Food Traditions

Originally Published Dec. 2012                                                     

One of my favorite musicals is “Fiddler on the Roof.”  In this play the father, Tevia, was asked by the townsfolk why he did certain things in a particular way.  He replied, “Tradition!”  He really didn’t know why, when, or where a certain tradition started.  But, he was not going to be the first to change it.

I’ve noticed that the word “tradition” has been used frequently in newspaper and magazine articles lately.  Reading headlines such as, “How to Have a Traditional Thanksgiving” and “TV’s traditional broadcasts of the football game begin at noon, “ or reading all the hype about “Black Friday” being the traditional start of the Christmas Season led me to reminisce and think about how my own family’s Thanksgiving and other holidays have become traditional to me.  

Many traditions seem to center around food.  Some holidays wouldn’t be complete without dumpling or sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie, or probably the most famous tradition of all – a turkey at Thanksgiving.  If you were to ask friends, neighbors or coworkers what some of their traditions are, I bet food would be incorporated in most of them.  Just watch people’s eyes light up as they reminisce about their traditions and food is mentioned.

Now, you wouldn’t think porcupine meatballs would excite anyone, but we always have porcupine meatballs on Christmas Eve.  It all started when Norm and I were so busy getting four kids ready for church that I needed to serve a supper that I could make ahead of time, put in the freezer, and just throw in the oven while bathing the kids – no fuss, no mess.  My children never knew the reason behind this tradition.  They just knew that “it wouldn’t be Christmas without porcupine meatballs!”

And, when our kids were young, we had a three-generation tradition of my parents joining our family to visit my brother and his family in Wisconsin.  We’d then all travel another 20 miles to the Santa Claus Tree Farm, find the perfect tree, and close the day with homemade chili.  Somehow, food always entered the picture!

What would Christmas be like if we didn’t have sugar cutouts made from a great-grandma’s recipe?  I know I always have to make my grandma’s sugar spice cookie.  It’s not a Christmas-looking cookie, but I can still see Grandma rolling out the dough and chilling it on her attic steps because there wasn’t any room in her refrigerator.  Making these cookies is so special to me because it’s my way of remembering Grandma and keeping her with me always.

I have a tradition that belongs just to me.  On the first day it snows every year, I make homemade vegetable soup and while I’m cutting the carrots and potatoes, I listen to a CD of Handel’s Messiah.  I sing along at the top of my lungs and enjoy myself completely.  I then put the CD away until the Christmas season officially begins.  But for that one day, I am happy and alive with joy!  This tradition does not end with me, however.

My son, David, would humor me and sometimes would join me in singing.  The year he went off to college in another state, I sent him his own recording of Handel’s Messiah, and two envelopes of vegetable Cup-A-Soup with the instructions, “Do not Open Until It Snows.”  He told me he had quite a time explaining his mother to his new friends.

Maybe you have a group of friends who always spend New Year’s Eve together and enjoy all the different hors d’oeuvres that are served through out the evening.  – Tradition!  We know a group of six couples who always camped together every Memorial Day. – Tradition!  Or, do you always watch the Super Bowl with the same bunch of friends and serve the same food? – Tradition.

Have you seen yourself or your family in any of these scenarios?  Have I made you think of your own traditions, whether with your family, friends, or just your own?  Would you like to continue them?  Or change in some way?  Or start some new ones?

Writing this has brought back so many memories for me and made me aware of the fact that sometimes, I, -- like Tevia in “Fiddler on the Roof,” – may not know when, why, or where certain traditions started – but, I’m not going to be the first to change them.  It’s simply – tradition!