Author Archives: Jalen Cassell

Chinese New Year / Lunar New Year

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/13
Primary Language: English

Me: Can you tell me a bit about the Chinese New Year that you were talking about?

J: Yeah, well, every year my family celebrates the Chinese New Year…we also call it the Lunar New Year. Since I’m from California, I don’t know all of the details about it, but I do know that there are, uh….about…fifteen or so days of it. Oh! But what I do know is that, uh, it’s tradition for the elders in a family to give the children, er, red envelopes.

Me: Red envelopes? Is there some significance in that?

J: Well, the envelopes usually have money inside them. There can be different amounts of money, too. My father told me that usually it’s a married couple that gives the red envelopes to unmarried young people. I guess, it’s for good luck with life and marriage, or something like that.

Me: Interesting! So do you keep the red envelopes of do you throw them away afterwards?

J: We generally keep them under our pillow – at least that’s how I was taught to do it – and sleep on it for seven days after the New Year, then I open it. It’s supposed to symbolize, erm, good luck too.

Me: I’ve heard about hanging lanterns for Chinese New Year too. Does your family do that?

J: Um, back when my parents were in China, they did, but nowadays, we don’t really do much of that. They did tell me, that um, back then they would hang red paper lanterns and watch the lion dances, which is pretty cool, haha.

Me: Real lions?!

J: No, haha, there are people in costumes and they do dances that are supposed to ward off evil spirits and things like that.

 

I have always heard rumbling about the Chinese New Year, but it was nice to finally get some clarity about the kinds of activities that take place during the festivities. One particular thing that I noticed was the color red. Red has symbolically represented power and to include it in festivities that bring in a new year with all kinds of possibilities, it seems to me that it could represent, to the participants of the festival, a new year of strength and prosperity in all that they do. Though, just a theory, it’s very clear that the traditions of a culture aren’t geographically bound as my informant, who was born and bred here in America, still celebrates the New Year with his family.

Familial Traditions

Nationality: Indian
Age: 22
Occupation: Graduate Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/24/13
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“So, my family is pretty religious…I’m not, but my family is. So um, we have festivals, er uh, significant days on which we have Pujas – which are like…basically it’s a name for a prayer. So on days, like the death anniversary of some ancestor – not ancestor – but like grandfather or grandmother, we usually have Pujas, and we pray to the gods for their wellbeing. Um, on birthdays, again, we have Pujas for the birthday person. On…hmm…every time we get a new house, we always have a Puja, followed by a party. Uh, the Puja is just like to, uh, purify the house and things like that – bring good omens to the place. Festivities…hmm, Diwali again, is a huge festival in India. OH! Holi! Wow….Holi is like a…it’s like the biggest…Holi and Diwali are like the two biggest festivals. Holi is like um…there’s a story behind it, but I don’t remember it quite properly, but um…basically people play with color on that day, and they color each other. So this stuff you see out here, like the color run and stuff, uh, I didn’t have that much fun in it; ‘cause like, Holi’s a lot more fun. Because in India, people will fill up like water balloons with color in them and throw them at each other. And it’s really fun…so…and then they have these water pistols – yeah, you guys have those, where they like shoot water at you and basically you get a cold the next day. Um, another festival, we do as a family is…Ganesh. It’s basically the day when the lord, Ganesha, was born. I don’t remember the name of the festival…nevermind…well, they basically make a statue of the god and they basically walk into the ocean and they let the statue sink. It’s supposed to mean something – I don’t know. Um, and then they make these food items called Modaks. I guess you could say they’re like Indian dim sums, only they’re sweet. Yeah…that’s…that’s pretty much it. Then we have the Indian New Year. And my specific like, uh…not caste…my, specific regional New Year involves festivities. However the larger, overall Marathi New Year is called Gudi Padwa.”

