Monthly Archives: May 2016

The Hung Man (Riddle)

My informant is Natalie. Natalie is a 19-year-old female student at USC. She is half-Mexican, half-white, speaks fluent Spanish and English and grew up in San Diego.

 

Natalie: “There was a man who was found dead in a room. He had hung himself from the ceiling but all that was in the room was the rope, the dead man, and a puddle of water on the floor. How did the man kill himself?”

I don’t know, how?

Natalie: “The answer is that the men used a block of ice to reach the ceiling and tie the noose and when the ice melted he was left hanging there to die”

Where did you hear this riddle?

Natalie: “I heard this one on a field trip. We were hiking and the guide knew a bunch but that’s just one of the ones I remember”

Does this riddle mean anything to you?

Natalie: “It’s just a riddle I guess it just reminds me of that trip”

 

When dealing with riddles as folklore, we are dealing with a form that most would never consider folklore and do not pay attention to it being a performance that they are sharing. Riddles are especially good for folklore as well because the language can change so much but in the end the answer has to be the same. However, with riddles it is also precision of language that is sometimes most important for the riddle to make sense. In this case it was just a riddle that you had to think about to solve. It was just a fun one to get your mind thinking and to Natalie it is just a regular riddle however one that reminds her of the past like so much other folklore does.

Persian New Year (Holiday)

Nationality: Persian
Age: 19
Primary Language: English

My informant is Grant, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Grant was born and raised in Los Angeles, however his father is from Iran and his mother is from Japan. Both of these cultures influence his life in different ways. This piece of folklore is a tradition performed on a holiday.

 

Grant: “Every year on the..uh..spring eclipse or whatever, around March 21st and we celebrate the rebirth and the growing and we have a lot of grass. We put out a table and you put down seven things on the the table that start with the letter ‘s’ in Farsi so like apples start with an ‘s’ and like a lot of sweets and sugars. It’s kind of symbolic of a sweeter new year. Then the tradition my family does every year is that we put the Persian holy book and my dad puts money in it in a lot of different places. So someone takes the book and flips through it getting money as they go and once you hit a certain amount you stop, its just a tradition we do…my dad says it’s always good to start the new year with money”

Do you open the book as many times as you want?

Grant: “Well when it’s your turn and you open it and if it’s low like a 1 or 5 or 10 then you take it and keep going but if it’s like a 50 or 100 you stop”

How long have you been doing this?

Grant: “We’ve done it as long as I can remember. We do it every year, I’m pretty sure my Dad has been doing it his whole life too learning it from his Dad”

Are you going to carry this tradition on?

Grant: “Yeah, probably it’s a fun thing to do”

Does this have any meaning to you?

Grant: “Well, I’m half- Persian so it’s celebrating that part of myself and then it’s just a nice thing I do with my family each year and I get money so that’s cool”

Do other Persian families do this too?

Grant: “Not that I know of”

 

This is a really good example of a holiday form of folklore. All around the world Persian families celebrate the New Year but the folklore is the specific traditions and manners in which these families celebrate. In Grant’s example, the folklore being passed on and performed each year is a game – one where you win money. To grant, this game is unique to his family, coming from his father and his father’s father, however it is very possible other families do the exact same thing or even with a slight variation. This is also a way for Grant to connect to his Persian roots; having being born and raised in America that part of his ancestry has received less attention but through the continued celebration and tradition on Persian New Year Grant can ensure this part of his family history and his culture endures. Especially when he already plans on passing this tradition down to his children.

 

Red Rover (Game)

Age: 26
Performance Date: 3/18/16
Primary Language: English

My informant is Betsy, a 5’3, white female. Betsy is 26 years old and grew up in Los Angeles her whole life. She is of Irish and Eastern European descent.

Betsy describes a game she used to play as a kid.

Betsy: “Did you ever play Red Rover?”

No, what’s that?

Betsy: “Ok it’s a game I used to play when I was younger during recess. There are two teams and each team forms a big line and you all hold hands with the people on your team and you face the other team who is also holding hands. Then when it’s your teams turn you chant.. “Red Rover, Red Rover, send us…” and you pick someone from their team. So if the other team chose me they would say “Red Rover, Red Rover, send us Betsy!” and then I would leave my team and try and break the other teams chain.”

What do you mean break their chain? How would you do that?

Betsy: “Well you would have to run at them as fast as you can and try and bust through their arms when they’re holding each others hands”

What happens when you break it?

