Tag Archives: dinner

How Jewish Families Celebrate Christmas Dinner (Evan Fu)

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General Information About Item:

  • Material Lore, Christmas Dinner Description
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Jonah Kershen
  • Date Collected: 10-21-2021

Informant Data:

  • Jonah Kershen is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2022. Jonah hails from a Jewish family and lives in Hartford, Connecticut. Jonah is an Economics/Computer Science double major at Dartmouth and plays for the Club Soccer team on campus. He plans to work as a trader upon graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Jonah’s family is traditionally Jewish – Jonah celebrates all Jewish holidays and consumes a fully kosher diet himself. While the family primarily celebrates Hannukah during late December, the family still observes the gift-giving and family-time-oriented nature of Christian Christmas. Like Chinese people, Jewish people tend not to celebrate Christmas in a traditional, Christian American sense.
  • Social Context: This description was mentioned when the interviewee was asked about their Christmas traditions. While Jonah was clear that his family chose not to practice many traditionally American Christmas rituals, he did emphasize that his family (and other Jewish families) tended to repeat certain activities on Christmas, including a Christmas dinner.

Item:

  • Jonah’s family’s Christmas dinner almost always features takeout Chinese food. Like Jewish people, Chinese people tend not to celebrate Christmas extravagantly, and most Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas Eve. Jonah’s family typically orders food from the vegan/vegetarian (kosher-certified) menu at a local Chinese restaurant called Black Bamboo. After finishing their Chinese food, they usually eat a homemade, Jewish dessert such as chocolate babka. Jonah emphasized that his family simply considers the Christmas holiday as a period of rest, and they appreciate that Chinese restaurants remain open on the holiday. He mentioned that most of his Jewish family and friends alike will order Chinese takeout on Christmas and have a quiet, filling meal with just their immediate family.

Transcript:

  • “In terms of dinner, we usually just order takeout from this Chinese restaurant called Black Bamboo which is open on Christmas Eve. They have a pretty awesome vegan/vegetarian menu that we order from, and my mom will usually make a chocolate babka or some other Jewish dessert to cap off the dinner. It’s hilarious – literally all my Jewish friends and their families order Chinese takeout on Christmas. I think Jewish people just consider the holiday as a day of rest where the parents can just get away from work and have a nice dinner with the family.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “We owe a lot to the Chinese people, to be honest. Can’t imagine how many Jewish families they feed on Christmas.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Like the Chinese food recipe that I collected from my mother, I wanted to interview members of other minority folk groups in America and investigate their Christmas food traditions. I thought that interviewing a Jewish person would be particularly informing due to the religious conflict of interest. Obviously, Jewish people would celebrate Hannukah a few days after Christmas and care less about the Christian holiday. I found Jonah’s responses to be very interesting – he mentioned that many Jewish families in his immediate network simply considered the Christmas holiday as a period of rest and would also order Chinese takeout for Christmas dinner. This tradition appears to be folkloric in nature among the Jewish-American folk group. Jewish families appreciate the day of rest and choose not to cook a large, effortful dinner for many mouths, opting instead for the convenience of Chinese takeout. This practice appears to be shared among many Jewish families and is an incredibly interesting discovery in my collection process.

Collected By:

Evan Fu, 21

Palo Alto, CA

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS013

Fall 2021

Cold Noodles for Christmas Dinner (Evan Fu)

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General Information About Item:

  • Material Lore, Christmas Food Recipe
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Bing Hai
  • Date Collected: 10-24-2021

Informant Data:

  • Bing Hai is a 50-year old woman of Chinese descent living in Palo Alto, California. She is also the mother of the collector. Bing was born in Shenyang, China and immigrated to the United States upon finishing college in Beijing. She works on the patent counsel for Bristol Myers Squibb and has two college-aged children.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Bing learned to cook Chinese food at a very young age – she has a large repertoire of Chinese recipes that she can make at a moment’s notice. However, having lived in the United States for three decades, she has become skilled at cooking various American foods as well. Bing has celebrated most popular American holidays, including Christmas. Moreover, in Chinese culture, simple noodle dishes are considered a staple. Historically, many areas of China are relatively poor and live off of grains and rice. Throughout thousands of years, generations of Chinese people have depended on and passed down simple food recipes such as the cold noodle dish outlined here.
  • Social Context: This food recipe was shared when the interviewee was asked about the specific foods she makes for Christmas dinner. As the primary chef in the household, Bing has a lot of experience preparing large amounts of food for various family dinners.

