Monthly Archives: May 2018

Ancestral Visits

Nationality: Indian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chanhassen, Minnesota
Performance Date: 4/6/2018
Primary Language: English

Informant Info: The informant is a 21-year-old male who was born and raised in Chanhassen, Minnesota. His parents both moved to America from India when they were in their twenties. He is currently a student at USC studying Electrical Engineering.

 

Interview Transcript:

Interviewer: Do your parents, being first generation immigrants, have any traditions or rituals that they’ve passed down to you?

 

Interviewee: Every time we go to India, we take the train down to my mother’s ancestral village, like where her parents and grandparents grew up. It’s really old and small… only like 20 or 30 people live there I think…so it’s really tiny. And everyone is old, I think the average age is like 80ish, not to be rude.  But it is really, really important to my mom, so we go every time.

 

Analysis:

This story represents the significance of ancestral history. Despite leaving India and coming to America, his mother’s ancestral home is still very important her. It is where she grew up with her parents, spent her childhood, and was taught all of the values and traditions that she still carries with her today. For her, she goes to pay her respects to her ancestors and her hometown, and by doing so, the informant is also learning about its importance.

Bonding through Media

Nationality: Indian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chanhassen, Minnesota
Performance Date: 4/6/2018
Primary Language: English

Informant Info: The informant is a 21-year-old male who was born and raised in Chanhassen, Minnesota. His parents both moved to America from India when they were in their twenties. He is currently a student at USC studying Electrical Engineering.

 

Interview Transcript:

Interviewer: Do you have any little family traditions among your family?

 

Interviewee: Every time I come back to Minnesota. I always watch the same episode of Top Gear with my brother. The same, single episode. It’s called the Vietnam special, in case you want to know. We’ve done it since I left for college, every time I come back. It’s such a stupid episode, but it’s just something we do together and I can’t stop it now.

 

Analysis:

This tradition is yet another tradition where the sole purpose is to help the family, or in this case brothers, bond. I wasn’t able to gather any context as to how the tradition started or if there was significance behind the tradition, other than the fact that the brother just really likes Top Gear.

 

The Luck of the Draw

Nationality: Indian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chanhassen, Minnesota
Performance Date: 4/6/2018
Primary Language: English

Informant Info: The informant is a 21-year-old male who was born and raised in Chanhassen, Minnesota. His parents both moved to America from India when they were in their twenties. He is currently a student at USC studying Electrical Engineering.

Interview Transcript:

Interviewer: As a student, have you ever had any lucky objects or rituals that have helped you succeed?

 

Interviewee: Ya know — I had a lucky pencil last year, that I lost in October… and it was the saddest day of my life… I failed that midterm. But I had it the entirety of freshman year and used it for every test, and I always passed. I don’t know why it was lucky… It just was really nice. But fear not — now I have a lucky pen. It’s a space pen!

Interviewer: Has it replaced your pencil?

 

Interviewee: No never, that pencil was sacred. It got me through all my classes. This is just a nice pen. I won’t test with it, but I carry it with me everywhere.

Analysis:

In this case, the informant seems to be very attached to his pencil, but the superstition that it was lucky seems rather loose. He just happened to use it for everything, and so he grew a bond to it. Losing the pencil likely wasn’t the reason he failed the midterm, but it would be ironic if it was.

 

A “Non-Christmas” Christmas

Nationality: Indian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chanhassen, Minnesota
Performance Date: 4/6/2018
Primary Language: English

Informant Info: The informant is a 21-year-old male who was born and raised in Chanhassen, Minnesota. His parents both moved to America from India when they were in their twenties. He is currently a student at USC studying Electrical Engineering.

 

Interview Transcript:

Interviewer: I remember you mentioning going home for Christmas last year. Can I ask what your family does to celebrate Christmas?

 

Interviewee: We don’t do anything for Christmas religiously, but we do get into the spirit of it. We will put up trees, lights, ornaments on the trees, you know all the usual. My brother always makes an ornament every year. But then… we just leave and go somewhere else ironically… Like we’ll come out to Santa Monica and stay with my cousin because my parent’s like the warmer weather. We don’t really do presents or anything of that nature. To us, it’s mostly just about spending time together with the family.

 

Analysis:

This isn’t that surprising, given that the informant’s parents are both from India and are not Christian. However, growing up in a very Christian town (and country) they have adopted some of the traits of Christmas that aren’t associated with religion. I find it interesting that above all else, family bonding is always the most important Christmas tradition across the board.

Phantom Hiker in North Carolina

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Status Coordinator at Walt Disney World
Residence: Orlando, Florida
Performance Date: 3/16/2018
Primary Language: English

Informant Info: The informant is a 26-year-old female who was born in raised in Hickory, North Carolina. For the past 3 years, she has lived in Orlando, Florida and has worked for Walt Disney World as a Status Coordinator.

 

Interview Transcript:

Interviewer: Do you remember your parents ever telling you any memorable folktales when you were growing up?

 

Interviewee: I vividly remember one – one weekend my father took my brother and I camping in the Appalachian’s, and at night he started to tell us stories around the fire… as you naturally do when camping! The story that I remember most was him telling us about when he came hiking as a boy with his father and running into a ghost. They were hiking considerably deep in the mountains, and the sun was starting to set so they had to speed up their pace so they would make it to camp before dusk. He then told us how then, like… from out of nowhere an old man caught up to them and started walking beside them without ever looking at them or saying anything… then he just sped up and kept going around a bend. When they caught up and turned the corner themselves, he was gone! I think my dad was just trying to creep us out and made it up but… it surely did work. Honestly, I’m still nervous about going hiking because I always think about it.

 

Analysis:

This story shares close resemblance with a similar story that I found: The phantom ghost of Grandfather mountain, which is a popular North Carolina park. In both cases, the ghost is a benign old man (often described as wearing old, rugged clothes with a leather pack, a white beard, and is using a wooden walking stick). Similarly, in both cases the ghost doesn’t speak, and eventually speeds up and vanishes. Hundreds of people have reported this ghost story, so it is likely that her father really did see the ghost for himself, or that he was just passing down the popular story to his kids, giving the context that they were camping and telling scary stories. The other collection can found here: http://northcarolinaghosts.com/mountains/phantom-hiker-grandfather-mountain/