Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Chinese New Year Festival Foods

Context: AT is a 22 year old student at USC. Her family is Taiwanese, and they celebrate Chinese New Year by cooking a variety of specific foods. AT listed these for me, along with the reasons behind why.

Text: “For one, we eat fish, because in Chinese, there’s a lot of words that sound the same and fish sounds the same as wealth. There’s a saying that every year you get more fish, you get more wealth. We also make this like fortune? cake? Or prosperity cake? It’s called fa gao, you can look it up. We make it because the word for fortune sounds like the word for rise, like bread rising. It’s really good! There’s also sweet rice cake, because it’s sticky, and the word for sticky sounds the same as the word for year. Oh, and of course, dumplings, because they look like the old fashioned coins or like ingots of gold they used to use. Let me think… oranges too, because one of the ways to say the fruit orange sounds like the way to say good luck”

Analysis: AT gave me a list of foods, all that are made and eaten due to a perceived relationship with something they sound or look like. The choice of food seems very sympathetic-magic based, specifically homeopathic magic based. Since the word for the item of food sounds like the word for another preferred item or outcome, engaging with that imitation is thought to produce said item/outcome, in this case, producing fortune in the form of money or in the form of luck. Making a food that either sounds or looks like luck/fortune is equated to making luck/fortune for oneself.

Pan de Muerto

Context: the informant, A.F., is a 21 year old USC student. Her family is Mexican, when asked about rituals or festivals, she brought up Dia de Los Muertos. Before she explained her family customs, she did give me a small disclaimer, saying that a lot of this feels normal to her, and so she wasn’t sure what would/wouldn’t matter.

Text: The informant explained that when her family celebrates Dia de Los Muertos, they always buys a specific bread, known as “pan de muerto”. She described pan de muerto as a round sweet bread with a cross on top; along with this, she explained that her family also makes the favorite foods of their loved ones who have passed. When asked if she leaves some out for ancestors, she told me that they do that alongside eating it. Her family puts up an altar in their house with photos of loved ones who have passed, decorating it with their favorite foods, candles, and a vibrant flower that her family calls “cempasuchil.” She told me she wasn’t sure what flower it was exactly, but she thought it was a marigold. To offer the bread and food to them, her family places it on the altar.

Analysis: Pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, is a typical part of Dia de los Muertos festivities, as is creating an altar for the living to offer things to their dead loved ones. The act of placing food on the altar for them seems like an idea based in homeopathic sympathetic magic, in that items given to photos of loved ones will also be given to their spirits in the afterlife. As the photo looks like the person, affecting it in some way will also affect the person, even once they’ve passed. The bread itself, to the informant, is essentially just a normal sweet bread, but the intent behind offering it is what matters, rather than anything special about the bread.

Super Bowl appetizer

Text: The informant says she needs to have buffalo chicken dip before every Super Bowl game to ensure the team she wants to win ends up winning.

Context: The informant’s relationship to this piece is original to know that her team will win. She recognizes that it is her comfort food and says it makes her confident in the team. She said it began with the 2012 Super Bowl when Beyonce performed for the first time. The informant said that was the first game she was able to sit down and watch from beginning to end. She connected the buffalo chicken dip to this because that was the only thing that changed compared to the years prior in order to come out with a win. She said this only works for Super Bowls and not any other games. She interprets this as her “superpower” and truly believes that it works. She mentioned that she started eating the buffalo chicken dip really late into one Super Bowl her team was losing so when she ate it, they ended up winning.

Interpretation: The way I interpret this ritual is that the informant wants the reassurance that her team will win to reduce being anxious during the game. Especially because the time where she did not eat the buffalo chicken dip and her team started losing, this gave her more of a way to believe her ritual is true. I find it interesting that this only works for Super Bowls and not any other game.

Soarin’ Around the World, with ghosts

Age: 19
Performance Date: 3/31/2024

Text:

“So apparently there is a ghost in the A theater of Soarin’ Around the World at Epcot. Some people say that they have seeing a man walking around inside the theater or making noise inside the theater like voices and whispering when they’re sitting in tower alone or when they have closed the theater. Oh and “tower” is a position for cast members at Soarin’ where they sit alone and watch cameras in the dark and frequently after people say that they have had an experience with said ghost the attraction has some sort of malfunction or downtime. I don’t know exactly where it came from but some people say it’s from somebody who used to work at the ride that passed away. When I have been there in the past after a long shift and I’m closing, sometimes it feels like I’m not alone even though I am, and I get a sort of vibe or energy change in the empty theater as I’m checking it to shut it down. Some people say they’ve seen things move or heard things fall and never found whatever the noise came from, but I haven’t experienced that, just gotten a weird vibe or sometimes think I hear someone say something but no one is there. In the end I don’t really think anything of it though, it’s just a lot of hours of work and people’s stories that make you imagine things that aren’t really happening.”

Context:

A is a friend of mine who worked at Disney World’s Soarin’ Around the World for a few years in the past, they are currently 20 and a student in Florida. He says that he originally heard it from fellow cast members there at the ride, and figured it was just a way to scare the newbies, and thinks it is just his brain getting to him after a long shift. A does not believe in ghosts, and says he has never had a “real” supernatural experience.

Analysis:

A’s story of the ghost in the Soarin’ Around the World theater embodies themes of folklore, skepticism, community, and resilience. It reflects the ways in which humans create and share stories to make sense of the unknown, while also highlighting the importance of critical thinking and rationality in navigating the complexities of the modern world. The tale of the ghost haunting the theater reflects a common cultural phenomenon found in many societies – the creation of urban legends and ghost stories. These stories often emerge from a combination of shared experiences, hearsay, and the desire to add mystery and excitement to mundane surroundings. The sharing of ghost stories among cast members at the ride suggests a sense of community and camaraderie within the workplace. These stories serve as a form of entertainment and bonding, especially for those who work long hours in sometimes monotonous or stressful environments. Despite the prevalence of ghost stories, A expresses a rational and skeptical attitude towards the existence of supernatural phenomena. This skepticism reflects a broader cultural trend towards secularism and scientific thinking, where individuals are encouraged to question and analyze their beliefs in the absence of empirical evidence.

Led by Spirits, Dreamscape Exploring

Age: 19
Performance Date: 3/31/2024

Text:

“So basically, after my brother passed away, his boyfriend had a dream probably a few weeks after he passed, where my brother walked with him around our high school. The thing is, he had never been to our high school before. The next day after he had the dream he described what he had seen in the dream to some of my brother’s other friends and they said what he described matched perfectly.”

Context:

L is a 19 year old student, from Redwood City, CA, but at the time of the story lived in Saratoga. Her brother passed while they were in high school, and she told me this story about his boyfriend who experienced something inexplicable. She heard the story about his dream from her mother who had been told it originally by the boyfriend.

Analysis:

L’s story delves into themes of grief, connection, and the mysterious nature of dreams, while also touching upon cultural and personal beliefs regarding the afterlife and the power of spiritual connections. it centers around the loss of L’s brother, highlighting the profound impact of death on individuals and families. It underscores the enduring bond between siblings and the ongoing process of coping with grief even after the loved one has passed away. The boyfriend’s dream, in which he is accompanied by L’s brother around the high school they both attended, suggests a belief in the possibility of spiritual visitations from deceased loved ones. This reflects broader cultural and personal beliefs in an afterlife or continued existence beyond physical death. The inexplicable nature of the boyfriend’s dream raises questions about the boundaries between reality and the subconscious mind. It prompts contemplation on the mysterious aspects of human experience and the potential for spiritual encounters that defy rational explanation.