Tag Archives: food

Italian Easter

Nationality: Italian
Age: 56
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

The informant is my father (referred to as FI) who is raised by two Italian parents and was raised in a very traditional Italian household. His parents have been married for 60 years and knew each other in their Italian towns since they were age 10. Easter is a big deal in Italian culture because it is a Catholic holiday.

 

FI: “Easter is, similarly to Christmas, more of week-long celebration than a one day holiday. All of Italy is very involved in events that occur that week. The Pope is out and about leading up to Easter.

On Easter Sunday people dress in green and white. Green and white are two of Italy’s colors but also I think it represents peace, hope, and resurrection. On Easter Sunday there is a lot of food, but also the traditional candies that we eat in America are not eaten. It’s not as much about Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. I know doves are also released during this time and then everyone heads to church. Sunday mass is a huge part of Easter Sunday.”

I found this to be particularly interesting that these were the traditions my father grew up with because they were definitely not carried down to me/ his children. When I was growing up, Easter was all about the chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs and we rarely went to church. Despite the fact that my father grew up in a traditionally Catholic Italian home, I feel that we were not given a lot of those same traditions because he actually no longer identifies as Catholic. I believe that also now holidays are so commercialized, especially in the United States, so it is hard to celebrate them with many real traditions that aren’t centered around religious ideas or food.

Vietnamese

Nationality: Vietnamese
Age: 26
Occupation: Nail Artist
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: Vietnamese
Language: English

The informant was a woman (referred to as Sarah) at the nail salon who was Vietnamese. She was telling me she was from Vietnam and moved to the United States when she was 13. She lived in Michigan and now is a nail artist in Los Angeles.  She told me about the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Tet.

 

Sarah: “Tet is the biggest holiday in Vietnam. Everybody celebrates. It is the Lunar New Year. We cook, special food in the days leading up to Tet and everyone is very busy. The preparations are very long. We have something called Mut, which is candy fruit. It is a snack and very sweet.

 

Then the first day of Tet is exciting. Children give greeting to elders- the grandmas you know? And then in exchange, the children get their lucky money. The whole holiday is about luck. We do not even sweep because that would sweep away good luck. The Vietnamese believe the very first visit to the family shows what fortune and luck the year will be. If good things come to your family on Tet, then the whole year will be lucky.”

 

I think Tet is particularly interesting because it is centered a lot on luck and there seem to be very specific traditions and superstitions that ensure you will have good luck. The worldview here would appear to be very future-oriented because the weeks leading up to Tet are focused on making sure everything is in place for a good fortune for the following year.

How to get kids to finish their meal (Taiwanese)

Nationality: Taiwanese/American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/23/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese

Background information:

My friend introduced me to a piece of folklore about how one can effectively get children to finish their meals. He is of Taiwanese descent, as he was born in San Francisco, California and both of his parents were born in Taipei, Taiwan. His family moved to California since before he was born and have assimilated into the American lifestyle but still stay very true to their Taiwanese roots.

 

Main piece:

My friend explained to me a saying that is often used in Taiwan to get children to finish their meals and not leave any food on the plate. The saying goes that if one wants a child to finish their meal and eat everything on the plate, they tell the child that if he or she does not finish their meal, they will marry someone with facial blemishes growing up. He said that his interpretation of this as a child was that he always thought of the remaining food pieces on his plate as signifying the multitude of blemishes that would be on the future spouse’s face when he grew up. Therefore, in order not to risk this, he would always quickly finish his food.

 

Personal thoughts:

I think that this piece of folklore is quite comical because there is no way that there could possibly be any correlation between finishing a plate of food and one’s future partner having acne. I enjoyed that this was a very different saying than what I was used to hearing in the culture that I am immersed in today, as it is refreshing to hear something that I have not heard before. I did find it a bit strange, however, that it would be considered a fear factor to have a partner with acne or facial blemishes because I do not think that this is what one should focus on when considering potential future partners.

Korean New Years Traditions

Nationality: American, Korean
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 14, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as KP.

KP: New years. For Koreans, new years is huge, right? New years, for us at least, we have like a family reunion, with like our other extended family. If you are like, considered a child, you bow, and you get money, and it’s wild. So obviously, the bigger the family reunion is, the more money you get. So that’s great. We always eat ddukguk, which are rice cakes. Traditional korean foods on the holiday—ddukguk is the main one. Every Korean family eats that on New Years—that’s just a thing you do. This is just typical Korean tradition, and it’s even way more intense in Korea.

BD: What do you mean way more intense?
KP: Well, I mean, New years is a way bigger deal there. Everything is closed. Here, all the American places are closed, but for some reason the Korean places are open. I don’t know about that. On Christmas all the Korean places are open. Straight up, we don’t care—we’ll work. Money is money, right?

Analysis:

This piece of Korean folk tradition covers two topics—money and food. Food is a central part of many holidays, but the ubiquity of a particular dish is pretty interesting, especially that it has also become a thing here in America. The discussion of money is also very interesting. “Red envelope money” is a tradition in Chinese culture as well. It is likely that this tradition is tied with the ideas of “good luck” and “good wealth” for the coming year in Korean culture, as it is in Chinese culture.

Pork and Parasites

Nationality: African American
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing, Artist
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2018
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as WC.

WC: My father has an interesting theory about eating pork. Especially because of my own personal beliefs, I don’t believe in eating pork, and he says he know that pork can carry parasites, but parasites don’t eat pork. So his stomach will be fine. I don’t know if it’s some type of weird reverse osmosis type of situation going on, but he believes that because he eats pork, and worms don’t eat pork, pork being in his stomach protects his stomach from worms.

BD: Did he get this from one of his parents?

WC: One of his older mentors, when he was growing up, just had all types of quirky theories about a lot of things.

Analysis:
This is an interesting logical fallacy that instated itself as a personal system of belief. It is also interesting how the informant is now vegan, rather than a eater of pork, like his father. There is also not much scientific backing to it, which explains why the younger generation is hesitant to believe in it. However, both the informant’s father and his mentor believed in it, showing that there is some hold to this belief.