Monthly Archives: May 2020

Advent Traditions

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: retired
Residence: Atherton
Performance Date: 4/21/20
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant is my mother, identified as L.M., who was raised as a Catholic, and grew up with many traditions for each of the Christian holidays, some religious and some not. This is her description of the season of Advent and two of the traditions she followed with her family during her childhood.

Main Piece: I remember the coming of the Advent season each year, which begins on the Sunday closest to the beginning of December, and is viewed by the Catholic Church and many other Christian churches as a time to prepare and reflect on the religious meaning of Christmas. The Advent period includes the four Sundays before Christmas, plus all of the days in between and up to Christmas Day. Our church sermons during this season all focused on readings from the Bible about the preparation for the arrival of Jesus, and we also would sing special hymns during this period. The one I remember in particular is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Catholics, including our family, would fast and not eat meat on Fridays during this period, we used to have a lot of tuna fish sandwiches or fish sticks for dinner on those Fridays, which I wasn’t a fan of. As a child, I remember there being a huge Advent Wreath in our church up by the altar throughout the Advent season. The Advent Wreath was made of various types of evergreen branches, and had four large candles set in its branches, three of them were purple and one was pink. The wreath symbolizes life, and the circular shape of the wreath symbolizes eternity and the everlasting life of the soul. One of the four candles is lit on the first Sunday, and then on every other Sunday during Advent, one more of the candles is lit, so by the fourth Sunday before Christmas, all four are lit. The purple color for three of the candles represents the liturgical color of violet, which signifies a time for prayer and sacrifice, and the pink color for the other candle represents joy, as rose is the liturgical color for joy. The first candle lit is purple and represents hope. The second candle lit is also purple and represents faith. The third candle lit is the pink one which represents joy. And, the last purple candle lit symbolizes peace. We also used to make our own Advent Wreath for our home. My mother would make the wreath out of fresh evergreen branches and wire them into a circular shape, and then place the candles, three purple and one pink, into the wreath. We would keep it on our dinner table all throughout Advent, following the tradition of lighting each new candle on the appropriate Sunday. And, every night of the week, not just Sundays, the one, two, three, or four candles, depending on which week it was, would be lit before dinner and we’d have our dinner meal around the table with our candlelit Advent Wreath. The other Advent tradition I remember is that we would have an Advent calendar every December. This was basically a large free-standing form made out of heavy card stock paper and decorated with some overall Christmas motif, religious or non-religious, with doors numbered one through twenty-five. Every day in December, we would open the numbered door with the proper date, and inside each door there was a holiday scene of some sort, for example, a star, or a decorated Christmas tree, or an ornament, or a shepherd, or an angel, or Santa Claus, or holly, or a gingerbread boy, and on the 25th, we’d open the last door, which always had a traditional religious Nativity scene with Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus. Now, I still have something similar to an Advent calendar that I bring out every December, but it isn’t religious. It’s a small red table-top cabinet of drawers, and each is numbered 1-25. The number one drawer has a collapsible little artificial Christmas tree that I set up on the kitchen counter, the number two drawer has a garland of tiny red ornaments to string on the tree, and the remaining drawers up to twenty five have a variety of small and whimsical ornaments to hang on the tiny tree- a candy cane, holly and berries, a snowman face, a santa head, a red mitten, a tiny gift, a santa suit, all made from things like beads and felt, bells and tiny white styrofoam balls. I love opening each drawer day by day and decorating the tiny whimsical Christmas tree. It brings me back to all of the childhood memories of anticipating Christmas and the joy and magic of the holiday.”


Analysis: “Advent” is defined as the awaiting of the arrival of a notable person, event, or thing. Originally, advent calendars were created to count down the days until the arrival of Jesus Christ, as Christmas is his day of birth. However, it seems as if the religious importance of both advent calendars and Christmas has been somewhat lost. Christmas is now much more commercialized and seen as a time to eat sweets and receive and give gifts in American culture. Santa Claus is a much more prominent figure during Christmas than Jesus is now.

Wish Upon a Star

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Atherton
Performance Date: 4/21/20
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant is my mother, identified as L.M., a woman born, raised, and living in Northern California. While having dinner together at my family home, I asked her whether she remembered any rituals she and her friends had when they were young.

Main Piece: “Growing up in a relatively small town, my brother and I used to play outside a lot at night during the summers with the neighborhood kids. I remember from a young age being with my childhood girlfriends and we’d lay on the lawn in one of our backyards and wait for the first stars to come out and sing:

‘Star Light, Star Bright, the first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.’

Then, we’d each close our eyes and make a wish. It felt almost like a solemn oath and mysterious ritual to me. I think we kept the wishes to ourselves, rather than tell each other what we wished for. I don’t know who I learned this poem from. It was definitely something that was passed on orally and just seemed to be universally known by us all from a very young age. I think that I probably had a nursery rhyme book that included it, too.”

