How a Haitian New Year’s tradition blends family, memory, and revolutionary history into every spoonful
“If you don’t eat soup joumou on New Year’s Day, you’ll have a bad year,” my dad always told me growing up.
For many Haitian families, soup joumou is far more than a meal—it is a ritual that marks the beginning of the year with remembrance, pride, and connection. As a child, the author rushed each January 1 to their grandmother’s house, driven by urgency and belief. Over time, that urgency transformed into understanding, as the deeper meaning of the dish revealed itself as a symbol of Haiti’s revolutionary past and hard-won freedom.
Watching a grandmother prepare soup joumou became an education in devotion: the careful seasoning, the slicing of squash, and the generosity that extended beyond family as containers were shared with church members and nursing home residents. That same tradition followed the author into adulthood and into a first apartment in Chicago, where history books, Haitian cookbooks, and memory guided the cooking process. Recreating the soup became a way to honor ancestors, culture, and identity while sharing pride with friends.
Soup joumou traces its roots to 1804, when Haiti emerged as the world’s first free Black republic. Once a dish enslaved Haitians were forced to prepare only for French colonizers, it was reclaimed on Independence Day by Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité, who served it to newly freed Haitians as a declaration of liberation. The squash-based stew—joumou, meaning squash in Haitian Creole—thus became both nourishment and resistance in a bowl.
Today, Haitians across the diaspora continue this legacy every New Year’s Day. While recipes vary from household to household, the spirit remains unchanged: calabaza squash, hearty vegetables, herbs, and epis come together to tell a story of survival and triumph. Beyond the diaspora, the tradition invites others to participate through sharing, generosity, and reflection—whether by offering a bowl to a neighbor or donating ingredients so others may experience it too.
Joumou soup is ultimately an invitation: to remember the past, strengthen the community, and begin the year grounded in empathy and shared humanity.
Traditions like soup joumou remind us that food can carry history more powerfully than words alone. Starting the year with a dish rooted in freedom and generosity is a meaningful way to honor resilience—and a reminder that progress is best celebrated together.
Source:
- https://youtu.be/gGUtdHDAAqU?si=ge4zzFrr8wQR-CY5
- https://www.allrecipes.com/haitian-soup-joumou-11875241
- https://chatgpt.com/
- https://aistudio.google.com/
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