Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Mom cooks, Dad cleans

Nationality: Swedish, Jewish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: April 21st, 2018
Primary Language: English

“My mom and dad always divided the responsibilities. My mom would always cook, and my dad would always clean.”

“I grew up in Westchester New York in the suburbs. My parents are both originally from New York. My mom moved all over when she was younger because her dad was in the Military Forces, but dad was born and raised in Queens. He went to school at Buffalo State and then moved into the city to start work. My dad is Syrian and Polish and my mom is Swedish, Irish, and Russian. My mom is more European decent and my dad is more Syrian.

“My dad’s side of the family all stayed close together, they all raised their kind in New York. We’re more spread out on our moms side because they were used to moving as kids. My dad’s side of the family never really moved.”

“My dad doesn’t really know how to cook. He can work a grill and do some basic stuff but my mom is the real cook of the family.”

“My mom learned to cook from her mom. She was from Sweden so a lot of the dishes are kind of similar to Swedish foods, she makes a really good beef stew. Then she converted to Judaism, so now she makes a lot of matzo ball soup which she learned from my dad’s father. She makes a lot of traditional food, like brisket and potato latkes. Since my mom converted, I eat a lot more traditional Jewish food. Because my whole family is from New York, we celebrate a lot of Jewish holidays, so yeah I guess that’s why we eat more Jewish cultured food.”

“My dad’s mom was a stay at home mom, so she would always cook for him. I guess that that tradition was passed down into our family. Well, my dad never really cooked or saw the man of the household cook growing up, so I don’t see why he would think that’s normal. My mom is a great cook though and I think that has a lot to do with why our family does meals that way. Also, like, if my mom’s gonna slave in the kitchen my dad might as well clean up. Team work.”

 

My Interpretation:

In modern times, there is much discussion about gender roles in society and in the household. Certain cultures stress that the woman is in charge of all domestic accounts, like cooking, cleaning, etc. Through listening to this dynamic, I was able to decide that I think that this set up is solely about cooking ability. If the wife makes better food, let her cook. Looking into their past lives, their modern and past cultures, and their heritage, there is little to determine that their meal set ups are structured this way due to cultural tendencies. Personally, being of Jewish decent and practicing their culture, I know that food is a huge part of their culture and lifestyle. In my experience, the people who know how to make the food make it, there is no worth in making food the wrong way and not letting everyone enjoy it. It is important to note that there are different types of Jewish cultures though. The interviewee’s family is of Sephardic decent, which is a strain of Judaism different from mine, therefor they could have different cultural characteristics than those of my own. I still believe that there is not much underlying cause for this teamwork, rather just how the family makes it work.

New Year’s Eve – Waves

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Artur, my friend from Brazil and my roommate in USC, was telling me about one of his traditions during New Year’s Eve, which has many celebrations all over the country. The story was told in Portuguese because is something that he does only when he celebrates in Brazil. It is extremely common to have superstitions and perform certain rituals right when the year stars. He tells the tradition like this:

“Tem uma tradição que a gente segue no Brasil, que todo Reveillon, para dar boa sorte no ano seguinte, a gente pula 7 ondas na praia. É um negócio que todo mundo faz quando tá na praia. Pessoas de todas as idades e também de todo mundo que estão lá. E acho que a primeira vez que eu ouvi disso, acho que eu era pequeno, tinha ido para a praia depois de um Reveillon, e eu não sei bem quem me falou para fazer isso, minha mãe ou minha avó, e eu comecei a prestar atenção com outros fins de ano que passei ali, que todo mundo fazia isso, então eu comecei a fazer também. Eu sei que, a origem dessa tradição tá relacionada com o Candomblé, que é a religião que surgiu no estado da Bahia por causa de uma mistura de diversas religiões do oeste da África que foram trazidos pelos escravos africanos durante a colonização do Brasil. E saiu como uma referenda para uma religião chamada iemanjá, que umas das figuras mais místicas, mais importantes dessa religião. Apesar de eu não ser da Bahia, eu sigo essa tradição muito menos pela oferenda, e mais pelo costume cultural disso.

 

“É por esse motivo que você gosta dessa tradição né? Mais pela parte cultura?”- I asked him.

Sim, você vai no “bandwagon” né. Mais eu acho simpático. Não sou supersticioso, mas, é, não custa nada.

“Ela tem algum significado especial para você?” – I asked him.

“Sinceramente não, só uma tradição que eu faço de vez em quando. Existem algumas no Reveillon, eu faço essa.”

