The Bacon & Lox Society Story

At a personal turning point in her life’s journey, founder Alisa Tongg took the step of becoming an ordained minister to practice and share interfaith and cultural ceremony.

When the time came to form her new congregation, Alisa looked back at one of her long standing and treasured practices of bringing her family together with other families to share in different holiday traditions. Inspired by the generosity of spirit cultivated through these special gatherings, Alisa formally named her celebration congregation The Bacon & Lox Society.

Born and raised in Hawaii — with Chinese-American, Cherokee, and Caucasian roots — Alisa was the firstborn in her family, as well as the first to go to college. She survived purity culture, divorce, and life abroad, eventually putting her career and higher education aside in order to become a minister, known by the term “Life-Cycle Celebrant.” In 2008, she created the Delaware River Food + Wine Festival, with 12 unique boutique events over four days to help identify and celebrate local treasures and personalities as she put down roots for her young family in the Pocono Mountains.

Coming from a unique blend of cultures and traditions herself, Alisa distinguishes her Celebrant practice by creating custom ceremonies and gatherings that gracefully criss-cross existing traditions and customs while also creating entirely new ones. She artfully brings this gift to the Bacon & Lox Society, creating spaces and places for those who find connection with their spiritualities through nature, personal stories, a shared table, and a grateful heart.

BLS events are dedicated to the exploration of personal meaning through shared experience. One of our most important tenets is the sense of belonging that comes from the creative contributions each person makes to our experiences. We don’t seek to over-produce our events, or script every last detail. Instead, we put the ideas and energy in motion, trusting that together, we’ll create something bigger than anything any one of us could have ever created alone.