Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Coins and the New Year

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Northridge, CA
Performance Date: April, 17, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagolog

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the performer (CS) and I (ZM).

ZM: You guys had like, coins, like gold coins, over by the like pictures? I don’t know

CS: Mhm. I know what you’re talking about. So, it’s another New Year’s thing. Um, when you’re, so, coins are just symbols of like wealth, like the sound that they make like the clink like the, you know what I’m talking about? Like the shhh

ZM: Yeah

CS: So, when it’s New Year’s, like normal people New Year’s, and Chinese New Year actually, ‘cause we celebrate that too, you have to have, well first you have to be wearing like dots, like polka dots because of the circles. It symbolizes coins. And then, when, you know how people like jump and they like blow stuff in like the countdown? A lot, like every Filipino literally has just like, either like cups of coins, or like bags of coins and they shake it while they, while the New Year’s coming in. So, they shake it while the new year’s coming in so it makes the noise and that’s like another symbol of like bringing wealth into the new year.

ZM: And you just keep them around? Like, the whole year?

CS: Well those are just normal coins. And then the gold coins that my mom has laying around are just like… fancy ones. The gold coins are for the Chinese New Year because like you know how, well I don’t know if you’re around like Asian people but like, we get like red envelopes with money in it?

ZM: I vaguely, like that sounds vaguely familiar.

CS: So, I have one, wait I have one… (Brings out small red Hello Kitty envelope) We get like red envelopes that have money in it and you’re not supposed to spend the money technically for like the whole year because it’s like good luck.

ZM: Wait so when ARE you allowed to spend it?

CS: After the new year. So, this one, you can open it though, I think this one’s shaped in a heart. (the cash was folded into a heart shape)

ZM: Oh WOoOoW

CS: They don’t always do this they just, it’s just some people decide to get fancy with it. So, it (the coins) kind of goes along with the red envelope. So, you give red envelopes with money for luck and then the gold coins are sort of the same symbolism of like keeping wealth throughout the year. I just realized Asian people really like their money. Cause everything we do is about keeping their wealth.

 

Context:Over the weekend I visited CS at her home and noticed gold coins laying around on various coffee tables and such. A few days later I asked her about them and this conversation was recorded then.

 

Background: The performer is a sophomore at the University of Southern California. She is first generation American and her parents came from the Philippines. They are Roman Catholic.

 

Analysis: The red envelope tradition wasn’t completely unknown to me, but I had never heard of people shaking containers of coins at the turn of the new year. I also thought it was very interesting that CS celebrates both the Western New Year as well as Chinese New Year even though she is not Chinese. Like she said towards the end, most of the traditions were about money which can be seen in the rich lifestyle practiced in a Western New Year’s celebration. Party goers get dressed up and drink champagne like the upper class.

 

Chinese New Year

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese and Mandarin

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the performer (HH) and I (ZM).

ZM: What do you do for Chinese New Year?

HH: Umm… In terms of when I’m here in college or when I’m back home?

ZM: When you’re at home.

HH: When I’m home um my parents would clean the house, like um frantically because we need to be clean for the new year and we also can’t wash our hair on the first day of New Year’s too because if you wash your hair, you’re washing your luck. Yeah. Very interesting. Um, it’s nothing really special, it’s just being with your family, um… The whole day you um… Do you know what Yum ta is?

ZM: No.

HH: Like going out for morning tea, like with dim sum…

ZM: I’ve never heard of that. I don’t, I don’t know.

HH: Okay um so uh we do yum ta, which is like going to um a local, um a nearby restaurant around our house and inviting all of our relatives and…

ZM: Is that New Year’s day?

HH: New Year’s day yeah. Um, and all of our relatives will come and we exchange um red envelopes with money inside and um its umm… If you’re married you give, you give a red envelope to the kids so…As long as I’m not married I can still receive them.

ZM: But you don’t give any?

HH: I don’t give any until I’m married. Yeah it’s a perk. (laughs) Uhhh yeah and then um on the day, or like… Chinese New Year goes for like a few days like up to fifteen days. It depends on how long you want to celebrate it. Umm, like the first few days um either relatives and friends come to your house or you can go to their house and you bring gifts like oranges or like crackers or whatever to uh to bring to their house and you get to exchange gifts, and you guys talk and drink tea and all of that.

ZM: Do the oranges have any significance? Like why oranges or…?

HH: Umm… I feel like they do, but I don’t know (laughs) Uh that’s pretty much what we do. And um we eat chicken. It’s for a reason, but I don’t know why also. But, chicken is like a good kind of meat like… Um you always want um, like for dinner you always, for like the first few days, my brother’s in-laws and us we all eat together as a big family. Like a sign of um, a union. Um, so we have like up to ten dishes for like not even ten people. Like, um it’s very lavish dinner with like chicken, umm duck, fish, all kind of veggies, noodles, noodles really important as a sign of longetivity in life. So, yeah.

