Author Archives: Sarah Aurelio

Vietnamese New Year Celebration “Tet” Traditions

Context:

My informant is a 56-year-old woman of Vietnamese descent. She was born and raised in Vietnam, and immigrated to the United States when she was young. She was raised Buddhist, surrounded by Vietnamese culture and traditions, passed down from the generations of her family.

Text:

In Vietnamese culture, lunar new year is celebrated with a celebration called Tết. This celebration is often multiple days long.

The first day of Tết starts on the day before the start of lunar new year on New Year’s Eve. You are supposed to cook food and offer it to the altar to bring home your ancestors for the New Year. Her mom also waits for midnight to come and offer food and pray to the ancestors. The family also visits temple to ring in the New Year at midnight. 

On the second day of Tết, New Year’s Day, the family would cook food to offer to the altar again to send off the ancestors. Prayers are also involved. They again visit a temple to pray for a good, healthy year. 

On the last day of Tết, they visit families and relatives, to offer good wishes and give red money envelopes to younger children and young adults. It is also encouraged to visit ancestors at their gravesites to wish them well.

The celebrations and activities might go on for longer, but the three days are considered Tết.

Analysis:

Tết combines many forms of folklore together such as ritual, superstition, and material folklore. There is the ritual of going to temple, to cooking, and visiting family on specific days every year. There are also the superstitions of what day to do each action in order to bring prosperity and good luck into their homes in the new year. Then the food and red envelopes are material folklore that they use to bring wealth and prosperity.

Bad Luck Funeral Superstitions

Context:

My informant is a 56-year-old woman of Vietnamese descent. She was raised Buddhist, but when she married her Filipino Catholic husband, she adopted some Filipino practices and stories.

Text:

“For funeral services, like after attending the service or the cemetery the family would go somewhere else before heading home, like the market or a coffee shop. That’s in the Philippines traditions, to leave the bad energy somewhere else. But in the Vietnamese tradition, we would place a bowl of water by the door and walk over it to divert the bad spirits or the bad luck from the home.”

Analysis:

In both of these cultures, I see this ritual as a way of cleansing the body before entering the sanctuary of their homes. In Filipino culture, it seems that they focus more on the places with significance. So leaving the bad energy, means literally leaving it in one location before returning home. In Vietnamese culture, they seem to connect with water, an element of life. Stepping over the bowl of water might represent that the connection to Mother Nature and Earth is enough to cleanse themselves from the presence of death they were just in.

Stabbing Chopsticks Gesture – Bad Luck Superstition

Context:

My informant is a 19-year-old student living in Orange County, California. She was raised in a Chinese household, celebrating holidays such as Chinese New Year. She often eats foods from her culture on the daily.

Text:

“I don’t know if this is a universal, or what cultures have this superstition, but like if their preferred utensil are chopsticks, they tend not to do a stabbing motion onto food. This is because it resembles stabbing an individual which is not good.

I ask, “Is it just chopsticks or any utensil, from what you’ve learned?”

“Well, from my experience–because if you use a fork you have to stab it to get food onto the prongs. But generally with chopsticks you want a serving motion. (She demonstrates carrying food with chopsticks) Oh, I was also always taught not to turn your wrist down when using chopsticks. (She demonstrates flipping her hand around with her fingers pointing down) I don’t know what that means, but that’s what my mom always says.”

I ask, “So if you stab the food is it bad luck or just disrespectful?”

“I think it’s both, but it’s just me.”

Analysis:

From what I learned from Chinese culture, they value respect even with their food ways and gestures. This superstition of stabbing food with chopsticks relates to the beliefs of bad luck around death in general. Even though this action only resembles that of stabbing someone which related to death, this action is still frowned upon. In there culture, it seems if you do this action, knowing the context around it, it is considered disrespectful to continue with the action. I think it can be seen as wishing bad luck upon those you are with.

Bad Luck Number 4 in Chinese

Context:

My informant is a 19-year-old student living in Orange County, California. She was raised in a Chinese household, celebrating holidays such as Chinese New Year.

Text:

“The number 4 in Chinese, even regardless if it’s like Mandarin, which is like sì, or if Cantonese, then it’s like sei. It has a very similar pronunciation to the word that means dead or die. So like in Cantonese it’s like sei (she says it with an down note at the end) is four and sei (she says it with an up note at the end) is like dead. So that’s why like people don’t like using the number 4. So like for Chinese New Year for example, we don’t like giving four bills in like a red envelope. Or you don’t do things in increments of 4 because it’s considered bad luck.”

Analysis:

Hearing about this folk belief/superstition after learning so much about Chinese culture, I have gathered that they do not like to associate with death in any way. Whether it is something that resembles death such as a simple pronunciation or interacting with death in any way. I think that the Chinese culture just wants to bring prosperity into their lives in any way possible, which means rejecting the bad luck from associations with death.

Childhood Song – Down by the Banks

Context:

This informant is a 19-year-old student from Orange County. She learned this song from her classmates in early elementary school. She doesn’t specifically remember from who, but everyone in school knew this song.

Text:

“So this is like a childhood song that my friends and I, like, we would play on the playground. So if we’re bored, we would all like, sit down on the floor, get in the circle. There’s usually at least–like you need at least like three people, but’s usually more. You sit down and then you all hold hands with each other.

So like, your right hand goes on top of the person’s to your right to left hand. And then your left hand goes under the person on your left right hand. And you’re all in a circle with your hands up like that. And then there’s this song It’s called like Down by the Banks.

I mean there’s like different lyrics, but like the one I learned was like, Down by the banks by the Hanky, Panky, where the bullfrogs jumped from bank to bank, in the east frog, soda pop, hey mister something won’t you stop? I don’t really remember the lyrics to the last part.

“But like, on the beat, there’s one person that starts, and then you take your right hand and you, like, clap the other person’s hand. So you take your right hand and you clap, like, the person on your left, their right hand that’s on top of your left hand, on the beat, and you just keep going around.

And once the song ends, whoever it lands on, they’re eliminated, and they like, get out of the circle, and then you keep doing that until there’s only two people left. And then once there’s only two people, you hold you hold each other’s right hand in like a handshake, and then you just like, pull each other’s hand on the beat again, and you keep doing that until it lands on one person and then that’s, who wins the game.”

Analysis:

From what I have heard from other people, there are many variations to the lyrics of this children’s game song. Depending on the region someone is from, it seems they know different lyrics. In this case, my informant is from Southern California so she knows the song as “Down by the Banks.” This seems like a simple clap-to-the-beat game that every child learns. The game just gets passed down from class to class, as kids are bored during recess and play.