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This is the Customs Archive Page
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Contents
Posts
The Ancient Ukrainian Tradition of Pysanka
Friday, February 22nd, 2008In ancient Ukrainian culture, eggs were decorated in a style called Pysanka (plural ‘Pysanky’), using wax and dye.
Back in Pagan times, Pysanky where thought to protect people and were placed in homes for that purpose.
They were also placed in caskets to capture evil spirits. The artwork on the Pysanky has no definitive visible beginning or end. It was thought that once an evil spirit got caught in the design, it could not exit and was trapped in a type of maze. This prevented it from being able to inflict harm upon the spirit of the departed.
The Pysanka tradition is still alive among modern Ukrainians and people of Ukrainian descent, as part of Easter celebrations. People give Pysanka eggs to each other for the holiday.
Many thanks to Marijka Hayda for sharing the history of this tradition with us. Thanks also to Luba Petrusha for letting me take images from his photo.
PS This demo about making Pysanka lets you see how it’s done.
Elaborately Decorated Eggs for Easter In Eastern Europe
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Guest Blogger, Ed Gawlinski, has been involved in many cultural organizations throughout his life. Here, he discusses Easter traditions in several Eastern European cultures.
A common custom is to color hard boiled eggs for Easter. We usually colored them on Good Friday, while eating hot cross buns…
Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha’ penny,
two ha’ penny,
hot cross buns.If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons,
one ha’ penny,
two ha’ penny,
Hot Cross BunsIn Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Bulgaria, etc.) coloring Easter eggs is a highly developed folk art. In the Polish language there are several different words for colored Easter eggs, each indicating a different technique. The style I know best is called Pisanki. In this you use a stylus to draw on the egg with melted wax. After you draw, you put the egg in the dye. After it dries, you draw some more and then put the egg in a different colored dye. The wax keeps that part of the egg from being dyed. It’s a process similar to batik. Intricate and beautiful patterns are made by skilled artists. I am not a skilled artist, so my eggs were never works of art. But I did have fun trying.
Another style is called Kraszanki. We had an exchange student from Switzerland whose family colored eggs this way. They put onion peels in the water they used to boil the eggs. The eggs came out brown. You could use oak bark or walnut shells to make the eggs black. You could use Marigold flowers to make the eggs yellow.
The opposite approach to pisanki is drapanki. These eggs are first died and then, using a sharp tool, you scratch off the dye to make your designs.
Although elaborately decorated eggs are part of the tradition of all Eastern European countries, each one has its own tradition as far as the patterns used to decorate these eggs.
Lent Season and Pancakes
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008Guest Blogger, Ed Gawlinski, has been involved in many cultural organizations throughout his life.
The season of Lent has started. Lent is a season during which Christians prepare for Easter. The English custom is to start Lent by having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). A children’s rhyme goes with this…
Pancakes and fritters,
Say the bells of Saint Peter’s.Or
Hark I hear the pancake bell
And fritters make a gallant smell.One of the Lenten disciplines is to avoid foods made with fat, which is the reason for the English custom of using up your fat by making pancakes the day before Lent starts. The Polish custom is to make Pączki, a type of donut.
At these links below you can find some recipes for Pączki:
Recipe for Paczki
Another Recipe for Paczki
One more Recipe for Pączki
The Custom of Eating Dumplings for the Chinese New Year
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about symbolic foods that are eaten around the world for the New Year.
There are symbolic foods that are eaten for the Chinese New Year too. This year, the Chinese New Year celebrations start on February 7th. (It will be the year of the Rat!)
Dumplings are one customary food that’s eaten for the New Year. One reason is that they resemble the old gold money used in China. Thus, dumplings symbolize the hope for prosperity in the coming year. Usually the dumplings are filled with meat.
In parts of Northern China, they even insert a coin into a couple of dumplings. It you’re lucky enough to be served one of those, it’s thought you’ll acquire even more wealth!
Lin wrote to me about the custom in Tianjin, a city that’s southeast of the capital of Beijing, China:
As the Chinese New Year is coming up, there’s something interesting to note here about New Year’s food. In Tianjin, China, people will make vegetarian dumplings, apart from the meat ones for the New Year’s Eve. They eat the vegetarian ones especially at midnight, usually with the fireworks going outside the windows. The vegetarian dumplings signify a coming year which is very clean, with no accidents, no serious affairs, etc.
