Title: Fête des Rois (Epiphany / King’s Day)
AGE: 55
Date_of_performance: May 1, 2025
Language: French
Nationality: American grew up in Paris
Occupation: Consultant
Primary Language: English
Residence: Toronto, Canada
Folklore Explanation:
“We always did Fête des Rois growing up—it was just part of the rhythm after New Year’s. We’d have the galette des rois, that puff pastry cake with almond filling, and there’d always be a fève hidden inside. The person who got the slice with the fève was the king or queen for the day, and they got to wear the paper crown that came with the cake. In our house, the winner would either kiss the person they loved, or if you were sitting with friends or siblings, it was the person to your left. It was lighthearted, but it felt kind of royal as a kid.
What I remember most, though, was in elementary school. They made a big thing of it. We’d all sit under the table—literally under it—while someone cut the galette, and then they’d call out who got each slice. That way it stayed random. And the second someone found the fève, it was chaos. The winner had to kiss someone, and in a room full of eight-year-olds, that was about the most dramatic thing that could happen. People would scream, laugh, hide under desks. It was silly, but it was something everyone looked forward to. It made January feel less gray.”
Analysis:
Fête des Rois is a form of religious calendar custom celebrated on January 6, tied to Christian Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Three Wise Men (Les Rois Mages) to visit the newborn Jesus. The tradition of the galette des rois with a hidden fève (originally a bean, now often a porcelain figurine) is a blend of symbolic folklore and ritual foodways. Its transmission is both domestic (within families) and institutional (through schools and bakeries), making it a hybrid of private and public tradition.
The custom of crowning a “king” or “queen” and engaging in playful rituals like kissing someone at the table represents performance and participatory folklore, especially powerful among children where the act becomes a rite of social play. Though rooted in religious narrative, the modern version often emphasizes community, chance, and lighthearted social interaction over doctrine. Its survival in French and Francophone cultures is supported by oral tradition, seasonal food marketing, and educational reinforcement, making it a strong example of enduring cultural folklore with evolving forms.
Category Archives: Folk Beliefs
Wearing Dots on New Years Eve – Holiday Ritual/Folk Magic
Text:
If you wear dots on your clothing (shirt, pants, underwear, socks, etc.), you will manifest wealth for the new year.
Context:
Since the performer can remember, her family always celebrated New Years together and everyone in her town (a small, rural town in the Philippines) would get together and all wear polkadots on New Years Eve. She brought the tradition to America and passed it on to her kids. The other Filipino-Americans she knows also wears dots on their clothes when they celebrate the new year.
“Prosperity for the whole year because the dots are like money. If you have money at the strike of midnight then the whole year you will have money.” “It’s Chinese, the circle is the symbol of something like wealth.” “We just know growing up. But it’s Chinese related but Filipino culture likes to mix cultures.”
Analysis:
Dots are circular shaped, and circles look like coin, and coins symbolize prosperity. Therefore, wearing dots is a form of homoeopathic magic. By wearing “dots,” it produces the like of “prosperity.” This new years tradition is often coupled with using movement, sound, and taste for good luck as well with many Filipinos also jumping at midnight to grow taller, shaking coins to ward off evil spirits, and opening doors and windows to “let in the good luck.” Many of these traditions are similar to Chinese values as in Chinese culture, round objects symbolize harmony, wholeness, and wealth. Therefore, for Chinese New Years, they also include many “round” items such as round fruits (ex: oranges) or giving out coins in red envelopes. The influence of this culture can be greatly attributed centuries of migration and trade from Southern China which is why there is even a sub-section of Filipino communities known as Tsinoy.
“Tabi Tabi Po Apo” – Filipino Superstition
Text:
“Tabi tabi po apo” is roughly Filipino slang for “excuse me.”
It’s the belief that you must say excuse me before you pee on the side of the road.
Context:
The performer grew up in Bicol, Philippines which is a rural southern province of Luzon. He grew up in an impoverished area and played outside with with the neighborhood kids almost everyday.
“Growing up, we were told by our lolo and lola. When you play around the trees or bushes or plants, or just nature, where there are no walking paths, you have to respect the elders of nature. It’s like when you go to the forest right, you have to respect nature and all the things that you don’t see like spirits or children in the forest. It’s bad karma and can attract vengeful spirits like if you cross in their territory they become territorial and put a curse on you.”
Analysis:
“Apo” is a respectful term which is similar to saying “ma’am” or “sir” and in this case applies to spirits. It’s respect for the “unseen” spiritual world and nature. The nature respect could be tied to folk Catholicism (a blend between Catholicism and superstition). 80-90% of Filipinos are Catholic as the Spanish colonized and brought over the religion in the 1500s, and so many of their indigenous beliefs mixed with Caloic ones, making this phrase widely accepted across generations.