From this particular collection piece, the immediate thing that I noticed was something that I find very prevalent in American youth as well – the lack of religious fever. More and more the youth are moving away from staunch religious practices and looking to expand their horizons and learn about the world in a more inclusive way. Also, it is very interesting that my informant had more fun participating in the body coloring festivities of his native culture than he did here at the university. It is my belief that the lack of enthusiasm was due to not having the cultural ties that were involved back home be included in the festivities here. A big thing that I noticed was the two separate New Years. At first I was a little taken aback when I was told about it, but after thinking it through, I released that their are several different “types” of Indians – each with their own identity and set of practices – so it made perfect sense in the end. And after hearing such good things about the Modaks not just one, but two informants, I really want to try some of them!

Diwali

Nationality: Indian
Age: 22
Occupation: Graduate Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/24/13
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“The biggest festival though, is Diwali. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Rama, one of our gods, but the festival is in honor of him. Basically when Lord Rama returns to his capital after a trek to rescue his beloved, he is greeted by everyone in the kingdom. They present diyas to him – well they technically aren’t candles. I’m not sure what you call them here in America, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s call them candles. So basically they greet them, by putting candles on their windows. So he came back at night, but um, just the fact that um, they put candles around his windows made everything bright. It was at that time that the festival started. It carried on as tradition to like, light candles and stuff, during the festival in honor of that god. And, a more modern tradition of that is to like, burst crackers – firecrackers. It’s not illegal in India to burst crackers, as opposed to here.”

Once again, the Indian god, Rama, comes up as my informant relays to me the source of one of the biggest Indian festivals, Diwali. It’s interesting to point out that even though he is not from America, he knows all too well that setting off random fireworks is illegal in the U.S. However in India, because the tie in is to one of the more popular gods, it is perfectly alright. A clear sign that religious overtones have a great impact on the laws that are passed. A cross-cultural element that I found to be personally fascinating is that with most festival activities there’s always a story that is connected and most often times stems the festivity. Which also goes to show that storytelling is as much a part of human nature as breathing.

Akbar and Birbal – Part Two

Nationality: Indian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/02/13
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“Here’s a shorter story, but this one is just a display of intelligence. Akbar and Birbal are just walking along in the forest, and then, um…Akbar bends down and he sees a stick. He puts it on the ground and tells Birbal, ‘Make this shorter, without touching it.’ Now a normal person would be confused; if you can’t touch it or break it, how are you going to make it shorter, right? So Birbal bends down and draws a line next to the stick. Only he draws the line longer than the stick is. Comparatively, the line that Birbal drew in the dirt was longer than the stick, so because of perspective, the stick was now shorter and Birbal had won. And once again, Birbal was rewarded for his efforts.”

This was another Akbar and Birbal story told to me by my informant, but it is one that was much shorter. Again, told to her by her father, this story again focuses on outsmarting another. This time Birbal uses a very simple means to do so. A potential moral that I drew from the story was that “One need not over think to come up with an effective solution, but rather, use simple means to derive the best method of victory.”

Caution: Fencing Ahead

J: So what kind of traditions do you do as a member of the fencing team?

W: When we’re facing our rivals, we basically always dress up in a specific way, but the coaches, about 10 years ago, I think, started this thing where when we’re away – or even when people come to our tournaments at home. Basically, we dress completely in black for that day and put caution tape on us. And, then, we, well, if we don’t have caution tape, we still wear all back, but it’s supposed to show, you know, “Warning, we’re dangerous, we’re gonna take you out.” That type of thing.

J: How’d it get started?

W: Um, it kinda got started, when the people who were in charge were like, “Hey, we should dress up and show the other team how intimidating we are!” So it’s not like, the coach per se, but more so the people who are in charge – the heads, or the captains. And they’re like, “Hey people, this is what we’re doing!” And it’s carried on through the years, even though, some of the captains have left.

 

To mix things up, I wanted to include some occupational folklore into the collection so I decided to ask my suite mate, who is from New Jersey, about one of the traditions of his fencing team back home. It’s very interesting that fencing would be found there, but I suppose the sport is becoming ubiquitous at this point. Also, it is fascinating to note that instead of the traditional garb, caution tape and black outfits are used as a ritual to form team unity and also intimidate the opposing team. I see this amalgamation of a traditional sport, mixed with ingenuity, that is also carried out year to year as an evolution of folklore that the world is going to see more of. People tend to think of folklore as traditions that were started years in the past, but as proven by this collection piece, new traditions can start everyday!