Monthly Archives: May 2011

Summer Solstice Tradition – Latvian

Nationality: Latvian
Age: 26
Occupation: Graduate Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA (Current)
Performance Date: April 25, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Latvian

Summer Solstice:

“It’s also called John’s Day – because it’s the most common name. It’s really geared towards young adults, for them to find their second half. It’s all about celebrating the sun. We stay up all night to greet the sun. At night we dance around the fire, singing songs, drinking beer, eating cheese; and then jump over the fire with man and woman—if you accidently hit the fire, and it stirs, the pictures will tell you how you would be as man and woman.”

“I learned through doing it. I learned it through family member and friends. The older people just pass it on to the younger. I think it’s a very important activity; not that it’s going to show future, but really brings the community together. If you’re brace enough to do it, it shows that you care about your culture and tradition.”

The informant is originally from Latvia but has been living in Los Angeles for more than five years. She practices Latvian Neo-Paganism. Paganism is a religion that is passed down from generation to generation through folklore, and as such it is rich in folk beliefs.

The summer solstice is an important time in the cyclic calendar, which Paganism observes. Also, the festival is meant to bring together younger couples, a characteristic typical of summer festivals. Festivals are often characterized as “not normal time” and as such “new normal” behaviors are practiced and accepted. By jumping over the fire together, they are testing what their future would be together. This is an example of sign folk magic.

Proverb – Serbian

Nationality: Serbian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA (Current)
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Serbian

“Ko o cemu kurve o postenju.”

“Hookers are the ones that are talking about morals all the time.”

“In terms if you judge other people. The person who judges other people is the one with the same flaws usually.”

“It’s just a well-known saying. It’s used in conversation.”

The informant is originally from Serbia but has been attending university in Los Angeles, CA for the past two years.

This Serbian proverb is a way of calling one a hypocrite. Like many proverbs, out of context, it contradicts itself, but is intended to be ironic. It is a metaphor for people who have their own faults but still judge others’ morals.

Folk Belief – Serbian

Nationality: Serbian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA (Current)
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Serbian

“If you see a chimney man—sweep—you’ll have good luck.”

“There is no chimney sweep [jokingly]. There are in some in older areas. In some really old areas. It’s just like a generally known thing in Serbia.”

The informant is originally from Serbia but has been attending university in Los Angeles, CA for the past two years.

Chimney sweeps are also considered lucky in the British Isles and Germany. They are paid to attend weddings there because they are considered a sign of luck (Monger 64). Chimney sweeps are documented as signs of luck in “A Dictionary of Superstitions” in a multitude of locations, especially in London. The example presented show people exclaiming that they are in luck upon seeing a chimney sweep, dating from 1887.

Monger, George. Marriage Customs of the World: from Henna to Honeymoons. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Print.

Opie, Iona Archibald., and Moira Tatem. A Dictionary of Superstitions. Oxford England: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.

Joke – American

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2011
Primary Language: English

“Three blondes were driving in a car to Disneyland and they saw a sign that said Disney Left. They turned around and went home.”

“I think it’s funny. I learned it somewhere in high school. That’s pretty much it.”

The informant is a Los Angeles college student originally from Tampa, Florida. She is not blonde–she’s a brunette.

The joke is an example of blason populaire of the stereotype of blondes. Blondes are stereotypically considered dumb and this joke mocks them for that. However, unlike some blason populaire, the dumb blonde joke has become so widespread that it is okay not only for blondes to tell them, but all of society. It also uses the number three which is very important in American culture.

A Chinese Chopstick Custom and Folk Belief

Nationality: Taiwanese/American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Room 4305B, 920 W. 37th PL. Los Angelos, California 90007
Performance Date: 2/4/2011
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

My informant says this about her background:

“I was born in Connecticut, left when I was two months old, went to Taiwan. For elementary school, went to Hong Kong and went to Shanghai when I was starting middle school, and finished high school there. My parents are typical Taiwanese or Asian parents who only came to America for school and they don’t know that much about American culture and aren’t that great at English. So I was raised in a very “Asian” atmosphere/family.”

One time during dinner at a shopping mall, she brought this folk belief up, reprimanding one of her Caucasian friends for sticking his chopsticks vertically into his rice:

“If you stick chopsticks in the rice straight down into the rice bowl, it’s a bad, a very bad omen. It’s disrespectful because it’s like you’re putting incense on a grave and yeah, okay.”

Before I elaborate on this custom, I just wanted to talk about my own background first. I’m a third generation Chinese Taiwanese male student who was born in Taipei, Taiwan. I speak English and Chinese. I lived in Taipei for two years before moving to New Jersey, where I lived for seven years. After that, I returned to Taipei where I finished high school.

Returning to the topic at hand, in Chinese culture, it is customary to use incense as a way of communicating with spirits or as a way of indicating something is an offering to the spirits of our ancestors. My informant reprimanded her friend for sticking his chopsticks vertically into his rice because it is similar to putting incense on foodstuffs Chinese people offer in front of graves.

I grew up in a Chinese family too so I’ve heard this “rule” before. But, varied as folklore should be, the version my parents told me was that sticking chopsticks (or anything similar in shape to incense) in my rice would invite spirits to feast on the rice, which is at once disrespectful and uncanny–you wouldn’t want spirits eating your rice at the same time you are eating it.

She mentioned another folk belief right after talking about the chopstick “rule”:

“Ok, I heard this from my mom. So another thing is, depending on how far you hold the chopsticks [she picks up her chopsticks], so depending on how far you grip the chopsticks, it depends– they say that…this is for girls, like if you hold it like here [she notions to the bottom of the chopsticks], you’re going to be married off to some guy who lives really close to you and like vice versa, like if you hold it like super far they it’s like ‘oh, you’re going to be married to like, you know, to a distant country or something like that’. Like it depends on how far you hold the chopsticks [she notions to the top of the chopsticks] , like around the tip.”

While I never heard of this belief before, maybe because I am male, this website (a sort of online journal) has a writer who brings up the same belief: thestar. This belief reveals a heavy emphasis on marriage in Chinese culture, which seems to be targeted at young women, that is passed from parent to children or in this case, mother to daughter. My informant elaborated that she heard this from her mother when she, herself, was caught holding the chopsticks near the tip. Her mother lamented that my informant was going to be married far away from home. From that background, we can see that marrying and residing far away from home carries a certain stigma-like quality to the extent where parents will warn their children that they will marry away from home (home as in the sense of city, town or country).