Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Turkish Circumcision

Age: 21

Text:

“When I was getting circumcision, all the people was watching me, actually. If I remember, I was in my parents room and a doctor came, and he started, doing a circumcision, to me – actually, that day, my grandpa. called me like my grandpa was over there. They give me a shot to my balls, like local anaesthesia, and I was six, and I remember I didn’t feel anything there, you know. And I was like, freaking out. And I escaped from the house. I started running, and my grandpa catch me, and he told me that, ‘hey, you’re not gonna do it right now. They’re gonna do it in the army. They’re gonna do it in the military, and they do it with the axe, when you’re 20.’ I was like, what? I’m like, I was so scared, you know, I’m like, ‘Okay, I should go back, I guess.’ Because I was so scared. In Turkey, military is mandatory, you don’t have a choice. I was like, forcing, and I went back, and I just made them do it. And as I said, I was like, six, – I have a video too. When I was getting a circumcision, and my aunts were coming in the room, my uncles were coming in the room, you know, they were just watching me. I’m like, and I didn’t know that much, you know, what’s going on. I remember, we do have food and stuff. People is coming more like our inner circle people, like Inner Inner Circle family. They come in and they eat some stuff, you know, and be celebrating that in the hall, in the home, too.”

Context:

“I didn’t know if it’s, like, very important thing, you know, and I didn’t know that much, but I knew that for my grandpa, for example, it was very important”

Analysis: 

This account of the Turkish sünnet (circumcision) ritual, emphasizes both its emotional weight and its communal significance. The informant’s memory blends fear, confusion, and performance, as the procedure becomes not only a medical event but a public spectacle within the family home. The presence of relatives, the filming of the moment, and the celebratory food all reflect the integration of private bodily transformation with familial observation and tradition. His grandfather’s comment—framing circumcision as a necessary precursor to avoid a harsher military version—reflects how elders use symbolic threats and traditional authority to uphold cultural rites. While the child at the center doesn’t fully understand the ritual’s meaning, he perceives its importance through the seriousness with which his elders treat it. 

Turkish circumcision wedding

Age: 21

“We got a circumcision wedding in Turkey. When you’re a kid, and you’re a boy, you know, and you get a circumcision, you do a wedding for him. Here [in America] usually you get a circumcision when you’re little kid, like a baby, but in Turkey, it was like, when you were, like, six, seven years old, they were doing, they were doing that. For example for me, I got a circumcision when I was six, and my parents did a wedding for me. Said we call circumcision. Wedding is for the boys and, like they invited a bunch of people, like in my wedding, that was like four or 500 people. Like 400 300 at least people in my circumcision wedding, and they give you money, and people is, having fun, you know, and that kind of stuff. 

So in the morning, when it was like one to 2pm in the afternoon, we’re doing a convoy. And probably, like, as much as the cars they come in, it’s like 20, 30 cars. They were like 35 cars. You know, we go one by one like everybody follows each other. It’s just one line. And everybody’s like, using their honk. And it’s like, sometimes being like, 20 cars, 30 cars, for the cars, you know, yeah, and people is coming, they following you. You being in the first car, usually. And, you just, like, telling the people who doesn’t know you, oh, I got the circumcision, you know. It’s a tradition too. Yeah, it’s on the wedding day. after that you just get them prepared. Youhave, a specific clothes that you should wear, and you wearing that clothes, and you just getting ready.

They are like traditional clothes. 

In the wedding, usually we have a pasta. not a pasta, actually, it’s a dessert we call pasta, but it’s like a cake, like a birthday cake, but a really big one, like, maybe, 200 people cake, you know, they can eat, slices, you know. And you have that and you dancing. And after, like, a couple hours, you have a different, you just not changing the clothes, but they give you something, and you wear something, and people is coming, and they starting to give you gold or, like money, but on the clothes, they put with the needle. Yeah, they give you money, they give you gold, whatever they give you, like, and you just thank them like, ‘Thank you.’ and your parents are in the same line. You ,your parents, your grandpa, you know, you’re waiting in the same line. And people is like giving you some stuff, presents, I’m coming from the Aegean side, we have a specific, like a dance for the Aegeans. And we did, that actually, (the zeybek dance).”

Context: 

This is a widespread traditional rite of passage in Turkey called sünnet düğünü. The traditional dance referenced is the zeybek dance. The informant said he didn’t understand, but knew it was important to his grandfather. 

Analysis:

This ritual is a public celebration of the informant’s transition towards manhood, and social recognition, and religious belonging. The convoy announces this to the broader community. The pinning of gold or money to clothes is present in other Turkish celebrations, like weddings and births, and ritualizes support and symbolic investment into the informant and his family, who are in line to receive gifts with him. In many ways, the celebration is for the family just as much, if not more, than for the informant who at that age, didn’t understand what was going on or why. The celebration as a whole ties Muslim identity (religious duty of circumcision) and regional community to the boy’s identity.