Analysis: “Star Light, Star Bright” is an English language nursery rhyme, has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16339, and first began to be recorded in the late nineteenth century. The song and tradition seem to have reached Britain by the early twentieth century and then spread worldwide. This particular song calls out to the first star of the night, whereas other similar superstitions were based upon the granting of wishes made when seeing a shooting or falling star. The custom of wishing on a first star likely predates the rhyme, and that of wishing on a shooting or falling start may date back to the ancient world and the influences of the astronomer Ptolemy. (For another version of this chant, see the Disney Park Fireworks show performances.)

Throwing Salt Over Your Shoulder

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Atherton
Performance Date: 4/21/20
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant is my mother, identified as L.M., a woman born, raised, and living in Northern California. As a child, her immediate family lived in the same general area as all four of her grandparents, and most of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. At dinner with my parents during the Covid-19 Shelter in Place timeframe, I asked her if she knew of any family superstitions or protection rituals. She was also raised in a practicing Catholic household.

Main Piece: “I do remember one from a Thanksgiving Dinner with our extended family. I was six or seven years old, and we were all sitting around the oval table in my parents’ dining room. I think that both sets of my grandparents were there, plus my great aunt, my mom, dad, and brother, and another aunt and uncle or two, and some cousins. We were ready to eat our turkey dinner, and I asked my brother to pass the salt, which I then accidentally spilled on the table. My great aunt, who was French, told me to quickly throw some salt over my shoulder. I went ahead and did what she said, assuming it had something to do with avoiding bad luck, but my great aunt and grandmother said it was done to ward off the devil. I thought at the time it was just fun, but never learned the origin of this custom.”

Analysis: One widespread explanation of the folk belief that it is unlucky to spill salt is that Judas Iscariot spilled the salt at the Last Supper and even Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper depicts Judas Iscariot having knocked over a salt-cellar. Because Judas betrayed Jesus Christ in the Bible, people began associating salt with lies and disloyalty. Some Christian beliefs hold that the devil hangs around behind your left shoulder, waiting to take advantage of you and force you into bad behavior. If you spill salt, the devil sees it as an invitation to step in and do evil. Throwing it over your shoulder into his face blinds him and renders him helpless. And the belief is that If you spilled the salt, you must be the one to throw it over your shoulder or you won’t thwart the bad luck or the devil. This superstition is now commonplace and is no longer associated with Catholocism. It is depicted in a lot of contemporary media and its origin is widely unknown. 



Festival de Force

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Atherton
Performance Date: 4/20/20
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant is my mother, identified as L.M., a woman born, raised, and living in Northern California. Both of her paternal grandparents were of Basque descent. Her paternal grandmother emigrated from the French Pyrenees as a teenager, arriving at Ellis Island speaking only the French and Basque languages, and taking a train across the country to live with relatives in Livermore, California, where she met and married my great grandfather. My mom’s father (my grandfather) was very proud of and identified closely with his Basque roots. One night at a family dinner, I asked my mother if she could describe an event we had attended in Saint Jean Pied de Port, France, the Basque “Festival de Force.” I was also in attendance but was quite young and have only vague images for memories. 

Main Piece: “This was about 16 years ago when you were six years old and your sister was 14. We had taken a family trip to the Pyrenees to visit the area where both my father’s mom and dad were from. We spent two nights in a pretty town named St. Jean Pied de Port and one day, you, your sister, your dad, and I took a long walk through the town to explore. Eventually, we found ourselves outside a small outdoor stadium, where lots of local people were buying tickets and going inside. We had no idea what was happening inside, and no one seemed to speak English, but it looked fun and interesting, and we decided to get tickets ourselves and check it out. We took seats in the bleachers and it was quickly obvious that we were very likely the only people there who couldn’t speak Basque or French and were not from the area. So, basically the event was called the “Festival de Force,” or in English a “Strength Festival.” The layout of the stadium was similar to a school stadium with a large open area in the middle and an oval running track around the perimeter. There were about six or eight teams of men, with eight to ten men per team, if I remember correctly, and they competed in several different events. I remember there being a log cutting contest with huge logs and axes; an ox cart lifting and pulling contest, with teams of men racing each other while pulling these large wooden ox carts around the track; another event where the teams of men were in a relay, and they were carrying what looked like two large metal milk jugs that they would then hand over to their teammates in the relay; a race while carrying a large sack of wheat over their shoulders; and also a tug of war contest with a huge rope that was the last event of the match. Each team represented a different town or region, and I think it was an annual event. There was a very loud and enthusiastic crowd with lots of team spirit, and the participants put everything they had into the competition. The winning team was declared at the end, and we filed out of the arena with everyone else and headed back to our hotel. It was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip for me, and I loved the energy, the spontaneity and the randomness of our finding this unexpected event during our vacation.”

