Mandarin, Cheo Chow (Chinese Dialect)
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: LA, California
Performance Date: 3/24/2024

Context:

My informant, AC, is a friend of mine from my freshman year at USC from Los Angeles, California. I talked with her about her parents one day whilst we took a break from working on a project together. I recalled a moment where she got mad about not finishing a plate full of just rice, and she told me a story about her mother’s rants about rice in her past. She mentioned that her mom would scold her for not finishing her rice at home and she said that her mother gave a rather spiritual reason than the reason I originally thought. So I questioned her about it further and this is what she told me:

Text:

“My mom used to tell me that for every grain of rice I didn’t finish, it would come back to haunt me in the afterlife. She explained to me as a child that the grains of rice I didn’t finish would turn into worms I would be forced to eat once I died and went into the afterlife. She used to tell me this: ‘Carry your weight of grain or be crushed by the burden of consumed destiny.’ I didn’t really know what to think of it, I mean even now it alarms me yeah, but it’s not something I would personally just blindly believe. Spooky though.”

Analysis:

In my research of this topic, I at first didn’t really find anything. I had to really dig, as AC didn’t give much more information about the topic she described because she claims she couldn’t really remember much else. So, because of her ethnic background and cultural history, I decided to ask around to other friends with similar backgrounds and cultures and with the help of them and the internet once I knew what I was searching for, I found this: Apparently, there is a cultural belief related to rice in some Southeast Asian and East Asian cultures, particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia, and parts of China and Japan, known as “Bangaan” or “Bunao.” This belief revolves around the idea that rice grains should not be wasted, as doing so can result in punishment in the afterlife. According to this belief, when rice grains are wasted or thrown away, they turn into worms or insects that represent the spirit of the rice. These worms are believed to haunt the person who wasted the rice, and in the afterlife, the person may have to eat these worms as a form of punishment or purification. The concept itself reflects the cultural value placed on rice as a staple food and the importance of not wasting resources. It is also tied to traditional agricultural practices, where rice was seen as a sacred crop and wasting it was considered disrespectful to the deities or spirits associated with rice cultivation. I am amazed by this concept and especially that metaphor, I mean wow, it has such meaning behind its spookiness. I personally have never heard of this and when doing further research on this I ended up learning that this concept and belief has been native to South-East Asian communities for centuries. This belief even ties into the idea of polytheism, that being that gods of rice existed and were worshiped in certain cultures like in the Philippines and certain areas of China. I found this information to be very intriguing, especially how these types of stories and cultural and religious beliefs continue to spread to this day.

Eating Haroseth for Passover

Informant: M.M

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Age: 20

Occupation: Student

Residence: Denver, CO

Performance Date: 04/25/2024

M.M is 20 years old and is from Denver, Colorado. She is my friend from USC, and I asked her if there are any festivals or rituals she participates in regularly. She tells me about a holiday custom his dad does for Passover. 

“During Passover, which is this big Jewish holiday we celebrate every year, my dad always makes this special dish called Haroseth. It’s kind of a mix of fruits, nuts, and spices, and it tastes amazing. What’s cool about it is that the recipe has been passed down in our family for generations. Passover is pretty much the only time Dad ever cooks, which makes it extra special for me because Mom usually handles the kitchen. It’s kind of a treat to see him in there, taking over for once. This tradition has been around since I was a kid, and I interpret it as a way for us to connect back to our Jewish roots and kind of remember our ancestors through this longtime, shared recipe.”

Personally, this recipe keeps a part of their history alive. Culturally, it connects them to their Jewish heritage, celebrating freedom and resilience, which is what Passover is all about. Their passed-down recipe signifies how long this celebration has stood in their family and ancestors. So I assume this holiday was really important for them. It gives them a chance to remember where they came from and strengthen their identity.

Sick Foods

Text:
Growing up, when the informant got sick, his parents would always feed him the same boxed chicken noodle soup. He remembers it coming in small red boxes. He would also get biscuits, or crackers if they had no biscuits. What he was given to drink was always seven-up, though when he was older this was sometimes swapped out for Gatorade. Recently, he found some other people online whose parents had also given them Chicken soup with seven up when they were sick. He was also told to lie down on his left side, which he still does occasionally and it seems to work fine.

