Author Archives: Mylie Rodrigo

Dragon Boat Festival

“Every year, in China or whoever celebrates [the Dragon Boat Festival], people ride on boats and eat Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).” 

The Dragon Boat festival is celebrated mainly by people from China on the fifth day of the Lunar month. The holiday was created to celebrates a former prime minister of China, Qinyuan because he had committed suicide by jumping into the river. After his death, the people of China decided to dump a lot of zongzi into the river so the fish would eat the dumplings and not his body. My friend had mentioned that he did not really participate in this holiday other than eating the food, but he knows about it though his schooling in Taiwan. 

When I asked my Taiwanese friend about any rituals or traditions that he celebrated, I had expected one that I would have at least heard of such as the Lunar New Year festival or Mid-Autumn festival. I was intrigued when this was the first one that he thought to tell me. Although I know he didn’t put too much thought into, the decision to share this event with me made me realize how much of his culture I really don’t know, despite having knowing him and both of our closest Chinese friends for years. I also thought it was interesting that he had limited knowledge about this festival. He had never really participated other than knowing what the event is for and eating the zongzi. It made me wonder about how other people celebrate the event, and the variation in how people celebrate events are in general. 

Korean-American Lunar New Year

“Oh, I say [happy new year to my grandmother in Korean] and bow before her on Lunar New Year. Then my mom makes all of the traditional ‘New Year Korean food’ and we eat well.” 

Lunar New Year looks different across the many countries that celebrate. It’s also quite different for those who celebrate in America. My boyfriend had told me how him and his Korean-American family celebrate the Korean Lunar New Year. He told me that he doesn’t know a lot of the tradition other than eating a lot of the traditional Korean food and bowing before his elders. He also mentioned that it’s a lot more popular among people and online now. He said that when he was younger, he feels like no one knew what a Korean person was much less knew about their culture. Nowadays, everyone knows a lot more about the culture and especially about Lunar New Year; almost more than he knows himself. 

As someone who is actively learning Korean, I think it is interesting to see my knowledge compared to my Korean-American boyfriend’s knowledge. A lot of times, I come back to him mentioning some things and he would either be clueless or ask me to elaborate so he can also learn. The first instance this happened was when I first told him that I learned about the Korean Lunar Year in class. We had learned how to say happy new year, ate a lot of the snacks that they eat at that time, and also looked at a presentation on what Korean people usually do in the day and what food they eat. My boyfriend had known some of the food and snacks that I mentioned, but I remember him saying that his mom wouldn’t normally make that food for this family when this event happened. After learning about how this event was celebrated this specific way in my class, I was curious about how all Korean-Americans celebrate, especially with being in LA, one of the biggest Korean-American cities in America. It makes me think about the traditions developed in the states and how similar these Korean-American traditions are to the Korean ones. 

40 Days After Death

“We do it because [the soul of someone has passed away recently] wanders around for 40 days before they settle on where they want to go. That’s why we pray to help them find their way to Heaven to because they don’t know where they are.” 

As a Filipino-Catholic, my family has many rituals that we perform at different life events. One of the most recent ones that my family has performed is the “40 days after death” prayer ritual we perform after a family member has passed away. For the first 9 days after the person has passed, my family comes together to pray the rosary together and recite the Novena for the Dead. After that, it’s usually the older relatives and those closest to the recently deceased who continue to pray the rosary daily, leading up to the final day when everyone comes together again to repeat the ritual one last time. 

The contents of this ritual are very heavy and the environment is usually quite solemn when this happens. However, when talking to my mom about it, she then started talking about how my whole family only comes together for weddings and funerals. These types of life events provide enough of a reason for people to reshuffle their busy schedules to come out and partake in the event. She then proceeded to talk about the fun memories with cousins that she doesn’t really hang out with and the dinners that occur after the prayer is done. It made me think about my own memories with this prayer, and how I also have had fond memories with my cousins and relatives that I didn’t meet until that time. Ironically, thinking back to these heavily sad periods of time where my family had lost someone, my mom and I first remember the memories of our family coming together for this person and to take part in this ritual. This 40 day of death ritual is ironically something that brings me a bit of happiness and community in a dark time, and I love my family for keeping that tradition alive for I believe that this familial togetherness is something that we value strongly. 

La Cariñosa

“We do this dance to celebrate our Filipino culture and to show our heritage to others.”

La Cariñosa is a dance from the Maria Clara suite (Philippine dances that originated from Spanish culture). The name of the dance is loosely translated to “loving” or “affectionate.” This partner dance utilizes fans and handkerchiefs and is meant to simulate a courtship or romance between a couple. The person I had interviewed is the one that coordinated the dance for USC’s 2025 Pilipino American Cultural Night (PACN). She had emphasized that it is important to learn about the origins of the dance, so we can have intention behind our movements.

I appreciate this person I interviewed because she believes that it is very important to know the history of the dance before we perform it. By understanding the origin, us performers are able to connect more deeply with the dance and tell the story through our intention and movement. The person I interviewed helped me realize that these dances aren’t just a way to entertain our audience and share our culture but also a way to educate ourselves as the performers and preserve our heritage.

Kapre

Text: One night in my family’s “barrio” in Ilocos Norte, there was a small boy sitting on the fence outside their family’s house. One of my relatives (which I will refer to as the “old man” for the rest of the story) found the boy after dark at around 8 pm. He said, “It’s late. You should go home and sleep now.” However, the boy “didn’t like the way the old man tapped the head.” The boy got up and suddenly he was a giant and towered over the old man. Then the old man got scared and tried to run but at the same time, the giant tried to touch him. The old man was so close to the giant that he was able to see the buttons on his shirt, but apparently the buttons on his shirt were as big as a platter. The old man was able to run away inside the house, but the giant ran after him and went on top of the house. Then the giant’s legs went under the house and tried to look for the old man with his feet. The giant had thought that he went under the house. Apparently, all the aunts and uncles knew there was someone on top of the house and thought it was like an earthquake so they prayed, and then the giant “flew away.” After asking more about his appearance, my grandma said he was very evil, extremely tall and scary. His eyes were very angry.

Context: My grandma informed me that this memorate belonged to the brother of her great grandfather around the year 1900, but it was told to her by her mother. Throughout the story, she did not know the name of the relative and referred to him as the “old man”, but she was still the story is true despite her not remembering details such as the relatives name and the fact that her mother wasn’t born yet. 

Analysis: I had asked my grandmother to tell me a story of the Kapre, mythical giants that live in the trees in the Philippines. She had told me about them when I was younger, but I could not recount any specific stories. This was my first time hearing this one, and I thought it was interesting of how she kept reminding me that her mother told this to her even though it was way before her mother was born. Not only has this story been passed down by two generations that did not witness the event, the belief that it happened is quite strong for an unexplainable reason. I had thought that details such as the kapre’s eyes and the buttons on his shirt were really specific and made me think that my grandma had listened to this story very closely because of fear. These kinds of tales that rely on someone’s fear make me wonder if something serious did happen whether it was something like war or an actual earthquake, but something supernatural such as the kapre was the only way to make sense of it. I think that the fear carried with this story is something that is very real, but the story had transformed into a myth more than an event that had happened.