Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Tsamba and Magosti

Nationality: African
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April
Primary Language: French
Language: English, Spanish, Fang, etc

The twenty-two year old female informant born in the Gabonese Republic, a state located on the west coast of Central Africa, revealed that locals in her city believe two mermaids inhabit the ocean named Tsamba and Magosti. They are revered among the locals. Every time the village floods, it is said that the mermaids are angry. In order to appease the spirits locals make offerings. It is not uncommon to find bowls of food on the beach. Also when near a body of water such as a lake or river the locals toss coins in the water to appease spirits that inhabit it.

The mermaid and spirits seem to operate as lower deities. My informant also revealed that when someone drowns there is a belief that they become slaves to a genie. When asked if he body is recovered are they still slaves the answer was “yes.” It is the soul that is stolen. Seeing how the ocean provided transport for slaves to the Americas that fear may have transpired into this belief. Water operates as random uncontrollable element this may explain some of the mysticism linked with it.

Superstitions in India

Nationality: Indian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/13
Primary Language: English

“From India, um, there’s a superstition that if you if you- if the base of your tongue is, like, dark it’s, like, kind of black, it’s called having a black tongue and it means that like when you say something it’s more likely to come true. So my mom has a black tongue, so people will, like, call, relatives will, like, call her and say, like, ‘Hey, like, could you, like, pray me for me or do this…’ or something because like it’s more likely to come true because she has a black tongue.

And then there’s the dreaming thing, which is that if you die in a dream it, uh- according to Indian superstition, if you die in a dream, then that’s good luck for the rest of your life. Which is in opposition to what a lot of the rest of the world believes happens if you die in a dream, um, yeah. That’s it.”

My informant learned of these superstitions from her family when she was growing up. She says they are common beliefs throughout India and was surprised when she first discovered they were not common in the United States. My informant was born in India, but raised in Japan, the USA, and India.

These beliefs are not of great personal importance to my informant, other than making her feel connected with her family in India. She does not believe they hold any significant truth.

What my informant was referring to was the popular Western idea that if one dies in a dream, one has died in reality.

Ring by Spring

Nationality: German, Italian, Irish, English
Age: 27
Occupation: Social Worker
Residence: Palmdale, CA
Performance Date: May 1, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Allison attended Azusa Pacific University, a Christian college located in Southern California. During orientation her freshman year, she encountered a phenomenon called “ring by spring.” The idea is that women who enter college should or will be engaged by the spring of thei senior year. It’s presented in as a joking tone, as a caricature of a crazed woman who must get engaged before she graduates from college. This co-aligns with the idea that women go to college to get an “MRS degree,” in other words, they attend university to find a husband and get married.

Although “ring by spring” is presented as a joke, it is a common enough occurrence that the joke has weight in the community. My sister noted that 3 of the 20 girls in her graduating class of social work at APU were indeed engaged. If a girl does in fact get engaged just before graduation, she may get a lot of grief from her peers because of this widely circulated joke.

Allison pondered the weight the joke has in guy culture at APU, but she didn’t have any insight into guy’s reactio the the phenomenon.

This idea and joke is widely heard in a Christian context. Allison first encountered this idea at a Christian university and has since heard other accounts from other Christian environments like Biola University. In fact, in my Christian sorority at USC, Alpha Delta Chi, there are currently 4 girls who are engaged and graduating now. In a Christian atmosphere like APU or Biola, girls and guys who share the same ideals and believe in the same things are in close proximity. “Ring by spring” is an acknowledgment of the fact that one might meet their spouse in such a context, and it might not be a bad idea to be looking for one.

Toffee Making

Nationality: German, Italian, Irish, English, French
Age: 52
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Palmdale, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2013
Primary Language: English

During the Christmas season my family bakes toffee. As I was growing up, I learned how to make it from my mother every year. I asked her about the act and meaning behind our families’ tradition.

My grandmother (my mother’s mother) brought the recipe to my mother about 10 years ago. As I suspected, she wouldn’t share the recipe with me because it is top-secret. The details she would share were that the recipe contained butter, sugar, almonds and chocolate. My grandmother received the recipe from a friend, who my mother decided should remain anonymous. This friend normally wouldn’t share her toffee recipe with anyone, but since she and my grandmother became such close friends, she eventually gave it to her. My grandmother brought it back to my mother and throughout the years, they tweaked it to make it their own. It is now the top-secret recipe that it is today.