Another practical reason for the phrase’s popularity, especially in more rural or less developed areas, is the Philippines’ abundant vegetation and loosely defined land boundaries. In communities like where the performer grew up, where peeing outdoors is common, especially for children, saying “tabi tabi po, apo” is also a way to teach mindfulness and caution when interacting with the natural world—both physically and spiritually.
“Sukob” – Filipino Wedding Superstition
Text:
Sukob is the belief that siblings should not have their weddings within the same calendar year. It’s also believed that the older sibling should get married first.
Context:
The performer grew up in the Philippines with many siblings who were born at similar times as one another. He has also been married and made sure to not to have his marriage within the same time as his siblings. His marriage has been going strong for 30 years so far.
“So it’s not competing with progress or prosperity and benefits or well-wishes. It’s like a known information like everybody knows it. Especially if you and your siblings are in the same age range, they will normally check first who is older and work with the other siblings for the dates. For example, Tito A got engaged the same year but Tito A gave way to Tito R and waited another year to get married. It’s a practicality thing. It’s also the superstition that the benefits will compete for the rest of your marriage.”
Analysis:
Filipinos are extremely superstitious with many believing that life events carry energetic, or spiritual, weight. To ensure a strong, hormonious, and propserous foundation for their lives, they must set themselves up well for life events. Apart from birth and death, marriage is the only other universal life event that is celebrated cross-culturally, putting a lot of weight on how the event occurs and how important it is in one’s life. Marriage, in particular, holds profound cultural significance as one of the few universal rites of passage celebrated across societies and is treated with a lot of intention. In Filipino culture, where family unity and respect are paramount, avoiding the overlap of weddings within the same family is seen not only as a way to prevent misfortune, but also as a gesture of deference. It ensures that each family member’s major life moment is honored without being overshadowed.
Additionally, “Sukob” superstition has risen in popularity due to the Filipino horror film Sukob which features a couple breaking this rule and the terrifying, dramaticized “karma” that ensued. Cementing a negative perception of Sukob in pop culture has lead to amplified anxieties around violating traditonal norms. Filipinos are especially superstitious due to many of them adhering to Cathiolisism. In a predominantly Catholic society where religious doctrine and folk beliefs often intertwine, the combination of spiritual caution and cinematic storytelling has reinforced the fear and observance of Sukob.
Basketball Magic Superstition
Text: “When I played basketball, I had this ritual that I had to do before each game. If I didn’t do it, I would be really anxious and play badly. At the end of warm ups, right before the game begins, my same teammate would have to make a right handed layup, then I would have to catch her rebound right from the net, then I would take a right handed layup, then dribble the ball to the ref/benches with exactly 5 crossover dribbles, then hold the ball for 3 seconds before giving/putting it away. I had to be the last one to take a shot before the game too. It was really obnoxious, but I had to do it. We did it before every game for all four years of high school.”
Context: The informant was a very strong basketball player throughout middle school and high school. Although she no longer plays at college, she coaches younger children and still feels that it is an important part of her identity. She says she is a very superstitious person in general, and has many little rituals that she must conduct before certain events (other ones she described included before math tests). This ritual was the most important to her though, as she needed to do it before every game, or she felt that she would not play well. She says she started the ritual in ninth grade. She does not remember the exact origin or why her and this specific teammate started it, but they had to do it before every game. She thinks that they just did it before one of the first games and they both played very well, so they had to continue. She says it was a necessity for her, and she got anxious even thinking about not being able to do the ritual before a game.
Interpretation:
This “ritual” reflects a form of magic superstition. This is when symbolic, repeatable actions are believed to affect performance outcomes. Specifically, this is a manifestation of homeopathic magic, where an action can influence the event—“like produces like”). In this case, she believes that if she completes this ritual, she will play well in the game. Even though this method is not technically rational, and has no scientific reasoning behind it, it offers her mental control in a high-pressure environment. It is necessary for her to enter a mindset where she is ready to perform in the game.
This superstition reminds me of how, generally, athletes can use and develop folk practices to cope with anxieties during games. Specifically, in North America, sports carry quasi-religious importance. Many players often have rituals and superstitions that they feel the need to complete in order to perform well in a game. They believe that if they do not perform this ritual, it can lead to negative outcomes, which is especially stressful in unpredictable situations, where they want to control the outcome of the game, but cannot. This also parallels how other cultural groups, in general, develop rituals to navigate liminal spaces. In this case, the liminal space is the time in between the warm up and the game, when players are most anxious.
This ritual also functions as an identity performance. Her commitment to the ritual shows her dedication and commitment to the sport. It reflects the values of discipline, repetition, and hard work that are emphasized in sports. This shows how society creates its own forms of sacred performance.