“Su”, as vegetarian, implies something simple, calm.
The contrary is “Se” as in colour/lust, or “Rou” as in meat/flesh/therefore lust.Interestingly, in other parts of China this habit is not often observed. Not even in Beijing, as far as I can determine, though it’s just 120 kilometers away.
I mentioned this custom to Ray Lee, who was born in Hong Kong. Ray said:
Yeah, that’s interesting. I’ve never heard of it. But then, China is a big country with a lot of different local customs. I am sure there are a lot I haven’t heard of. I remember we would eat a certain kind of vegetable around the New Year simply because its name sounded like “getting rich”. The name of the vegetable is “Fat Choy” (it’s a long black sea moss), which as you may recall sounds just like the “fat choy” in “kung hey fat choy”!
“Kung Hey Fat Choy”, means “Congratulations and Be Prosperous”. It’s something that people say to each other in Cantonese during the Chinese New Year.
To all of you celebrating the Chinese New Year, “Kung Hey Fat Choy”!
-Lisa
Here’s a post I wrote last year about how Yuan Xiao is eaten for the Chinese New Year.
Feel free to comment below about foods you eat for the Chinese New Year!
Can Someone Help with Information about Australian Wedding Customs?
Monday, February 4th, 2008Andrea wrote requesting information about Australian wedding traditions:
Hello,
I enjoyed your site. If my future husband and I have children someday we will teach them some Australian songs. :)
I am marrying a wonderful Australian man, and I want to incorporate some elements of Australian culture into our wedding. I may have some Australian candies for wedding favors etc. Can you think of Australian elements, flowers, poems, love songs, cakes, appetizers, recipes, traditions etc? I would like to surprise my fiance with little extras. I even sent him the lyrics of Home Among the Gum Trees and he remembered singing it.
Thanks,
Andrea
Northern California High School TeacherIf anyone can provide information about Australian Wedding Customs, please let us know about it in the comments below.
Thanks in advance!
Lisa
An Old Rhyme for the New Year and the Custom of the Quaaltagh
Friday, December 28th, 2007New Years is almost here. I found a rhyme that used to be sung on the Isle of Man. Isle of Man is an island that’s located between Great Britain and Ireland in the Irish Sea. It’s a British crown dependency, but it’s not a part of the UK or the European Union.
The rhyme is associated with a custom called the quaaltagh. The quaaltagh or qualtagh is actually the first person who steps foot into your house on the morning of the New Year. Young men would go from house to house singing the rhyme on New Year’s morning. After singing the rhyme, they’d be invited inside for food and drink. For superstitious reasons, it was important that the boy or man with the darkest complexion enter first – that he be the quaaltagh. It’s considered bad luck for a person with light hair to be the first to enter a house in the New Year.
Here’s the rhyme:
Again we assemble, a merry New Year
To wish to each one of the family here,
Whether man, woman, or girl, or boy,
That long life and happiness all may enjoy;
May they of potatoes and herrings have plenty,
With butter and cheese, and each other dainty;
And may their sleep never, by night or day,
Disturbed be by even the tooth of a flea:
Until at the Quaaltagh again we appear,
To wish you, as now, all a happy New Year.Happy New Year to all of you! Remember on New Year’s morning to have the person with darker hair and complexion enter the house first and be the quaaltagh. It’s considered good luck that way!
-Mama Lisa
The Dreydl Song and an Easy Way to Make Potato Latkes for Hanukah
Thursday, December 6th, 2007Mark Bittman at the NY Times makes an alternative to latkes that’s called potato nik. He learned it from his grandmother. It’s easy and that’s the point! You simply use your favorite potato pancake recipe (click the link to see mine). Instead of cooking them individually, Mark cooks them as one large pancake. He coats the bottom of the pan with oil and pours in the latke batter. Once one side is cooked, he slides it out onto a plate, and covers it with another plate. Then he turns it over and slides it back into the pan to cook the other side. Once it’s done, voila! It’s ready to be eaten. Much quicker than individual pancakes. You can watch Mark prepare his Potato Nik to see how it’s done.
Serve latkes with sour cream and/or apple sauce. I’d recommend trying my recipe for homemade applesauce to have with it. Yum!
If you’d like to teach your kids a Hanukah song here’s a link to The Dreydl Song and the rules for the Dreydl Game.
