Monthly Archives: May 2026

Rituals for Expectant Mothers

Age: 56

Context:

The informant has gone through pregnancy three times and childbirth twice. In each instance, the informant relied on their family during difficult times and found comfort in cultural customs. However, the informant is an immigrant and their experience was influenced by the distance and long travel between them and their family.

Text:

Expectant mothers in India usually must return to their current childhood home to deliver the baby in this house. They must reside here for 3-6 months as they recover from childbirth and settle into their new role. Every day, their family and in-laws with provide them with oil massages and baths to rejuvenate them. The new mothers are fed meal and high-protein meals constantly and told to sleep/rest whenever possible.

Analysis:

This practice is a life-cycle ritual and rite of passage, in which childbirth marks a transition into motherhood. There is separation in the act of returning home, liminality during the recovery period, and reincorporation after the mother re-enters society. The emphasis on care and rest demonstrates how rituals are intentional and promote both mental and physical healing. According to Ted J. Kaptchuk, these performative and symbolic aspects of healing can create real, tangible change. In this way, rituals reinforce cultural values about family responsibility and create communitas, a strong social bond, through caregiving. The informant’s specific experience as an immigrant highlights how folklore adapts to context and yet, traditions persist even when separated from community.

Death & Ash Rituals

Age: 56

Context:

My informant has dealt with the death of both of her parents. Each funeral procession took around a week including preparation of the body. This ritual has distinctive religious and cultural meaning for her. She told me that when she passes away, she will also participate in this ritual as an active bearer of tradition.

Text:

In Hindu tradition, deceased family members are often cremated. When gathering the ashes, ashes cannot be brought into the house. Instead, ashes are wrapped in pots made from natural ingredients and these pots are kept in nature. Specifically, the information recalls her father’s ashes being placed into a carved out tree. Then, the ashes are carried to a sacred river, Talakaveri. At Talakaveri, the ashes must be placed into flowing water rather than still water.

Analysis:

This funeral practice reveals the importance of the connection between the departed soul and the living. Ashes are not brought into the house to preserve the soul of the person and their transition to reincarnation. According to Van Gennep’s rites of passage, the process of cremation, placement in nature, and later integration into sacred water, helps both the deceased and living navigate death as a transition. The specific emphasis on Talakaveri, a river that all Hindus believe they originated from, and flowing water conveys the symbolic nature of customs and the inseperable bond between a body and its environment. From an emic perspective, the informants intention to continue this ritual shows how folklore is actively performed to maintain tradition through communal lived experiences.

Don’t Step on the Chalk Lines

Folklore:
Don’t step on the lines of a baseball field before the game starts. It is bad luck to step on the line during the warm ups or moving through the field before the start of the game.

Context:
The informant is a baseball player who “learned baseball superstitions through players” who heard it from their teammates, coaches, parents. The informant notes it likely “became a thing out of respect… [it’s] respectful to keep it in check.” It preserves the “feel of the game.” Practically, the lines serve as a marker to help play the game and count foul balls which are important for play.

Analysis:
The function of this folklore is a way to help keep the field of the baseball game cleaner before the game. It could hold many functions as a way for more experienced baseball players to identify newer or more inexperienced players. The folklore is spread from older members of the community to younger members. This superstition tends to help preserve values of the community and as the informant discussed, create respect for the caretakers of the field, who may also be their coaches or seniors. 

Ultimate Spoons

Folklore: Hiding spoons or other items around the house and racing with the other participants to try and find them all before anyone else.

Context:
The steward of the folklore described the game as hiding spoons around the house. She and her siblings would play it to see who could find them the fastest around the house. She noted they on occasion asked their parents to help hide the spoons over the house, but they didn’t take part. She implied asking for the parents participation in the game was rare. She didn’t have a name for the game, though she researched it and found the name ultimate spoons which sounded familiar.

Analysis:
The game the informant describes seems to allow for connection and camaraderie within her siblings or other children. The informant was clear on how the parents did not participate in the game, and only rarely with the preparation of the game. It shows a shared value of fun and cleverness, with the goal of the game being good at finding and quick at it.

Frog Tail Saying

Folklore:
“Sana sana colita de rana.” – “Heal heal little frog tail.” – A saying used to help with healing if someone got hurt.

Context:
Informant is a Mexican American senior at USC. Her family originated from Chihuahua Mexico, and she grew up frequently hearing this saying from friends and family. She remembers hearing it from her grandma. The folklore is a part of a larger saying, but the informant commonly used the shortened version.

Analysis:
The folklore is something that shared between elders to youth, who commonly are energetic and prone to injury. It is shared throughout the generations and may even be shared from youth to youth, having learned it from their parents or elder figures.