Analysis:  Basque strength tests have their origin in the farm and forest laborers’ daily work, and for centuries, Basque men from different communities would challenge each other to test their relative prowess at these Basque rural sports. Several strength tests originated with the field and farmworkers, including “Orga Joko,” the cart lift, where contestants lift a 350 kg cart on its drawbar and pull it for at least two and up to five laps of the track; “Lasto Altxari,” the hoisting of a 100 kilo bale of straw on a pulley for as many times as possible in two minutes; the “Sakulari,” racing while carrying 76 kilo sacks of wheat on one’s shoulders, and “Untziketariak,” the relay race with large, heavy, metal jugs of milk. Others come from the traditional woodcutters in the forest, such as the Aizkolaria” axe-cutting of oak tree trunks and the “Segari” sawing beech beams. Finally, the “piece de resistance” is the “Sokatira” tug of war, where two teams of 8 to 10 men, wearing the colors of their villages, oppose each other across a rope weighing about one ton, until in a process of elimination the champion is determined. The first and largest modern Basque Festival de Force began in 1951 in the town of Saint Palais, taking place each year on a Sunday in the middle of August. On this day, approximately 150 strongmen from the six competing villages face off in these spectacular and very old challenges to pull the rope, hoist a bale of straw, raise a cart, spilt wood logs, carry milk jugs, and run a bag of wheat on their shoulders. For both the participants and the spectators, this is a unique experience and one of authenticity rooted deeply in centuries-old Basque traditional games which were common, especially at the time of the wheat harvest. The Basque Festival de Force my mother described took place in the town of St. Jean Pied de Port, approximately 30 kilometers from Saint Palais in mid-July 2005, and although smaller in attendance, it had all of the same elements as the original from Saint Palais.

Legend of Pele

Nationality: Native Hawaiian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/17/20
Primary Language: English

Context: TC is a 22 year old senior at USC, she is also a coworker. T was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii  and is really familiar with a lot of legends. During our break at work I decided to ask her about any known legends she’d like to share with me. There were other people in the break room which created the atmosphere of storytelling and interest was sparked among the other individuals. We all gathered around her while people ate their snacks.

YM: So tell me about this legend of Pele 

TC: Well I’ve heard different things for the story of Pele, but I tell you the one my grandma use to tell me about  

YM: oh yeah ! tell me what you know 

TC: okay so there’s this  legend about this lady in white who haunts or inhabits this one highway called the Pali Highway…. Uh there many variations of this story, depending on which Hawaiian island.  Apparently she is the ancient Hawaiian volcano goddess named Pele. If you are driving down this highway…which is a one lane highway through a dense forest, and very often deserted and you see a lady in white, you are supposed to pick her up and take her wherever she asks to go, otherwise…you’ll have bad luck for the rest of your life? I don’t know … I guess because she owns the land.  Also for some reason if you drive down this highway with any pork in your car, your car will break down, unless you throw out the pork. And, do not take lava rocks home. It apparently angers Pele, and there are “stories” of people who have had a lot of bad things happen to them like the loss of a family member or bad accidents.

YM: did your grandma ever tell you why you’re not supposed to take the lava rocks home or about the pork ? 

TC: Well she would say that the lava rocks are a creation of Pele the volcano goddess, so I think if you take them you take something that is hers and doesn’t belong to you. But I always thought it was because you take the land of the islands. The entire islands are made from lava. We’ve had our land taken from us so I think it’s symbolic to that and uh Yeah I don’t know about the pork….It was just kinda like a given that you’re just not supposed to do that

YM: wow, interesting. Do you believe in this legend ? 

TC: I mean I do and I don’t. I’ve gone through this highway many times and nothing has happened to me, but there are real people from my town who swear things have happened to them. I guess I also see Pele as like a mother or protector of the island so in that sense I kinda do believe in her legend

YM: Yeah I see how she would have a symbolic meaning to you 

TC: Yeah I remember being scared as a child but not anymore… I like knowing there’s this woman who is not to be messed with or disrespected and that we should also respect her land 

YM: thats awesome 

Background info: T shared that her grandmother would always tell stories at the dinner table. The legend of Pele was the most popular throughout the years. She grew up listening to stories about Pele and remember being scared as a child. But as she grew older she realized that it was more about honoring and respecting  their goddess rather than fearing her.  

Analysis: This legend seems to encourage the people of the islands of Hawaii to honor their Gods. I would believe the fear inflicted in their everyday lives by the lady in white seems to encourage them to respect the mother  and protector of their island. This seems to be a religious or otherwise spiritual legend that inclines towards myth. The story is essentially a mythic truth that relates to larger works. In this case it’s the story of the mother and protector of Hawaii. As well as a cosmogenic story of how Hawaii was created. It definitely imbukes meaning and is a sacred narrative that the people of Hawaii should believe in otherwise it will bring you bad juju.