Context: Before and during finals week, students at the University of Maryland will offer up sacrifices to give to the the mascot, Testudo, in exchange for good luck and good grades.

Text:

Collector: “Do you have any traditions on campus? Like maybe there could be a general one for everybody or a specific club or organization?”

Informant: “Yeah actually so on campus, one of the main traditions that happens every semester is sacrificing items to our campus mascot statue that is in the center of campus infant of the main library. Basically, students during finals season will sacrifice special items and leave it for him as a good luck or good omen to do well on their finals. And then it’s bad luck if you see something you like and steal it from Testudo”

Collector: “Are there specific types of items that they have to sacrifice?”

Informant: “Originally the sacrifices are suppose to be something special to you and they don’t have to be expensive or anything as long as they are personal to you. But how it is now it’s kind of turned into a much bigger event on campus and students will find like anything they can to sacrifice like many might try to find things they find funny and some with literally put up anything and are more worried about the sacrificing part then what they are actually giving.”

Collector: “Like what type of items?”

Informant: “So what I’ve seen this year has been a lot of empty alcohol bottles. Ooh, there was this girl would made a sculpture that was in the shape of a little tent to protect Testudo and that was her sacriface. They also will sacrifice campus signs, leis, school worksheets. They’ll usually also get the electric scooters and bikes and will but them there. There is also a lot of construction on campus and so they’ll but a lot of those materials near him. Balloons, stuffed animals, old projects, flowers, and yeah a lot. Also, the campus throws out all the stuff each night so there’s also a new pile every day.”

Collector: “Have you sacrificed anything?”

Informant: “No I haven’t. Every final season I always put a lot of pressure on the tradition and I want to find something super meaningful to sacrifice and I end up taking my finals before I can make a decision and so I end up not doing it. I feel like personally if I sacrifice something I don’t find special then it would be bad luck on me.”

Analysis:

I think this goes to show the types of traditions students will create on campus to receive stress and also receive good luck on finals. I think this is a super fun one that can be a way of strengthening school pride as it’s a big tradition a bunch of people take a part of. I think it also more deeply shows how much students worry about academics and finals and that they would give up anything to do well for them, even participating in this sort of ritual. I think the way it gets out of hand also shows how some people will just continue the tradition for the fun of it without putting much thought behind it or carrying about how it started which arguably shows a diminished value in the tradition.

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Context: This is a story that the informant’s grandmother would tell them all the time. The informant grew up in Myanmar.

Text:

Collector: “Do you have any stories that were passed down to you like maybe a bedtime story, tales, legends, anything?”

Informant: “My grandmother told me this story quite often like when I was younger it’s more a bit of like a lesson kind of thing so it’s a bit long. It’s about a boy; he was really really lazy and his grandfather told him to brush his teeth and he wouldn’t brush his teeth and instead of brushing his teeth he went and ate like a really powdery snack and he was really dirty. The grandfather told him to shower and he didn’t shower. He like went into the river and just played in the mud and he just got even dirtier and really nasty and then the grandfather was like “get out of my house like you’re so nasty you’re so lazy and nothing can fix you.” So, the boy left and he was like “oh my God I don’t know where to live” and he was just wondering around and he found a hole in which — oh wait, sorry. So, the grandfather was like “come back when you’re clean” and he was like f*** you Grandpa like I’m not going to come back; he’s just going to be dirty. The boy went around and he found a hole where a ghost, like the local Town Village ghost, was living and he was like “oh I’ll just go live with the ghost” and he went in and the ghost like kind of (thinking) yeah the ghost lives in a tunnel and it kind of eats boys or eats children and the boy went into the tunnel and knocks on the door and is like ‘Oh my God ghost just eat me I don’t want live anymore” and the ghost opens the door and the ghost is like “oh my god you’re so stinky i don’t want to eat you” and so the boy took a shower brushed his teeth and went back to his grandfather. I’m not really sure what the point of that story was but my grandmother told me that story like a million times.”

Analysis:

The lessons of this story I would say are definitely catered to children. As the grandmother told it a lot to the informant, I’m assuming it must have been passed down to the grandmother and she heard it a lot growing up to and maybe even used it on her own children. I think this story reveals that a child should listen to their parents/grandparents because they know what’s best for them. Also, more importantly, that every kid should not be lazy and take care of their appearance and personal hygiene or else nobody may want or like them. I’m not sure on whether this is a family specific story but there is a high value of hygiene and health.

Context: The experience comes from the Informant’s father when he was younger, around the age of 12 or 13, and takes place in Costa Rica. This story was shared with her by him. It focuses on the Ouija Board, which is used to communicate to spirits and there have been many memorates of bad experiences.

Text:

Informant: “I told you the ouija board story, right?”

Collector: “What? No! What happened?”