Artist’s Morning Pages

Nationality: American

Age: 21

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Mason, OH, USA

Date: 4/29/2025

Language: English

Description

Okay, so I used to do, uh, the Artist’s Way morning pages. Uh, the Artist’s Way is a book by Julia Cameron, I believe. And in this book, it’s sort of like an artist’s like creative process book where you are supposed to go through this program, and each day of the program you are supposed to write three pages before you do anything. Like you wake  up and you immediately have to write three pages. You cannot even take a second to wake up. It’s like you get up, you turn over, grab the pen and paper, and you write three full pages of anything. And that’s a ritual that I used to do. I did it every single day for when I did the program, which is like, I don’t know, like, 10 weeks. I did it a few years ago, and I continued the morning pages for a bit after that, and you would just fill these notebooks and notebooks full of like chicken scratches that made no sense. Like reading back, you’d be like what the fuck was, I thinking, what was I doing? Um. But occasionally there would be a thought or two, uh, unlocked through that process that you were, like, oh, that’s kind of interesting I didn’t know. I think about that, or I didn’t know I think this way about this thing. But yeah, that’s that’s sort of the. Morning Pages. That’s what it is. 

Subject’s Opinion:

Interviewer: Do you think that helped you keep track of your journey in that time? 

Subject: Yeah, definitely, I think. There were many issues and topics that my brain kept circulating, like, just on a day-to-day basis. Like, I would keep on thinking about the same sort of things, and finally writing it down, I was able to…understand what exactly was persisting in these ideas. And find a way to move past that sort of. Circular thought, and also like, maybe not even like, get rid of it. But, like, know that it’s there, and that I’ve written if I’ve written three pages about it, it’s like I don’t have to be thinking about it all day. Um, so it’s almost like a purging of some of your immediate thoughts so you can move on to some things that you never really were able to to get to.

Analysis: 

It is rare to encounter a form of ritual that’s only shared with oneself. But due to how intimate and reflective the nature of the ritual is, I believe it to be valuable to examine how one can share a ritual with only their past self. The throughline of the morning action is clear and intense—the subject is likely always in a daze when he performs the ritual, with the freshness of each day be colored by a train of random thought. In this case, the ritual honors qualities within, and the attempt to discover one’s hidden thought patterns that may lead to heightened awareness and creativity. 

“The Hebrew Baby-naming ceremony” 

Nationality: American

Age: 22

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Orange County, CA, USA

Date: 4/30/2025

Language: English

Description: 

When you’re Jewish and you’re a baby, your parents are supposed to take you to Temple for, like the baby naming ceremony. What that means is you get your Hebrew name. It’s like a really big deal, and you do it in front of the whole congregation, and they give you like a little pamphlet thing that has your name. So, when I did it, I did it with my sister who was a baby at the time, which means that I was a lot older, which is not super common. But it was also just kind of like there was something very collective about doing it with my sister that made it kind of nice. When you have your baby naming thing, they have a blessing, but I can’t really remember what it is. And then you get your name. So essentially, like, my dad had his baby name. Which I don’t really remember what it was…it’s bat Matityahu something. So, basically, what they do is they’ll take your dad’s name if you’re a girl, and they’ll translate your name from English into, like Hebrew, and then they’ll name you after your father. So, like my Hebrew name is bat Matityahu, which means daughter of Matthew. I don’t remember what my sisters is…her name is Alexa, daughter of Matthew, too. 

Subject’s opinion:

Subject: I always have issues with that, because I always wanted my own name. I wanted to be separate from my dad. Because when you’re a boy, you get your own name. It’s separate from your parent. So, my dad’s is different from his dad’s, etc, etc, etc. Um, I think it’s. 

Interviewer: How does that reflect on the culture? 

Subject: It’s a very communal experience. So when you’re named when you have your Hebrew name at your Bat Mitzvah. When you’re called to read the Torah, you’re called by your Hebrew name. So, like when I had to go up for my Bar Mitzvah, they didn’t say. Uh, reading passage three is [redacted subject name], it was…they have a chant that they sing, and then they sing, uh, your name. It is kind of one of those things that plays into every facet of your life as you get older in the temple or, like, in the cult Hebrew culture. And it’s not something that’s talked about a lot until it’s kind of…necessary to be talked about. So, like when my dad had to come up and read a blessing from my Bat Mitzvah, he was called by his Hebrew name, his. His brother was called by his Hebrew name. It’s just that’s kind of how it is, so it’s when you’re in that space. Everyone also has that alternate name in a way. Oh yeah, just kind of, I don’t know. It’s kind of communal, and it’s not really ever talked about. It’s just. You’re kind of aware that if you’re there and you’ve had a Bat Mitzvah, you have a Hebrew name. 

