Author Archives: Naomi Granado

Halloween Horrors

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/17/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Tamil

Informant Information:

Vivek Ramachandran is a student at the University of Southern California studying Computer Science and Business Administration. He is originally from Milton, WA and moved to Los Angeles, CA for college. He is from an Indian background and enjoys watching the Seahawks win.

Story:

“We always used to go trick or treating in my friend’s neighborhood and there was always this one house that was never decorated and never lit up except for this one room that had this little blue light. We always thought that there was someone in the house and we thought we could see someone moving. One time, my friends actually decided that we were going up the said house and he went up to the door but before he could knock we just saw him running away. He swore that somebody grabbed him, and that was that.”

Q: Was this house well known for being haunted?

“It was just like a normal looking house that was just not decorated. To us it was haunted but to everyone else it wasn’t really considered haunted”

Q: Did your friend ever tell you what he thought was grabbing him?

“Nope, he just said someone grabbed him and he ran away.”

Q: What are your thoughts on it?

“I think it was just somebody that didn’t want to be bothered on Halloween. I think my friend was probably pulling a prank on us, but whoever lives there really needs to fix the lighting because I can imagine that single blue light is annoying for everyone involved.”

Analysis:

From listening to the informant’s story, I can tell that the fact that this incident not only took place on Halloween, but also when he was a child, made this “haunted house” more difficult to believe. Because Halloween is associated with darkness, a child’s senses can be heightened which can make normal looking places seem infinitely more terrifying. In this case, when the informant looked back on the experience, he thought that the whole scenario was a prank made up by his friend. This notion, along with the fact that the house wasn’t recognized as “haunted” by other people in his area, makes this incident seem like a one time thing.

Kolu Tradition

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/16/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Tamil

Informant Information:

Vivek Ramachandran is a student at the University of Southern California studying Computer Science and Business Administration. He is originally from Milton, WA and moved to Los Angeles, CA for college. He is from an Indian background and enjoys watching the Seahawks win.

Tradition:

“So my family celebrates this Indian festival called “Kolu” yeah and it’s basically a festival where you… basically it entails displaying trinkets and dolls and figures of various Indian gods and then you have a bunch of people over at your house. It’s generally a good time because you get to see a lot of people. And then like my family liked to make it a potluck style so you’d always have a lot of good Indian food. I was a popular child so I always got to have my friends over and that would result in a lot of Smash tournaments or Pokemon tournaments or in one very specific case Star Wars the Force Unleashed tournaments.”

Q: What is “Kolu” for exactly?

“I’m not exactly sure which Holy day it falls on because it is a celebration of a Holy day and there are many of them. I think it’s to like welcome a god or celebrate the beginning of some season but I really couldn’t tell you.

Q: Is your celebration of “Kolu” similar to other people?

“Yes, so there’s actually… not like a correct way, but it generally does involve displaying dolls/figurines and most other families do that as well so I’d say we have a very standard celebration. I think that the biggest difference was that, at least for me, I had an excuse to have a ‘kid party’. So I found that pretty fun.”

Analysis:

Though the informant didn’t seem to know much about Kolu and only participated with his family, I was able to find some more information about Kolu from other sources. Kolu, otherwise known as Bommai Kolu/ Bomma Golu/ Bombe Habba, is a festival that praises the goddesses Saraswati, Parvati and Lakshmi. It takes place during the Dasara festival which is a festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil. The way the informant’s family celebrates is somewhat similar to other Indian families in that it involves food, but it is less “religious/ritualistic” than other celebrations.

Haunted Dead End

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/16/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant Information:

Ace Spade is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from New York and moved to California for college.

Story:

“When I was little I lived in a dead end. At the end of the dead end there was an abandoned house and all of the neighborhood children used to think it was a haunted house. We later found out it was a gang/drug house but it was still very spooky”

Q: What made the house seem scary or haunted?

“Have you ever seen Monster House? It looked like that but with trash all over the area and with gated fences. People said that they would see figures enter and exit the house”

Q: What was your personal experience with the house?

“We used to use it to cross the dead end so we would walk by it and everything was boarded up. I didn’t see any figures and crap but it still spooked me.”

Analysis:

It seems as though the primary reason for the “spookiness” of the house was the atmosphere. As the informant mentioned, the house was extremely unkempt and had been long abandoned for some time. Because the background of the house involved gangs, and some of the children saw dark figures in the house, it can be assumed that there might have been deaths in that house. If this is true, then the figures might have been the deceased people, or they could have just been figments of the children’s imaginations.

Schoolyard Game

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/14/17
Primary Language: English

Informant Information:

Alex, 19,  is a student at the University of Southern California studying Interactive Media and Game Design. He lived in Cincinnati, OH  for most of his life until moving to Los Angeles, CA for college. He comes from a Persian(Iranian) background.

Game:

“There’s this game  where everyone sits in a circle and their arms are stretched out so their hands are on top of each other. Then they sing a song and slap the other people’s hands to a beat/word. The song goes like ‘King.. Kong.. jungle.. man.. swinging.. from.. a.. rubber.. band.. slipped.. and.. fell.. and.. cut.. his.. hand.. the.. color.. of.. his.. blood.. was…’ whoever was the last person slapped says a color and they slap their hands for every letter of the color so it’s like B..L..U..E.. and whoever was hit on E leaves the circle, and the game continues until there’s only one person left.”

Q: What happens when there’s only one person left? Do they get anything?

“No they don’t get anything. They get the satisfaction of winning or a high-five. It’s a school yard game.”

Q: How old were you when you played this game?

“Middle school.”

Q: Did you know of any other similar games? Is this version common?

“No I don’t think I heard this exact song outside of my school, but I know that other people played the same game with a different song.”

Analysis:

This playground game seems to derive from another similar game called “Down by the Banks of the Hanky-Panky”. In the original game, the informant’s colors weren’t present. It was only the song, and whoever was slapped to the last beat of the song was considered “out” of the game and had to leave the circle. I couldn’t find the origin of the the original game, but I know that this game is very widespread, with many different versions appearing across the country.

 

For more information about the original game, see this reference: Emily, By: Sing Books with. “Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky, a funny little circle game or counting song (a Girl Scout Songbook song, too).” Sing Books with Emily, the Blog. N.p., 16 June 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2017.

Grandmother’s Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/14/17
Primary Language: English

Informant Information:

Alex, 19,  is a student at the University of Southern California studying Interactive Media and Game Design. He lived in Cincinnati, OH  for most of his life until moving to Los Angeles, CA for college. He comes from a Persian(Iranian) background.

Story:

“There are so many  things we do but if I’m just thinking of one in particular then… Okay I got it. We have this circle of fabric with Farsi written all over it. Before we make any big decisions or go on any trips, my grandmother makes us kiss the Koran and step through the fabric three times. She also speaks in Farsi while it’s happening.”

Q: Did your grandmother ever tell you what it meant?

“No… No I don’t think so. But I like to think it means that I have God’s grace and protection so I’ll be safe wherever I go.”

Analysis:

It was difficult to find references of the exact tradition the informant provided (there were no references of the fabric, and I checked both Persian/Islamic sources but couldn’t find anything) but I was able to find several sources that spoke of “kissing the Koran”. The sources said that kissing the Koran is not mentioned in the actual Koran itself, or in the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. They encouraged believers to abstain from doing so because of that fact. Because of this, I came to the conclusion that this tradition is more of a “good luck” charm specific to his family, as the informant mentioned that he only did this before any trips/major decisions.