Tag Archives: tradition

Good Friday Circumcision

Background: The informant is a 59 year old woman. She was born in Pampanga, Philippines and moved to Los Angeles when she was 29-years-old. The informant still frequently speaks to her family and occasionally visits her family in the Philippines. The informant grew up as Catholic in the Philippines, converting to evangelical Christianity during her time in Los Angeles. She was exposed to the tradition when living in the Philippines. 

Context: The context was that, it was Good Friday, and the informant was reminded of her traditions, and how they differ from America.

Text:

EM: “On Good Friday i remember it’s still now, until, I still remember but i don’t know if they do it until now but I’’m sure that it’s something that’s a tradition that they just won’t stop its the day that a lot of kids that have not been, uh, circumcised, they do the circumcision on that day, not in the hospital but someone that’s really expert on circumcision they do that, do the circumcision on that day for the boys.”

Me: “I see”


EM: “Because I remember my brothers, when they were circumcised on the day of good friday, i’ll, i’ll, and along with other, their friends, you know, and they plead–”

Me: “So, wait, how old would they be?”

EM: “Like, young.” 


Me: “Young? Okay.”

EM: “Young, like maybe”

Me: “Like toddlers?”


EM: “No, not toddlers. They don’t circumcise when they are babies, or toddlers. They, they circumcise when they’re like, little kids. Maybe–”

Me: “For like 6-10 years old, or like 5-10 years old?”

EM: “Yes, yes, not 5, a little older because i remember they are already a little, like, bigger, you know”

Me: “So would it be at home? Would you go to another person’s house? 

EM:“For the circumcision? I don’t really know but I see them like all together go in our backyard and clean them, theirselves, themselves, with like the guava leaves, they boil guava leaves, and clean themselves like, disinfect their own thing, you, their, their penises, they don’t go to the doctor for circumcision and cleaning it they clean it themselves and they wear, they wear, uh, my mom’s clothes because they walk like um, they have a funny look because they walk with open legs because they just got circumcised”

Analysis:

Informant: While she does not know the first-person perspective of the circumcision, she still saw the effects it had on her brothers. Given that all her brothers and friends took part in it, it was widespreadly accepted in the Philippines.

Mine: While circumcision is largely a practice done by doctors in the west, in the Philippines, it remains rooted in folk tradition. For example, cleaning themselves with the boiled guava leaves is folk medicine passed down and is still largely practiced, given that all the boys would do so. Additionally, the boy children are not circumcised as babies but rather as they are entering puberty, which may signal that the circumizing is actually a rite of passage into the entrance of adulthood, or of being a man. Interesting, though the rite is a purely masculine tradition, they don female clothes after the operation is done. While it’s done to help them walk, it still blurs the line between the male and female identity, signaling that for a brief moment after circumcision, the man is in the place of the woman. Why the rite might not be done as a child, as in America, may be for health reasons or in the attempt to allow the children to choose whether or not they wish to participate in the folk tradition. It seems to be a more modern practice, that people are opting out of always doing every tradition, and forming it to their own ideas.

Good Friday Penitencia 

Background: The informant is a 59 year old woman. She was born in Pampanga, Philippines and moved to Los Angeles when she was 29-years-old. The informant still frequently speaks to her family and occasionally visits her family in the Philippines. The informant grew up as Catholic in the Philippines, converting to evangelical Christianity during her time in Los Angeles. She was exposed to the tradition when living in the Philippines. 

Context: The context was that, it was Good Friday, and the informant was reminded of her traditions, and how they differ from America.

Text: 

EM: For Good Friday, do you know what they did to Jesus when they, how do you call it, you know they hit Jesus on the back, how do you call it?

Me: “Um, whipping?”

EM: “Whip them? Whip Jesus right? … So in my country on Good Friday, it’s like penitence, they call it penitence, I don’t know what the word penitence means. In Tagalog, we call it penitencia, it’s like, like hitting themselves to suffer, thinking that God will forgive them of their sins so what they do is on Good Friday, they [men] go and they cover, you know, they act like they’re Jesus that they, uh, someone will cut the back of their their back with uh, how do you– laser, is that a laser, or like a blade, they cut their skin on their back and then they have this little, like a whip, like a made up whip, made of bamboo, like little tiny bamboo, and they hit themselves, like hitting their, um–”

Me: “So basically they create like this blade or like some tool made out of bamboo and then they whip themselves?”

EM: “Yes and you can, it’s gruesome because you see blood all over their back. One of my brother did that.”

Analysis:

Informant: Though a portion of her religious tradition, the information found the process to be very gory and gruesome. Her tone was very uncomfortable and she didn’t seem to enjoy speaking on it.

