Monthly Archives: April 2017

Claddagh Ring

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Luis Obispo, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/17
Primary Language: English

claddagh

SP is a current student at California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo where she studies Geography and Anthropology. She is originally from Seattle, WA and grew up in a small town nearby. She grew up in a typical American middle-class family. She attended a public high school in Washington where she grew up with a sister and her mother and father. She has a background of being half-Mexican and half Irish/Italian that has in some ways heavily influenced her beliefs as well as her religious beliefs rooted in Catholicism.

Is there anything else that you have or do that you feel specifically connected to or you resonate with?

SP: I wear a ring every day that my mom gave me that is a Irish Claddagh ring that is very sentimental to me and has meaning to me. You wear it to show whether or not your heart is open or closed. The ring has two hands holding a heart with a crown on top of it. The direction you where the ring in tells people whether or not you are single. If you wear it with the crown turned towards you that means your heart is closed because it is not facing out. When the crown faces out it means your heart is closed because the point is towards you.

Why do you wear it and what does it mean to you?

SP: It is most important to me because when my mom gave it to me she told me that I should hold my heart as a special thing and not give it away so easily and since then I feel like I have always heard her words in my head when I look at my hand and think about it. It also makes me thing she is still with me at the time. I am not very in touch with my Irish heritage but this ring and its tradition makes me feel closer to my religion in ways I can’t express normally. The Claddagh ring has been around for a long time and it makes me feel attached to Irish history. We don’t celebrate much else of that heritage except for the fact that I am a practicing catholic, but even then, this is sentimentally the only Irish thing I know of that I practice. It has become very modernized but I still value it nonetheless.

Analysis:

The Irish Claddagh ring has been around since around 300 years ago. It symbolizes love, loyalty and friendship. The hands represent friendship, the heart represents love, and the crown represents loyalty. They once originated in a small fishing village in Ireland that created the style of the universal Claddagh today. The design makes it perfect for weddings or gifts for any occasion to women and men who value the three meanings of the ring. It can be a very sentimental symbol to people but also represent the Irish heritage. Many women today I have met wear them but do not know the true meanings behind the ring or where it originated from. I think it makes the value of it stronger to know the meaning and the origins behind it. It can make one resonate more deeply with the heritage or tradition if they know and understand the true meaning or are Irish themselves.

Line Dancing

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Luis Obispo, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/17
Primary Language: English

SP is a current student at California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo where she studies Geography and Anthropology. She is originally from Seattle, WA and grew up in a small town nearby. She grew up in a typical American middle-class family. She attended a public high school in Washington where she grew up with a sister and her mother and father. She has a background of being half-Mexican and half Irish/Italian that has in some ways heavily influenced her beliefs as well as her religious beliefs rooted in Catholicism.

Are there any traditions that are new you have come across that you just started to partake in, possibly at college?

SP: Well at Cal Poly I have recently started to go to line dancing with my friends. It is on Thursday nights in a small bar with an open dance floor. Around 100-200 people will go a night and it gets really hot and crowded but it is one of the most fun things I have done here. It is something you can go to with your friends even if you are a bad dancer.

What is it like? I have never been line-dancing and don’t know what the experience is like.

SP: Well line-dancing is a lot of steps and remembering the pattern. They always play the same songs and each song has a dance. Most of the regulars know all the dances from going so often so if you watch them for a while sometimes you will eventually be able to do it and try it. I am not very good so I can only pick up the slower or easier dances and even then, sometimes I mess up. They aren’t that serious so if you mess up you just laugh it off and keep going but some people are so good and never mess up. I am guessing those people have time to go every week and that’s how they can memorize it and get so good.

Why is this so popular or a tradition at Cal Poly?

SP: I think it is because a lot of people at Cal Poly like country music and dancing and drinking and at Line-Dancing you can do all of those at the same time with you friends. When I go, I like to go with a group of my friends that I can dance with and have fun with but still make a fool of myself. That’s why so many people at Cal Poly go, because it is fun and easy to go with a bunch of your friends.

Analysis:

Line-dancing is popular across the united states but it has died out in places that are not in the south for the most part. IT is making a revival and the small town of San Luis Obispo through college kids because college kids love dancing and most love music that is popular like country. The act of line-dancing is portrayed in many movies and television as people having a ton of fun in pre-choreographed dance that they just happen to be able to learn easily during the night. It doesn’t require as much precision or skill as other kinds of dance which makes it friendly to all people especially young people. It is interesting to see it growing in California, which is not known as a typical southern state.

