Monthly Archives: May 2017

Vegetarian Tuesday

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Delhi
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“Indian families that eat non-vegetarian foods regularly change what they eat every Tuesday to eat only vegetarian foods in honor of the gods because if you eat meat on Tuesday it will bring bad luck.  My household followed this rule pretty strictly, and my mom still does, but because my dad got tired of it me and my siblings don’t really have to follow it anymore.”

ANALYSIS:

This is a great example of a ritual that many families follow because it is deeply rooted in religious tradition, but more and more families today choose not to follow for whatever reason.  This makes me wonder what the trend of families that follow this tradition looks like in terms of how many families stop practicing this tradition every year.

Fasting for Blessings

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Delhi
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“So, In India, there’s this common ritual for married couples.  So, one day of the year, they fast in honor of their significant other so the gods bless them.  My parents did it until they were in their 40’s but then they just gave up on it.  For the most orthodox families they do it even if their ill and need to eat, but since my family isn’t like that it’s not that serious.  And it’s on a specific day of the year, but I don’t remember which one.”

ANALYSIS:

I find it interesting that different families take this custom to different degrees of seriousness.  It’s a very clear and straightforward ritual, that if you fast you will be blessed by the gods, but still some families take it more seriously than others.  It makes me wonder what percent of families take it seriously compared to the percent that don’t, and if there are any other factors that might help indicate which families will take it seriously and which won’t.

Burnout

Nationality: American
Age: 18

“So, my dad is super into muscle car culture.  I’m talking like after market cars, American muscle, noisy cars, the whole deal.  Back before I was born, my dad went to this autoshow with this muscle car he’d spent the last three years of his life fixing up, and he was super proud of it and was really excited to show it off.  It’s tradition when leaving a car show for people to do burnouts as they drive away, just because it’s rebellious or whatever.  So what happened was, my dad was lined up with about ten other cars all about to do simultaneous burnouts, but all of a sudden a cop rolled up behind them.  Nothing was illegal about the car show, but doing a burnout is illegal unless it’s on a closed road with police permission, which this wasn’t.  So, all the other cars stay put and don’t burnout because of the cop, and since the cop knows that burnouts are likely to be taking place, he lingers.  But because my dad was so excited about his car and couldn’t let anything stop him from showing it off, he brings the rev up, dumps the clutch, and smokes his tires right in front of the cop.  Since my dad’s not a felon, though, he just does the burnout, drives like 100 meters and then pulls over so the cop can pull him over.  So the cop rolls up to my dad with his lights flashing and approaches my dad.  So it turns out the cop is actually just super into car shows and really wanted to see what was going on at the show, so the cop doesn’t give my dad a ticket and actually applauds him for making such a bold move.  The only reason the cop pulled my dad over was just so all the other cars wouldn’t start doing burnouts too.  So after that my Dad became a local car show legend, and to this day his name lives in infamy among all car enthusiasts in the Boston area.”

ANALYSIS:

I found this legend extremely interesting because it’s impossible to tell how much of it is true and how much of it is fabricated.  Because the informant didn’t witness the event firsthand and has only heard the story from the father, it’s extremely plausible that the father embellished on the story to make himself look cooler.  And because of the inherent nature of local legends, there’s no way of knowing just how much of the story is true or not.  All we can do is take the story for what it is: a story.

Two Scoops of Rice

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Boston
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: English

“Whenever I’m having like family dinner, like when I was a kid, and we’d have rice, regardless of whether or not we were hungry, we’d have to take two scoops of rice, not one.  Like, even if you only wanted one scoop’s worth of rice, you’d have to get that amount of rice in two smaller scoops, because you have to take two scoops no matter what.  It’s about having the ability to have two scoops of rice and appreciating that certain sense of prosperity.  My dad put this practice into my family, and he got it from his parents who were from China, where this practice is a broader cultural thing.”

ANALYSIS:

This piece of folklore is super interesting because of it’s strong connection to Chinese heritage despite the informant having never even been to China.  Culture and cultural practices get passed on from generation to generation and are often a way for the people inheriting the culture to get in touch with their heritage, and I think this is a perfect example of this.  And even though the furthest line the informant can draw back to this practice ends with his grandparents, it’s almost certain that the grandparents inherited it from their grandparents, and so on and so forth.  It’s uplifting to know that such a gracious cultural practice and the meaning behind it has survived for so long and across continents.

Meshindet

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Boston
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: English

“My grandmother says the phrase ‘meshindet’ a lot.  It means ‘in good health’, roughly translated from Albanian.  My mother and aunts say it a lot too because they got it from my grandmother.  We say it whenever we’re spending money together as a family, like a family dinner or a family vacation or anything.  It’s like an acknowledgement of the prosperous times we’re living whenever we’re able to spend that money, because everyone’s healthy, everyone’s together, and we can afford to do nice things together as a family sometimes.”

ANALYSIS:

I really like this proverb because of both it’s strong roots in Albanian culture and the positive and grateful meaning behind it.  Picturing a family getting together for a nice family meal and then saying ‘meshindet’ when the check comes just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.  I hope this particular proverb continues to find strong life as this family grows into new generations because I think it could really do a lot to help a family keep a positive outlook when times are both good and bad.