Mine: Penitence is the act of wishing to repent for one’s action, which may result in self-flagellation, also called self-penance, which is the action of whipping or beating oneself in order to repent. By committing the action on Good Friday, it parallels how Jesus was crucified, by both being extremely bloody and gruesome. Though the men are whipping themselves to repent, given the holiday, it also seems that they are trying to inflict pain on themself in order to take the pain away from Jesus, though he lived a long time ago. It seems to state that since Jesus suffered on Good Friday, everyone should have to suffer alongside him. In this bloody way, a covenant is formed with Jesus, that they will be together. Also, it forms a strong bond with the other men who are committing self-flagellation because they are all suffering and going through a harrowing experience at the same time. The informant’s description of it as gruesome reflects that one doesn’t have to enjoy every single aspect of their culture. There is not a homogenous brain in everyone, rather people are able to make decisions on what they like or dislike based on their own preferences.

To see another version, Tiatco, A. P. & Bonifacio-Ramolete, A. (2008). Cutud’s Ritual of Nailing on the Cross: Performance of Pain and Suffering. 58–76.

Mourning All Day and Night

Background: The informant is a 59 year old woman. She was born in Pampanga, Philippines and moved to Los Angeles when she was 29-years-old. The informant still frequently speaks to her family and occasionally visits her family in the Philippines. The informant grew up as Catholic in the Philippines, converting to evangelical Christianity during her time in Los Angeles. She was exposed to the tradition when living in the Philippines. 

Context: The context was that, when hearing that a family friend’s father died, the informant was reminded of her own father’s passing and brought it up.

Text:

EM: “When someone died, just like my father, and every places that we go, the vigil happens inside, in house, not like here, that they, they don’t bring the dead in the house”

Me: “You mentioned something about a vigil, what’s a vigil?”

“Vigil. Let’s say in, here [America], when someone died they don’t bring it [the body] home, they take it to the mortuary right?”

Me: “Right, so in the Philippines they take that person into the house?”

“Into the house. And there’s a vigil there, and uh, it depends how long, some three days, some one week, um, and then after that because let’s say if they have family that is not in the Philippines, they wait for their loved ones to come back because they want before they bury them. And then the vigil is every night and a lot of people, they don’t sleep, people don’t sleep, they said that they have to be awake for like 24 hours.

Me: “Does it last more than 24 hours. Like, is it multiple days?”

“Multiple days, no one sleeps there because, you know, um, they have to be awake. That’s watching it, you know?”

Me: “Do people take turns or is, they just stay there the entire time?”

“When the family wants to sleep, someone has to be awake, just there, sitting, kind of like that. I don’t know how you call it”

Me: “But it’s like the vigil like thing that you guy do”

“It’s like, yeah, the vigil, because there are, you call it viewing right? So here there’s like one or two days viewing only on a certain time right?”

“By viewing you mean like when people like to go and see the body, like, in a mortuary, right?”

Me: Yes

“Yes, yes, yes, so in the Philippines viewing and vigil is like together so people can come 

and view, and then after that stay there and like–


Me: “And like, pray right?”

“Yeah, and pray, there’s food all day all night and to keep the people awake and like that”

Me: “What types are foods would you say are served there. Would it be like caffei–”

“COFFEE!! Caffeine! Lot’s of coffee. Caffeine, biscuits, cookies, and um”


Me: “Sugar?”

“And uh, how’d you call it? You know the black seeds, pumpkin seeds, that’s so famous? That people can eat all night. Like uh, something, you see, you know, or chips, nuts, like that”

Me: “So, just like fun foods?”

“Yeah, and then after that, offer lunch and dinner, especially dinner or lunch or any food. You know like fiesta kind of like that, oh, like to feed the people that comes in.”

Me: “But, it’s not like a party right it’s still like mourning”

“No and, the people that come gives donation, you know?”

Analysis:

Informant: The excitement about the tradition is clear in how her tone became excited. She clearly felt it was a very important tradition to maintain.

Mine: As discussed by the informant, the traditions right after someone has died is much different in America than in the Philippines. Typically, the person in America is brought to a mortuary and is seen at a wake, and then the funeral. In the Philippines, the death of a family member is both a family and friend gathering. Notably is having to stay awake for 24 hours a day. There are beliefs that if the resting place is not always guarded, then an evil spirit will infiltrate the body of the dead. In this way, the entire community is protecting the dead from the evil spirits. Given the high number of Catholics in the Philippines, it’s surprising they do not follow the same funeral traditions, but it may come down to differences in the folk belief. For example, a difference in the belief of the prevalence of spirits in the human world. In terms of the foods offered, they all provided the sugar in order to stay awake for the entire time. There doesn’t seem to be a deeper meaning, but it still contributes to the entire gathering by ensuring that a vital tradition of staying awake still takes place.

