Author Archives: pritzker

Amici

 

  • Since joining Phi Kappa Psi in the fall of 2015, we sing this song every Monday night before we begin eating. We all stand up and form a big circle linking linking our shoulders, kind of like a big huddle that you would see at a football game or something. We do a little sway back and forth as we sing and then once we are done we can eat. This song is important to me because it signifies the long lasting friendships that I have formed in the fraternity. Singing this song makes me really feel like I am part of something bigger, because people in different Phi Psi chapters are singing it all over the country, and have been for years. I first had to  learn the song before I became an active member of the house. One of our house mottos is “continuing our friendships until death”, which is emphasized in the lyrics “Amici, usque ad aras” which means “Friendship ongoing until death”. I think it’s very interesting that if I were to meet other Phi Kappa Psi brothers from different schools, they know all the same stuff that has been passed down and we immediately share a bond. Knowing how strong my bond is with my friends that I have made here is truly inspiring and the elements of loyalty expressed in a song that we sing together weekly, lead me to believe that I really will be close with my brothers for the rest of my life. 
  • Lyrics to Amici
    (“Friendship”)
    Our strong band can ne’er be broken
    Formed in ole Phi Psi
    Far surpassing wealth unspoken
    Sealed by friendship’s tieChorus:
    Amici, usque ad aras
    (“Friendship, ongoing until death”)
    Deep graven on each heart
    Shall be found unwav’ring true
    When we from life shall partCollege life at best is passing
    Gliding swiftly by — Then
    Let us pledge in word and action
    Love for old Phi Psi
  • For more information see video of Brothers from California Gamma, California Beta and California Iota join one another to sing Amici.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWxWXQl16vo

ANALYSIS:

Being a part of a the greek community myself, i share the feeling of belonging and community that comes along with learning a song that is special to your chapter yet has been passed down within the house for many many years.

Turkey Wishbone

The informant is a 21 year old male, studying in New York. He recounts his memories of a game he used to play with his family.

me: can you tell me a little bit about this tradition?

When we were little and we used to have turkey, when we would get to the wishbone and we would take the wishbone and dry it in the oven… dry it in the oven to dry it out… and then two people would take each end of the wishbone and pull in opposite directions and it would break, oh and the wishbone is shaped like a Y, I’m pretty sure its the sternum, and whomever umm got the bigger piece would get to make a wish, like when it’s broken, the bottom of the Y would end up only on one side and so one person would get that and the other person wouldn’t.

me: do you have a specific memory of doing this?

not a specific memory, but we used to always make rotisserie turkey, like it used to be a family thing, we made the marinade and made the turkey and everyone helped with something. It was something that we did pretty often. When I think about it I remember how much fun we used to have seeing who would get the wishbone in their food and then all the suspense while it was drying, and then the person who got the wishbone would get to picj who they wanted to pull on the other side, and that was always really hard because I have a ton of siblings and also my parents really loved to play too. And early on it was fun because with any superstition like that, you want to be the one who gets to make the wish and later on it was fun because of the tradition.

ANALYSIS:

Having participated in this tradition myself, I feel very connected to this piece. It is very common for everyone but especially kids to look for any and all ways to make wishes, ie eyelashes, shooting stars, specific times on the clock. This wish holding belief is especially fun in that it requires suspense and a bit of a game!

Loy Kratong

Loy Kratong is Thai for “Float Lotus-Raft” and has been a Thai tradition for centuries. We celebrate it in the 12th month of the traditional Thai lunar calendar – usually falling sometime in November. The term Loi means ‘to float’ and “Krathong” means a lotus shaped vessel that is made of banana leaves. The Krathong is decorated with flowers, candles and incense sticks and we can also put some coins in it. It’s The festival traces its origin to the Hindu festival of Dipawali which is celebrated in India. Originally, it was celebrated as a thanksgiving ceremony to River Ganges, however, the Buddhists of Thailand adapted the festival to honour the Lord Buddha. The candle raft (Krathong) is floated on the top of any water body as a mark of respect to the Buddha. It’s important because when we push it out it carries with it all the sins, grievances and angst of the person floating it, thereby offering an opportunity to get rid of the old bullshit and begin a new life in a much better manner. Some cut their fingernails and hair and put it in the raft as a symbol of breaking away with all negative aspects of oneself. I bite my fingernails so it’s tough for me. Hair = no worries.
The floating of the raft is also a way to give respect and thanks to the Goddess of water, Phra Mae Khongkha. It is also supposed to bring good luck.
When I got to Thailand in 1987 it was one of the first Thai festivals I saw from the boat I was on. Anchored in Surin Beach it was amazing to sit and watch all night as thousands of people floated their Kratongs out into the ocean with candles. Beautiful sight. Big mess on the beach in the morning but the Thai’s now use Banana cross-sections to float rather than Polystyrene floats – for environmental reasons. Which is much better.  ​
​I love it because we can get rid of all our old ‘bad luck’ or relationships or resentments and start fresh again to live the way we ‘should’.
I learned about this From all my Thai friends when I started working in Thailand in 87.
I used to scoff at it a bit in the early days thinking ‘these guys are soft in the head’ to believe this nonsense but over the years life wears you down and you realize that there are so many things in this universe that remain unseen and unexplained and I can’t ever grasp them all – so why is this nonsense? Maybe it’s true – whatever it is – 60 million people believe in it – so there’s some sort of congregation of the entire nation’s universal subconscious mind on that night and maybe that’s what gives it so much power to the Thai’s themselves. They care not what anyone thinks – they believe it and all do it (almost religiously) – I mean it’s almost unheard of ‘not’ to float your own ‘kratong’ because you may bring bad luck to yourself this way. I remember one year I didn’t have one to float by late afternoon and everyone at work got into a fluff over it and tools were down until ‘the boss’ had his Kratong to float. All the hostesses got together and made me a huge one that was so exquisitely decorated and it was about a metre around. ​
Did you teach your kids the song about it?
Yes – because it’s one of the great Thai children’s songs and everyone sings it on Loy Kratong day and night and it’s a perfect song for young children to learn to be part of Thai culture.
Because they were all born in Thailand and although they’re not Thai by DNA they are Thai by upbringing and should know all about the culture of their birth. ​
ANALYSIS:
I enjoy that the informant was able to learn and become personally connected with a piece of folklore that belonged to a culture and country that he integrated himself into as a young adult.