Secret Handshake

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Luis Obispo, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/17
Primary Language: English

SP is a current student at California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo where she studies Geography and Anthropology. She is originally from Seattle, WA and grew up in a small town nearby. She grew up in a typical American middle-class family. She attended a public high school in Washington where she grew up with a sister and her mother and father. She has a background of being half-Mexican and half Irish/Italian that has in some ways heavily influenced her beliefs as well as her religious beliefs rooted in Catholicism.

Is there anything you learned from your family that you still actively do today? Like a greeting or gesture that is something you feel is unique to you?

SP: Well me and my dad’s side of the family have this secret handshake that my dad made up. At first I think it was just a thing between him, me and my sister but now it has turned in to something all of cousins know how to do. It is really simple it is just some fist bumps and hand grabs and isn’t very hard to remember. It sort has become a family tradition with anyone he is close within the family who is younger. It keeps all of u having something in common that we all know as being the younger generation, we are a bit more separated from the older family in a way.

Do you still remember the handshake and use it regularly?

SP: Yeah, I still remember it, I have known it for almost 15 years now so it is like engrained in my brain forever at this point. I think it is only really used at family gatherings and we don’t have as many of those because of the fact that all of us have mostly gone to college and all the older aunts and uncles are actually getting to an older age where they come to less events because they have moved away or are spending time with other family. It is rare we get together but when we do my dad always asks us and our cousins in we remember it and we always do. It is nice that he still reminds us all in a way that he hasn’t forgotten us or that fact that we all share this secret technique together. Whenever I see people with handshakes it reminds me of my dad and our family.

Analysis:

Handshakes are a dying form of gesture or greeting. It is more common among children in younger ages as a way of bonding or sharing secrets between friends in a school yard setting. IT is now more uncommon since the digital age. People create common emoji messages or snapchats they can send back and forth rather than the significance of handshakes and jumping rope just do not exist after the age of eight or so. Handshakes just do not exist for the most part but used to be a huge form of bonding and communication. I remember when I was younger me and my friends created many handshakes we could share just between one person that made you feel like you had a special connection or unique thing no one else could share. It is sad to see them mostly die out but for those that remain it creates an everlasting bond between you and the other person.

Shivah

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/5/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

Do you have any traditions for birth or death in Judaism?

KM: After someone passes away, we have a funeral that’s called a Shivah that has some traditions or changes specific to Judaism. It is basically where you must bury them immediately after they die, there is no waiting period or planning of a funeral, they have to be buried straight away. Then you sit and pray for them so it is like we have the funeral after they are already put in the ground.

Are there any variations to this?

KM: Well there are exceptions. For example, when my grandfather died we could not have a Shivah for his because he died on Rosh Hashanah, which is a high holiday. You aren’t allowed to have Shivahs when people die on a high holiday because that is respected over death. You are already praying on the holiday anyways as well so you can sit and pray then just not at the site of where the person is buried. It was sad not to be able to have a Shivah for my grandfather but we respect the high holiday and it is an honor to die on a high holiday.

Analysis:

A Shivah has the same significance as a normal funeral but it has it differences to the normal ceremony and reception. The ceremony is a week-long of sitting and praying for the deceased. It is very important to Jewish people that they bury their dead as soon as possible. There is no true reason for it other than what people deduce from the Torah. The Torah says that a body should be buried within 24 hours unless if on a high holiday where you cannot work. It is very specific yet tells no details why.

March of the Living

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/5/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

Is there any significant milestone other than a bat mitzva that you have in your young-adult life?

KM: Well when we graduate high school we go on a trip called March of the living where we basically tour all the concentration camps in Europe and travel to meet with others Jews who do it as well. Every year the graduating class at Jewish schools across the world do it and other Jewish organizations do it as well.

How is did that experience or tradition effect you?

KM: It was an amazing experience and it changed my life and my view on my heritage as a Jewish-American. Going to the concentration camps made me very emotional because many of my ancestors went through that experience in WWII. I think that it gave me a better perspective on how close our Jewish community is as well. When we got to meet Jewish people from all over the world and talk to them about our religion it was very comforting that we found solace in other people.

What was the most influential part of the trip?

KM: I think it was the march in general and especially when we went through the forest that people had to walk through or labor in where many people died. The trees were narrow and if someone walked more than 5 yards ahead they would disappear completely which was a scary thing to see how easily one could get lost or run off but they couldn’t for fear of being killed. Also, many people were killed out there which made the silence of the walk eerie and something I will never forget.

Analysis:

The march of the living is a very important trip for young Jewish people. The experience the true persecution of the holocaust and it is extremely eye-opening for most of them. I think it is a week where they focus on their culture and also connecting with others who share the same cultural identity and history. It is a tradition that is a bit newer but, still has had a dramatic effect on Jewish people around the world.