-Mama Lisa
The St. Nicholas Tradition in Poland and a Way to Teach Your Children about Holiday Customs Around the World
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007Ed Gawlinski wrote to me about his family’s holiday traditions. His letter shows how you can be creative and expose your children to many different customs around the world at this time of year…
Lisa,
The Polish Custom is for Saint Nicholas (świętego Mikołaja) to bring children presents on December 6th …. The traditions that go with this parallel those in Germany, Austria, and elsewhere in Europe. I found a short poem for Saint Nicholas that you might enjoy.
“On St. Nicholas Day,
The band of children waits;
For the good cookie he brings,
But for the naughty a switch that stings.”Na świętego Mikołaja,
czeka dzieci cała zgraja,
Da posłusznym ciasteczko,
Złe przekropi różeczką.I also have a story about Saint Nicholas. We would give our kids little gifts on Saint Nichols Day, Saint Lucia Day, Three Kings Day, etc. Our son-in-law referred to this as the 45 days of Gawlinski Christmas… One year as Saint Nichols day approached our second child, Allison was not being well behaved. She didn’t get a Saint Nicholas day present that morning. By noon, we had found where St. Nick hid the present. From then on, until well after Christmas, she was the best behaved little girl you ever saw.
Edward M. Gawlinski
Giving little gifts on the different international holidays gives you an opportunity to explain to kids how people do things differently around the world. You could also give a gift for a day of Chanukah and the Indian festival of Diwali (if you don’t celebrate these holidays already).
Feel free to comment below or email me to share your holiday customs with us!
-Lisa
St. Lucia’s Day in Sweden and Scandinavia
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007Santa Lucia’s Day is celebrated on December 13th in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. It commemorates the life of Santa Lucia, who is also known as Saint Lucy.
St. Lucy was born in Syracuse, Sicily around 283 and died in 303 AD. The myth is that her parents wanted her to marry a man who she didn’t want to marry. She wanted to devote her life to helping the poor. In protest against the marriage, she poked out her eyes and put them on a platter and sent them to the man. The legend is that her eyes were miraculously restored by God.
It’s said that Saint Lucia blinded herself on the shortest, darkest day of the year, which is the Winter Solstice. Under the old Julian calendar, that day was December 13th. That’s how St. Lucia’s day came to be celebrated on the 13th. (Now, in the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice falls on the 21st or the 22nd.)
In Sweden, and other Scandinavian countries, Santa Lucia Day is seen as being the beginning of the Christmas season. It starts the Twelve Days of Christmas.
The tradition on Santa Lucia Day is for the oldest girl in the family to dress in a white robe with a red sash and wear a crown of candles and lingonberry leaves (lingonberries are popular berries in Sweden). She’s supposed to be dressed as St. Lucia. The other girls dress in white with silver crowns. The boys wear pointed silver hats and carry wands with stars on them. They’re called stjärngossar (star boys). Some kids dress up as tomtar which are like gnomes.
On the morning of Santa Lucia, the children in the family will often wake their parents with a breakfast of Lussekatter (a special St. Lucia bun made with saffron), ginger cookies, coffee and glögg (hot spiced wine). The kids will be dressed in their special Santa Lucia costumes and they’ll sing Santa Lucia songs.
Throughout the day girls will be dressed as Santa Lucia in schools, malls, churches and other public places singing and handing out ginger cookies. There are also Luciatags – St. Lucia processions in which the children dress in their white costumes and sing St. Lucia Day songs.
St. Lucia Day songs coming soon!
Many thanks to Edward M. Gawlinski for the photos!
Come visit the Mama Lisa’s World Sweden Pages for Songs from Sweden, including Swedish Christmas songs.
Teaching Children about Dreamcatchers for Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007In honor of Thanksgiving, my daughter made a dreamcatcher in school. Dreamcatchers were originally made by the Ojibway Native American tribe. They would make them out of a branch in a circular shape and tie them. Then string is used to make a web that’s wound across the loop. (Traditionally the string came from an animal. My daughter’s class used colorful thin yarn to make theirs.) A hole should be left in the middle. Finally, feathers should hang down from the dreamcatcher.
You hang the dreamcatcher over a child’s bed or crib. It’s supposed to catch nightmares in its webs, while allowing the good dreams to escape through the middle hole and enter the child’s sleeping mind.
