Monthly Archives: April 2012

Greek Orthodox Wedding Celebration

Christina Fiore

Los Angeles, California

April 22, 2012

Folklore Type: Tradition, Ritual

Informant Bio: Christina is my good friend. She is Greek and Italian. She is a nineteen year old Sophomore a double major in Archaeology and Italian at the University of Southern California. She has been to quite a few of her cousins’ weddings.

Context: We have talked about weddings before just because we have talked about my boyfriend’s sister’s wedding and differences between the different weddings she and I have been to. I have never been to a Greek Orthodox Wedding so I asked her to describe it to me.

Item: So yeah, so basically it’s a typical wedding you have the bride’s side and the groom’s side, such and such. The whole service is done in Greek unless you specifically ask for it otherwise. Except they say it in Greek and then English so you’re basically listening to it twice. And I don’t really know, I mean the service it’s like relatively long. The most important aspects, like they do some stuff with like incense. So there’s that but basically the most important part of a Greek wedding in terms of the service itself is they do this thing with crowns. And the crowns a really big deal so they are really decorative and they can be really pretty. You pick your own crowns they make all different kinds. There’s two crowns that are connected by these strings or whatever. The crowns are fuckin’ expensive. They place one on the bride’s head and one on the groom’s head. Then they walk around the altar like three times with candles and stuff. So that symbolizes their like first steps as a married couple. And then they do the typical like now you may kiss the bride cause you’re married. Blabbity blah. Other than that it’s a typical wedding. The father walks her down the aisle. There is a flower girl. The girls all walk down the aisle. The music is pretty common. Duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh. There is like a greek hymn. There’s two big candles and two medium size candles but I don’t know if that’s the norm or the minimum or something. They will also be super involved and like ornate-ish. Oh! Also there are these two god parents specifically god parents of the wedding. They are called the goombaro and goombara. Basically they take care a lot of the wedding stuff. My mom was my cousin’s god mother for the wedding and like my dad couldn’t be because he couldn’t stand on the altar cause he’s like not Greek. He was kinda exiled. Um, and like that person will hold the string I was talking about between the two crowns. And they do this thing where they switch the two crowns. They are like spiritual guidance person of the wedding. I think the crown switching is just another example that the couple are together. They also drink wine from the same cup or whatever. There are these things called favors which are like candy covered almonds. They are only for weddings and christenings. I don’t know if anyone actually eats them. They’re really hard. They are also really decorated. There aren’t a lot of places where you can get this done. Like there are specific places. And the godparents like pay for all that stuff. That’s why usually it’s a couple that offers to do that because it’s an expensive endeavor. It’s usually a morning or an afternoon wedding. Afterwards you have a reception. At the reception there’s not too much stuff that’s specifically Greek except the music. Once you’re there you pretty much go into traditional Greek party mode. You have the like circle dancing. The Zambekiko, its like slow. It’s called the drunken dance. It’s usually one or two people up at a time and everyone else circles and claps on their knees. There’s the typical plate breaking which doesn’t always happen. It’s really more of an in the moment thing. I have not been to that many things where that has happened. Oh, there is always, you know you are at a Greek party when the men always do this. Like they plan and come prepared with a ton of rolled up one dollar bills. Then when people are dancing they just throw the money. It’s not like a good luck thing. It’s just a celebratory thing. I don’t really know how to explain it. And pretty much always all that money that’s on the floor will pretty much go to the band or dj or whatever.

Informant Analysis: Um, well weddings are always a nice thing because typically Greek families are pretty large so when weddings happen everyone gets to get together where that wouldn’t normally happen. So that’s nice. The wedding is really religiously based. All the Greek party stuff is all about having a good time. It’s really like any normal Greek party not associated with a wedding.

Analysis: A Greek Orthodox Wedding is a religious and seriously joyous affair. It gets the whole, rather large, family involved. It is a time to celebrate. A major theme throughout the ceremony and the party is togetherness. Whether the togetherness is between the new husband and wife or the family in terms of working together to pay for it and put it all together. Even when the men throw the money it all gets put together to help pay for the music. Greek weddings really embody the importance of family and joy within a family that is important in Greek culture.

