Title: Sweet Sixteen Cake Feeding Ceremony

General Information:

• Folklore Form/Genre: North American Initiation Rituals
• Informant: Sarina Kothari
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States of America
• Place Collected: Baker Lobby
• Date: 11/13/18

 

Informant Data:

• Sarina Kothari, 19, was born on March 20^th, 1999 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She moved to Orlando, Florida when she was very young, and she has lived there for most of her life. When Sarina turned sixteen, her parents chose to help her celebrate by throwing an elaborate party where many of her friends and family members were invited.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Sarina attended Trinity Preparatory School, a small Catholic private school. Despite going to a Catholic school, Sarina herself is not of the Catholic faith. Her family is upper class, and she comes from an Indian background.
• Cultural Context: Many girls in Orlando, Florida celebrated their sixteenth birthday with a large Sweet Sixteen celebration. More than half of the girls in her grade had sweet sixteens.

Item:

• Before the party started and the other guests arrived at her sweet sixteen party, Sarina’s grandparents one-by-one fed her pieces of her birthday cake by hand. This is actually an Indian tradition that Sarina chose to incorporate into her sweet sixteen celebration.

Audio:

Transcript:

E: Alright, so Sarina, could you please describe the tradition that occurred at your sweet sixteen?

S: So one of the traditions that occurred was that when my grandparents flew in, they had to each feed me a bite of cake, and so basically, like, they were just in a line, and they each, like, gave me a spoon of cake and then I, like, gave them a hug.

E: Now was this cake part of the birthday cake, or did they have to bring their own separate baked goods?

S: No, it was part of, it was just, like, a piece of the birthday cake.

E: Okay, and so how did this ceremony symbolize your transition into adulthood?

S: Like the ceremony or the tradition?

E: That specific tradition itself.

S: I think what they were trying to do was, like, basically show, like, one piece of, like, cake from each of the grandparents was just, like, them showing their love for me and, like, them like having, like, good wishes and, like, with each piece from a different grandparent, like, they were, like, each giving their blessing, and so it was really nice, ‘cause like, they all come from different parts of, like, America so when they all flew in it felt like I was, like, getting, like, blessings from everyone around the world, so, like, that was really nice and made me feel like I was, like, blessed and stuff.

E: Alright, thank you.

Informant’s Comments:

• The feeding of the cake by hand is a sign of respect. Usually, the birthday girl would feed the guests; however, since this was a special occasion, her grandparents fed her instead. It was also very special to be surrounded by her grandparents who had all travelled very far to attend the party and to see their granddaughter.

Collector’s Comments:

• I thought this was a very interesting tradition because it wasn’t like any other American tradition I had heard of. It was nice to see that Sarina was able to incorporate parts of her Indian culture into her sweet sixteen.

Collector’s Information:

Edward Lu, 18

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

Russian 13, Fall 2018

Professor Mikhail Gronas

Professor Valentina Apresyan

Tags/Keywords:

• Sweet Sixteen
• Adulthood
• Womanhood
• Cake
• Indian Traditions