 

Context: This is from a conversation I started with HH about her Chinese culture.

Background: HH was born in China and raised in Oakland, CA. Both of her parents are Chinese, and they speak limited English. She is a sophomore studying at the University of Southern California.

 

Analysis: I thought it was interesting that you only begin giving red envelopes when you are married. Even if you are an adult and you are not married, you do not have to give the envelopes, you only receive them. But, if they’re married and they don’t have kids to give envelopes to they exchange red envelopes between husband and wife. While marriage and adulthood would’ve previously been equivalent, in today’s society they can be very separate, and this changes the tradition a little bit.

 

Cemetery Etiquette

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese and Mandarin

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the performer (HH) and I (ZM).

HH: When we go to the cemetery to visit our dead relatives. You, you can… well I feel like this is American too. You can never step on the tombstone of another person. And I did that once and my dad…

ZM: Uh oh.

HH: No, no I didn’t stepped on her tombstone, my hat flew on her tombstone and my dad threw away my hat and he made me apologize to the dead person.

ZM: Just your hat?

HH: Yeah. And he literally threw it away. Like, you touched dead, you touched someone’s… like a dead person’s tombstone.

ZM: But like, if it was like your relative that you’re visiting and you like touched it like in an endearing way…Is it still bad to touch the tombstone?

HH: I don’t think so… No, like if it’s an endearing way then not. Like it was just like me, like it was a stranger like…It was me sort of like disrespecting the dead and I literally had to… He literally had to um make me apologize to her like… He was saying like, “She’s just a little kiiiid. Don’t haunt us.” Like that kind of thing. Like, when you go to cemetery you don’t want the dead to follow you back.

 

Context: This is from a conversation I started with HH about her Chinese culture.

 

Background: HH was born in China and raised in Oakland, CA. Both of her parents are Chinese, and they speak limited English. She is a sophomore studying at the University of Southern California.

 

Analysis: I thought this practice was kind of extreme. I understand not wanting to disrespect the dead by stepping on their graves, but just a hat hitting the tombstone doesn’t seem like enough to cause harm in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

Zozobra: The Original Burning Man

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Fe, NM
Performance Date: April 22, 2018
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the performer (KM) and I (ZM).

KM: Most of my like cultural traditions I would say actually come from like, New Mexico. And not like…(Irish traditions) So it’s an interesting mix of like Native American and like Spanish culture. So like, um…We do this… I’ll give you some of the backstory. Basically, some pueblos back in the like 1600s or whatever, rebelled from the Spaniards. And like, they were like an independent country for like two years or something. And then the Spaniards took them back over, but they were like “We’ll give you this fiesta that you can hold every year in September” to like celebrate the pueblo revolt. And so what we do is we… (laughs) This is weird. So just… give me a second. We um… have about a one hundred foot puppet that we fill with our like grievances, like something bad that happened to us in the past year. And then we put it on like…We like hang it up and it’s like a marionette so it like moves and shit and we burn it. (laughs) Yeah.

ZM: Wait so, what is the puppet of? Like what does the puppet look like? Is it a peeerson?

KM: Yeah. But it’s not like a… It’s like a…uhhh… I just have to show it to you. So we call it Zozobra, which means “burning man.” So it’s like…

ZM: Is this like the music festival?

KM: (laughs) No. It’s like… We… It’s a specifically like Santa Fe thing. So, he kinda looks like… (shows picture) So, it’s like kind of a man. But, not really. And he’s like a hundred feet tall and we burn him.

ZM: Is he supposed to be scary looking?

KM: Yes! Because it’s like old man gloom. Like all of the bad things that happened to you in the past year is like… personified in this puppet. And then we burn it to say like goodbye to all of that. Like we’re starting a new…

ZM: And this happens when?

KM: This happens usually the… Usually it’s the first Thursday of September, but it’s recently been moved because too many people were drunk, on a Thursday. So, it’s recently been moved to the last Friday of August. And we also…

ZM: So, that’s just like a week earlier.

KM: Yeah. So, its… I mean, it’s just because they wanted to do it on a Friday because all these kids would like get drunk and high on a Thursday night then like go to school the next day. So, um, now we do it on a Friday, but like it’s part of this whole week where we have like festivals and like parades and all that stuff.

ZM: Oh so the whole week is dedicated to…?

KM: Yeah! The whole week is dedicated… It’s called like… just “fiestas,” like in general and like on Saturday there’s a pep parade and then Friday is Zazobra and it’s just like… And then there’s a whole council. (laughs) Sorry. So, it’s call the Fiesta Council. And so it’s like all the original members…

ZM: Is that for the town?

