Americans love to celebrate special occasions. Whether celebrating religious or secular holidays, milestone events or just getting together, celebrations are an important part of our foodscape. As a societal salad bowl, there are many different varieties of holidays and celebrations in the U.S. Celebrations can include Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Easter, Passover, Ramadan, Diwali, Cinco De Mayo, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, and Chinese New Year, in addition to birthdays, weddings, graduations, and anniversaries.

Celebrating the holidays is a beloved tradition. Although the holidays bring together families, friends, and communities, celebrations can also leave some out in the cold. “‘Invented tradition’ is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted ruled and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms or behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past. Despite the aim of cohesiveness, invented traditions an be exclusionary for those who do not partake in their festivities. This may have contributed to the emergence of another modern holiday food tradition. Originating in New York’s Lower East Side at the beginning of the twentieth century, eating Chinese food on Christmas has become an annual ritual for American Jews. Both Jews and Chinese were non-Christian immigrant groups and Chinese cuisine offered an option that allowed Jews to feast on food while still adhering to religious dietary restrictions. Over a century later, this practice is still popular and may have become even more prevalent in recent years” (Eplett).