Title: Traditional Indian Christmas Meal

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre: Familial Folklore

• Language: English

• Country where Item is from: India

Informant Data:

• Sai Davuluri provided us with what his family eats every year for Christmas Dinner. He is 18 years old, currently a ’21 at Dartmouth College and lives in Merced California. Both his parents originate from Central/South India. Sai’s family practices Hinduism and does celebrate Christmas.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: On large holidays families typically have a traditional meal that they will make for that holiday. Christmas is no exception as all of the people we interviewed spoke about a traditional meal that they have every Christmas.

• Cultural Context: Masala Dosa Is a very popular South Indian dish. Sai’s parents are both from South India and they brought this traditional meal to the U.S. and incorporated it into the americanized version of Christmas.

Item:

• His mother makes his favorite Indian dish, Masala Dosa, for Christmas Eve dinner. She makes this every single year and has eaten it every Christmas he can remember.

Collector’s Comments:

• It was interesting that Sai’s family practices Hinduism and celebrates and also celebrates a primarily christian holiday. They open their presents Christmas morning and eat chocolate chip pancakes. They also watch the movie Home Alone on Christmas day.

Collector’s Name: Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords:

• Food, Tradition, Christmas, Hinduism