Item:

  • Cold noodles (and other simple noodle dishes) are a notoriously easy dish to prepare in Chinese culture. For this recipe, you boil noodles until cooked and immediately place them in ice water to cool them down. Then, you prepare a sauce mixture with soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and scallions. Simply toss the cold noodles with the sauce mixture, and finish with sliced cucumbers and more scallions. The noodles are filling, easy to make, and can be prepared quickly in large quantities.

Transcript:

  • “The dish I most enjoy making on Christmas is 凉面 (cold noodles). They are so easy to make, and I can make an enormous amount for the 10+ people who we invite on Christmas. You boil the noodles in water, take them out, and rest them in ice water. Your sauce is simply soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and scallions. Then you just mix the noodles and sauce, and slice some cucumbers and more scallions to put on top.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “The kids especially love this dish since it’s so pleasing to the palette, and the noodles really serve as the main carbs for the dinner.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I chose to ask my own mother about her Christmas food preparations, given that we come from a Chinese background and our Christmas dinner tends not to include traditionally American foods. As America becomes a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, I found it useful to examine how minorities celebrate Christmas from the perspective of food. My mother echoed the overarching theme from my interviews – families tend to invite a lot of folks to Christmas dinner and choose to prepare whatever dishes are easiest to make in large quantities. This cold noodles recipe is many Chinese families’ go-to dish for large family dinners and therefore for Christmas dinner – it is folkloric in nature as many in the Chinese-American folk group will create this dish for large meals.

Collected By:

Evan Fu, 21

Palo Alto, CA

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS013

Fall 2021

Thanksgiving Foods for Christmas Dinner (2) (Evan Fu)

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General Information About Item:

  • Material Lore, Christmas Dinner Description
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Alexander Bakos
  • Date Collected: 10-20-2021

Informant Data:

  • Alexander (Alex) Bakos is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2022. Alex’s family is culturally American and lives in New York City, New York. Alex is a Mathematics major at Dartmouth and plays for the Club Soccer team on campus, and he plans to work as a quantitative trader upon graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Alex’s family celebrates Christmas in a more traditional sense. They purchase a tree and decorate it in their New York City apartment, and their close family stay over on Christmas Eve. They watch Christmas movies that night, put the kids to bed early, and engage in gift-giving in the morning. The family typically hosts a dinner for close and extended family on Christmas in their New York apartment. The family spends a few days preparing food for the dinner.
  • Social Context: This description was mentioned when the interviewee was asked about their Christmas dinner traditions. Alex’s family has made the same Christmas dinner for as long as Alex can remember.

Item:

  • Alex’s family’s Christmas dinner is essentially the same as their Thanksgiving dinner. They prepare a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, and roasted vegetables. The family spends the day before Christmas Eve brining the turkey, and everyone gathers on Christmas Eve to prepare the rest of the meal. For dessert, the family typically buys a few pies and various other delicacies from local bakeries.

