Author Archives: Quinlan Stewart

Even VS Odd Flowers

Text: The excerpt below is a performance describing the even vs odd flowers Romanian superstition.

Interviewer: Do you have any folk beliefs of what brings good or bad luck?

Interviewee: And, so like, I brought this up in class on Tuesday, but it’s the, uh, when you bring someone flowers, if it’s an even number, that’s bad luck, because you only bring even numbers to funerals, when you are mourning someone, in Romanian culture, so you’ll always bring odd flowers [when going to an event that is happy].

Interviewer: Do you know where you heard of these beliefs?

Interviewee: Yeah, they’re from my parents, it’s part of the culture, it’s like a very superstitious culture.

Context:

This excerpt is from a conversation during a discussion class of Forms of Folklore. The person interviewed is of Romanian heritage, and grew up in America. They always bring an even number of flowers to funerals, and an odd number to joyous events.

Analysis:

This belief likely is held because the believer likes to feel greater influence over events that they do not affect. The superstition also points to the multiple, competing symbolic meanings of flowers, how flowers are given joyfully to someone you love, but also, they are used to mourn for those who die. These competing use cases resulted in this belief forming, where which circumstance of flowers had to be made clear. It is also interesting how odd is considered lucky, while even is considered unlucky. This folkloric belief, in its focus on odd and even, is extremely similar to and possibly connected to the pulling petals folk activity, where depending on if the number of petals pulled is odd or even, someone does or does not love the ritual performer. Also, the fact that odd in particular is joyful, while even is somber, could have arose from the fact that giving one flower is common, and it would be strange from that to be classified as unlucky, so from there, all odds were made happy, and evens were made unlucky.

“Keep your door open slightly” Minor Genre

Text: Here’s a performance describing the folk proverb “Keep your door open slightly.”

Interviewer: Are there any family sayings that have been passed down or that you’ve heard?

Interviewee: Yeah, so my parents would always say growing up 门开紧, in Shanghainese that roughly translates into “Keep your door open only slightly” or “Only open your door just a little bit” and I think the closest equivalent to that in English is, like, “Keep a tight circle” or, like, “People don’t have to know everything about, like, your life.”

Context:

This excerpt is from a conversation with a college student studying Biology after a MMA (mixed-martial arts) practice. The student was raised in Walnut, California and has parents that are both Chinese immigrants. According to the interviewee, the proverb was used when his family was trying to communicate to him growing up that “you [should] keep to yourself and, um, like ‘Mind your own business’. It’s almost like you’ll stay on the straight path and people, like, can’t really like mess your life up.”

Analysis:

This proverb exemplifies family in-group and out-group wisdom. The folk speech effectively communicates that amongst people that are not within the family, you should not share too much personal information. This protects the family unit, and solidifies that unit in contrast to relationships with those outside of it. Also, when the interviewee tried to describe the saying, and express it in English, the interviewee used many folk expressions to try to relay the meaning, such as “stay on the straight path” and “mind your own business”. This explanation is interesting in that folk speech holds vernacular authority, so in order to translate the vernacular authority of a folk expression, the use of another folk expression is extremely useful. This pairing also illustrates how the same piece of wisdom is shared across American and Chinese cultures, even if they are worded differently.

Lucky 8 and Unlucky 4

Text: The performance captured below is an explanation of different lucky and unlucky numbers in Chinese folk belief.

Interviewer: Do you have any superstitions or things that bring luck?

Interviewee: Yeah, so for uh, again for Chinese people, we have lucky numbers and unlucky numbers. For some reason that I am not super sure about, the number eight is a lucky number. It, like, signifies good fortune, or whatever, and the number four is an unlucky number. I think the last time I hear it, it’s like because (sǐ 死) in Chinese kind of sounds like death, so that’s uh like why.

Context:

The interviewee is an Asian-American student at USC whose parents are first-generation immigrants from China. First, the student was asked if he held any superstitions, after a while of thinking, his response was as described above. When asked how he engages with this belief, the interviewee responded:

Interviewee: Unconsciously I always try to do things, like in eights probably. Like, if I think about it, throughout my life, like, I do feel like eight’s a lucky number.


Analysis:

These examples explain how language affects folk belief. The belief follows the pattern of homeopathic magic, as due to the fact that 4 phonetically sounds like the word for death in Mandarin, negative folk beliefs and superstitions are placed on top of that number. This example also exemplifies how different cultures vary in how they view specific numbers. The additional belief that 8 is a lucky number showcases conversion magic, as now that the evil number 4 is doubled, its unlucky connotation is inverted, and the new number 8 now carries good luck. The response from the interviewee also showcases how belief exists on a continuum. He does not actively advocate that 8 is actually lucky. However, this cultural superstition still subconsciously affects him, and informs how he acts day to day.

Conservation of Evil

Text: Below is a interview about a folk metaphor, conservation of evil.

Interviewer: Are there any sayings for groups you’re a part of?

Interviewee: Yeah, so, uh, in the physics community, when we find ourselves trying to solve a very difficult problem, and we make, let’s say, an approximation or, we apply some technique to make it easier, it turns out that that just doesn’t make the problem easier. It just shifts the difficulty to later, and, uh, we, that’s what we call the conservation of evil, and it kind of comes from, like uh, you know in physics there’s like a, conservation laws, conservation of energy, conservation of momentum, and stuff like that, and that’s just a fun play on how the problem is still as difficult as it was before, you just shifted it to somewhere else.

Context:

The interviewee is a college Senior who is studying physics. He was asked about any folk speech he knew from any academic folk groups he was in. He thought for a bit, then remembered the above folk speech. He uses the folk speech to describe to his classmates physics problems that are hard no matter what technique is applied to them.

Analysis:

The folk speech demonstrates the experience of solving a hard physics problem. While a student may use laws of physics to try to simplify the problem, there are many unlabeled aspects of questions that relate to the experience of working on a hard problem. Therefore, folk speech and jargon is necessary to explain the characteristics of the problem. This folk speech also exists as an example of moralizing physics problems. The physics problem is difficult to solve, therefore it is labeled evil. The expression also holds wisdom that is more generalizable to more areas than just physics problems. Some issues are difficult, no matter how they are repositioned.

Birthday Noodles

Text: Below is a performance from a student describing a Birthday tradition.

Interviewer: Are there any superstitions you know or follow for certain events?

Interviewee: Yeah, so uh, in my family especially, anytime there is, like, a birthday for someone, we eat noodles for their birthday, and, if it’s like my dad’s birthday, we and my family’s whole small family will eat noodles because noodles are, like, long, and that long shape of noodles signifies, like, longevity.

Context:

This excerpt came from a conversation with a 26-year-old grad student who grew up in Walnut, California, and whose parents are both Chinese immigrants. He partakes in this ritual when he or one of his family members celebrates their birthday.

Analysis:

This folk tradition of eating noodles reflects the very common role of food consumption in folk traditions, where a food is consumed for its characteristics. Other examples of this include eating coin-shaped objects for wealth in Lunar New Year, and eating fish for fertility. Here is showcased the sympathetic magical effect of food in folk tradition, as the person eating the food magically takes on the qualities of the food they consume.