Betsy: “Well if you break the chain then the person who broke is now on your team so whoever breaks the line has to go to the other team”

What if you don’t break it?

Betsy: “Umm..I’m pretty sure if you don’t break it then you just have to join the other team”

So how do you win?

Betsy: “I guess it’s whoever has the most players, the game always ended when recess did so whatever team has the most people at the end wins”

When did you start playing this game and how did you first learn about it?

Betsy: “I would say I started playing a lot around second grade and definitely never played after fifth. As to who started it…I don’t know it was just a game that we all know everyone played it we probably learned it from the kids above us. I remember seeing it in a movie called “Now and Then” and I was obsessed with it so maybe that’s where.

What does this game mean to you, is there any significance?

Betsy: “I wouldn’t say that this game means anything to me… I don’t know it just reminds me of my childhood and brings back memories of when we all used to play Red Rover but I wouldn’t say it holds a special meaning it was just a game.

 

This is a really good example of folklore as a game because it was something Betsy played when she was younger and through the action of playing the game spread the folklore to anyone who saw or partook. Going to school, children fill their recess with fun games to pass the time not realizing it is a form of folklore. I, myself, had never heard or played this game and it was interesting to listen to someone look back on such a small part of their life and have it apply to my project. This game could have been ingrained into the school where all students who went to that same school eventually played Red Rover or in Betsy’s case she may have brought it to her school unknowingly just by watching the movie. However, the fact that it was in the movie

A Perfect Game (Superstition)

Age: 22
Performance Date: 4/15/16
Primary Language: English

 

My informant is Lewis or “Luke” . Luke is 22 and was born and raised in Darien, Connecticut but now attends Chapman University in Orange, California. He is of Irish and Russian descent.

 

Luke: “So the superstition is, in baseball when someone is pitching a perfect game, anyone on the team of the person that’s pitching the perfect game cannot mention it or bring it up at all or it will be ruined. They just have to act like nothing’s happening. My sophomore year we were playing Taft and Jerry Silvey was 5 innings deep into a no-hitter and I turned to my friend not realizing and asked “Is Jerry throwing a no-hitter?” and my friend looked at me like are you kidding me and I kid you not he struck out the net batter then got a homerun hit off him immediately after.”

When was the first time you heard this superstition?

Luke: “I probably first heard it like third or fourth grade when I got into baseball”

And you believe in it?

Luke: “Oh I definitely believe in it”

 

This superstition, like many others, revolves around sports. In sports, when playing or watching, it is common to have some ritual whether it be small like wearing the same shoes or abiding to certain superstitious laws of the game. In this case it is the ladder and this superstition is widespread in American baseball. It is common knowledge to those who have played of the existence and partaking of this general rule. Luke even went against the superstition and mentioned the perfect game and he blames the eventual failure of the perfect game on his actions.

 

 

 

Althea Manor (Legend)

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Primary Language: English

My informant is Lewis or “Luke”. Luke is 22 and was born and raised in Darien, Connecticut but now attends Chapman University in Orange, California. He is of Irish and Russian descent.

 

Luke: “This is the legend of Althea Manor which was my old house in Connecticut. My old house was built in 1895, it was a farmhouse for half of Darien. And the rumor is that the farmer killed himself in the house in the 1920’s. So every night at 2:33 in the morning, it would sound like this one-legged ghost was walking down are hallway. This isn’t coming from just me either but my parents believe it to. One time my Uncle Bobby who came in late from the bars at around 2:30 said he heard the sounds out in the hallway and swears he saw a one-legged ghost. That’s why I never go out in the hallway”

Why 2:33? Is that when he died?

Luke: “Oh I don’t know, that’s just when he comes out”

When did you first hear this story?

Luke: “I first heard the story like when we moved in and then experienced it first-hand”

Did your whole family believe in this?

Luke: “My dad may be hard to convince but definitely me, my mom, and my brother. I was excited to leave for boarding school because of that”

Is there any meaning from this to you?

Luke: “I mean no he never did anything but I will always believe that and know I lived in a haunted house”

 

This legend is interesting because it is directly from a first hand witness of the legend. Luke lived in the house he believed to be haunted by a one-legged man. He even added to the folklore by telling me of the time2:33 because he observed this and recounted it to me in his performance. Not only Luke believed this but other members of his family do too and his uncle even claimed to witness the ghost. I feel like Luke must have been pretty scared to hae lived in a house he felt to be haunted and was excited to leave.