Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Bikes in Traffic–Biking Customs

Nationality: US
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 16 April 2018
Primary Language: English

Context:

Madeleine is a sophomore at USC. She recently bought a bike, and in addition to riding it to class, had been going on trips all over East Los Angeles. Since biking downtown is especially dangerous, she observed the unofficial codes and movements of more experienced bikers to navigate the streets.

Transcript:

Madeleine: Maddy Hall, amateur biker, uhh for a short while. Recently was downtown observing other bikers so that I didn’t get hit by a car, uhh, and, you know they, the main way to get a car to notice you is to hold you hand out to the left, right in front of the car. And they you just go, you don’t look, which is really messed up, um. But then if the car hits you its their fault. And I went to a bike shop and this guy came in and he was talking about his settlement and I was like “what happened” and he was like “oh, I got hit by a car, like they turned right while I was going, um I think the main thing with bike culture is that it’s never your fault.

Interpretation:

Since Maddy has recently started biking around Los Angeles, she is just joining an unofficial community of bikers. There is no organization, but as with all communities, there are standard ways of being, in other words, folklore. You get the sense from her story that bikes tend to band together against cars in an us vs them sort of mentality. This strengthens the biker community. One of their customs, which is folklore because it is not an official traffic law, is merely sticking a hand out in front of a car to make one’s presence known.

Wedding Slander

Nationality: Ukrainian American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles,CA
Performance Date: 4/20/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

My friend V says that at every Russian wedding, it’s custom for the audience to yell “bitter” once the vows are being read to the couple. And that when they kiss, everyone stops and counts how many seconds the kiss last. According to superstition, the amount of seconds predicts how many children they will have. In Russian communities, a lot of kids is desirable so the longer the kiss the more bliss.

There’s another version of the superstition that says the amount of seconds is how long the marriage will last.

Personally, I like the first version because it’s hopeful and exciting to have great things in store for the future. On the other hand, if someone has a horrible marriage at least its end is in sight.

Look good, Play Good

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Miami,FL
Performance Date: 4/25/18
Primary Language: English

Every football game my friend J would make sure our clothes were clean, shirts tucked in, everything in order, etc. Josh sticks to this ritual today; whenever he has an exam he’s nervous for, he will wear nicer clothes because he thinks he will do better. And he typically does.

I can believe that this ritual, since it is comforting that it would make him perform better. It probably would make me perform better due to the pseudo effect.

 

We Say “Yay”

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Writer/Producer
Residence: Thousand Oaks, CA
Performance Date: 4/11/18
Primary Language: English

A family ritual this informant has is to say “yay” instead of saying “grace.” Informant explained it as so: “Every time we sit down to eat, we all join hands and yell ‘1 2 3 yay’ as loud as we can and then we start eating.” Informant mentioned that her mother grew up very Catholic. As a result, when she left home she decided to rebel and that instead of saying “grace,” she’d say “yay.” Doing this is supposed to be a symbol for pure positive energy with no political or religious connotations and supposed to bring together the informant’s family for a moment of gratitude and love. The informant mentioned that she and her brother were both going to pass along this ritual, and that she likes how anyone can enjoy doing this ritual since it is so non-denominational. This ritual is always done when friends or family come to the informant’s house for a sit-down meal. The reaction to this is positive from all that have done it with the informant and her family. Doing this ritual makes the informant feel closer to her family and happier, since it is something unique to her family. I think this is a great way of remaining unbiased about religion and a good way to raise children. It is not specific enough to really focus on any sort of deity or religion but it is also wholesome and teaches children good morals and how to have gratitude for things in life; it’s not about thanking a higher being but appreciating the things that are present in your life, and this is something I greatly respect and think overshadows most premises of religion.

The Game

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Writer/Producer
Residence: Thousand Oaks, CA
Performance Date: 4/11/18
Primary Language: English

This informant explained a game that she and her family do around the Oscar’s Awards season. “It’s this thing in my family called ‘the game,’ it was started by my godfather and mom and dad.” The informant explained that basically you lay out a certain number of movies and to decide which one you are going to watch you play this game.  It requires a coin and once you have the coin in your hand and you say, “If you choose it you are not eliminated,” and you keep going down until you have an order to pick the movie.  And then you pick in order which movie you don’t want to see.  After that, then it’s the most democratic way to pick a movie. This one is very specific to the informant’s family since the informant’s father is in the Academy and they get the movie screeners for all the films that have come out in the past year and have to watch them and vote for the nominees. The key thing that the informant noted is that everyone eliminates one movie per round so that by the end, it’s a movie that no one DOESN’T want to see. The joke is kind of that no one ends 100% with what they wanted, but no one can complain because they could’ve taken the movie out. The informant mentioned that she hopes to continue this game and that hopefully she’ll have an Academy Award one day so she can continue to get the movies. She does feel that the game is a really long process and at times, tedious, “so it’s annoying sometimes, but it brings us together,” the informant said with a smile on her face. If I were the informant, I’d be happy about playing this game since I love movies, and I think it’s a fun family tradition that’s very unique to them.