Tag Archives: festival

Šokių Šventė, Traditional Dance Clothing

Main Text

GD: “Šokių Šventė is the International Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival that happens once every four years, and what it is, it’s a folk celebration. So everyone dresses up in their tautiniais drabuziais which is their traditional clothing and does their hair, does their makeup. So everything is made out of wool and linen, the women traditionally wore like long skirts with aprons, obviously not floor-length as you have to go work, shirts with poofy sleeves which often had red embroidery around the wrist and a vest that matches the skirt. There are a lot of patterns in Lithuanian culture, in terms of vest and the skirt, and they would mainly distinguish where you are from.”

Background

D is a 19 year old Lithuanian-American second year student at USC studying Theatre and Classics. Her mother was born in Lithuania and moved to a Lithuanian community in New Jersey, where GD attended Lithuanian school and church. She is excited to attend Šokių Šventė for the very first time as it is being hosted in Philadelphia this year.

Context

This traditional clothing was once everyday wear for people living in Lithuania, but has now been relegated to special wear for high profile cultural events like Šokių Šventė. It is also worn at weddings and other folk celebrations.

Interviewer Analysis

JThe phenomenon of once widespread folk dances being raised up as a symbol of a culture and then relegated only to manufactured displays of “Folk Culture” is a very common occurrence. Dance trends change, especially in our modern and more global times. Taking a cultural snapshot of dance and placing it into a category of folk importance may ensure that the dance lives on, but not that it will continue being the preferred style by the people. This has happened not only with the dances performed at Šokių Šventė, but also the clothing worn to the festival.

August 15th festival

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 53

Occupation: Senior VP for a development company

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as MW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a father of 2 who grew up and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona. He lived in Belgium for a period of years, which is where he saw and participated in this festival.

K: So, what’s the festival called and why is it performed? Just give me like background info

MW: I can never remember the official name of the festival, but a lot of people just call it the August 15th festival uh because the major date of it is on the 15th but it goes from the 14th to the 16th. It’s performed for normal festival reasons, celebration and such but mainly for Tchantes and other uh folk heroes, I guess.

K: Ok cool uh…ok go ahead and just describe the festival. Like what is performed and eaten and who is celebrated and stuff like that

MW: Ok so like I said the festival is for folk heroes, especially Tchantes and characters like that. There’s actually a huge flea market the weekend before I forgot to mention, its giant and lasts the whole weekend. Anyways the uh festival the first day is just drinking a lot of Peket (an alcoholic drink in Belgium) and celebrating everyone coming together before this huge concert really late in the night. Kids are there as well, normally having super watered-down peket *laughter*. The big day is the uh 15th where it starts with a big sermon and mass, and then in the middle of the day these huge uh…they’re called the Giants of Outremeuse are paraded down the street so everyone can see all the folk heroes, and then throughout the entire day there’s uh a bunch of concerts and smaller parades. The festival ends on the uh 16th in the evening with the burial of Matî l’Ohê, which is another folk hero I think *laughter*, I was too drunk to really remember! Anyways, these uh mourners follow that and throw celery onto the crowd to represent his bone.

Interpretation:
I really enjoyed hearing about this festival! I was told about Tchantes earlier in the day when interviewing the informant, so being able to hear about the effects of Tchantes in daily/yearly culture was really interesting. I also thought it was interesting how much of a role alcohol played in the festival, as even children have a very watered-down version of peket. It seems that you drink until you can’t drink anymore, and then go to concerts and watch the parades and participate while everyone is drunk and having fun. It seems like a safe, fun occasion rather than a drunken frenzy.

Oga no Namahage Festival

–Informant Info–

Nationality: Japanese

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Japanese

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as NN, the interviewer as K, and the mother as M)

Background info: NN is a 17-year-old student at a High school in Los Angeles, California. They moved here from Japan when they were 13 and remembered participating in this festival. I was told this story at their home over tea, with their mother occasionally interjecting to add detail. She will be referred to as M.

K: Ok, so uh, what’s the name of the festival, how do you know about it, and what’s the context of the performance? Like under what circumstances is it uh performed?

NN: The festival is titled Oga No Namahage, and it is a new years festival. I know about it because I grew up in the region where it was performed.