Artur says that he has a tradition and superstition to jump over seven waves during New Year’s Eve. His grandma told him to do it and as he observed other people doing the same thing, he began to join this tradition, more as a bandwagon rather than any other specific reason. He says not to be really superstitious in general but he goes with this one because is something that everyone does in Brazil and it’s a way to start a new year with something to chase. I know Artur well enough to acknowledge that he isn’t in fact a superstitious person. I believe that this is a common thing in Brazil, just to “go with the flow” and do what others are doing, especially when you are young. In fact, this tradition is something that I also follow and although I am superstitious in this sense it was just something I did as a bandwagon. My parents told me about this tradition and how everyone did this so I decided to do it every year too. It’s a good way to start the year with a few dreams and to go after and achieve them. For every wave I jump, I come up with a wish and try to make this wish a reality in the upcoming year. I’ve been doing this until today and I plan to continue with this superstition throughout my life.

“C’est en forgeant qu’on deviant forgeron”

Nationality: Tunisian
Age: 19
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: French
Language: English

Tej is a USC friend and my partner in the soccer team. I met him during orientation and he has become one of my best friends in college. He was born in Tunisia but lived the majority of his life in the United States. Here’s his proverb story:

The proverb is in French, my dad always uses to tell me this in though situations: “c’est en forgeant qu’on deviant forgeron.” It’s like if you work hard you’ll succeed, practice makes perfect. It’s meaningful because I know that with hard work I will get to where I want to be in life. Dedication will pay off. My dad always told me since I was little in Tunisia, and continues to tell me. So when I first moved to the U.S. when I was about 9 years old I didn’t speak any English. It was very hard for me and I was having a tough time with my classes and everything but my dad just told me to keep working hard. So that’s what I did and now my English is almost perfect, I have no accent. And I mean I go to USC so I guess it all worked out in the end. Yet, I still apply it to any work I do, even with soccer, which is a meaningful sport to me. The more I practice the better I will be in that sport and that’s how I helped my team to win the league championship in during my freshman year. Beating UCLA at their home field couldn’t get any better.

I couldn’t agree more with this quote. Although I didn’t understand what it meant before the explanation, hard work does pay off and practice makes perfect. In life, the more you practice, the better you become, no matter what field you choose to pursue. I have heard many people say that willingness beats skill. If someone is good at something but doesn’t put the work to succeed, the other person who might not have the skill but who works hard will be the one to prosper and achieve the goal. Coming from abroad I didn’t know how hard it would be to get into a highly selective university like USC and I think that my hard work made me achieve my dream of studying in the US. Also, I believe that coming from his father also encouraged him to work hard and to believe in this proverb because it is someone who you look up to and this makes it even more special.

“You get what you give”

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 22
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

My proverb is “you get what you give.” I heard this saying for the first time when I was 18 years old in my history class in high school. We were learning about the history of the Americas, and it was right after the college application process was done and a little bit before the decisions came in. So everybody from my class was a little nervous and we pretty much stopped talking about what we were learning in class. Our professor, who had studied at Columbia University, gave us that piece of advice. He pretty much said that it doesn’t matter where you go for college in this case what matters the most is what you put in, cause that’s all you are going to take out of the experience. And I think I’ve taken this advice to heart, because it’s essentially true. Every time I start a different project, you know, I have a decision to make. I turn on the mindset that I’ll get what I give and I’m only taking out what I put in. A good piece of work won’t come without my input.

In my opinion, this proverb proposes the idea that it doesn’t matter where you stand, you output will be based on your performance. Although coming from a person who studied in an Ivy League school might be easy to say, it suggests that he put in the work for his achievements. Luck is always involved, but it’s only a small portion of the consequence. There is progressive association with the determination and its benefits, it doesn’t simply occur. I also try to apply this to my life in every aspect that I partake. I know the person who said this quote and he is in fact a hard worker. An excellent teacher and a great person and coming from him is meaningful to his students.

Cutting the Cake from the bottom Up

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/17/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

A tradition I have is to cut the cake on my birthday party from the bottom up. I first heard it when I was seven years old at my birthday party, and some uncle just yelled it out, “cut the cake from the bottom up so that you grow in life.” And it’s pretty common, every party you go to there’s going to be one person who’s going to yell it out the second before you cut the cake and it’s meaningful because it’s superstitious, it’s just thinking that if you cut the cake from the bottom up it means that you are going to grow and ascend in life. So, basically every time I have a birthday I do this, it’s an automatic response while I cut the cake and I really do believe that it will be beneficial for because I take this superstition seriously.

I’ve heard about this tradition several times throughout my life. It is said to be more normal in weddings rather than birthdays but I guess everyone does that while cutting the cake in celebration. In fact, I also do it sometimes but not as often as other people, since this is a superstition that I don’t really believe in. Pedro seems to be a superstitious person, he said that he has been doing this since the first time he heard about it. I think that having a superstition sometimes is healthy because thinking positively that you will grow in life can indirectly help you to achieve this. I believe that cutting the cake from the bottom up suggests that you will grow in life because you starting from the bottom and always growing; therefore, cutting the cake in the upward direction proposes that you will nurture.