Transcript:

  • “We literally have Thanksgiving dinner over again on Christmas. My mom buys and brines a turkey on the 23rd, and the entire family comes together on Christmas Eve to prep the other dishes. We have the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, and do some roasted veggies on the side. My mom buys some pies and other desserts from local shops on the Upper West, and we have our close family over for dinner, like 10-15 people.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I think Thanksgiving foods are just easiest for the family to make. Thanksgiving and Christmas are really the only times we have massive dinners, and the Thankgiving foods are just my mom’s go-to’s for this kind of meal.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found it incredibly interesting that Alex was my second interviewee whose family prepares Thanksgiving foods for Christmas. After reviewing all my interviews, I’ve learned that many American families consider Thanksgiving foods as a “go-to” meal when having to prepare food for large quantities of family members. Indeed, mashed potatoes and turkey are the #2 and #3 most popular Christmas foods according to a 2020 survey conducted by YouGov. Additionally, Christmas does appear to be more formal and focused on satisfaction (supported by – many families during my collection process have purchased or prepared extravagant combinations of desserts to finalize the Christmas meal. My collection process has implied to me that Thanksgiving foods and sweets are certainly folkloric in American Christmas culture, recipes of which are repeatedly used and passed down through families.

Collected By:

Evan Fu, 21

Palo Alto, CA

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS013

Fall 2021

Thanksgiving Foods for Christmas Dinner (1) (Evan Fu)

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General Information About Item:

  • Material Lore, Christmas Dinner Description
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Christopher Sykes
  • Date Collected: 10-15-2021

Informant Data:

  • Christopher (Chris) Sykes is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2022. He has a rather diverse background – his father is Caucasian American and his mother is Korean. They now live on the island of Oahu. Chris formerly played the Wide Receiver role on the Dartmouth Football Team and is a Computer Science major. He plans to enter the workforce as a software engineer next year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Chris’ family has historically celebrated American cultural holidays, and their family’s food influences draw lightly from Chris’ mother’s Korean background. During Christmas, Chris’ family typically hosts a dinner for close and extended family, inviting upwards of 20 people for this dinner. The family spends a full day preparing large amounts of food for the group.
  • Social Context: This description was mentioned when the interviewee was asked about their Christmas dinner traditions. Chris’ family has made this dinner for several years with limited alterations.

Item:

  • Chris’ Christmas family dinner features a number of Thanksgiving foods, including mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. The hallmark feature of their dinner is a roasted prime rib, and the dinner ends with a plethora of desserts. This dinner is easy for Chris’ family to prepare in large quantities – they have many materials left over from Thanksgiving, and everyone in the family enjoys the foods.

Transcript:

  • “It’s funny. Our Christmas dinner has a bunch of Thanksgiving foods like mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. But our dinner is more formal and dessert-themed. We do a roasted prime rib, and we finish the dinner with a chocolate cake, ice cream layer cake, brownies, and regular ice cream. We don’t really have a food specific to Christmas. We do prime rib only because we don’t want another turkey.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “We love the Christmas dinner. The foods we make are agreeable to everyone, and we really have no complaints from anyone.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Through my collection process, I’ve noticed that many families seem to prepare whatever foods are easiest to make in large quantities. For a lot of American families, Thanksgiving foods appear to fit this description well. Some families may have specific dishes they make on Christmas based on family-specific traditions, but it appears that Thanksgiving foods appear to be folkloric in American culture. I’ve learned that Christmas dinner is merely a formal meal to be enjoyed by all members of the family – however, certain foods are definitely folkloric in nature.

Collected By:

Evan Fu, 21

Palo Alto, CA

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS013

Fall 2021

Dinner-Show at the Lodj

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Title: Dinner/Show at the Lodj

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Performance (singing and dancing) AND Material Folklore: the dinner
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant #1 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Informant #2 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’18 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2014 and was a member of Lodj Croo in September 2017.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All trips have come back together for one final day/night at the Lodj
    • The trippees are really excited for a real meal, sitting at a table after 4 days camping in the wilderness
    • All trips are sitting together in a huge dining hall ready to eat a dinner together
  • Cultural Context
    • The meal itself is prepared by other Dartmouth students (Lodj Croo). They have worked hard to prepare it to offer the trippees a reward after several days in the wilderness
    • The show offers entertainment for the exhausted trippees. Gives them something to just watch and take in, in order to rest and be free of actually socializing during the meal
    • The Croo putting on the show tries very hard to act whacky and embarrass themselves to make all the trippees feel more comfortable

Item:

  • Dinner show at the Lodj: On the last night of trips, all the trips come back together at the Lodj after 4 days in the wilderness. All trippees are exhausted, and they sit down for a big meal together, which is cooked by the Lodj Croo (made up of upperclassmen students). During the meal, the Lodj Croo not only prepares and serves it, but the Croo also puts on a show and sings and dances around the tables while the trippees enjoy a four-course meal.