The idea of the dreamcatcher is an interesting Native American tradition to teach children for Thanksgiving.
Singing Traditions in Cameroon, Africa
Thursday, June 7th, 2007I’ve been corresponding with Nyango Melissa Nambangi who’s originally from Cameroon. Nyango Melissa mentioned that children in Cameroon sing a lot, so I asked if adults do too. Her response was so interesting that I asked her permission to share it here:
Yep! Cameroonian adults sing all the time. We sing while working – hunting, farming, cooking, cleaning around the home, etc. We actually whistle in the dark or while walking through the forest/farm, sometimes to let others who are nearby but out of sight to know that there is another human being nearby. And this helps, seeing as how dense our forests/grass can be and how dark our nights get to be in the tropics, so that anybody hearing movement in the dark or in the forest knows it is a human being not an animal. It also prevents accidental shooting for hunters hunting, and lets any other human being know that there is another person out there. Our farms can be very large and far apart but a singing voice carries, so you don’t feel alone. Singing also helps us work faster and/or gives us the momentum to work longer hours than we would if we just worked silently.
We have songs for almost all occasions. I spent my childhood in several parts of Cameroon and I can remember one song of encouragement to women working on the farm or returning from the harvest carrying bundles of food or wood on their heads. Any passer-by seeing them will call out, and if the women were farming they actually stopped for a minute to sing out in response:
Passerby:
“Miyaka weh”Women working:
“O-na-o!
O-na-o!
O na, o na, o-na o!
O-na-o!”The song is in the Metta language. “Miyaka” actually means “thank you” and also suggests “well done”, “good job” or something like that. I find it hard to find an exact English equivalent.
The song was such a delight to us that as children, we always sang out to the women just to hear them answer back. And then sometimes we just sat around and sang it. So, I really am not sure if this qualifies as a children’s song or an adult song.
Children also sing all the time, while playing, while fetching water or washing dishes, baby-sitting their younger siblings, etc. As children, we are encouraged to sing by our parents, teachers, etc. Children are also adept at making up songs to suit the situation, such as the victory songs I sent you about winning games – some of those are distinct children compositions.
Nyango Melissa sent me many songs that you can discover on my Cameroonian Song Pages – many with stories or explanations she has provided.
I’d like to thank Nyango Melissa for sharing so much about Cameroonian musical culture.
Nyango Melissa works with the Minnesota African Women’s Association to promote the health and well-being of African refugee and immigrant women and their families in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Baby Showers in Lebanon
Monday, June 4th, 2007Kristen wrote asking about holding a Baby Shower for a Lebanese woman:
A friend of mine living in the United States who is Lebanese is due to have a baby very soon. Would it be appropriate to have a baby shower of some sort? I certainly wouldn’t want to offend her culturally, and am not familiar with Lebanese customs. Could you point me in the right direction.
Thank you,
Kristen Emond
We asked Roula from Lebanon about holding Baby Showers. Roula answered that “a baby shower is quite unknown in Lebanon, but that it’s a nice idea that won’t offend anyone”.
If anyone would like to discuss Baby Shower traditions in different countries, feel free to comment below.
Yuan Xiao and the Lantern Festival in China
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Yuan Xiao is a traditional food for the Lantern Festival in China. The Lantern Festival is at the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. People go outside with lanterns, watch the dragon dance, set off firecrackers, and they eat Yuan Xiao. (Yuan Xiao is also called Tang Yuan.)
There’s a sweet version and a salty one. The sweet version is made of sticky rice wrapped around black jasmine, white jasmine or peanuts with sugar. Sometimes there’s something else like fruit inside.
Recently, Hanchao, a woman from China who lives in my neighborhood, treated me to a luncheon that featured Yuan Xiao. Xuemei (also from China) was there, as was Rae from Taiwan.
Hanchao made Yuan Xiao with black sesame paste, and Xuemei made it with red beans. Both were wonderful to taste!
I mentioned how I would love to share the recipe for Yuan Xiao with my readers.
The ladies told me they don’t have cookbooks in China like we have in the West. Recipes are passed on from mother to daughter, from sister to brother and from friend to friend. They were amazed at how we have such precise measurements in our recipes and how we can duplicate the exact same recipe each time. They teach each other recipes by cooking the meal together.
