Monthly Archives: April 2012

Chinese custom: Birthday noodles

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student (Business Administration)
Residence: Atlanta, Georgia
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese, German

My informant’s mother always makes noodle soup whenever anyone in the family celebrates a birthday.  Her mother’s mother, my informant’s grandmother, was from northern China, where wheat noodles were a popular food item. The long noodles represent long life. The person whose birthday it is must eat enough to be completely full so that he/she won’t ever be hungry in the coming year.

This custom turns every birthday into a family occasion. The family shares a homemade meal, which promotes family bonding. It’s a ritual of sorts to mark the transition into being a year older.

My informant skipped her classes on her birthday to go home and have a noodle meal with her family, which shows how strong a tradition this is for her family. She says that she will have to learn how to make noodle soup so that she can continue the tradition in the future.

 

Ghosts of Morgan’s Corner

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 72
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Kaneohe, Hawaii
Performance Date: 4/24/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Local legend of Oahu

Two girls were together at Morgan’s Corner when a man comes up and attacks them. One escapes, but the other one is killed. After this happened some people started seeing the girl’s spirit out of the corner of their eye or have a hard time starting their cars. This is attributed to the girl not wanting people to leave her. Later a boy hung himself there and people began to see his spirit as well as the girls in that area making people believe that the area was conducive to spirits.

This story has a local feel to it. There isn’t a particular culture or large event attached to it. The story seems to be attached to a local geographical spot and spread in that area. It is not a particularly important story just one that is part of the make-up of the supernatural world in Oahu.

Folk Medicine

Nationality: Hispanic
Age: 54
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: 3/15/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

One way that my grandmother passed down to my father to fix the palate of the baby. “It sounds like abuse but trust me it’s not”

When babies have something wrong on the soft spot on their head your grandma told me that if they fell or if something was wrong with that spot on their head what you needed to do was put the baby upside down, press your thumb against the top of their mouth, and tickle their feet. You must softly press on the roof of the mouth and it was supposed to help close that space, or push air around or something. This was called Mollera caida.

After research, I have found that this is a pretty widespread folk belief in the Hispanic community.

“Thunderstruck” Drinking Game

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/12
Primary Language: English

The informant (21) is a Junior at USC. She transferred to USC for her sophomore year, and before that, spent her freshman year at Bennington College in Vermont.

The informant is my roommate and she wanted to contribute a drinking game to my folklore collection. This particular game is called Thunderstruck. Here’s what she told me about playing the game:

“It’s called Thunderstruck and you play Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Every time the song says thunder, start drinking and then it’s a waterfall, in that you start then the next person continues until everyone is doing it. You end when it says thunder the next time. I learned it in a hippie commune on top of a hill in Vermont freshman year (Bennington College). It gets the job done quickly and I also enjoy AC/DC, so it’s the ultimate combination!”

I’ve never played this particular game, but I do know the AC/DC song and I agree that this game would definitely get people drunk fast. I found it interesting that my informant learned this game in Vermont, at her small liberal arts college that she so affectionately calls “a hippie commune on top of a hill.” This location makes sense because if the school is as dedicated to hipster lifestyle as she claims, then the song choice would probably be appropriate. I don’t think it would be as popular at USC because I don’t know how many people here actually listen to AC/DC.

 

Annotation:

The “Thunderstruck” drinking game also shows up on the website eHow.com. The entry provides people with instructions on how to play the game. This description of the game differs from my informant’s in the fact that if someone fails to take a drink when they hear the word “thunder,” then they are out, and the game keeps going until there’s a winner.

Mccoy, Holly. “How to Play the Drinking Game Thunder.” eHow.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/how_2365140_play-drinking-game-thunder.html>.

Korean myth: Tiger and bear

Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student (Architecture)
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

“So there was this prince-king who was living in the area that is now Korea. And one day, a bear and a tiger came along and wanted the king to turn them human. The king said he would do it if they went into a cave for a hundred days and ate nothing but onions. I think there’s another version where they have to eat only garlic. But anyways, they take on the challenge. But the tiger quit partway through. The bear made it through all the hundred days, and when it came out, the king turned it into a beautiful woman and married it, and their children became the Korean people.”

My informant thinks she first learned this myth at home, but she heard it again recently in a class on Korean culture. She suggested that the bear’s perseverance reflected Koreans’ conception of themselves as an overall determined culture. Also, Koreans use a lot of onions in their cooking, and onions are healthy and a very natural food. She does note, however, that tigers seem to be more important in Korean culture, and are generally portrayed as more fierce and noble in Korean art, while bears sometimes represent laziness.

This is an origin myth and its details reveal how the Koreans think of themselves. They come from the union of a powerful, magic-wielding king and an animal that proved its determination and commitment by eating healthy but not necessarily pleasant food for an extended period of time.