You may have already read the article in the New York Times about the notorious…………cookie table here in the southwestern part of PA. It was published back in 2009 but I came across it today and got to thinking…….what fun traditions do you have in your area? For instance, up yonder in SW PA we have cookie tables at each of our weddings. No they aren’t for dessert……it’s just a buffet of cookies-usually thousands of them.
As The New York Times describes it:
“For as long as anyone here can remember, wedding receptions in South Western PA, have featured cookie tables, laden with dozens of homemade old-fashioned offerings like lady locks, pizzelles and buckeyes. For weeks ahead — sometimes months — mothers and aunts and grandmas and in-laws hunker down in the kitchen baking and freezing. Then, on the big day, hungry guests ravage the buffet, piling plates high and packing more in takeout containers so they can have them for breakfast the next day.”-New York Times.
There many theories on WHY the cookies originated but no one is 100% sure. Some credit the Italian and Eastern European immigrants who wanted to bring a bit of the Old Country to the big day in the New World. Given that many of them were already well practiced at laying out a Christmas spread, baking 8 to 10 times as many treats for a few hundred special friends and relatives may not have seemed like such a stretch. Another theory goes that it got a jump start during the Depression, when elaborate wedding cakes were not as common. Cookies filled in the need because so many people could contribute, so the expense didn’t fall on one family. But even that is not certain. What ever the reason, it has been adopted as a rich ethnic heritage in our area!
The most fun is when guests from out of town and aren’t familiar with the tradition stare in horror as the guests around them raid what they THINK is the dessert table. “How rude!”, one of the out of towner’s said at a recent wedding. “Why are they attacking the dessert table before dinner?” As she says this she is looking towards her children, ” Don’t you EVEN THINK about going up there until after dinner is served!”. I had to politely explain to her that the cake was for dessert and that the cookies were simply seen as part as the appetizers…..to go ahead and help yourself. I could tell by the look on her face…..she.was.so.confused! So it got me thinking……..what kinds of traditions/etc do you have from your part of the woods that us outsiders would look at and say…WHAT THE <insert your choice of word>? For us….it’s cookies…..lots and LOTS of cookies!!! :-0
…..and the biggest fear? …….that you’ll run out of cookies!! 🙂
that is so fun…. I would be so confused because we definitely don’t do the cookie tables here in KC, MO (except a few old school Italian families but still they are considered dessert)…. my cousins live in TN and they have bridal breakfasts before the wedding, lots and lots of food, everyone dressed up (though not in their wedding finery) and I was blown away by that as well…. considering I had an 11am wedding, I barely had time to grab a granola bar between hair, make-up and photos!
Deborah Barerras