Hanchao said she would try to write down her recipe for us. Here is what she sent me…
Hanchao’s Yuan Xiao Recipe
3 cups sticky rice flour
1 1/2 cups chopped black sesame seeds
1/2 cup sugarThe black sesame seeds that I bought were fresh. You can put the sesame seeds on a cookie sheet in the oven on 375 F. Stir a few times while cooking. Cook until it tastes good – about 30 minutes.
Mix chopped sesame with sugar in a blender until smooth. This is the filling. Set aside.
Put 1 – 2 cups of water into the sticky rice flour and mix to make the dough. You can use up to a total of 3 cups of water. Add the water slowly, because if you add to much, it will be too gooey – in which case you can add more flour. You want it to be smooth like pie dough or playdough.
Shape the dough of the sticky rice into half balls, put a teaspoonful of filling into the half ball. Close the half ball to form a full round ball and smooth out it by rolling it between your hands.
Put the Yuan Xiao into boiling water. Cook until all the Yuan Xiao float on the surface of the water. Cook for 30-60 minutes. Serve in the water it’s cooked in, like a soup.
Some people will serve Yuan Xiao in a sweetened broth. I asked Hanchao about this and she said she only uses water.
Yuan Xiao (Tang Yuan) are a symbol of family unity and happiness. People serve them to their family on the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration. It’s a symbol that the family will be happy and complete in the upcoming year.
Many thanks to Hanchao for sharing her recipe for Yuan Xiao with us!
Here are some links for other recipes:
Taiwanese Tang Yuan in an Egg Drop Soup
A Recipe for Pork Tong Yuen and one for Black Sesame Seed Paste Tong Yuen
Recipe for Glutinous Rice Balls with Salted Egg Yolk and Peanut Filling
Qingming – Festival of Pure Brightness – 清明節
Thursday, March 29th, 2007The Qingming Festival takes place on April 4, 5, or 6th – whichever is the 104th day after the winter solstice. It’s celebrated in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Qingming has many names and spellings: Qingming, Ching Ming, Ch’ing Ming, Qing Ming Jie. In English it’s been called Clear Brightness Festival, Remembrance of Ancestors Day, Grave Sweeping Day, and Spring Festival.
Qingming is a festival to honor the dead – similar in some ways to The Day of the Dead in Mexico. It’s thought that it’s important to keep ancestors happy in order to have good luck. Qingming is a good occasion to fulfill this obligation.
First, people go to the graves of their family members and clean them. They sweep away debris, pull up weeds and sometimes plant flowers.
I asked Ray Lee about what he did for Ching Ming Festival growing up in Hong Kong. He said, “That’s when we would go to the grave site of our grandparents and leave flowers for them.”
Hanchao from China said she would also go and clean off the graves of her relatives who had passed away. Sometimes her family would burn paper money. The money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. (It’s not actual currency – it’s called spirit money.) It’s also traditional to burn incense.
People also put out food and drink near the tombstone for their ancestors. Hanchao said, “We put steamed buns, fruits, and wine and food at the grave, that the people who passed away liked when they were alive, and we light incense.”
Qingming is also a day to celebrate the Spring. After tending the grave and offering food, the family will sometimes have a picnic and enjoy the fresh air. People sometimes play games and fly kites.
Please feel free to let us know what your family and friends would do for Qingming in the comments below.
-Lisa
Greeting Customs – How do you greet people where you’re from?
Thursday, September 14th, 2006I’m fascinated by the differences in how people greet each other in different countries. What can be a show of affection among friends in one country, can signal an amorous advance in another.
Monique from France (of Mama Lisa’s World en français) came to visit me and my family earlier this month. While my husband and I waited for her to arrive at the airport, I remembered my days living in France. There, when people first see each other they faire la bise, which means “do the kiss”. The most common way to faire la bise is one kiss on each cheek. I clued my husband in on this custom. He was surprised and said, “Well, at least she’s a woman!”
When first meeting someone here in the US, at least in New York, most people will shake hands. Some women don’t follow this custom, but most younger women do. Most people in the business world shake hands when meeting a business associate – whether for the first time, or even if they’ve met before. But if two people work in the same office, they generally wouldn’t shake hands every day.
If you’re greeting a person you know, like a friend who you’ve seen recently, you’d probably just say hi. If it’s a family member, you might kiss them once on the cheek. If it’s a friend or family member who you haven’t seen for a while (or might not see again for a while) you might give them a kiss and an upper body hug. This would generally be between either two women, or a man and a woman, or sometimes two men who are related to each other (like a father and son).