K: And what region is that?

NN: Oga city, in Akita prefecture. But it’s performed nearly uhm everywhere in Akita Prefecture.

K: Cool! So you said you just wanted to talk about one aspect, correct?

NN: Yes, the namahage visit.

K: Ok, whenever you’re ready

NN: Thank you! Its very simple. Young men, normally around your age (20) dress up as namahage, which are like…

M: Ogres or demons

NN: Yes! Those. They have…big red faces and dress up in these straw uhm…costumes that are cool because if you move slowly, then you are silent, but once they want to scare someone, they make so much noise! *Raises arm and makes whooshing sounds to emphasize how loud they are*

K: So its a scary thing?

NN: Oh yes. They dress up as namahage and sneak up on lazy children, ones who are sleeping or not paying attention at the fire and scare them so bad *laughter*. They will get you every year, they are that good at sneaking

Interpretation:
I really loved hearing about this festival! It’s a relatively small festival and doesn’t have a whole lot of tourism surrounding it, so it stayed pretty faithful to how it’s always been done, down to stories around large fire pits. NN has also mentioned to me later on that at least at her town’s festival, technology wasn’t allowed because it spoiled the fun. I think it’s interesting how deeply ingrained Japanese folklore is with their culture, like with the namahage. This is a scary event, but also fun, so it reinforces the idea that namahage, which can seem almost comical looking from an older point of view, is scary and is meant to be feared. It allows Japanese folklore to exist in a more pure form.

Windsor/Detroit Friendship Festival

Context:

The informant grew up near Windsor, Ontario in Canada which was right across the US border from Detroit, Michigan. Since the United States celebrates Independence Day on July 4th and Canada celebrates Canada Day on July 1st, the two towns would join to celebrate together at some point over the long holiday weekend.

Main Piece:

“Detroit and Windsor would do this thing, The Friendship Festival, because it was international friendship. And so they would have shared fireworks between, and they would compromise, do, like, whatever day worked out best over the long weekend, but, you know, sometimes it would be on my birthday, which was July 3rd, so it was especially great to go to Windsor and they’d have fireworks for my birthday.”

Analysis:

These two cities were so close to each other and both celebrate a major holiday on the same weekend, so it makes sense that they would join forces. Some other compounding factors include the fact that the drinking age is two years lower in Ontario than in the US, which already made Windsor a popular destination for those slightly too young to drink alcohol in the States. This tradition makes me consider how a folk does not necessarily end at a national border. These towns, only separated by a river and an artificially enforced border, institutionally celebrate their national holidays three days apart. But because their proximity to each other, and therefore their connection, cannot simply be negated by the borders of their nations, they compromise to create a new festival out of the two.

German Easter Fire Tradition

Context:

AH grew up in Westergellersen, a small village in northern Germany and attended these Easter fires throughout her childhood.

Main Piece:

“Leute in vor allem ländlichen Gegenden sammeln Holzmaterial und Buschwerk und türmen es möglichst hoch auf. Es soll weithin sichtbar sein. Es entsteht ein Wettstreit um das höchste Feuer. Am Karsamstag wird es angezündet. Das Dorf versammelt sich dann um das Feuer, es gibt Bier, Glühwein und Würstchen.”

Translation:

People from all the surrounding rural areas gather wooden material and shrubbery and pile it as high as possible. It should be able to be seen from far and wide. There is a contest for the highest fire. On Karsamstag (Holy Saturday, the day before Easter) it is lit. The village gathers around the fire, there’s beer, mulled wine, and sausages.

Analysis:

This part of the Easter festival celebration in northern Germany seems very useful for promoting unity and connection within a town. Because the villages compete for the tallest fire, the one that can be seen from the farthest distance away, this creates an in-group out-group boundary. Also, since gathering the materials for the highest bonfire takes time and work, the townspeople must work together, as they wouldn’t be able to achieve this highest fire on their own. Then, on the evening before Easter, when the fire is lit, this festival ritual turns into a communal gathering place for the village people. Beer, mulled wine, and sausages are all extremely common foods in northern Germany, and are generally associated with any festivals and gatherings, or seen as something like ‘fair food.’