Author Archives: Jeremy Bradford

Informant’s Childhood Romanian Easter Midnight Mass

Informant Data:

The informant is a Romanian American who was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1935. At age 37, my informant left Ceausescu’s Romania and arrived in the United States in 1972. She is a skin care specialist who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She speaks slowly but very impassionedly.

 

Contextual Data:

My informant attended a midnight mass at a Romanian Church in Los Angeles in celebration of Orthodox Easter with her daughter. She did not enjoy the ceremony, and insisted that the ceremony was inferior to the ones she experienced when she was a child. About an hour or so after she attended this mass, I asked if I could record her as she recounted what she remembered about the ceremony of her childhood, since she seemed to really dislike the one she attended with her daughter that day, to which she agreed. The following is a transcript of the recording of her recounting her childhood religious ritual for Easter midnight mass. Mixed in with her description of her childhood mass is criticism of the mass she attended that night in Los Angeles.

 

Item:

(Audio recording transcribed)

“When I was kid, I remember you go to the church…first of all, you don’t go around the church in the resurrection night. That is done on Thursday or Friday, wait, not Friday…I think it’s done Thursday…yes, you do go three times around the church on Thursday night. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful mass, singing and it’s a joy because Christ is going to resurrect. It’s a night of joy, gorgeous, gorgeous mass inside the church. And at midnight, all priests with every staff of the church, with the crosses, they all are aligned, and they do go out from the church, in front of the church, and they are holding a smaller mass. And then, they do mention something in the scriptures, and then the priest starts lighting the candles right at the midnight. And then, when they finish that joy mass, they said, ‘Hristos a înviat, adevărat a înviat.’ And at that time, you do have the light on. Before midnight, it’s a mass inside the church. People are singing beautiful, traditional songs for Easter. That’s beautiful. Usually it’s a long mass. It starts about eight or nine at night. So there’s a long mass at night, and then at midnight you go outside…and in the church, the lights are always on. I’ve never, ever seen without the lights. I think the electricity was broken, because I’ve never seen anything like this. Christian Orthodox churches are supposed to be the most beautiful churches. It is byzantine church. When I’m at a beautiful mass, I don’t see anything around me, because I am with my God. Totally, totally different environment. It is something that elevates me and increases my believing in God, in good, in help…it elevates me. I didn’t feel church here. It’s sad.”

 

Analysis:

The focus of the Easter midnight mass ritual that this informant fondly remembers has some similarities and differences from a contemporary Easter midnight mass ritual I recorded. Although that they are similar in that people do at some point walk around the church three times, this informant was visibly upset by the differences: the fact that the midnight mass included walking around the church three times on Easter when it should have been done (according to this informant) on Thursday night, the fact that the mass was shorter in length than what she knew, the fact that the church where the mass is held was more ornate as child then it was that night, and the fact that the lights were turned off at some point during the mass when she had never experienced that in her childhood.

I found it incredibly interesting how these variations in the same piece of folklore could have such an emotional effect on someone. It was very reminiscent of that film we watched one day in the Forms of Folklore class on how insulted Serbian people felt when someone stated that people from another country claimed that a beloved, traditional song of Serbia in fact originated from that other country.

Don’t Reenter Home If You Forget Something

Informant Data:

The informant is a Romanian American who was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1935. At age 37, my informant left Ceausescu’s Romania and arrived in the United States in 1972. She is a skin care specialist who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She speaks slowly but very impassionedly.

 

Contextual Data:

My informant and I left the house to go for a walk at the beach and my informant realized that she had forgotten her sunglasses. I told her that we could go back in the house to get the sunglasses but she said it was fine because going back in the house is bad luck. I asked her to clarify what she meant by that and I recorded her response.

When I asked her why she believed in this superstition, she simply told me that she was told this superstition at a young age and has always believed it and always lived by it, just as her own mother did.

 

Item:

(Audio recording transcribed)

“It’s important before you leave the house to make sure you have everything you need because you don’t want to turn around. Because if you come back and set foot over the threshold back in the house, that means you’ll then have a bad day for the rest of the day.”

 

Analysis:

I’m not exactly sure what aspect of society led to this folk belief being originated. Perhaps this folk belief simply represents how society values those who are not forgetful as well as those who are always making progress and not taking steps back from progress (which I guess is what you can say those who don’t heed this superstition are symbolically doing).

Don’t put a purse on the ground

Informant Data:

The informant is a 19-year old American student who was born in Santa Monica, California in 1996. She’s lived in Los Angeles County all her life with the exception of when she lived in Paris between late August 2014 and mid December 2014. Her father’s ancestry is American as far as back as the founding of the Plymouth Colony in 1621 (but before that, the family is originally from England), and her mother’s ancestry is Romanian. She is a freshman at the University of Southern California and thus currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

 

Contextual Data:

My informant and I arrived at my home in Santa Monica where I placed my backpack on the floor. My informant told me I shouldn’t put my bag on the floor. When I asked her why, my informant told me that when she was visiting her Romanian grandmother to get a facial, her grandmother told her not too put the bag on the floor because that would mean you would become poor. When I asked her why she seemed to believe in it, she told me that it just seemed to make sense that it’s not good leaving bags lying on the floor, so it just seems like a good philosophy.

 

Item:

“If you put a bag or a purse on the ground that means you’ll be poor.”

 

Analysis:

I feel like this folk belief is tied to the simple idea that one should value one’s possessions, and that when one leaves something of value on the floor (and purses can often be very valuable, whether it be the purse itself or the money that is likely in the purse), there is underlying idea that the floor is the lowest place you could put a possession. So essentially the belief seems to be really saying that if you don’t value your possessions and you’re careless with them, they in some way lose their worth, and thus make you poor. This belief may have also been originally a warning meant to advise people not place a bag or a purse on the ground specifically when one is outside in order to decrease one’s risk of having their bag or purse stolen.

First Black Person Joke

Informant Data:

The informant is an American who was born in Riverside, California in 1956. He owns a construction company and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

 

Contextual Data:

My informant heard four jokes from a friend of his and he wanted to share the jokes with me. The following is one of these jokes. It’s worthy of noting that my informant chuckled after telling the joke. When asked why he found the joke funny, my informant said that he didn’t know why the joke appealed to him, but said it was just “stupid humor.”

 

Item:

“What did God say when he first made a black guy? Dang it, I burnt one.”

 

Analysis:

This seems to speak to a stigma against black people prevalent in present-day American society. The joke seems to be a negative remark on having dark skin, for it perpetuates the idea that there is something wrong with having dark skin, that having dark skin is equivalent to having been deformed. This is a good example of Blason populaire, or folklore items that play off of stereotypes.

Chinese Floss Joke

Informant Data:

The informant is an American who was born in Riverside, California in 1956. He owns a construction company and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

 

Contextual Data:

My informant heard four jokes from a friend of his and he wanted to share the jokes with me. The following is one of these jokes. It’s worthy of noting that my informant chuckled after telling the joke. When asked why he found the joke funny, my informant said that he didn’t know why the joke appealed to him, but said it was just “stupid humor.”

 

Item:

“How do you blindfold a Chinese person? Put floss over their eyes.”

 

Analysis:

This seems to speak to a stigma against Chinese people prevalent in present-day American society. The joke seems to be a negative, condescending remark on the tendency for some people in some East Asian cultures to have smaller eyes. This is a good example of Blason populaire, or folklore items that play off of stereotypes.