Author Archives: Anna McNamara

Bar Mitzvah Joke

Informant Data: The informant is in her late 40’s, Caucasian and self-identifies strongly with Judaism. She is married with two daughters, and has a career as a Family Mental Health Therapist.

Item: The following joke: “Two rabbis were discussing their problems with mice in the attic of their synagogue. One rabbi says, “We could simply call an exterminator and we would never see the mice again.” The other rabbi says, “We could give them all a bar mitzvah and we would never see the mice again.” The following quotations are direct transcriptions of my dialogue with the informant, while the additional information provided is paraphrased.

Contextual Data: My informant first heard this joke attending services at a Seattle synagogue in her late 30’s. “It makes fun of that for a lot of kids, their bar mitzvah is the last time they attend services. They do Sunday school and learn Hebrew and work so hard on their bar mitzvah speeches, but after there’s a well-known gap where you don’t see them for a while.” My informant goes on, “I remember holding onto that joke, and going home and telling my husband. I thought it was pretty adorable.”

Vietnamese Praying Ritual and Burning Vietnamese Money

Informant Data: The informant is a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention major here at the University of Southern California. She is Vietnamese and is exposed to Vietnamese culture and traditions through her parents; she describes herself as more passive than active in regards to Vietnamese traditions.

Item: The informant describes a Vietnamese prayer ritual below. The following quotations are direct transcriptions of my dialogue with the informant, while the additional information provided is paraphrased.

Contextual Data: The informant has been participating in this ritual several times a year since she was a child. She explains the ritual: “So there’s this annual Vietnamese book that comes out, and depending on your zodiac sign it tells you your fortune for the year and it contains the dates that you should prey. My mom reads this, I do not. So several times a year, usually pretty late at night, I would hear my mom call “It’s time! Hurry!” and I would go outside and face a certain direction—the direction changes every year according to my mom. She will have had a tray of fruit—oranges, bananas, grapes—and a bunch of candles. You light all the candles and you have one of those incense sticks that you light as well. You hold the incense in your hands and you lightly bob up and down, praying silently. What you pray for is often for your dead ancestors to watch over you and bring you luck; it’s more of a prayer to wish good things for yourself. During this, my mom reads a chant that always begins “On this day…” and goes on to bless us. When you have finished praying you stick your incense into the rind of one of the fruits, I like the oranges, and you leave it outside. Then we sometimes, not every time, burn fake Vietnamese money. The fake money you can get at a lot of Asian supermarkets. We burn some for our dead ancestors and then it’s over, and we go inside.” When asked about the significance of this ritual, the informant replied “It is not something that I do for me; I do it for my mother. I don’t feel very connected to the ritual, like I don’t understand the significance of the fruit or why we do it in this fashion, but I don’t ask questions.” The informant relays her isolated sentiment of feeling almost like an outsider when practicing this, due to her “solely superficial understanding of it.” She goes on to explain: “I think it’s an interesting ritual and I enjoy partaking; however, its significance and true enjoyment has not been transferred to me from my mother yet.” This is a clear example of how the purpose of traditions can be easily diluted over generations, the original meaning lost to a focus on the behavior aspects. When asked to further describe the burning of fake money, she details: “The concept behind it is that if you burn this money, your ancestors will receive it on the other side and be rich in the afterlife. Now we obviously use fake money, but the sentiment is still there that the act of burning it will transfer it to them.” This concept is more tangible to the informant, with the innate mesmerizing quality of fire serving as an understandable relation to the afterlife. To wish your deceased relatives good fortune, even in death, as well is a very relatable practice.

Vietnamese New Year Gift Ritual

Informant Data: The informant is a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention major here at the University of Southern California. She is Vietnamese and is exposed to Vietnamese culture and traditions through her parents; she describes herself as more passive than active in regards to Vietnamese traditions.

Item: The ritual of receiving money from relatives on Vietnamese New Year. The following quotations are direct transcriptions of my dialogue with the informant, while the additional information provided is paraphrased.

Contextual Data: The informant has participated in this ritual for as long as she can recall. She explains it as: “On Vietnamese New Years, its tradition to get money in a red envelope, sometimes they have pretty pictures on the front. But you can’t just get it; usually the elders give it to the kids, so I get it from my aunts, uncles, parents, etc. But you can’t just have it handed to you. For example if it’s my dad giving me a red envelope, I have to say this little script where you speak in Vietnamese and you say “Happy New Year Father, may you have good health and happiness and wealth in the next year.” That was always really hard for me because I could never speak Vietnamese well, so it would always take me 5 minutes to say one sentence.” When asked why the envelopes are red, the informant replied “in Vietnamese culture, red is a symbol of good luck and fortune. Kind-of fitting for a gift of money.” When asked what significance this ritual holds for her, she says “Honestly, most of the Vietnamese cultural things I partake in are because of my mom, she requires them of us [me and my siblings]. I don’t ask any questions, I just go along with the customs.”

