Author Archives: Katherine Wiles

Pibitin

Nationality: American/Filipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 2/25/17
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 19 year old student studying neuroscience at USC.

“Okay, this is a game that my family plays on Christmas, and it’s this Filipino game called “Pibitin.” Um, basically, it’s kind of like pinata, but you have this – it’s kind of like a grid made out of wood, um, and hanging off of the grid, you hang like little gifts and prizes and whatnot. And then, um, you hang it like a pinata, but you can lift and lower it. And so the idea is like, you go and you run and you have to jump and grab the gift. And then like the person that’s controlling it, can like, pull it up when you’re jumping so it makes it like harder to get it. Um but yeah, I don’t know, I guess we play that on, um, Christmas Eve with my family – like my grandparents and everything, which is funny, because like, we have to lower it a lot for them ‘cause they can’t really jump, like more than an inch off the ground. Um, but, yeah so I don’t know, it’s just not really like, gifts gifts, it’s kind of like … random, you know… uh, I don’t even know. My grandma will put random stuff that she buys at like the dollar section of Target, like pencils or like staplers.  I don’t – it’s always like school stuff. I don’t know why. Um, or a gift card, like a five dollar gift card to like Starbucks, or socks. Grandma is like really into putting socks in every gift.”  

Analysis:

My informant uses this tradition to stay connected to her family and her Filipino roots. It is a fun tradition that they perform every year. My informant does not know the exact reason why they do it or where it comes from, but for her it is an essential part of their Christmas tradition.

One Dollar in a Bag

Nationality: American/Filipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 3/2/17
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 19 year old student studying neuroscience at USC.

“One short family tradition that my family has – which I don’t know if it’s like a Filipino thing or like a world-wide thing – but, basically any time that you give someone a gift that is a bag, or uh like a purse or wallet or something like that, you always, we always put a one dollar bill in it for good luck. Um, yeah I don’t know why, but that’s just what we do, so anytime I give a gift that’s a bag, I always put a one dollar bill or one dollar coin in it.”

Analysis:

This is a common tradition for people world-wide. It can be seen as rude to gift a purse or wallet that is empty. This can be interpreted as the giving the gift receiver bad luck if it is an empty wallet or purse, cursing them to have no money.

Cóiste Bodhar

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County
Performance Date: 4/15/17
Primary Language: English
Language: German

My informant is a 23 year old student who is heavily interested in mythology and myths of other cultures.

 

“Okay so there’s one little tidbit that I know. So in Ireland, kind of related to the banshees, is the death coach. The Irish is like um, “Cóiste Bodhar.” But it’s kind of, it’s driven by a headless horseman and once it comes, like once it leaves the heavens or comes to earth or whatever, it’s not allowed to return empty. So it has to uh… someone has to get in the death coach. It’s like, it’s a symbol for the inevitability of death – like banshees. That’s why I say they’re related. They’re both symbols of imminent death. So that’s the death coach – Cóiste Bodhar.”

In his own words, the informant explains why this mythology is important to him: “My knowledge of Irish folklore is important because although I’m not mainly ethnically Irish, I am partly. Ireland also has one of the most unique european mythologies due to their relative isolation.”

He learned this myth through research of his own volition.

Analysis:

My informant uses this mythology to connect himself to the culture he partly grew up in. His grandmother is completely Irish and tried to impart certain traditions and my informant and his relatives. He uses this folklore to further connect back to his ethnicity and he is heavily intrigued by mythologies of all kinds.

 

Selkies

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County
Performance Date: 4/12/17
Primary Language: English
Language: German

My informant is a 23 year old student who is heavily interested in mythology and myths of other cultures.

“So there are these creatures called “Selkies” and selkies are a mythological creature, so you know like unicorns and griffins and stuff. Anyways, a selkie is essentially an Irish mermaid, except that they are not like fish. Like in water they turn into seals. And then they can come up onto land and appear as beautiful women. And I’m not sure if I, I think I might be mixing up this with classical mermaids where they kind of invite people to their death. I don’t think that’s right. I think a selkie is, they kind of, um, they lure sailors in and then they kind of, they drag the sailor underwater but they live with the sailor and give them eternal happiness, instead of the more morbid mermaid-type thing where they eat sailors. So yeah, selkies are like a, a benevolent, beautiful seal-mermaid instead of the evil version of mermaids that are more like sirens, you know in Greek mythology.”

 

In his own words, the informant explains why this mythology is important to him: “My knowledge of Irish folklore is important because although I’m not mainly ethnically Irish, I am partly. Ireland also has one of the most unique european mythologies due to their relative isolation.”

He learned this myth through research of his own volition.

Analysis:

My informant uses this mythology to connect himself to the culture he partly grew up in. His grandmother is completely Irish and tried to impart certain traditions and my informant and his relatives. He uses this folklore to further connect back to his ethnicity and he is heavily intrigued by mythologies of all kinds.

 

 

The Banshees

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County
Performance Date: 4/10/17
Primary Language: English
Language: German

My informant is a 23 year old student who is heavily interested in mythology and myths of other cultures.

“So another tidbit of Irish folklore, uh, one of their big spirit-type things, is, you’ve probably heard of this before, the Banshee, right. Um and, so banshees aren’t malevolent spirits really. Um, they’re considered bad luck though because you hear their screams, like the banshee screams, because it’s a herald for death. So if death is on its way, then you start hearing the banshee scream and that’s why they’re… kind of have that ill-omen attached to them. But they themselves, the banshees, they’re not malevolent. They’re usually, like um, incestual… kind of things. So like, um, there are stories where they help out. There’s also stories where they do like, uh, they do harm. But they’re not like you know, quid pro quo malevolent. It’s just, it depends on the banshee I guess. So yeah, they’re heralds of death ‘cause that’s when they do the famous banshee scream. Banshees are one of the big things in Irish mythology that’s carried over to modern um, video games and pop culture and everything. If you haven’t heard of a banshee before outside of  like an Irish movie, it’d be kind of surprising because it’s so iconic. Like um, they’re a big thing in World of Warcraft, for instance, and other, um, other fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons has banshees also and so on and so forth.”

In his own words, the informant explains why this mythology is important to him: “My knowledge of Irish folklore is important because although I’m not mainly ethnically Irish, I am partly. Ireland also has one of the most unique european mythologies due to their relative isolation.”

He learned this myth through research of his own volition.

Analysis:

My informant uses this mythology to connect himself to the culture he partly grew up in. His grandmother is completely Irish and tried to impart certain traditions and my informant and his relatives. He uses this folklore to further connect back to his ethnicity and he is heavily intrigued by mythologies of all kinds.

 

For more information on this myth, click here.