Pickles, People & Place: Thinking Like a Folklorist About Rituals
December 31, 2025
Reflections on the NPR story about Mount Olive’s New Year’s Eve Pickle Drop This past week NPR shared a story about a place and event many North Carolinians know well: Mount Olive’s New Year’s Eve pickle drop – a playful tradition now tied to that town’s identity. At first glance, dropping a glowing pickle from […]
Collard-Stealing Night: A North Carolina Old Christmas Tradition
February 5, 2016
Here in North Carolina we’ve eaten up the winter collard greens, and are eagerly anticipating the early spring crop. Thinking about collards put us in mind of a tradition we learned about some years back, Collard-Stealing Night. Though it may have been practiced in various parts of North Carolina, it seems to have been most […]