Jwaye Nwèl / Celebrations of the Season

As we celebrate Christmas, we wanted to share celebrations of the season—and some recipes—from some of our THP and LCS community members:

"Christmas was one of the most celebrated holidays when I was growing up in Haiti. On Christmas Eve, people will have reveyon, which is a gathering of family and friends to eat bouyon (https://www.savorythoughts.com/haitian-bouillon). Typically, the food is consumed around midnight to ring in Christmas. Everyone dances, drinks, opens gifts, and has fun. Some communities will gather and do the same."

—THP Board Member Sabine Guerrier

Shilove Charles

"Christmas in Haiti is celebrated from Christmas Eve to New Year's. On Christmas Eve, people often celebrate with goat soup, baba au rhum (cake soaked in rum) and lots of crémas (a sweet and creamy alcoholic beverage). On Christmas, we celebrate with turkey and rice and beans (https://loisa.com/blogs/comida-real/haitian-rice-beans). Then on New Year's Eve, we celebrate with Haitian fritay, an assortment of fried foods, which for us always included griot (fried marinated pork), pikliz (a spicy slaw mixture), and fried plaintains."

—THP Bookkeeper and Office Manager Shilove Charles

Myriam J. (LCS ‘10)

"In Haiti, we eat Congo beans with rice and fried chicken (of course) during the whole month of December. On December 24th, we spend the whole night dancing, eating fried meat and plantains with macaroni gratin, and drinking with family and friends."

—Louverture Cleary School Principal Myriam J. (LCS '10) 

Over the holidays and especially on New Year's Day, Haitians everywhere celebrate with soup joumou, a traditional pumpkin soup (which can also be made with squash). This soup, which is a celebration of Haiti, is a perfect dish to celebrate the holidays, too!

Craig Elstak

THP Board Member Craig Elstak shared wife Martinna's soup joumou recipe. See the recipe here.

You can see how Martinna makes it in this great video: 
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cm-ch0yIlE0/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

 

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