I asked Monique for a clarification of the greeting customs in France. Here’s what she said…
The custom at a formal business meeting is shaking hands. (We wouldn’t kiss our boss.)
With friends and family, we’d usually give 2 kisses. In some places it’s 3 kisses, in other places, like Paris, it’s 4 kisses. But I couldn’t find a map of France with different colors to show how many kisses they give in each town!
We call it faire la bise even if there are several kisses. Une bise means a smack on the cheek. Un baiser means a kiss that refers more to a lovers’ kiss. (Take care: as a verb, it means something way more than a kiss!)
One kiss in France usually means a very close relationship, usually romantically involved.
We kiss, or faire la bise, “all the time”. That is, every day, if we meet every day. But only once a day.
This is between two women or a man and woman. Men usually shake hands or hug and pat each other’s shoulders. If they’re father and son, or close friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time, they would kiss.
In some families, people even kiss each other’s cheeks when saying good morning and good night.
I also noticed, when I was in New York, that you don’t hug the same way. Yours would rather be a “shoulders hug”. I mean that you push the top of the body (head and shoulders) forwards and you hug. We do that only when very moved, like at funerals and long time departures. For us, all the upper part of the body sticks together in the hug. I personally can only do that if the emotion is strong enough = we share a very close relationship.
When I introduced Monique to my parents, I told them about giving one kiss on each check, as is the custom of French people. That’s how they greeted Monique (and vice versa) the first time they met.
I asked Monique if she had met my parents under normal circumstances (that is, without me having discussed greeting customs beforehand) would she have kissed them twice on the cheeks (since she sort of knew them through me), or would she only have shaken their hands. Here’s what Monique said:
About meeting your parents: given that they’re your parents, I could have done either (shaken their hands or kissed them on each cheek) when meeting them, because we’d never met before.
Actually, it depends on what you feel.
According to the way I “felt” about them as people, independently of the fact that they’re your parents, my first “feeling” would have been to kiss them twice when meeting, and when leaving. But we step here into personal relationships, besides the customs.
There is some “grey” area about customs in general. They can be interpreted differently depending on the region and also the individual.
One thing is sure, be mindful when greeting an individual from another culture. That one friendly kiss we’d give to friend in New York, would signal something more romantic in Paris.
You’re welcome to comment below about greeting customs where you live.
Many thanks to Monique for her clarification of French greeting customs.
-Lisa
Housewarming and Proverbs about One’s House
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006As you may already know, a housewarming is a party for someone who has just moved into a new home. Last month I wrote a little about housewarming traditions. Since then, I’ve discovered that many people are interested in learning more about housewarming traditions, gifts, sayings and poems.
I found some proverbs related to buying or having a house…
-One’s house, one’s castle.
-My house is my castle.
-The house shows the owner.
-Home is where the heart is.
-He that buys a house ready wrought, hath many a pin and nail for naught.
-Better one’s house too little one day, then too big all the year after.I particularly like this French proverb…
A chaque oiseau, son nid est beau.
Meaning… To every bird, its own nest is beautiful.If anyone’s aware of any other housewarming sayings, poems or traditions, please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
UPDATE: There’s one other saying I just remembered… Home, Sweet Home. My mother used to say this to me when I was a child, and we’d just get home. Now I say it to my children. I’ve seen it on signs that can be hung in the house.
The Chinese Custom of Giving Red Packet Money as a Gift
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006Back in January, Ray Lee told us about the tradition of giving red packet money for the Chinese New Year. He sent me this note, this week, about how red packet money can be given all year long…
We talked about red packet money being given out during Chinese New Year. Actually, the Chinese New Year isn’t the only occasion on which red packet money is given out. In general, red packet money is given on occasions that are worth celebrating, e.g. at your kid’s wedding or even birthdays, or when you open your own business.
Please feel free to comment below about gift giving customs in your country.
-Lisa
Housewarming Traditions in France and Around the World
Monday, July 10th, 2006Joann wrote me…
I was wondering if the French have any traditions or special rituals for when someone buys new home.