Unwrapping Tamales For Christmas

Background: The informant is a 52 year old man. He was born in Tulare, California. He grew up with his four siblings and two parents, moving from location to location across California. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California. 

Context: The context as that when the informant was eating tamales, he was reminded of Christmas.

Text:

MD: “Well typically, uh, mexican families, they make, uh, tamales for Christmas, and, you know, it’s kind of like a seasonal food, and that’s considered traditional to make tamales for Christmas, and uh, the big joke about tamales and mexicans is that the reason why mexicans make tamales is so they can have something to unwrap for christmas. And so uh, I used to help my mom make ‘em, and we would kind of like interchange, like, you know, sometimes I would like, layout the leaves and spread the masa, which is like corn dough, on them, or other times she would do that, and she would allow me to put the meat inside of it. It’s like a meat sauce, and uh, she didn’t like me putting the meat with the sauce in the tamale because I would typically put too much and, uh, she’d kind of strive for balance between the masa and the meat, the problem though too is like when you steam them, if you, if you put too much meat inside them, they kind of overflow, and they, they break apart the tamale, you know? It is what it is.” 

Analysis:

Informant: He is very humorous and recalls both the joke and the tamales in good fun. He reminisces about his time with his mother and looks to it as a great bonding moment between the two of them each year.

Mine: First, the joke’s context is that Mexicans are considered poor in America and will not have the money to buy presents for their family. While on the surface, the joke seems like a laughable jab, it speaks to a much deeper social context, about how Mexican families are treated in the greater societal context of the US. Typically, they do not have higher paying jobs or may be supporting a larger family and much more. However, the joke is prevalent in Mexican communities in order to make light of their hardships. It shows how humor is consistently used to make a situation seem better and it’s a source of hope. Second, making tamales on Christmas is very widespread in Mexican culture. Given how the informant would always complete the task with his mother, it provided a way for the two of them to connect through their culture of making food. 

Palestinian Tradition When Moving Into A House 

Background: The informant is one of my good friends. They have been born and raised in America, but one of their parents is an immigrant from Palestine, while another has roots in Iraq. 

Main Content:

ME: So do you mind telling me about what your family does when you move into a new house. 

DS: So yeah, during the construction of, or when we just move into an existing house, my mom’s side of the family always has this tradition of putting a bible and a cross within the walls of the house. Usually that Bible or Cross is blessed by a priest on my mom’s side, and she is Greek Orthodox, or it is blessed once it is in the wall. In all of the houses that we have ever lived in we have had both the cross and the Bible in the walls. In the one that we are currently in, we have it right by the front door. 

ME: That’s really interesting, do you know where your mom learned this from, or why she started doing it? 

DS: She got it from her home village of Ramallah, which is in Palestine, right outside of Jerusalem. 

ME: Do you know if this is something commonly done in Ramallah or Palestine, or is it just something that your mom’s family does? 

DS: So I know that my mom’s whole family does it, and I know my grandparent’s house has it. I assume that it is a tradition because the village that my grandma and grandpa came from was very small and closely knit, and we basically know everyone who has come over from there, that like live near us and around us. I’m pretty sure that they do it too, but I definitely know that my mom’s family does it for sure. 

ME: Do you know what purpose it is supposed to serve? Is it to protect the family and house or is more to keep away bad stuff? Or is it more general, kinda like good luck?

DS: I think it is mostly good luck, but I think a big part of it, my mom is always going on about, you know, having Jesus watch us and making sure that we are okay. So I think that it is another way to keep the house as a holy place. So like we always kinda have the eyes of the Lord looking at us and keeping us safe. Its kind of a safety thing, but its less about keeping bad things out, and more oriented towards keeping the eyes of the Lord on us and making sure that we are okay. 

Background: 

This interview took place at my house. 

Thoughts: 

I think that this tradition is really interesting because after doing a little bit of research I could not find any other examples of people doing this. I always assumed that it was commonplace, because I grew up with a lot of Palestinians, and I remember seeing a Bible in the framing of the walls during the construction of the informant’s current home. So, this might be a tradition that is truly unique, and it is entirely possible that Christians from Ramallah, or those who have emigrated from there, are the originators of this tradition. I also think that this is a way for them to make their home in Michigan seem culturally similar to the home that their mother grew up in, in Ramallah.