Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Norwegian Apple Peel

Nationality: USA
Age: 59
Occupation: Attorney
Residence: Hawaii
Performance Date: 4/3/16
Primary Language: English
Language: a little German, a little French

Something I learned from my Norwegian grandmother. She made lots of apple desserts, especially apple dumplings, which required whole peeled apples. We used paring knives to peel the apples, and she would tell us that if we were successful in cutting away the peel in one continuous spiral, and threw it over our left shoulder, the peel would form the first letter of the first name of our future husband. I remember doing this in her kitchen at about age seven (after many unsuccessful tries, it is harder than it sounds to peel an apple in one unbroken spiral). The peel formed a “J” which, as you know, turned out to be correct.

I’ve only tried this a few times. I remember the first one because my grandmother was there and shared the story with me. It was Thanksgiving and we were making apple dumplings together. I loved baking with my Grandma – she is the one who taught me how to cook – and this memory takes me right back to her kitchen. Just FYI, it is not easy to have the perfect peel – it takes concentration and time. Usually when I am baking, I’m in a bit of a hurry and none of the peels come off in one piece. Even when concentrating, only about one in four apples will peel whole. Plus, the peel must be quite thin – if it is too thick, it will break on hitting the floor – a null answer. I remember getting a “J” more than once, which is funny because I’ve been married twice and both times the first name began with “J”. Anyway, only single women do this (otherwise the magic would be negative – as if one did not want to be married) so my last time was more than 28 years ago. At the last Thanksgiving, I shared this tradition with Caroline, my daughter. (And no, I will not disclose her answer!)

I’m a little connected to my Norwegian heritage, mostly through cooking and a few traditions, like real candles on the Christmas tree, opening presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day, certain songs, and most definitely all the fairy tales and stories (trolls and dwarves and mountains turning into people or vice versa). I have my great grandfather’s hand carved snuff box – woodworking is a big Norwegian tradition. I’d always wanted to visit Norway and last summer, I went for the first time. I stopped in Bergen for a few days – my grandfather emigrated from that city when he was 3 years old. It is a colorful, gorgeous, fishing town. A wonderful country, felt very much like home.
ANALYSIS:
I think a part of many cultures is the yearning to know who you will spend your life with and marry. I know that as a kid I played games and participated in activities that were supposed to signify who I would marry. For example, as a child I used to play a game with my friends where we would twist the stem of an apple and each full turn around that the apple did would stand for a letter in the alphabet. When the stem finally broke off (usually didnt take too long) whatever letter you were on would be the first letter of the name of your future husband or wife.

The Monkey King

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: He goes to school here at USC in LA but is from Shanghai.
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Description: “There’s a very like kung fu king like he’s called like Monkey King. He’s either a monkey but he’s also very skillful at Kung Fu but he’s so naughty like. He didn’t want to become a servant of the like in the most superior king in the paradise so he did some war against the king of the paradise. But he didn’t manage to do so and he was put into the prison in the paradise. He suffered lots of things but he finally redempted like he proved that he was a very valuable person through sufferings. He was able to get out by reproving himself. He made some achievements or the lost of the paradise because he did some loss to the paradise.”

2. My informant told me that this is a story typically told to children. He heard it growing up and will eventually tell his own children.

3. I walked into his dorm and asked if he could tell me some Chinese folklore. He started a little slower at first but once he really got his mind going he had story after story after story. There is some broken English here but I thought it was best to transcribe as close as possible to the actual performance.

4. The story of the Monkey King is one that reveals interesting elements to the culture it’s told in. For instance, this culture obviously holds the powers of other creatures very highly. In this case, the Monkey’s flexibility has given him enough power to war against the goodness of paradise. In some senses this could be compared to Satan in the Garden of Eden. He took the form of a serpent, who is considered a crafty creature, and the Monkey King is also considered a ‘naughty’ creature. These two beings are able to disrupt Paradise and were punished afterward. However, the Monkey King had a change of heart and was forgiven at the end. The serpent wasn’t so lucky.