Santa Lucia

The informant is a 19 year old student living in Utah. She has a rich background from Swedish family. I remembered her telling me when I was younger about this celebration and feeling jealous that she had two Christmas’s! She explains the holiday and why she feels it’s been an important part of her childhood.

  • Its called Santa Lucia, but a lot of people call it Saint Lucy, and basically it happens on the 13th of December, and its been celebrated throughout Scandinavia but since were Swedish we do a Swedish version so its a little bit different. So its a Swedish holiday kind of like Christmas but a separate holiday and basically it derives from the Saint Lucia and there was a legend that she would go to the poor early in the morning and she would bring them all gifts and food, and because it was so dark (because it was winter) she would wear a crown with candles on it and she would go and just bring food and presents to the poor in Sweden. So to celebrate that, every 13th of December, the daughter of a family, if they have one, will go and bring gifts to the family or around the neighborhood, and sometimes in schools they would do it too, electing one of the girls in school to be Saint Lucy and she would bring cookies. Actually there is a specific cookie called a Pepperkakoar kind of like a gingerbread cookie that we make and eat on Santa Lucia.
  • So my mom does that for us in the morning on the 13th and gets us all little gifts and makes us the cookies. And there is a special tradition with the cookies too, if you put it in the palm of your hand and you take your other hand and crack the cookie with your knuckle, and if it splits into three pieces then you get a wish, but any other pieces you don’t get a wish. And my mom taught us all how to do that and we would all do it together.
  • I remember one year we didn’t do it, and it was weird that we didn’t do it. Its something that I really love and reminds me of my childhood.

ANALYSIS:

I had never heard of this holiday before the informant, a childhood friend, told me about it. The part I found most interesting is that young women Sweden actually reenact and impersonate the “Saint Lucy”. It seems similar to the way in which other cultures would do the same with Saint Nick, yet I had never really given much thought to why people do this. I think that having people act as the Saint or figure behind legends and stories helps them to feel closer to the tradition and also helps keep it alive!

Henna Celebration

The informant is an Israeli American who grew up practicing traditions from both her Israeli and Persian culture. She describes an Israeli bridal shower and all of her favorite parts of it.

  • Around a wedding time, a few weeks before there kind of all that build up around the bride and groom and the wedding takes a lot of planning and all that, but a couple weeks before many of, um, many different uh… how to do you say it… people from all different backgrounds in Israel, you know the Syrians do it one way, Iraqis do it a different way, but pretty much all of the do a henna, its kind of like a bridal shower, but nothing like insane, you know a lot more colorful, they are usually at night and not during the day, and they usually mix men and women. The bride is you know prepped, she has to get everything done, the harry the makeup, and then older ladies come and giver her different words of advice you know things to do, not to do, how to keep a marriage going. You know, of course there’s a big feast, there’s a big candy table thats set up with all different sweets that you take home. But not like a modern day, more like homemade sweets, you know things that grandma would know how to make. And different people bring different things. And then there is a henna mix that they make, and they put it on their hands, right. They will put like a scoop of it on your palm, and then on your beloved’s palm, and then they squeeze them together to make an imprint, so that you have the dye, the same dye. Your hand is in his, and they will do the same thing with the feet, and it’s kind of to symbolize that from here on they are one and you know that they have to find a way to make it work, and to say that may all their days be as sweet as this candy that they are serving. I would say this tradition is more Sephardic Jews, Persians definitely do it, but I know family friends that are Moroccan, Iraqi, definitely do a big thing with that as well. I don’t know about Ashkenazi Jews so much, but definitely Sephardic.
  • Yeah so this is just he Henna Celebration. You know, and she’s given a lot of jewelry, and the family will present her with jewelry, its kind of, its fun. It’s excessive in a way, in that she’s wearing everything, one on top of the other. The people eat, they drink, they dance. Its very different. You know I remember going to a bridal shower here and thinking: oh this is very, this is very tame. Where are the guys? And you know, I had one here in Los Angeles. Yeah, some people will put a gold coin, into the palm of the bride and grooms hand when they squeeze it to say that, may they have good fortune and be successful, and be able to help others not just provide for themselves. There’s a lot around it. Its very colorful. You can kind of imagine how Indian bridal celebrations are, they have a lot of action, a lot of food, lot of color, lot of flowers, candles. And then all the old people in the family coming forward with all kinds of goodies and words of encouragement and advice. Its different, very different. 

ANALYSIS:

I found it most interesting that the informant mentioned feeling like American bridal showers were tame. I also was pleasantly surprised to find out that she had one of these celebrations of her own here in Los Angeles. I think it is so important that people celebrate and bring their rituals and customs with them wherever they go.