Informant: “My dad’s uncle would constantly use the ouija board to reach out to past family members and communicate to them and one day decided to invite my dad along, who was a preteen at that time, with his cousins and they were saying it worked and they were already in conversation in one. My dad joined and they were asking questions to the spirit and the spirit would answer accordingly to appear as the family member. The spirit would also answer questions that only they, like my dad and his uncle, knew the answer to. As they continued communication the spirit would reach out more often every time they played. As a teen my dad thought it was a game and/or that he was actually speaking to his family member until strange things started to happen every time they would finishing talking to the spirit such as things falling on him and things breaking (cups, vases, etc.). He never thought much into this until one day, before the uncles and cousins had invited him to talk to the spirit that day, there was a liquid that spilled on his shoes and melted it and he did not know what the liquid was but it was some sort of acid liquid and this happened before the ouija board. He was scared but dimissed it and puts the shoes on and goes to play with the uncles. And my father didn’t tell anybody what happened with the shoe and when they were using the ouija and talking to the spirit, it starts communicating through the board and asks a question which was “What happened to the shoe?” All the uncles were confused and that’s when my dad knew the spirits were taunting him about the shoes and this spirit attacked him. After the question, my father realizes that all the coincidences were actually the spirit attached to him even though they had said goodbye. My father never addressed what happened to my uncles or the spirit but rather instead stopped going to any of the ouija talks with the spirit. The uncles asked why he wasn’t joining and the spirits also asked. My father never responded and told them that he didnt want to play anymore in which they laughed and continued to play themselves. Later on they found out that the spirit was not their family member because they asked for its name and they gave the wrong name and they knew it was a random spirit.”

Analysis:

I think this memorate only strengths the belief of the bad things that can happen when one uses the Ouija board and sharing these stories adds to the collective belief of using the ouija board with caution and fearing the attachments the spirits can make and how dangerous they can be. The informant mentioned that because of this story her dad never touched the board again and they never did either and honestly, I will even more not miss with the board after hearing this story. I think the sharing of these stories and people still wanting to have this experience also reveals how curious people are with spirits, entities, demons, and just the supernatural in general and seeing what happens when you are able to channel and communicate with them. I think because spirituality is always one of those things were you have to see it to believe it that it draws and fascinates so many different cultures around the world. Also, I think the idea of communicating with the dead or past love ones and this idea that they are always with you is another persisting aspect of why people trade their ouija board memorates.

Context: This personal experience come from the informant’s mother and focuses on a freaky encounter with aliens that happened when they were young girls and having a sleepover with no adults in the house. This was in Costa Rica.

Text:

Informant: “So it was on this farm late a night and my mom and aunts were having a sleepover with a friend and it’s lights out, midnight, quiet, everyone’s asleep. Suddenly, the whole house lights up the entire field and it’s so bright they couldn’t see outside, sort of like a flash but permanent and blocking out everything. Like a beam. So, they couldn’t see and there was a loud noice. They were all scared and didnt know what to do and so they hid under the bed and they keep hearing this noise and then it goes quiet and then after a little bit there’s no lights and no noise and they were so scared they didn’t go outside that night and went back to sleep until the morning to check what it was. When they come out the field of the entire farm was burnt and it was huge and it was all burnt and it was a perfect circle. Apparently my aunt peeked during when the aliens arrived but never wanted to talk about it not even with her own daughter so whatever she saw really freaked her out.”

Analysis:

This memorate further strengthens the typically tropes one sees and hears dealing with aliens. There’s the burnt circle which is suppose to signify the presence of the circular UFO and the bright lights and the big open empty field are also heard with a bunch of stories. Because so many of these memorates have those connecting themes it makes the urban legend seem even that more believable and that’s why people seek to share these stories so they can find similarities. I think the sharing of alien stories all can reflect on this bigger general curiosity of whether or not there’s another type of intelligent life form somewhere out there in the world, on other planets, or other galaxies since many find it hard to believe humans are the only ones and that Earth in the only planet that is inhabited.

Context:

In South Korean culture, it is tradition for the 1st birthday to be celebrated. This celebration is called 돌잔지 (doljanchi) which translates to birthday feast. At this celebration it is all typical that they do a certain type of picking ceremony called 돌잡이 (doljabi). The informant talks about her experience of seeing her baby cousin’s 1st birthday and what she recalls from her siblings.

Text:

Informant: “For the celebration or you know the game what they’ll do is they’ll put a bunch of objects in front of the baby usually like what I see, and it’s like people can do whatever they want really like they could add in their own little things and personalize it, but usually there’s things like a pencil, money, maybe a ball, an apple. Then there can be anything else like I’ve seen maybe stethoscope and stuff like that but then like each one symbolizes a certain thing. I don’t know if traditionally there’s like a set of things..”

Collector (raises hand): “What does apple symbolize?”

Informant: “I’m pretty sure apple symbolizes health I think and ball is athlete and is the pencil I think it’s writer. I feel like these aren’t really like set in stone or anything but you can like put whatever you want and like have it mean whatever you want kind of. I don’t know if there’s like an original set of items if that makes sense but yeah. And then like you’ll set the baby down in front of all the items and they just like crawl and choose one and that’s like their future. I saw my cousin’s baby do it like two years ago and she chose the apple. She was hungry because she just chose it and started eating but I think when [her younger brother] had his, he chose money.”

Collector: “Is there any other traditions that happen at the birthday?”

Informant: “I don’t really know why but usually the babies will wear like a hanbok (한복) like the traditional dress to their first birthday party or like all the pictures or videos I’ve seen where like the babies are grabbing the items they are wearing a hanbok.”

Analysis:

I think this birthday celebration of the first year of life symbolizes how important babies and their futures can be to South Koreans, and that they can be very career and future-oriented. According to the informant, this is a type of rites of passage ceremony in which everyone in their family has been through and they themselves said they would like to continue it. I think the celebration could also show that they believe in free will and maybe being destined to do something since they lay the objects in front of the baby and let them choose although, of course, the babies have no idea what each object symbolizes. Therefore, it seems like the choice is unprovoked and not challenged as compared to if an adult would choose their career they would take into account many different factors.