In addition to being top-secret, the event of toffee making is highly ritualized. Some of the ritual is required for the recipe to be successful. For example, the mixture has to be stirred over the stove for 12 minutes, using a candy thermometer or, for more experienced toffee makers, watching the smoke rising from the pot to see when its done. Later, the mixture must be poured, smoothed down and covered with chocolate very quickly. However, some rituals during the process are not scientifically supported to be significant but are practiced due to the sacred, secret nature of the process. For eight years, my mother and grandmother used the same stove, the same pot and the same spoon to stir the toffee. Eventually the stove and spoon broke and the two were afraid that the recipe would no longer work. The toffee still turns out well, but they still use the same pot, with some speculation to making any more changes. My mother clearly defined a successful batch of toffee by its nice crunch and snap. If the toffee doesn’t snap right when its broken in half, the toffee wasn’t mixed for long enough or at high enough temperature so the sugar didn’t set right.

The activity of toffee-making has become a family tradition. My grandmother comes over a few times every December so she and her daughter can bake toffee together. At age eight, the kids (my siblings and I) were trusted to help with the process. The kids would be in charge of stirring the toffee consistently for 12 minutes; not the most exciting task, but it was a way to include younger kids in the process. Although she takes the toffee-making process itself very seriously, she commented on how enjoyable and laughter-filled it can be.

I asked my mother the importance of keeping the recipe a secret. Her logic is that it she wanted to keep it special; a special recipe makes a special gift. Our family hands out this toffee as gifts to friends and family. Because we are the only family who makes the toffee, it produces a demand and makes people appreciative. When people receive the toffee, they recognize that it is only around at Christmas time, and only from us.

Regarding the significance of only gifting toffee at Christmas time, my mother said that it gives friends and family an anticipation and expectation annually. It is a seasonal event, not only for the receiving end, but for the gifting end as well. My mother explained that she will make toffee apart from Christmas only for very special occasions. If a relative that we don’t see very often is coming into town at a time other Christmas, she will make toffee for them. When her sister came to California in November recently, she made toffee. However, she explained that it didn’t feel right without the Christmas music and Christmas aprons. The context of the performance of this folklore is important to her. As a joke, she also mentioned how unhealthy toffee is, so it’s best that it is only eaten once a year.

My mother mentioned that her great grandfather apparently made toffee and candies in Chicago. Although she didn’t have any emotional or personal connection to her great grandfather and his business, she draws a part of her identity from this family history of making toffee.

Kahuna

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Assistant Media Planner
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/22/13
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

A Jewish summer sleep-away camp in Malibu, CA by the name of Camp Hess Kramer holds hundreds of Jewish kids ranging from eight to seventeen for most of the summer.  The camp, being near the beach, has a beach day once a week where the entire camp goes to Zuma beach to enjoy the day.  The camp typically leaves after eating breakfast in the main dining hall, but there is an essential step the campers must go through before ensuring they will have a great, sun-filled, fun day at the beach.  They must call out to Kahuna — the symbolic guarantor of a great day at the beach.

The counselors at the camp typically create a skit to detail the kids the necessity of getting Kahuna to show up at dining hall and talk to the kids.  In order for Kahuna to come to the dining hall all of the kids must yell out “Kahuuunnnnnnaaaaa” at the top of their lungs in order for him to hear their calls.  Typically after three or four loud calls out to Kahuna he shows up to the dining hall.  Kahuna is dressed in beach attire with red swim trunks, visible sun block on his nose, sunglasses, and shirtless with a big red “K” on his chest.

After Kahuna’s arrival he begins to explain his role for the kids.  Kahuna details all of the necessary things campers must do to ensure they have a great time at the beach — essentials such as putting on sunscreen, drinking a lot of water, and of course reapplying more sunscreen.  Kahuna also organizes the campers in the dining hall into four different groups and gets them to chant individually in four parts — “Beach, Sand, Sun, Fun.”  The campers must chant this multiple times loudly in order to ensure a sunny, fun day at the beach.  After the chanting it fulfilled to Kahuna’s expectations he is free to dismiss the campers and he leaves as all the campers board the buses.

Kahuna has been a figure of Camp Hess Kramer beach days for over a decade and will continue to represent beach days for the camp in future years.

I think Kahuna serves a strong role at Camp Hess Kramer because he encourages campers to make sure that they have a safe, fun time at the beach.  Kahuna’s emphasis on wearing sunscreen and drinking a lot of water is obviously a result of the counselors and staff members wanting children to remain hydrated and avoid sun burns.  Also Kahuna’s emphasis on having a fun, good time at the beach is a result of counselors and staff members wanted the campers to get in a good mindset for the day and for the campers to have fun at the beach.  It is also interesting to note that the word “kahuna” means in Hawaiian wise man or shaman.  This relates to Kahuna as a figure at Camp Hess Kramer as a wise man of the beach.