Alex Williams

Los Angeles, California

University of Southern California

ANTH 333m   Spring 2012

Los Peces en el Rio

Pero mira como beben los peces en el rio (But look at how the fish in the river drink)

Pero mira como beben por ver a Dios nacido (But look at how they drink because they saw God’s birth)

Beben y beben y vuelven a beber, (they drink and drink and keep on drinking)

Pero mira como beben por ver a Dios nacer. (But look at how they drink because they saw God be born)

(God=jesus. this is a christmas song)

 

This is a song we sing at Christmas. The birth of God is the birth of Jesus.

 

I think that this is an attempt to justify their religious identity. In actuality, it’s a bit of a logical fallacy, but they are trying to associate something that is not necessarily proven to be true (birth of god) with something that is constant and happens all the time, and they witness (the fish ‘drinking’ in the river). The artist Gipsy Kings recorded this, and were quite successful– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSjqnKNgvo

Guys falls off motorcycle at red light

This a common motorcycle story I’ve heard from several people, especially when I was first learning to ride a motorcycle, and it always happened to someone they knew. Someone was touring on a motorcycle, and when you ride a motorcycle, and you’re on the highway, your feet are on the footrests, because you don’t need your feet to balance when you’re riding fast. This guy was on this long trip, and gets off at the ramp, gets to the bottom of the ramp, puts the brake on, forgets to put his feet down, and the bike falls over to the side. He drove over a hundred miles on the highway to see a Bruce Springsteen concert without a problem. On the way home, he gets all the way back to his hometown, and gets off at the ramp. There’s a red light, so he stops his bike falls and he ends up in the hospital with a broken leg.

 

It’s a warning to not be complacent, ever, no matter how easy it is when you’re driving a motorcycle.

 

Motorcycling is inherently dangerous,a nd so I think that this story is some kind of way to regain control, and more importantly, to imply that tragic things that happen to people on motorcycles happen because of their own stupidity. It is an attempt to take out some of the unknown variables of motorcycling.

Baby in Mirror

Pablo:

 

You shouldn’t put babies in front of the mirror.

 

They would get sick if you put them in front of the mirror.

 

I think that this is a distrust of technology. The same thing occurs in Feng Shui– it’s bad luck to put a mirror at the foot of your bed. I think it is a natural resistance to relatively new things, and the fear associated with seeing one’s reflection in a mirror.

Jewish Confirmation

Maddy Heyman

Los Angeles, California

April 24, 2012

Folklore Type: Ritual

Informant Bio: Maddy Heyman is one of my apartment mates and good friends. She is a twenty year old Sophomore and double major in Theatre and Narrative Studies at The University of Southern California. She is from St. Paul, Minnesota and has lived there her whole life. Maddy is a very active member of her theatre community back in St. Paul. She also has acted and directed shows at USC. Although she is thriving in college despite tearing her meniscus and finding out she has mild Crohn’s disease, she is very attached to her home, family, friends, and Theatre community in St. Paul. Maddy is Jewish.

Context: Maddy and I were in our dimly lit apartment late in the night around midnight when I asked her to share some theatre folklore knowing she is a Theatre major. After she told me the theatre ritual, she said there was another ritual they do with her form of Judaism that is also really important to her.

Item: A Jewish ritual more specific to my form of Judaism, er Reformed Jew, is confirmation at fifteen or sixteen. It’s not like Bar or Baht Mitzvahs. Then you become a Jewish adult in the community. Reformed Jews get that at thirteen you’re not old enough to decide you’re gonna be a Jew adult. With Confirmation, you take a year and really study what it means to be a Jew. We looked controversial issues like birth control, homosexuals, and stem cell research. At the end we wrote confessional statements. They allowed us to confirm our faith but like on our own terms which was super cool. You can be like I accept it but I believe this or I wanna think about it this way (hand gestures on each side). Also we learned a lot about other religions, and why we would want to be Jews. I really got to decide and realize, yes, I want to be Jewish and hopefully raise my kids Jewish. It culminates a year of learning. At the end it culminates into a service where we read our statements and then they get published in a program.

Informant Analysis: I don’t know when it started. Just know it started cause they knew thirteen was too young, and we needed the chance to experience more before we make the big decision.

Analysis: Maddy identifies with this ritual because as she said it really helped her learn about the important decision she was going to have to make and helped her make it. This ritual is a reaction to a ritual of the past. Instead of changing the ritual the Reformed Jews added a new one. It is an example of Religious ideas changing over time.

  Alex Williams

Los Angeles, California

University of Southern California

ANTH 333m   Spring 2012