KM: Yeah. It’s like, all the original um members like Don Diego de Vargas. Like all these famous people, who like first… Well, I know it’s not famous to you, but like famous in New Mexico for like, the first people ever in New Mexico to like colonize. So, it’s like Don Diego de Vargas, and like you like try out for this like… So it’s like the Princess of Fiestas and the Prince of Fiestas. And so you’re on this council and what you do is you come into the schools and we…They do a little like fiesta for us, and we can like go down in the gym and like dance with all of the like, city, like the council members.

ZM: Wait, so… Let me get this straight. Are they people that go to like represent the original members?

KM: Yes. So basically, they are like… the people, but like… So, you like try out to be these members…

ZM: So, could you try out to be…

KM: Yeah. I could.

ZM: Okay. You don’t have to actually be like…

KM: You should. Like, I mean, most people are, but…

ZM: Like Native American or?

KM: Well, or mainly Spanish. Because most of the people who came over to like colonize are the Spanish. And so, it’s mostly Spanish.

ZM: Oh! The colonizers.

KM: Yeah. (laughs) Even though we’re celebrating the pueblo revolt. It doesn’t make… But, a lot of people are Native American too. And there’s like different spots on the council for… So, it’s like the main council, and then like the Native American princesses and like… There’s like, a group of twenty. Something crazy like that. And then like, they come around and they’re like “Hi, we’re this year’s fiesta council. Like, come to Zozobra. It’ll be fun.”

ZM: So is that kinda like uhh… Like um, like a Miss New Mexico kind of thing?

KM: Yeah kind of.

ZM: But, like a cultural one.

KM: Yeah. So, it’s a big deal too. And then in every school they like would call out names and be like, “Oh the QUEEN of fiestas for Saint Michaels High School,” which is my high school…and they would just like name a person. And I always wanted to be that person in like elementary school, but then I realized you just have to be friends with like the people in the council. Cause they’re just like “Oh your daughter’s name is Sarah? Okay she’ll be the princess of Saint Michaels.” And I was like, “Bitch…I deserve it.” (laughs) Like come on…

ZM: But, what do you do as  the princess of…

KM: Oh you don’t do anything. You just wear a crown for that day… in the school.

ZM: Oh. But do you get to go to the… do you get to go to the…festival.

KM: Yeah you get to go to like a certain like VIP place for Zozobra. And it’s really interesting cause we play like a bunch of New Mexican songs and there’s like mariachi bands and like it’s really fun.

 

Context: This is from a conversation with KM originally about her Irish culture.

 

Background: KM is a sophomore studying at the University of Southern California. KM was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is of Irish descent.

 

Analysis: The most interesting thing about KM’s description of Zozobra was that even though the festival was made to celebrate the pueblo revolt against the Spanish colonizers, the colonizers are also celebrated in the form of the Fiesta Council. Again, the colonizers were put into positions of power over the others as members of the Fiesta Council nominate a Prince and Princess of Fiestas. It seems counterintuitive.

 

 

 

Día de los Muertos Traditions

Nationality: Mexian-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Texas, United States
Performance Date: 4 April 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Transcription: “We don’t do a big ofreda. My mom puts out photos of my grandma and lights a lot of candles on that day… I guess in remembrance of her spirit. We don’t eat the special bread.”

When I first asked my informant to tell me about any of her family traditions, she immediately thought of Día de los Muertos. Día de los Muertos is a holiday celebrated by those of Mexican descent. The celebration remembers those who are no longer living starting on October 31 and ending on November 2. During that time, the spirits of the dead were thought to be able to come to earth and mingle with the living.

My informant’s family is from Mexico and she is originally from Texas, therefore, she has a strong connection to Mexican culture. When I asked about her Dia de los Muertos practices, she explained that the traditions her family follows on the holiday are simple. Although her family recognizes Día de los Muertos, it is not an integral holiday in her family tradition.

Every year, her mother sets up Día de los Muertos decorations. Día de los Muertos is known for its extravagant ofrendas, or offerings, to the dead. Since Día de los Muertos is not a popular holiday in her family, they do not set up elaborate ofrendas. Instead, they set up pictures of deceased relatives and light candles. Her family’s decorations may be simplistic, but they accomplish the same goal as the ofrendas. Both honor the dead by recalling their image to the minds of the family and invite a spiritual form of remembrance.

According to my informant, there is a special type of sweet bread that is eaten on Día de los Muertos, but her family does not usually buy it. My overall impression was that her family celebrates Día de los Muertos not because they believe in the holiday, but because honoring the dead is central component of their culture.