Context:
He has absolutely no idea why these foods were the specific ones that he always got. He can understand Chicken noodle soup and biscuits being good foods when sick, because they are warm and rather plain/simple when it comes to flavor/spices, but can’t for the life of him figure out why bubbly seven up was in there. He thinks the lying on his left side might be to help with digestion, but isn’t sure why it’s specifically his left side.

Analysis:
I think the informant is correct that the foods are chosen based on being simple and palatable for a sick stomach, as well as warm. I think always the same so that when a child is uncomfortable and sick, they can be comforted by having some structure and consistency returned to them via the food they’re given while they’re feeling weird and foreign. I’d imagine that the seven up is given to the children because it’s tasty but not all that hard to digest, so the value it brings the child through enjoyment of their meal helps them feel better more than any sugar in it would make their sickness worse. I have no better guess than my informant on why he was told to lie specifically on his left side.

Gujarati/Jain Death Rituals Regarding Food

Context: The informant, A.V., is an 18 year old student with parents who immigrated from Gujarat; her family practices Jainism. Recently, her grandmother passed away, and this is what she observed immediately afterwards. Her grandmother, known as “Ba” lived with her family, and passed within the home.

Text: “When Ba passed away, a bunch of family friends came over almost immediately and when they asked my mom what they could do to help, she told them to start throwing out all the cooked food in both the refrigerator and freezer. I was really confused, so later I asked her, and she told me that if someone dies in the house, none of the cooked food is safe to eat anymore because like something about bad energy spoiling the food? Or like the aura of death in the house? I don’t remember. My cousin said it was probably because in olden times, they didn’t have much separation between the kitchen and where the death happened and also probably didn’t have good food storage, so whatever emanated from the body might end up getting in the food and making it unsafe.

The other thing was, until Ba was cremated, we weren’t allowed to make any food in the house. Family friends had to bring us food, like we couldn’t cook at all. My mom said it was partly because of the bad aura, because the house was like impure, but also partly because the spirit could linger and you want it to pass on. She said that like practically it was probably because people were supposed to have time to grieve without having to think about food, plus if people brought you food, you would have a strong community around you. Either way, it’s just kind of something you do. It doesn’t really matter if you believe in reincarnation or spirits or anything it’s just something you have to do.”

Analysis: Beyond any scientific reason that has to do with spoiled food and body-related fumes, the disposal of cooked food seems like an extension of contagious magic; as the body has died in the house, the food is no longer safe to eat because it contains that same aura of death. Rather than having an object that is once in contact always be in contact, with one having the ability to affect the other, it’s that two objects in contact with the same object (house) can affect each other. It’s almost a contagion syllogism if anything. One passing away makes the food no longer safe to eat. If anything, it’s contact magic in that the body touching the house affects the house’s purity and anything made within the house is unclean until the body is cremated, or purified.

Chinese New Year Festival Foods

Context: AT is a 22 year old student at USC. Her family is Taiwanese, and they celebrate Chinese New Year by cooking a variety of specific foods. AT listed these for me, along with the reasons behind why.

Text: “For one, we eat fish, because in Chinese, there’s a lot of words that sound the same and fish sounds the same as wealth. There’s a saying that every year you get more fish, you get more wealth. We also make this like fortune? cake? Or prosperity cake? It’s called fa gao, you can look it up. We make it because the word for fortune sounds like the word for rise, like bread rising. It’s really good! There’s also sweet rice cake, because it’s sticky, and the word for sticky sounds the same as the word for year. Oh, and of course, dumplings, because they look like the old fashioned coins or like ingots of gold they used to use. Let me think… oranges too, because one of the ways to say the fruit orange sounds like the way to say good luck”

Analysis: AT gave me a list of foods, all that are made and eaten due to a perceived relationship with something they sound or look like. The choice of food seems very sympathetic-magic based, specifically homeopathic magic based. Since the word for the item of food sounds like the word for another preferred item or outcome, engaging with that imitation is thought to produce said item/outcome, in this case, producing fortune in the form of money or in the form of luck. Making a food that either sounds or looks like luck/fortune is equated to making luck/fortune for oneself.