Food Traditions, Family Identity & Social Structure

ASB 300: Food and Culture 

Assignment 1 – Food Traditions, Family Identity & Social Structure

Name: Christine Reinheimer 

2015-01-23

The Meal 

Christmas holiday is a big celebration in the Philippines and our country is known to have the  longest Christmas season that starts in September and ends anywhere from the 9th of January up  until the third Sunday of January (Berselsen, 2007). One of the major traditions occurring during  the Christmas season is called Noche Buena, and is always celebrated with a special dinner meal.  Filipinos from all backgrounds partake in this meal and this tradition happens on Christmas Eve.  It is traditionally held at someone’s home and usually includes not just your immediate family  but extended family as well. 

Food and Ingredients 

All kinds of different foods can be served during Noche Buena. What is served is entirely up to  the family and can even vary every year. Every family is different but Noche Buena cannot be  complete without sweet roast ham and queso de bola, which is a kind of cheese that is distinct  because of the red wax it is wrapped with (Tantengco, 2013). The more people that are in your extended family, the more food there is. Some of the other foods usually served in my family are  pancit, mechado, adobo, paella, callos, lengua, lechon, and leche flan for dessert. These all show  the major influence of the Chinese and Spanish.  

Meaning 

The Noche Buena tradition was brought to the Philippines by the Spaniards when they colonized  the country. The Christmas season was fully embraced by the Catholic majority Filipinos, who  until now are very religious. It used to be the meal people would partake in after the midnight  mass on Christmas Eve and happened around midnight. Since I was a child, though, the timing  didn’t matter anymore. The hamon or sweet roast ham came from the Chinese and is always  present at Noche Buena feasts, along with queso de bola that came from the Spanish. In my  family, there is also usually pancit, a dish with Chinese influence which is like lo mein but with  thin rice noodles. Also there is usually callos and lengua which are Spanish-influenced dishes,  and everything is served with the ever popular white rice. My family has more Spanish dishes  because my great-grandmother actually came from Spain. Other Filipino families may have  different spreads based on their specific heritages as well.  

The dishes represent our tradition, where we came from, and also what foods bring us comfort as  we have it year after year, passed down from generation to generation of women in our family.  Noche Buena is also significant to not just my family but to all Filipinos as it is another reason  for a celebration, bringing the family together as one huge clan and celebrating each other and  celebrating the birth of Jesus. Noche Buena is more for the family but the midnight mass brings  the community together.  

Like with a lot of different Filipino meal celebrations, it always showcases the different kinds of  foods that the Philippines have acquired through the centuries. I think this is similar to how Wilk  (2008) describes Belize in his article “‘Real Belizean Food’: Building Local Identity in the  Transnational Caribbean.” There are numerous different influences in the cuisine and the food  shows that over time. Wilk (2008) says that food shows the complex issues and cultural change,  and one can see these things in the meals of Filipinos. It is like a melting pot of various different  foreign foods and culture and over time adapted to Filipinos and made our own and the staples  vary from family to family. 

Participants 

In the traditional sense, the women always does the cooking, serving, and cleaning. In the less  affluent of families, the women are the only ones who do all the household work. It is very  traditional and conventional and the men work outside the house for wages and do the handyman  work at home. In more affluent families, live-in help can be hired and you can get maids, cooks,  nannies, drivers, and launderers, etc. My immediate family has had help ever since I could  remember but some of my extended family still did it the traditional way.  

Like DeVault (2008) describes in “Conflict and Deference,” women are expected to handle the  domestic work, while men earn money outside the home. In the Philippines, there is a sense of  superiority among men and inferiority among women. Like DeVault’s article, the women do not  see it this way though, as to avoid conflict. It is their choice to do these things. They also feel  like they have more say in things, which they do. But still, they serve men. Men who serve  women are laughed upon by their colleagues. I asked my mom in a conversation about this  assignment to confirm that the ladies did all the work. She responded with, “Of course! It’s  because all the men are drinking during these festivities.” It is also subtly implied and known  that the men always get the best and biggest piece, much like in Rock’s 1999 video “Bigger &  Blacker” about the dad getting the big piece of chicken. It is always assumed that the men work  hard for the family and therefore deserve the best food and best service from the family.  

My immediate family was fortunate enough to have domestic help. When we host these  celebrations, all the family had to do was entertain people. My parents had somewhat of an  egalitarian/equal partnership much like the more affluent of the lesbigay households that  Carrington (2008) talks about in “Feeding Lesbigay Families.” Both my parents were  professionals working full-time outside the home. Even though this is the case, I could still see the traditional gender roles. My dad does not do any domestic work at all, but my mom still does  the meal planning and grocery planning, but always with help. She still directs the maids on what  needs to be done at home.  

Although it does seem that males have higher status in my culture and in my family, it has never  felt that way. Like DeVault describes, the women serve the men, but we do so out of love and  care. The men always treated the women with respect and the women did hold a lot of power  over the decisions made for the family. Food traditions like the Noche Buena meal continue to  hold the family together and strengthen our relationships. It reinforces Filipino culture, tradition,  and beliefs, and also reminds generation after generation of our history and the value of family. 

References 

Berselsen, N.U. (2007). The longest christmas. Retrieved January 22, 2015 from http:// web.archive.org/web/20071228035950/http://www.livinginthephilippines.com/ philippine_articles/longest_christmas.html 

Carrington, C. (2008). Feeding lesbigay families. In C. Counihan & P. Van Esterik (Eds.), Food  and culture: A reader, 2, 259-288, Routledge. 

DeVault, M. (2008). Conflict and deference. In C. Counihan & P. Van Esterik (Eds.), Food and  culture: A reader, 2, 240-258, Routledge. 

Rock, C. (1999). Bigger & blacker [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2Cn8sczZTZ4 

Tantengco, C. (2013). Hungry holidays: The filipino noche buena. Retrieved January 22, 2015  from http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/340911/newstv/ijuander/infographic hungry-holidays-the-filipino-noche-buena 

Wilk, RR. (2008). Real belizean food. In C. Counihan & P. Van Esterik (Eds.), Food and culture:  A reader, 2, 308-325, Routledge.