Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Karwa Chauth

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: Canadian 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Westlake Village 

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Interviewer: Are there any distinct festivals or rituals you grew up around or attending when you were growing up? Are there any now?

SA: “Another ritual I witnessed growing up is Karwa Chauth, a day when women fast from sunrise to moonrise for their partner’s health and longevity.”

Context

[SA provides more context on what happens during Karwa Chauth]

“…the fast is broken by sighting the moon, pouring water from a traditional bronze cup, and doing a symbolic prayer ceremony that includes the elements–something that’s very common in Hinduism. Some husbands fast with their wives, and some women wake up before sunrise to have a small meal.”

Interpretation

As SA also said in her interview, this ritual is such a beautiful representation of devotion and love. It makes me wonder if this would also be a part of a wedding ritual or if this is strictly for married women? Upon some light basic research, this ritual came about also from a folktale about two lovers. I think it’s beautiful how in every culture or every community, there is always a folktale surrounded around lovers. There has always been this obsession and interest in the idea of love since the dawn of time! There also shows significance of the moon and the sun in this ritual as well, another huge aspect of Hinduism and of Asian cultures as a whole. Additionally, Hinduism revolves around the solar/lunar calendar.

Do not buy metal on Saturday

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: Canadian 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Westlake Village 

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Interviewer: Is there a superstition that your family and others around you hold?

SA: “Indian culture has a lot of interesting superstitions…like how you’re not supposed to buy metal on Saturdays. That belief stems from Shani, the Hindu planetary God of Saturn, who is associated with iron and conflict. People also avoid buying sharp objects like knives on Saturdays for similar reasons.”

Context

SA and her family are Indian and practice Hinduism. SA did not specify whether her or her immediate family practices this superstition, but did mention a general superstition held by those in her culture.

Interpretation

I’ve heard of a lot of superstitions as I’ve grown up, especially Asian ones, but this was a new one for me. If I was told this superstition without the context of the Hindu God of Saturn, I would not have understood why this superstition is held at all. However, with understanding that Shani is the god associated with iron and conflict, it makes sense as to why people following Hinduism connect iron and metal objects with conflict. After some quick research, it seems that people tend to donate iron in respects to Shani, so buying metal would give someone bad luck in terms of financial prosperity. I feel like this connects to western society’s obsession with astrology. We do certain things or date certain people depending on how the stars are aligned, under which planet they run under, and what it all means for us.

Incense and Temples

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English, Chinese

NATIONALITY: American, Taiwanese 

OCCUPATION: Student

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Los Angeles 

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Interviewer: Does your culture have any stories of superstitions or superstitions themselves?

AC: “Don’t leave chopsticks straight up and down in rice because it looks like incense sticks which are usually reserved for rituals at temples.”

Context

Before the question asked above, I had also asked AC the following question:

Interviewer: Are there any distinct festivals or rituals you grew up around or attending when you were growing up? Are there any now? 

AC: [she lists out] “Chinese Lunar New Year, Autumn Festival, Taiwanese Folk Religion events… [she adds context] FYI my immediate family are 7th day adventist Christians but my family in Taiwan worships a local folk religion, and they’re very religious. My family owns and operates several temples in our hometown Tainan, Taiwan.”

Interviewer: What is it like for your family to own several temples? Are there any distinct rituals or celebrations your family does at the temples?

She then proceeds to answer the question, but this part of her answer is the context of the proceeding text above:

AC: “…what you usually do is…when you arrive at the temple, you light incense and then place it like up and down into this bowl/stand. Then you pray standing up…”

Interpretation

My immediate family and I are the least religious people. Technically, we’re Christian, and when I was younger my mother, sister, and I would go to Korean church, but we stopped going once my sister and I started playing sports. Although AC is not particularly religious herself, and her family is part of a completely different religion than their extended, AC has in-depth knowledge and experience with temples and how folk religion affects and works within smaller communities. The concept of bad luck by placing chopsticks straight up in rice connects with how her family’s temples operate. Why would you pray if it’s not in the proper setting and with the proper intention? My guess as to why it’s bad luck is because it might attract bad spirits or maybe upset the spirits that people pray to. It connects again to what we learned in lecture about the importance or folklore behind up and down.

Wedding Soup Noodles

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English, Chinese

NATIONALITY: American, Taiwanese 

OCCUPATION: Student

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Los Angeles 

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Interviewer: What’s a tradition that you and your family have done during the holidays or certain celebrations? This can include holidays, birthdays, weddings, funerals, etc.

AC: “Weddings are huge in my family, so the day of the wedding there’s this thing called wedding soup noodles. It’s like sweet/sour soup and mushrooms and seafood in a thicker soup. Noodles are also thicker. Also the bride still wears white!”

Context

AC and her nuclear family are the only ones from the rest of their family that is currently in America. The rest of her family (her extended family basically) all still live and reside in Taiwan.

Interpretation

I had never really heard of wedding soup noodles before, so this was definitely really interesting to hear about another tradition in Asian culture. Although, I think if I was to ask my family there would probably be a lot of wedding traditions also in Korean culture. The wedding traditions I know of are more ritualistic and concerned with what you wear. But, after some quick research, noodle soup is also a thing in Korean wedding culture! A lot of traditions overlap across Asian cultures, so it makes sense that there also includes “wedding soup” in Korean weddings as well. I’m not sure if I’ve ever ate these wedding noodles since my family leans more on the Americanized side and I honestly cannot remember the last time I went to a wedding.

Kicking the Lamppost for Good Luck

Age: 58

1. Kicking the same lamppost going to and leaving from a football game at the Coliseum for good luck. 

2. This participant went to the University of Southern California and graduated in 1995. While at USC, the participant remembers the football game days very fondly, including all of the odd good luck rituals that students would perform in order to ensure a win over the visiting team. One such ritual that she remembers is how students would kick a lamppost while exiting campus (through the Exposition Blvd exit) and walking towards the Coliseum, and would have to kick the same one they initially kicked while walking back onto campus. The participant admitted that she didn’t really understand where or when this tradition came from, but she remembers all of her friends – and the students around them – would go out of their way to kick the lampposts for good luck at the game. She admitted that she thought it was hilarious that students at USC today continued the tradition – probably with the same lack of knowledge of the traditions’ origins.

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: While I myself also do not know specifically where this game-day tradition originated, I can attest to the fact that USC students (myself included) still participate in the ritual to this very day. It could be possible that – much like the idea of a lucky shirt or some other lucky totem/item – one student or a group of students just so happened to kick the lamppost one day on their way to the game, and after winning that game, believed that they had to maintain the exact same routine they went through that day to ensure that they would continue to win games at the Coliseum. Since USC is a school with such a large football culture, it is no surprise that this game-day tradition would therefore spread amongst the students who wanted more than nothing to crush their opponents and uphold their school image through their sense of school spirit.