MollyMcChesney

Tradition is incredibly important in the Marian community, especially around the holidays. All types of people and cultures have their own customs. The practices that come with these traditions help to foster a sense of community, belonging and identity. Tradition is the passing down of information, values and history from communities and cultures. 

In many cultures, food is one of the most important ties to the community. Food brings different people together in a common place and connects them to each other. 

As the holidays come around, girls spend time with their families sharing a meal. Traditions through food are seen all over in the community through CABs such as Culture Day.

Junior Kaylin Petersen said she likes to spend time with her mom during the Christmas season. With Czechoslovakian heritage, Petersen bakes treats relating back to her culture. “My favorite are kolaches, a Czech pastry,” Petersen said.  

During this time, Petersen, along with her mom, dedicates at least an entire day to baking kolaches.

To Petersen, baking these treats means honoring her family. She said, “it’s just a way we like to honor her, my great-grandmother, because she’s not with us anymore.”

These days are not “just about baking but they are also about spending time with family and carrying on family traditions,” Petersen said. 

Petersen wishes to continue these traditions later in her life as she holds them close to her heart and does not want to lose the tradition and heritage that is so special to her.  

Freshman Julia Kubat also has many traditions that surround food during the holiday season. Kubat, along with her cousins, spend time with her grandmother to make poppy seed bread for the rest of their family and friends. Kubat explained that her “grandma makes her signature sugar cookies for other holidays including Halloween and Valentines Day.” 

Along with the baking traditions, Kubat said she participates in “annual Nativity [scenes] where my grandma has all of my little cousins dress up and be characters in the Nativity.” Through this the whole family is able to come together with the Christmas spirit.

“My grandma writes the script and we all act it out along with reading it out loud,” Kubat said.

Kubat shared that family time is very important to her and her family. 

She said that she would “like to continue this tradition by continuing to get together every year and keeping the traditions” with her family as she gets older. These traditions bring their family together as they live all around the U.S. and they get to reunite over the holiday season. 

Sophomore Hannah Reichmuth also loves her family traditions that surround food. During Christmas time her family “always makes prime rib along with potatoes, green beans, rolls, and just a whole assortment of food before we go to church.” She enjoys the time she gets to spend with her family and hopes to continue these traditions forever.

Reichmuth considers time with her family sacred. “At every family gathering we always end up playing cards and spending time together,” Reichmuth said. The Christmas season is something Reichmuth looks forward to and loves to spend quality time with her family. 

Family recipes run deep in the lives of these girls. Petersen, Kubat, and Reichmuth all connect with their families over their holiday traditions around food. Tradition through food is a large uniting factor in the lives of many people, especially around the holidays.