The holidays are usually a time where people come together in ways that are unlikely the rest of the year. If you are a New Yorker like myself, you are guaranteed days filled with the non-stop and fast-paced business of life’s routines and demands. The holidays force us to slow down and remember what is important: relationship, connections made by exchanging daily experiences, family, friends and ofcourse food. For many cultures, around Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year, there is more of the “getting together” wand connecting over food than any other day of the year.
In Haitian households such as the one I grew up in, we partake of a celebratory soup, a soup that represents freedom and liberty on New Year’s Day. This soup is called soup “joumou.” It is originally known as a pumpkin soup, but has also transformed to include winter squash instead of the pumpkin. For many years, I did not know the significance of why we drink this soup only on New Year’s day. Why did we gather around the table as if it were thanksgiving? Why didn’t we drink this soup on any other day of the year?
For once in my 31 years of life, I ventured to interview my mother, a native born Haitian woman and one of the best Haitian cooks that I know. To my surprise, she had no clue as to why we make and have this soup every New Year. She only knew what I knew: we gather to eat a delicious bowl of squash soup on New Year’s Day because “it is what we do.” I would hate for the meaning of a great heritage to be forgotten. More than one generation has gone on without an appreciation of a heritage that makes Haitian people so strong. We have gotten so caught up in the tradition that we forgot about the history and failed to pass it down to future generations. Heritage, history, and culture have shaped our parents who have helped to shape us as well. Honestly, I expected stories, I expected the sharing of life experiences in Haiti as she told me about the dish, but to much disappointment, I didn’t get that.
Visit www.kwanzaaculinarians.com for my feature on the history behind soup joumou and the recipe.
Wife to an amazing husband, mother to an exploring toddler and an MPA graduate aspiring to impact the world with encouragement in mothering and in social entrepreneurship.