I have found in the US a “new home blessing” with items that you would give to symbolize the blessing. Do the French have anything similar or something along those lines.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Jo-Ann
I asked Monique of Mama Lisa’s World en français about French housewarming traditions. Here’s what she said…
We usually invite friends for a party and we call that “pendre la crémaillère” , literally “to hang the trammel”. In the Middle Ages, the trammel was the last thing fixed in the house, so when it was hung, people could cook a meal to thank whoever had helped with the building of the house. Guests usually bring a present for the house, either individually, or else they chip in.
A trammel was an iron hook or rack with hooks, built into the chimney, and used for hanging kettles and cooking pots over the fire.
Please feel free to share information about housewarming customs or sayings where you live (in the comments below).
-Lisa
UPDATE: Come see a later post with some proverbs about having a house or about home.
“Gesundheit!” and “Alla Salut!” mean “Cheers!” and “God Bless You!”
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006The other day I wrote an entry about the customs around sneezing in different countries. I mentioned the German word Gesundheit, which is said to someone after they’ve sneezed.
I looked up Gesundheit, and found that it’s also said as a “cheers” before drinking with someone. It’s literally “to your health”.
The Gesundheit that’s said after sneezing comes from a longer phrase, Gesundheit ist besser als Krankheit, which means, “Health is better than sickness”. It’s probably rooted in the fear that someone might be sick if they’re sneezing.
All of this talk about sneezing helped me remember what my Italian-speaking grandfather used to say. He’d say, alla salut (it sounded like “ah salut”), meaning “to health”. He’d say Alla salut both after someone sneezed and as a “cheers” before drinking.
So, to all of you … Gesundheit and alla salut!
Lisa
P.S. Feel free to comment below about what’s said in your country as a cheers, and after someone sneezes.
How Do You Sneeze in Your Country?
Friday, June 2nd, 2006Today Devon over at Head, Shoulders, Knees and all that wrote a blog post about sneezing in Japan. He said in Japan they say hak-shun when they sneeze. In English we say a-choo.
After Japanese people sneeze, no one says anything special.
In English we say God bless you or Gesundheit. Gesundheit is a German word that literally means health. In German, and also in Yiddish, it’s also said after someone sneezes.
In Italian, they say Felicita (Happiness) after someone sneezes. In French they say Que Dieu vous bénisse (May god bless you) or A tes/vos souhaits (lit. To your wishes).
I’ve been told, and would love a verification, that in China, when someone sneezes, the others in the room bow.
Even the Romans said, Absit omen! (which I believe meant something like, God forbid this from being an omen), after someone sneezed.
It’s believed that the custom of saying “God bless you” comes from the time of a plague, when sneezing was a symptom that you were ill with the sickness.
In some cultures sneezing has been seen as a sign that evil is around. In others, it’s been believed that part of the soul can be expelled by a sneeze.
Of course, with all these beliefs about what happens when you sneeze, some proverbs have arisen about the subject. In Japan, according to Devon, there’s one that has to do with how many times you sneeze…
It says if you sneeze once, it means someone is praising you;
If you sneeze twice, it means someone is criticizing you/saying bad things about you;
If you sneeze three times, it means you are being scolded;
And if you sneeze four times or more, well, it means you have a cold.In English there’s a saying about the number of times you sneeze and what it means too. It goes…
Once, a wish,
Twice a kiss,
Three times a letter,
Four times something better.Here’s an English proverb about the day you sneeze on, and what that means…
If you sneeze on Monday, you sneeze for danger;
Sneeze on Tuesday, you kiss a stranger;
Sneeze on Wednesday, you sneeze for a letter;
Sneeze on a Thursday, for something better;
Sneeze on a Friday, you sneeze for sorrow;
Sneeze on a Saturday, your sweetheart tomorrow;
Sneeze on a Sunday, your safety seek,
The devil will have you the whole of the week.Here’s a last proverb that tells about what it means if you sneeze at different times of day…
Sneeze before you eat,
See your sweetheart before you sleep.
Sneeze between twelve and one,
Sure sign somebody’ll come.
Sneeze between one and two,
Come to see you.
Sneeze between two and three,
Come to see me.
Sneeze between three and four,
Somebody’s at the door.Please comment below let us know about sneezing in your culture… it’d be interesting to know what sound a person makes when they sneeze, what you say afterwards and anything else you’d like to share about sneezing.
May you all sneeze the right number of times, at the right time, and on the right day! Or perhaps even better, may you not sneeze at all!
Lisa
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