Analysis: 

The subject highlighted both her intimacy with this Jewish tradition as well as her sense of emotional distance from the roots of the ritual. By reflecting on her role as a passive participant in this communal experience urged on by her family, the subject’s exposure to her cultural heritage is palpable, which clearly led to increased curiosity about her family’s past as a Jewish-American.

Hamlet-inspired Theatre Ritual

Nationality: American

Age: 22

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Orange County, CA, USA

Date: 4/30/2025

Language: English

Description

This is one that I used to do in high school theater. We’d do it before every show as part of our warm-ups, and it was like one like we don’t do the full…I don’t do the full warm-up anymore, but I will always do this portion, because I think it just like helps me kind of get in the mindset and the work that I’m about to do (on stage). So, we were in high school theater, we do all these warm-ups, and we do all these, like, kind of funky, like tongue twisters with a beat, but it was kind of fun. And, you know, got everyone kind of in the mood to work. And then at the end of it, our director would have us, you know, close our eyes and kind of feel the ground beneath your feet. And feel the space around you and all that. And she’d have you just kind of…center yourself, and I feel like it’s very like it’s very yoga, meditative. And so…now I do this on my own. It’s more self-led, but, basically it’s like the final, quote-unquote, tongue twister that you would do, but it comes from…I think it comes from Hamlet. Let me look it up and make sure. So Hamlet in Shakespeare, it says “speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc’d it to you, trippingly on the tongue.” the speech. And he’s talking to, like the first player. Yeah, I don’t know exactly what happens with Hamlet, [so] I didn’t know that that was from a play. I thought it was just something that she created. And when we do this, she’d have us just kind of first…say it and just say it and then say it and really hear the words. And then you say it as your character, and whatever. 

Subject’s Opinion:

Subject: And I think over the years in that program it had transformed from a tongue-twister to something that I actually really stood by as a performer, which is why I still use it. Because I think it the way that I take it is speak the speech, which is obviously like…honor your text. I pray as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue, and it it almost feels like it’s like a higher power pushing you forward or compelling you to speak. And I feel like that’s a lot of what performance is. You’re just kind of trusting the work that you’ve done, and the preparation, for you to just go and then be prepared and also to honor the story and to serve the writer and to serve the character and to serve the audience. I don’t know, and I always say that and I’ll always stand there in the back with my eyes closed right before I go on stage or sometimes in warm-ups. Now, if I’m leading them, I’ll always help everyone do that and just kind of appreciate the work that I’m about to do and the possibility of it and the unknown. And I’ll always say it because I just think it’s really, I don’t know, it’s just kind of endearing. Interviewer: How should I put this? Let me think about how should I ask this question? Do you think… because it’s from an author text which in it by itself isn’t folklore. But [what] do you think [about] the new life that it took on as a part of the heritage, and as part of the…that ritual. How does that help you? 

Subject: I think what’s funny is that when I first started using that, I didn’t know it was from something, so I didn’t like have the predisposed notion that I was just reciting a Hamlet line. Instead, it felt like it was something larger than myself, like larger than the company. Because it felt so ethereal. So, I think, like? When you’re taking things from works, when you’re taking something from something as well known as Hamlet, but you’re still trying to make it your own, you’re weaving so much of your own personal experience for the personal nature behind why whoever created that Mantra or whatever created it or took that line specifically and used that. And I just think that, like, within that program when I was in high school, part of it was understanding how to not be selfish in your work. And I think using that line, like, using that text was kind of a way to bring it up forth and also just honor yourself as an honest artist and like, I don’t know, like, keep moving. So, when I think about it now, I don’t think about the fact that it’s a Hamlet line. Because for me, it, it’s separated from that completely. It has nothing to do with Hamlet. It is everything to do with what that experience was in high school, and what that professor did before with students before me, and it was something that she had done for years and years and years, and I was just another batch of students who came to learn that and came to appreciate that, you know. 

Analysis: 

The most fascinating part of this collection is the folkloric nature the authored text took on after generations of repurposing. As the subject put it, though she understands that it’s from Shakespeare’s text, she never associates it in its original context, and instead upholds the oral tradition of the ritual and attends to the source of how she knew it instead of what she knows it is from. She also highlighted the fact that rational knowledge of it being from Hamlet is always overshadowed by the memories and emotions that are brought up when the words are uttered, which points to the adaptive, dynamic, and affective nature of a piece of oral folklore such as this one.