Informant: My friend’s family is from southern India, and every few years they go back in the summer for family weddings. This past summer she went to three, and recounted some of the traditions for me.
Original Piece: “Something called Marichol, where… it’s gonna sound really weird, when I explain the reason behind it. So, it’s where, if the guy is getting married… or let’s say it was my female cousin that’s getting married, me and other cousins would block the groom from entering the ceremony unless he gave them money. It’s because you are… like shaming them, or getting mad at them for not marrying you. Like, since you’re not marrying me I need other compensation. Then guys block the entrance for the groom too, but because they can’t marry the bride. And they’re prepared for it, the groom comes with bills in his pocket.
When people are entering, there’s a table at the front. There’s these bida on the table, and people take a little bit of it to eat, and someone’s standing there and there’s this canister thing that you sprinkle on people before they go.”
Context of Piece: My friend was showing me pictures from this summer, and I asked her to tell me a bit more about their weddings customs.
Thoughts about the Piece: I like this one the best, as my friend spoke from personal experience, having blocked the entrance for the groom several times before.
Author Archives: Sally Bailey
Tamil Wedding Food
Informant: My friend’s family is from southern India, and every few years they go back in the summer for family weddings. This past summer she went to three, and recounted some of the traditions for me.
Original Piece: “Wedding food is a tradition, because we always have the same thing. You have your vegetarian floor, and your non-vegetarian floor. and rows of tables, and rows and rows of banana leaves. And you sit, and men come around with these huge silver—what are they called… like a canister. Like a really big canister and a ladle of food. and they put it on your plate unless you say you don’t want it. Like you have biryani…Tandoori chicken…and some other vegetable dishes.
But not everyone can eat at the same time because there’s too many people.
There’s another part of the wedding where the bride and groom stand at the end of the stage and people come and talk to them individually. So you’re either waiting for food or waiting to talk to the bride and groom. And people go up and talk to the bride and the groom, and give their gift, and take a picture. And so the bride and grooms can talk to everyone at the wedding, and thank them.”
Context of Piece: My friend was showing me pictures from this summer, and I asked her to tell me a bit more about their weddings customs.
Thoughts about the Piece: This piece was interesting, as it brought some order and sense to an otherwise crowded proceeding.
Legend of Maui
Informant: My friend was born and raised in Hawaii. He grew up in a culture rich in stories, myths, and legends, a few of which he shared with me.
Original Piece: “Long long time ago, there’s this braddah named Māui, and he really loves his culture, and he wanted to be a fisherman when he grow up, but the best way to fish was to make their own hooks. And the best ones, the number one ones, was made from the ancestors…so his grandmother, on his mother’s side, he made one from her jaw…but the thing was, Māui was a terrible fisherman, but he wanted to be a good fisherman, so he went with his braddahs, he snuck on their canoe, and they went out to sea and they found him, they threw him off the boat, and he had to go and swim back to shore with his hook and his fishing line, and he went fishing on shore by himself. But he caught one mono—one shark—braddahs came back, they were so impressed that they took him fishing the next day. He took out his hook… he was the last one on the boat. He was facing the other way, Māui threw his line out, with the magical hook from his grandmother’s jaw, and he caught something, something big. Māui told his braddahs, ‘don’t look back, keep paddling, I’m gonna fish this up.’ And they were paddling hard, paddling hard, for like half an hour. Then one of the braddahs looked back, and Māui saw him and said, ‘NO!’ and then he hooked up an island. And that’s the island of Māui.”
Context of Performance: We were having lunch when I asked him if he remembered any folktales from home.
Thoughts about the Piece: This one was a lot of fun, because while telling it the performer threw some Pidgin into the dialogue.
For more information on the legend of Māui, see “Legends of Maui.” Maui Kayak Adventures. N.p., 19 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.
Balsamo Rice
Informant: My mother found culinary recipes that have been passed on through generations, and become a part of our family folklore.
Original Script: Charlie Balsamo is a dentist in Cape Girardeau, who was Granddaddy’s best friend. He was Granddaddy’s partner-in-crime when they would go to local university to pick up girls… that’s how Granddaddy got Grandmama and Dr. Balsamo was best man! We have a lot of recipes from the grand Balsamo family; Daddy said they were Northern Italians. We got this recipe from them, and it’s the only rice Grandmama would make growing up.
Context of Performance: My mother was sifting through old family recipes to send to me and my sister at college, so we wouldn’t forget our “southern heritage”.
Thoughts about the Piece: I liked this recipe because it is Italian, and although my family is not, we have adopted it as a tradition of our own.
Pele and Hi’iaka
Informant: My friend was born and raised in Hawaii. He grew up in a culture rich in stories, myths, and legends, a few of which he shared with me.
Original Piece: “So Pele is the goddess of fire and lava, and Hi’iaka is the goddess of the sea. That’s the background.
So one day, Pele fell into one deep sleep, a sleep so deep her spirit jumped out of her body and started wandering around the island. And her spirit kept wandering and wandering, until it heard the drums of a hula dance in Kauai. And the spirit goes to Kauai and sees the hula, and her spirit takes over one of the female dancers. And she in love with the chief of Kauai, Lohiau. And they fall deeply in love, but Pele has to leave because she has to go back into her body. So after three days she goes back to her body, and she wake up, but she’s too weak to move. So she tells her sister Hi’iaka to voyage to go to Kauai and bring back Lohiau. So then Pele gives her forty days to get Lohiau and come back so that, I don’t know, they can have a wonderful life together. SO Hi’iaka ventures out and… there’s a whole series of events that happen. But then they make it to Lohiau on the island of Kauai on the fortieth day. And they’re like, ‘oh no we better hurry’ because Pele has a bit of a rage problem. So then they find the village where Lohiau was, and they’re asking around for him, but then… then a villager tells them that Lohiau died because his lover left them. So his body’s there but his spirit is gone. So the spirit is just wandering around…and they can’t find the spirit. So Hi’iaka brings the body back to Pele. And Pele sees the body and gets super pissed, and doesn’t even let them explain themselves, and goes full rage and consumes them with fire. And Hi’iaka survives because she’s a god, but Lohiau body gets burned. And Hi’iaka is super mad because she burned the body, so Hi’iaka brings the body to a sacred mountain. So she does a bunch of chants for the body. And then Lohiau’s spirit is still wandering around, but it takes over a guy on Māui, and he climbs up the mountain and finds Hi’iaka with Lohiau’s body, and Hi’iaka and Lohiau fall in love. They fall in love… and they come back down the mountain. Pele finds out about them falling in love, gets super pissed. Hi’iaka and Pele battle it out in the east, and all the fire and water make the big island of Hawaii. Hi’iaka wins and Pele is sent to the pits of Kilauea, the active volcano of Hawaii, and lives there. And Hi’iaka goes back to Lohiau.”
Context of Performance: We were having lunch when I asked him if he remembered any folktales from home.
Thoughts about the Piece: I love this piece, it was beautifully performed and well told. I love how it plays into the modern landscape of Hawaii.