Transcript of Informant #1 Interview:

“The dinner show at the Lodge was awesome. We basically sat down after a lot of activities during the day for this meal at the Lodge, and coming from the canoeing trip, it was going to be the first good meal that we had had in a while; we had had a lot of Annie’s mac & cheese nights where we were just scraping that out of bowls. Then it turned out to be this four-course meal, and it was amazing, and it was filled with songs, and they were singing these French songs that were really cool.”

Informant #1’s Comments:

  • Seeing the Lodj Croo singing and dancing around, the dinner table really let him see how fun and cool Dartmouth students were.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant #1 was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Transcript of Informant #2 Interview:

“There’s a dinner show that’s a surprise for students, so they come into the Lodge. There’s a blackout, and the croo ends up popping out and doing a whole dinner show. Every course, there’s a song. This year, we were at the skiway, and because that was important to us, we wanted to continue that tradition. So we ended up having the croolings “on strike” basically and the Lodj croo captains were looking for the croolings during the meals to serve the food and ended up running through the windows and scaring the new trippees and performing for them. Other things we do, during the dinner show, during the final song, the dessert song, all the croolings go and pie or ice cream trip leaders, and trip leaders.”

Informant #2’s Comments:

  • “When trippees come back as trip leaders, some of them remember it, some don’t. So it’s really a surprise every year.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant #2 was part of the dinner show and really enjoyed his experience.

Collector’s Name: Roshni Chandwani

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Material Folklore, Dinner, Show, Fun, Food

Changeover

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Title: Changeover

Informant Info: Mene Ukueberuwa is an Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of The Dartmouth Review. He is a ’16 (formerly ’14) from Princeton, NJ. He was interviewed on May 12, 2016 at the Collis Center in Hanover, NH.

Type of Lore: Customary, Ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context:  Winter Carnival is a larger Dartmouth tradition in the middle of winter. It is a convenient time for the Review to have changeover, as the board of directors and some alumni return for the big weekend. It is important for the organization to have leadership pass from class to class before seniors graduate.

Transcript:

So another tradition we have is our changeover dinner, that happens once a year, the weekend of Winter Carnival is when we decide who the new Editor and President are going to be, so they sit for interviews with our advisory board, and then the new Editor, President are always announced at our dinner that we have off campus, usually at a hotel, a country club, or something like that.  It gives us a chance to have a kind of formal gathering of all of the staff on campus and some of our alumni who come back to celebrate the transition … Well, it’s always a festive time for staffers. Do you want me to go into full detail here? … Yes.  There was one staffer who may have gotten a little bit carried away with the libations. I don’t think that he was particularly used to it at that point in his Dartmouth career, and he ended up actually salivating a bit, drooling on one of the members of our advisory board, but I think it was all taken in good fun, and it was a sign that the undergrads are still just as lively as when he had been here at Dartmouth.

Collector’s Comments: The Review’s annual tradition of changeover can be interpreted as a ritual in Arnold van Gennep’s framework for rites of passage. Before the event of changeover, separation occurs, as the previous leadership symbolically steps down. The event itself is transition, with the passing of the torch from the old leadership to new leadership. The incorporation phase is ongoing throughout the rest of winter and spring term as the new Editor and President grow into their roles with the mentorship of the Emeritus Editor and President. Mene was willing to share a story that demonstrated the festive atmosphere of the event, but many of the other details of event do not seem to be privy to the public.