Nigerian Masquerades

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: He's from Minnesota but he's going to school here in LA. His parents are from Nigeria but he was born here.
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: “In Nigeria a masquerade is basically, so here we have masquerades but they’re lie people in suits to represent what the masquerade looks like. And So like there’s these spirits that embody this certain emotion or spiritual energy or whatever. When you look at the mask it’ll be a mask and a bunch of colored rafia and like pieces of wooden jewelry. Depending on the different mask they may carry a fan or a machete or something. But like in Nigeria all of your parents would tell us stories about masquerades but that were like legitimate spirits not like a dude in a suit but people who would be around the masquerade when it was coming through villages dancing were people who believe in the masquerade’s power like and culturally you could not get close to a masquerade you’re not allowed to but nobody really wants to unless you’re like following the masquerade. Cause that’s some scary shit. My mom told me about this one that she saw when she was a little girl. First of all, you’re only supposed to watch from a distance like you can’t get close or anything like that unless you’re like a man who’s authorized to be next to the masquerade or something like that. I wouldn’t say it’s like a priest. It’s just like men dancing and chanting. It’s just a patron of that spiritual culture. Somebody who’s like apart of it. But you have to be a man and you have to be old enough. You can’t just be like a teen boy or a woman. And so what she was telling me about this one and all these men were dancing around the masquerade you know like shouting and dancing or whatever. And the masquerade was like, it looked like it was a person under a white sheet. Just walking and dancing along, Doing these weird like movements. And then instantaneously it would fall flat like a sheet. And then continue moving. And then reform. And then fall flat. And this is the thing like this is rural Nigeria like it’s like a rural town in America so just like low tech. They don’t have the technology of special effects to make this construct like inflate and deflate. Exactly they just can’t do that. So, like the fact of the matter is – well I can’t even say fact because I haven’t seen it but it’s something that our parents do not mess around with. It’s like a serious thing. So when she saw this thing it like blew her mind because like oh my god this is real. You know? And like that’s Masquerades.  They’re not all like they’ll be one form and then they’ll lose form the next . Some are just like beast or whatever. But always there’s like a chant or a dance that’s like associated with each masquerade.”

2. This piece was very personal to my friend. He’s spoken several times about how his mom doesn’t joke around with this stuff. He said that his family talks about festivals like these all the time. That’s how he found out about it.

3. I went into his dorm room and asked him to tell me some Nigerian folklore. He got really excited and then told me this one. His eyes got really big and he started talking fast.

4. There’s so much content to digest with this one. First of all, he has the first hand account of his mother that’s really fascinating. Not only does he have a cultural idea that he can take with him everywhere he goes, but he has a first hand account from one of the  most trusted people in his life to believe in. This post give great insight into the Nigerian value and fear of spirits as well. They consider it a great honor to be able

Ramayana

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

Description: “So there’s this one called Ramayana. So the the pretense is like theres this demon in Sri Lanka who’s like gonna fuck up the whole world. I think it’s the whole world but the people who wrote the story didn’t know anything about anything outside of India, presumably. There’s like three main Hindu gods and one of them is like I’ve gotta go down there and destroy this man before he destroys earth, right? So he comes as a prince, or he’s born as a prince and he grows up into a very good prince/king everybody wants him to be the king. His dad who’s the king has many wives, right? And one of his wives who’s not Ram’s, the main character, direct mother, is jealous that her son is not the crowned prince. So like I forgot what the exact stipulation is but she puts some weird condition on the king where she had to send away like he had to send away Ram. And her actual son is Ram’s little brother and best friend who’s also like a great warrior and a great person. So they end up leaving. He takes his wife who’s like a princess from another kingdom in India. They encounter like all kinds of crazy phenomena. And they do all kinds of miracles and what not. He’s like a very good warrior with magic and fighting and stuff. Eventually, and keep in mind this is all precipitated by the god himself he needs all this to happen. He doesn’t speak on it, but he knows he’s the reincarnation of this god and he knows what his duty is truly at a certain point. And, there’s a point when they’re in their exile and he knows the peak of his duty is coming. So he calls on the god of fire and says can you protect my wife until this is all over. And so the god of fire takes his wife to his realm and leaves his wife with a fake version or a replacement that’s like exactly the same. Something like that. Eventually, like I don’t remember how exactly it happened, that demon king kidnaps the wife. They’re like alright we gotta go get her back. He also befriends a kingdom of ape like humans who are really strong like warriors and stuff.  He helps them. The man general guy, his name is Hanuman, like people have tattoos of him because he’s known to be really strong and stuff. He becomes one of their squad members and is like a really good fighter. They go down to Sri Lanka. I believe they bring an army and they build a rock- they build like a rock bridge to the Sri Lanka and they get there and they have camps. First the ape dude, Hanuman, he fights the demon and like beats his ass but something stops him from killing him. His tail catches on fire and he sets the whole demon kingdom on fire right? One of the demon king’s brothers who’s like a reasonable man. He’s like biologically a demon in the mythology but he’s not like a demon in the mind. He joins Ram’s faction, the good guys, and tells him all the secrets and trains him and like in ways in new magic and stuff that can like helm him defeat. I don’t know if that part is true or not actually. I don’t remember. Eventually there’s this huge war and it comes down to them shooting arrows at each other and what not. It’s this huge epic battle. Between the demon army versus Ram and his army. Eventually it comes down to them using magical god given arrows at each other. They’re clashing and like he finds out the only way to kill him is to shoot him in the naval. Eventually he gets him there and like he dies. That was the rough version. I haven’t read about it in over ten years.

