Category Archives: Homeopathic

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.

Travelling Tradition of Eating Noodles and Dumplings

Text:

“Whenever you’re going after travel, even if it’s just one day or something, you have to eat dumplings before you go. And when you come back, you eat noodles. Like for the first meal. The meal right before you leave has to be dumplings, and the meal right after you come back has to be noodles. We have a saying that goes “When you get in the car, you eat dumplings. When you get off it, you eat noodles.” It might be a Beijing tradition, but my grandmom is from Shandong, and they still follows this tradition. The dumplings look like small pieces of gold. You have to eat an even number of dumplings. Even numbers are considered luckier than odd numbers. When you come back, you eat noodles, which symbolize that you are attached to your home, because the noodles look like ropes. They held you to your home. Noodles are also not tangled, which simplifies a smooth future and a smooth return home.”

Context:

The informant describes a travel-related food tradition practiced in her family. This tradition is possibly rooted in northern Chinese regions like Beijing and Shandong. Before leaving for a trip, even a short one, the family must eat dumplings, and upon returning, the first meal must be noodles. She learned this practice from her grandmother, who continues to follow it, showing how the tradition is passed down across generations. The informant also explains specific rules, such as eating an even number of dumplings because even numbers are considered lucky. This ritual remains important even when travelling becomes routine. For the informant, it functions as a meaningful way to frame movement away from and back to home.

Analysis:

This tradition shows that everyday practices create a symbolic order. The pairing of dumplings and noodles structures the uncertainty of travel into a predictable and meaningful sequence. Dumplings, shaped like gold, symbolize wealth and a good beginning, while noodles represent connection and continuity, emphasizing a safe return home. The rule of eating even numbers further reflects how ideas of luck and order are embedded in routine actions. These practices turn travel, a potentially uncertain experience, into something culturally organized and emotionally reassuring. Thus, this tradition reinforces values of safety, prosperity, and attachment to home.

Chinese New Year Tradition of Making “Dern”

Text:

“On the 15th of the Chinese New Year, my grandma would make something called “dern.” “Dern” is like a bun shaped in the form of our Chinese Zodiac. She would make the “dern” for all family members. She would make seven of them, and they are all in our corresponding Chinese zodiac. So, if I’m born in the zodiac of the chicken, then she would make a chicken. This is practiced on the last day of the Chinese New Year. All of our animal characters would be on the same big bun; there are usually three big buns in total. She would also make two fish on one of the big buns, corresponding to the proverb “May you have abundance/surplus year after year.” After I got a boyfriend, my grandmother started making his “dern” as well. It is referred to as “dern” in the Shandong dialect. To be honest, sometimes it is hard for me to recognize which animal is which after she made them. Another thing is that we have to eat it. We have to bring this gigantic bun back to our own house and place it on our table for a day, and then you eat it. I’m not sure why we put it on the table for a day, but if you eat your zodiac, that just means that you are safe and good, and you have to eat the parts with the pieces of gold as well, which means that you can earn a lot of money in the upcoming year.”

Context:

This text was collected from a Chinese international student from Beijing, China. She learned this tradition through direct participation in her grandmother’s annual practice and shared it with me in a casual conversation as she spoke from personal memory. Her grandmother was from Shandong province, and dern is also a word describing decorated buns in the Shandong dialect. The tradition takes place on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year (the Lantern Festival), which marks the final day of the celebration period. The grandmother serves as the sole maker of the buns, crafting zodiac-shaped figures for every family member. A significant detail is that after the informant began dating her boyfriend, the grandmother started making a bun for him as well, suggesting the practice functions as an informal way of welcoming new members into the family. She interprets eating one’s zodiac as ensuring personal safety and prosperity in the coming year.

Analysis:

This piece exemplifies material culture, more specifically when it functions as a family lore, which shows how a broader regional tradition becomes personalized at the household level. This reminds me of Carl von Sydow’s concept of oicotypes: in this case, the family’s specific variation — seven individual buns, three large bases, fish for prosperity, a one-day display — represents a local adaptation of a wider Shandong practice. The variation is shaped by this family’s particular values and composition. Moreover, the ritual also aligns with Frazer’s theory of homeopathic magic: eating one’s zodiac animal and the golden pieces embedded in the bun not only symbolize safety and wealth, it also enact them. Corresponding folk beliefs like those exemplified through the shape of the “dern” collapse the boundary between representation and outcome. The grandmother’s decision to include the boyfriend’s bun is especially interesting, as it functions as a vernacular act of admitting family membership, which comes before any official social recognition of the relationship.





Don’t Split The Pole!

Interviewer: “Please tell me more about your saying, with not splitting the pole.”

AK: “It is NOT just a saying. It’s serious. And to get it right, it’s ‘don’t split the pole.’ It determines whether you stay friends forever or not.”

Interviewer: “And how long have you known this for?”

AK: “Ever since I moved to America in 2022, my first friend told me. I’m super superstitious, so if I hear something, I’m not risking it.

Interviewer: “Ok, so please, share what this is.”

AK: “If any friend is walking with another friend…or a group of friends and you stumble on a pole..whethers thats a door with two different sides, a tall sign, or a short fire hydrant, anything that puts a fork in the path. If one person goes the opposite direction of the first person, that can sever the bond of friendship. It would mean that in the future, you could stop being friends down the line. So no matter what, I will pull someone with me if I have to; that pole will not be split.”

Interviewer: “I have seen you do that. Is there any way to reverse the split? To keep the friendship going, or could one accidental splitting of the pole forever break a friendship?”

AK: “It can be reversed for sure. Pretty easy, you just need to go back and go around the pole the proper way. A little inconvenient, I guess, but you gotta do what you gotta do to save the friendship.”

Context: My friend would always yell at me and the friend group if we ever split the pole while walking together. Always making us go back around or pulling us if we almost crossed the wrong side and almost crossed the threshold to killing the friendship with it. I have heard other people say it casually as a joke, but she takes it super seriously.

Analysis: This is a superstition about keeping friendships alive. This shows how easily superstitions can accumulate and be present in everyday life, as this superstition can occur more frequently than the off chance someone walks under a ladder or spills salt. It also shows how these kinds of beliefs can spread socially. People start to believe it themselves because their close friend believes it so strongly, and you also want to keep the friendship alive.

University of South Carolina Game Day Tradition: Burning Tiger

Context:

The informant attends the University of South Carolina, which has an intense football rivalry with Clemson University. This ritual is performed a week before the rivalry game each year.

Text:

Before the rivalry game between Clemson and the University of South Carolina, the students in the engineering school build a large tiger out of natural materials. The informant recalls that most recently they built this tiger out of wood. The tiger represents the mascot of Clemson University. The tiger is burned a week before the game occurs on the practice football field in front of all the students.

Analysis:

This ritual is a ritualesque performance that represents a sense of rivalry and shared group identities through the collective action of building and burning the tiger. This act connects to Jack Santino’s idea in “The Carnivalesque and the Ritualesque” that some events intend to create real effects (i.e. USC winning the rivalry game). Additionally, the construction and burning of the tiger reflects a form of homepathic magic that Frazer describes, where destroying a representation of Clemson’s mascot attempts to show superiority over them. This ritual helps reinforce both in-group and out-group boundaries by showing how folklore can strengthen group identity, while simultaneously sowing divisions within larger regional communities.