Author Archives: Carmen Villasenor Santiago

Let the old year out and the new year in

Nationality: Mexican/Guatemalan
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: California, USA
Performance Date: 4/27/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

On new year’s you are supposed to when it hits midnight you open the back door first in order to let the old year get out and afterwards you go over and open the front door in order to allow or invite the new year to come in. This is a tradition that I have been doing with my family and it’s a fun way to interact with them.

Being able to accept a new year is a key part of moving on and feeling as though one can obtain a free slate as soon as the year ends and therefore small traditions such as these make it easier for us to visualize the good and bad coming and going.

48 Hours on Chinese new year

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Florida, USA
Performance Date: 4/30/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

I mean well in Chinese New Year my parents would watch 48 hours’ worth of the same thing they showed live the year before, like you don’t understand it was the same damn thing.   Then we get invited by our friends to the same restaurant.  And okay so this comes from the fact that like for Chinese New Year’s, China every year puts on this 48-hour show, kinda with dances, and pop artists, and traditional artists, and old comedians and actors who’ve been doing it for their entire lives, it’s pretty entertaining if you ask me, but no way have I watched all 48 hours! They have new people every year, and then like the same people doing the same acts, as well. They invite famous and rich people. I think it’s like a nostalgic thing; my parents’ friends are pretty fob, so they at least watch some of it. It’s a bigger deal in the motherland, so I kinda feel it makes them feel pretty at home and close to the culture that they left behind I guess?

Many parts of other people’s folklore include looking back at the place they were born, since many times people have moved to other countries in order to have a brighter future. Therefore being able to have little traditions or celebrations that make one feel connected to ones home country are very important to many cultures.

Don’t put your purse on the floor

Nationality: Filipino/Black
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: California, USA
Performance Date: 4/27/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish; Tagalog

You are never supposed to put your purse on the floor because then you will lose money, not like literally lose money, but it’s going to like go away from you in the future…god I sound like a stupid person (saying so many “likes”).It’s not like throughout like but more of an action reaction thing – kind of like instant karma. This is because your purse symbolizes your money and something close to you and the floor is dirty and such so when you put it on the floor its almost saying that you don’t care about it therefore you will have bad luck with your money.

Although many people would rather it not be that way it is very common that money becomes a very important part of people’s lives and therefore taking care of it is very important. Therefore seeing the forms of folklore that forms around it is interesting to see the measures people formulate as folklore to make sure they protect it.

Red ribbons for solar eclipses

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 54
Occupation: Watchrepairer
Residence: California, USA
Performance Date: 4/30/13
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

I remember my mother used to tell me that pregnant women should wear a red ribbon around the pregnant belly so that the solar eclipse would not affect the baby fetus inside of them. Because they said when they had eclipses it would make the baby have malformations when born and such things so it was bad, and they wanted to protect the baby.

It was interesting reading about this one and many more traditions that surround the birth of newborns or even the fetus, I noticed these were particularly more popular in Latin American countries.  Since the conception of a baby was considered very important and was very looked forward many superstitions started about ways to protect the baby and make sure they were born safe and sound. In this way it is interesting to see the way that they shaped the beliefs in order to make sure that things like solar eclipses or nature wouldn’t harm their babies.

Lashes for wishes

Nationality: Mexican/Guatemalan
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: California, USA
Performance Date: 4/27/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

I know one thing that I always did with my family was to make sure that when I had a lash on my face you had to guess on what side of your face it was and then if you guessed it right, the person would grab it and you had to blow it out of their fingers as you made a wish. Well then I guess this was just something that I like grew up with and my mom used to do it to me when my eyelashes would fall on my face, so  now I just do it to my little brother and it is just another fun way to make wishes I guess and kinda have that “wish upon a star” feeling you know?

This story was very closely linked to the story that I was told also about the making wishes upon dandelions and this idea that the media tries to inflict upon the more common folklore nowadays that fantasy world is real. With being able to have wishes at our disposal it makes our generation more prone to that “head in the clouds” feeling. Media creates a way for people to fantasize about their dreams and therefore keeps hope present in different people.