2. My friend read stories like these when he was a child but it’s also transmitted by word of mouth as well.

3. I went into his dorm and asked if he could tell me some Hindi folklore. He said sure and started off with this one.

4. This is definitely a tale on an epic scale. I see a few similarities with Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is God born into a human body so that he may redeem the world. In this case He is 100% God and 100% a man. Ramayana is a god (small g) and is born into human form. From what my friend told me it doesn’t seem like the story is very clear on his deity versus his humanity. That’s just about the extent of the similarities though. As far as I could observe, Hindu people don’t exactly think that Ram was real. At least today they don’t.

Mahabharata

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

Description: “This one is called Mahabhrata. It’s really complicated. It starts off-idk if I can even describe this one, it’s so complicated. Basically it’s two royal families that descend from one and they like beef over the throne and the crowned prince of one family is like super arrogant and stuff and at the same time gods are intervening and things going on. And one of the main Hindu gods like comes down to help and like the whole thing culminates into an epic battle. In the big epic battle Krishna, the god, he’s like the prince from the moralistic family side. He’s this chariot guy. And the prince, the leader, pussies out in the end and he’s like how can I find my own family and he gives him a very long moralistic talk and it’s like very highly revered amongst like people who study it like theologians and stuff. It’s honestly super complicated. It’s really important in Hindi theology. Also, one of the older characters in the book is like a grand uncle who’s given immortality and he can die whenever he wants. At the end of the epic battle he’s like a great warrior but he’s old. He gets pierced with like a thousand arrows and gets like a bed of arrows to lay on that go through his body but he lays through it in pain just so he can see the end of the battle. And also, on the moralistic side of the family they go into exile for some reason. I forgot why. One of the brothers falls in love with this demon chick that can change forms and she’s really beautiful. And they have a son but they don’t live together or anything after they get married. They live in the forest. But the son comes to help them in the big battle and he’s just like this giant demon on the good guys side wrecking the other team. A demon is just a subspecies of human that has magical powers and like they’re generally evil. It’s comparable to a demon from western culture, but it’s not the same. They look like humans. In the movies they’re dark skinned. They have magical powers. They have some sort of weird practice, or what normal people would regard as weird practices. The only thing I can think of is the south indian people are darker skinned. I think there’s racism against them but I don’t know. I don’t think it ties to any of this. The motivational speech is the pivitol point in the story. It’s called the Bhagavad Gita. It has 700 verses. It’s pretty interesting. He gives it to him after the grappa guy dies. And it happens right before the final battle. At this point, the chariot guy is like I’m gonna show you my true form. The prince is a normal human being but the god granted him the power to see him in like god form. It was like a positive holy crap. He basically just talked about his role in Hindu spirituality and devotion and stuff. Theological devotion. It’s honestly like super complex. I think it’s something you should read if you want. It’s super important in Hindu theology.”

2. He knows this story from family and children’s books.

3. I walked into his dorm and asked him to tell me some Hindu folklore. This was one of them.

4. Obviously he may not be the right one to ask about this story. He hasn’t done too many in depth studies but it appears to be one of the most prolific Epics in all of Indian History. From this one tale you can pull out an entire world of Hindu belief systems. It’s almost like a story bible for a script. It has all the characters and creatures right there.

Dharma, Krishna. Mahabharata: The Greatest Spiritual Epic of All Time. Los Angeles, CA: Torchlight Pub., 1999. Print.