Author Archives: Antona Yost

Persian Kashi proverb

The informant is a 19 year old student studying Vocal Arts at the University of Southern California.  Her heritage is Jewish and Persian and she speaks Hebrew and Farsi.  Her family maintains many of their Persian traditions from various regional-cultures in Iran.  The informant is Kashi (from Iran’s Kashan region) from her Dad’s side, while her mother’s side is from Tehran (maternal grandfather) and Komijan (maternal grandmother).  This proverb is from her paternal grandfather, who is Kashi.

Persian proverb that the informant’s grandfather (from Kashan region of Iran) used to always say when giving advice:

“Money doesn’t make you happy but there’s nothing worse than being poor”

Further information on the Kashi culture:

“The Kashis are supposed to be very stingy with money and very cautious about things, don’t like doing extreme sports or anything but are very intelligent and don’t like say anything – not don’t say anything – Kashis will never lie but they don’t tell you their secrets.  They’re very private about their affairs.  Persians especially Kashis don’t do the census.”

Analysis:

 

Persian spice burning for protection

The informant is a 19 year old student studying Vocal Arts at the University of Southern California.  Her heritage is Jewish and Persian and she speaks Hebrew and Farsi.  Her family maintains many of their Persian traditions from various regional cultures in Iran.  The informant is Kashi (from Iran’s Kashan region) from her Dad’s side, while her mother’s side is from Tehran (maternal grandfather) and Komijan (maternal grandmother).  She herself mainly identifies with the Kashi culture.  The custom shared below is a custom performed by her maternal grandmother, who is from the Komijan area. 

“My Grandma will burn spices in a thing of aluminum foil on the stove and then just wave them around our heads muttering prayers that she herself doesn’t believe in.  It’s very weird and like pagan.  And I’m like “Maadar-Bozorg* why do you do this?” and she’s like “You just do it, it’s a thing you do”.  After she’s just chilling, she’ll be in the kitchen, and just burn some saffron in some tinfoil, and like clove.  It gets the devil out – but we don’t believe in the devil because we’re Jewish.  It’s just a custom because her mother did it and her mother’s mother did it and her mother’s mother’s mother.”

*Maadar-Bozorg – grandmother in Farsi

When asked if she would do that to her children or grandchildren, she said, “Probably”.   She doesn’t know what the prayers are because “she mutters them very quickly and quietly”, but that they are not Jewish prayers and are more like an “incantation, and are very witch-crafty”.  She says that she does know that it is supposed to be a blessing and a ward against evil.

 

Analysis:

This custom is a ritual that is supposed to protect the performers loved ones from harm.  I think it shows that receiver of the blessing that the performer cares for them.  It might, as the informant guessed, have its roots in witchcraft.  It is symbolic that this ritual occurs after cooking/while in the kitchen because food preparation, cooking and eating are very ritualistic things and, my informant tells me, there is a lot of ritual surrounding food in Persian cultures.  Meals are very important in solidifying family ties.

The use of cooking spices in this custom is significant for several reasons.  Historically, spices were considered a valuable commodity so, when this custom originated, it could have been a symbol of great honor to burn valuable spices to protect someone.  Valuable spices were seen as a way to ward off evil in other cultures.  For example, it is customary to throw salt over your shoulder to ward of the devil or to counter-act the bad luck caused by spilling salt in some western cultures.  The use of spices in this custom could also be because the fragrance and smoke from the burning spices creates the proper atmosphere in a ritual that is supposed to bestow special protection.

 

Persian bean sprouts – Nowruz tradition

The informant is a 19 year old student studying Vocal Arts at the University of Southern California.  Her heritage is Jewish and Persian and she speaks Hebrew and Farsi.  Her family maintains many of their Persian traditions from various regional cultures in Iran.  The informant is Kashi (from Iran’s Kashan region) from her Dad’s side, while her mother’s side is from Tehran (maternal grandfather) and Komijan (maternal grandmother).  The informant herself mainly identifies with the Kashi culture.

“Something that my family does is when we’re like driving on Nowruz which is like New Year, we put a plate of like [bean] sprouts on our car.  And then they just fall off whenever.  We just drive the car to wherever we’re going and when they fall of they fall off.”

“I’m not sure what it symbolizes, its just a thing we do. I think it has to do with horse carriages at some point; they would do it and then the sprouts would fall and that would symbolize joy and New Year and rebirth or something.”

 

Analysis:

 

Ecuadorian Dia de los Muertos tradition

The informant is a 19 year old Ecuadorian student studying Architecture at the University of Southern California.  Her family is from Quito, Ecuador and she grew up there.  She moved to Southern California in early 2015 to go to college.

“We have in the Day of the Dead, we have a custom of making these dolls out of bread and like decorating them and making this delicious like, its called “colada morada”.  And the bread dolls are called “guaguas de pan”. “Guaguas”  is a Quichua word that means children – “Children of Bread”.  And then the drink is called “colada morada” because it is this mix of different berries and stuff like that and it looks purple.

“At the beginning, it was for the indigenous tradition in which they made these things to represent the blood and the body of their dead relatives.  They went to the cemeteries and ate them, and ate it there in the tombs with all the family.  But now they don’t normally take it into the cemeteries, they just like sell it everywhere.  All families always come together for colada morada and guaguas de pan and it’s something that the children make, and it’s really nice. It’s really pretty.”

 

The informant said that she made guaguas de pan when she was little and said, “Since you are little you always do it and in school it’s really typical”

 

Images:

photo from: laylita.com found here

photo from: laylita.com found here

 

Analysis:

As the informant explained, this tradition has its roots in indigenous traditions.  These “bread babies” and the purple drink were supposed to represent deceased relatives.  Similarly to “Dia de los muertos” traditions in other countries, there is an object that represents or memorializes a loved one. In other cultures, it is often an image of the loved one.  In this case, it is a food item.  This adds several symbolic elements to the commemoration of the loved one: 1. Making the commemorative item is a family event where children, who may not even have known the deceased, participate.  This emphasizes that both the dead family and living family members are important and time with the living should be treasured. 2. The memory of our deceased loved ones literally sustains us.  We can grow and be sustained by their remembered lives and wisdom.  3.  Shows that life is perishable.  They do not have a photograph or image of a loved one, which could last forever, past when everyone who knew the person is dead.  Instead they commemorate the dead with something that is perishable (bread) and will not last forever, just as their life did not last forever.

Now that the element of eating this food at the graveside is no longer present, this custom has become more of a living-family building event and some of its other elements have been reduced in importance.  The fact that it is beautiful and that an effort is made to make them beautiful adds the element that, even through sadness and loss, bits of beauty and happiness can be found and should be sought after.

“A quien le quede el guante” – Ecuadorian Proverb

The informant is a 19 year old Ecuadorian student studying Architecture at the University of Southern California.  Her family is from Quito, Ecuador.  English is her second language.  She shared this proverb in Spanish and then translated and explained it in English.

“A quien le quede el guante/ que se lo chante”

“To who the glove fits, he should embrace it”

“It means that whatever you’re saying and there’s a person that it’s, like it’s referring to that person, they should just accept it.”

 

Analysis:

This proverb is similar to the American proverb:  “If the shoe fits, wear it” and the British proverb, “If the cap fits, wear it”.  All of these idioms are used in the same way: to tell a person to accept something, usually criticism, although I have heard it used for compliments as well, if it actually applies to them.

This proverb creates an acceptable and elegant way to tell someone to examine who they are and to gracefuly take accurate compliments and criticisms as they come.