Another version of this informant’s Vietnamese New Year ritual was published in the Hartford Courant newspaper (see citation below). In the article, the author details the gift of money, similarly placed in “lucky” red envelopes; however, they are hung from the branches of a tree with thread, unlike my informant’s direct exchange with her elders. While my informant mentions decorative pictures, the author of the article describes fortunes, as well as candy, alongside the monetary gift.

Sureck-Mei, Shana. “Vietnamese New Year.” Hartford Courant 02 Feb. 1998: A.3. Web. Apr. 2013.

“Never buy your husband new shoes as a gift because he will walk out of your life with them”

Informant Data: The informant is in her late 40’s, Caucasian and self-identifies strongly with Judaism. She is married with two daughters, and has a career as a Family Mental Health Therapist.

Item: The folk-saying that you should never buy their husband or boyfriend new shoes as a gift, because they will walk out of your life with them. The following quotations are direct transcriptions of my dialogue with the informant, while the additional information provided is paraphrased.

Contextual Data: My informant says that she first heard this in the beginning of her therapy practice, and has since had several women mention it since. “As a therapist, if a woman says this to me it tells me several things. They are showcasing an external locus of control; they think they are not in control of their relationship.” While this may cause anxiety and feelings of helplessness, which often is the origin of folk-beliefs and rituals (adhered to in attempt to avoid some assumed fate), they are also divorcing themselves from blame, a protective strategy so that if their significant other were to leave them, the blame lies with the circumstances and on anything else—besides themselves. “Something as insignificant as shoes, just because it is situated within a saying that’s catchy and that indicates a feared consequence beyond one’s control; it will make women stop and think to avoid such a thing, just in case.” But this type of thinking, especially in one’s significant relationships, “is unhealthy and eliminates one’s own voice.” My informant clearly saw no validity in the belief. This is an example of folk-speech that can be employed as a folk-belief. Someone may hear this saying, and add it to their collection of life guidelines. Additionally, its classification as a proverb is debatable, because it is far from a generally accepted truth; moreover, it reflects the fear of abandonment that plagues many individuals in committed relationships.

How to guess the sex of a pregnant woman’s baby

Informant Data: The informant is in her late 40’s, Caucasian and self-identifies strongly with Judaism. She is married with two daughters, and has a career as a Family Mental Health Therapist.

Item: The folk-belief that in pregnant women, girls are carried high and boys are carried low, as well as the folk-ritual of guessing the baby’s sex at the baby shower. At the baby shower, the expecting mother with lie down on her back with her belly exposed. A friend will then dangle her wedding ring, tied to a string, over the belly. If the ring swings back and forth, it’s a boy, and if the ring moves in a circle, the baby is a girl. The following quotations are direct transcriptions of my dialogue with the informant, while the additional information provided is paraphrased.

Contextual Data: My informant was introduced to both of these items when she was pregnant with her first child. “I was told that I was going to have a girl, because I was carrying so high. And sure enough, I did. Second time I was pregnant I was carrying high again and many people I met told me as well “must be a girl!” And sure enough, another baby girl. I always thought it would be more comfortable to carry a pregnancy low though, but never got the chance to find out.” When asked, my informant said she did not believe it’s a valid predictor of sex, that her experience with it “was two coincidences back-to-back.” Furthermore, she says that “whether you carry a baby high or low, I think, is dependent on your body type and configuration. I don’t think many women who have multiple children switch.” As for the baby shower folk-ritual, my informant detailed that “this was done for me at both my baby showers, almost more for the delight of my friends than my own! They took my wedding ring, tied some thread around it and held it above my belly. Then, they all screamed as it started in an oval-like path, both times. I took this as an “in-between” kind-of answer, since it wasn’t really a circle and it wasn’t really back and forth, but my girlfriends took it for a circle.” Again, the sex of her children correlated with this method’s prediction as well. “I still don’t think there’s much validity to it, but I sound so cynical because both methods of guessing my babies’ sex were right, four out of four times!” My informant chalks both of the items up to coincidence, explaining “I don’t think I could even guess a biological or rational reason why they worked for me, so I’m going to say it’s a funny coincidence.” These practices seem to have their roots in a pre-modern era, due to the contemporary technologies that eliminate the need for guessing. Therefore, they seem to be upheld by tradition and their interactive nature. “People love to comment on pregnancies, whether it evokes nostalgia for them or perhaps your excitement is contagious, loved ones like to feel like a part of the process,” and these two items are ways to feel incorporated.