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Foodways
ཟས་བྲོ་ཅན་ཡོད་ན་མགྲོན་ལ་བྱིན།
གཏམ་དོན་ཅན་ཡོད་ན་གཉེན་ལ་ཤོད།
“If you have delicious food, give it to your guest.
If you have important things to say, say it at a wedding.”
—Tibetan proverb
Growing up in a Jewish household in New Jersey, I found the Christmas season a bit awkward.
My family served in the U.S. Foreign Service for thirty odd years, so Christmas had to be reinvented every time we moved. Much depended on the availability of ingredients or decorative material.
For Japanese and Okinawans, New Year’s is the most festive holiday, an occasion also to rectify financial and social debts.
My first bite of smörgåsbord every year is bruna bonor, rice pudding, and lingonberry sauce. It still tastes the same.
Here at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, we have a meta-foodways tradition. Whenever a staff member travels to an interesting place, it is customary to bring back a traditional food item to share with the office.
For the majority of the year, I am half Filipina. But during Christmas, I try to embrace this identity fully through a few small rituals.
“Christmas in July” was the fevered brainchild of curator Betty Belanus, but the Welsh cooks—including coordinators Angela Gray and Hazel Thomas, as well as chefs Anthony Evans, Geraldine Trotman, Gareth Johns, and Ana Rees—took on
Folklife Magazine explores how culture shapes our lives. We publish stories about music, food, craft, language, celebrations, activism, and the individuals and communities who sustain these traditions.