Holiday traditions: Cabrini edition

By Evan Lynn
November 16, 2019

Once Halloween passes many radio stations start playing Christmas music exclusively. The first week of November Starbucks and Dunkin’ drop their winter flavored beverages. With only a few weeks left of classes,  one thing is on everyone’s minds: the holiday season. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are important because they signify building memories with our friends and family and with those memories often come traditions.

“Holiday traditions are essentially ritualistic behaviors that nurture us and our relationships. They are primal parts of us, which have survived since the dawn of man,” Michele L. Brennan, Psy.D, wrote. “Holiday traditions are an important part to building a strong bond between family, and our community. They give us a sense of belonging and a way to express what is important to us. They connect us to our history and help us celebrate generations of family.” Traditions are unique to each individual family and Cabrini’s campus has a good mixture of everything.

Thanksgiving traditions:

For many people, when Thanksgiving comes to mind, we envision a roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, some sort of gravy, canned cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, rolls and either pumpkin or sweet potato pie for dessert.

Other traditions like watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, waking up early to cook, playing football after dinner, or going Black Friday shopping with family are very much engrained into American culture.

Dorothy Khella, traveling student, in the library. Photo by Evan Lynn

“Every year for Thanksgiving we (Dorothy, her husband, two children and mother in law) celebrate it the same way. The meal is very important to us because my mother in law and I cook all the time.” Dorothy Khella, visiting student, said. “Turkey is the center of the meal, but because my husband is Egyptian, we have different sides like stuffed grape leaves with a yogurt sauce and noodles accompanied by a nice wine.”

Emilee Timbario, accommodations coordinator in the DRC, married into an Italian and Ukrainian family and used to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving spread, but now has Italian wedding soup with her husband and in laws. One thing that hasn’t changed is her families tradition of going Black Friday shopping every year.

 

Christmas traditions:

Christmas dinner is very similar to Thanksgiving, but sometimes there is a ham added into the mix or apple pie instead of pumpkin.

Many Americans will play secret Santa, wake up early to unwrap gifts, drive around and look at Christmas lights after dinner or on Christmas Eve, or watch Christmas movies.

Selena Scialfa in the hallway at Founder’s. Photo by Evan Lynn

“My dad makes homemade meatballs and we have roast beef. We have pasta salad and potato salad. It’s always very delicious,” Sara Farina, Student Accessibility Specialist at the DRC, said. “We have cheesecake. We have a unique Christmas because it was always buffet style because my mom always had people coming in and out. It’s gotten a lot smaller, but always the same food.”

“Some of my Christmas traditions, now that my sister and I are older, is waiting to open presents. We normally go to church on Christmas Day,” Selena Scialfa, senior early education and special education major, said. “It’s nice to have that family time. We then catch up with my mom’s side of the family and spend time with them.”

In the Lynn household, the only tradition we have is traditional Irish breakfast on Christmas morning. This includes bacon or rashers, sausage or bangers, black and white pudding, fried egg, Heinz beans and some form of breakfast potatoes. Both of my parents immigrated to the United States from Ireland and having a sense of Irish culture in Pennsylvania is very important to them.

Holidays are a great time to enjoy the company of loved ones and embrace traditions we can pass on for generations to comes.

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Evan Lynn

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