Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Blowing the Candles for Wishes

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 23
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Ceará, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/13/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Davi is a USC alumni that has been working in Los Angeles since he graduated. I met him in one of the Brazilian Student Association events during my freshman year. He is a good friend and never abandoned his Brazilian roots. He talked about his birthdays and how he makes a wish every time he blows the candle. Here is his story:

 

My tradition is making a wish before blowing the candles on my birthday. I first heard it when I was five years old from my mother and it’s a tradition that has been in my family for ages, so it’s important for me because I really believe that making a wish before blowing my candle, it’s going to become real. I have made some wishes that have turned into reality so I will continue doing that for my upcoming birthdays. I will also pass this tradition to my children, because apart from being something that goes through my family I think that having faith is an important part of life. You have to first believe in something and then fight for it and in my opinion it is a good way to start by making those wishes during your birthday.

Davi appears to be a superstitious person because he has been sticking to this tradition since he was little. I think he started to believe heavily in making wishes before blowing the candles because it is something that has been passing down through generations in his family that is always meaningful to people. I think that having heard about this tradition when he was a young boy also encouraged him to keep doing it because as children we tend to believe in things more easily. Furthermore, Davi said that some of his wishes during birthdays have become reality; as a consequence, he continues to blow candles and make wishes in hopes of realizing all of his other dreams. In fact, I make wishes every time I blow the candles on my birthday; I believe it’s something really common.

 

Academic source:

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-we-blow-out-birthday-candles

Birthday Hat

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

My family and I spent the new years eve of 2007 to 2008 at Disney. Since it was such a memorable trip, we bought a happy birthday cake hat as a souvenir in one of the stores of the amusements parks.  We had yet no idea how much this hat would mean to us. On my dad’s birthday, I believe it was in the year of 2008, my mom made my dad wear the hat whilst we sang him happy birthday to him. It was seen as a joke and we thought we would only do it once but every birthday afterwards, the member of the family that was celebrating his or her birthday would wear the hat. It became our family tradition. For me, it is extremely meaningful, not only because it reminds me of our trip, but also because it is a tradition that grew with me. At some point I thought it was really silly that I had to wear a birthday hat while people sang happy birthday to me, but the tradition grew so strong within my family that it became a pleasure.

I believe that the initial idea was just to buy something to remind her of the family trip. To have an object that represents a time where all of the family was in a break having a good time together. However, it became part of a tradition because it was a birthday hat and her family thought it would be nice to celebrate the birthdays wearing the hat. It’s not something that represents a superstition, yet an idea of having a good time. At my house, we normally do the “kitchen party” as we call it. It’s kind of a surprise party (not anymore because everyone celebrating a birthday knows it’s going to happen) that happens in the kitchen as soon at the person celebrating the birthday gets home. It’s amusing and I think it’s healthy to have these jokes during birthday parties.

Shabbat Dinner

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/19/2018
Primary Language: English

I have Shabbat dinner with my family every Friday night. This is a great tradition to have because you get to sit around the table and reflect on the past week as well as celebrate a religious holiday. I have been celebrating this religious holiday since I was in Pre School. We get to sit on the same seats and eat the same meals every Friday night. I believe this is important because it not only creates an incredible bond with all of your family not only in the sense of being together but also in a way that we all share our concerns and problems and get to hear from each other. We hear suggestions and apply them to our lives. It is meaningful to me because it really is a religious thing that we do every week and although I don’t consider myself to be e very religious person it helps with my well-being.

In my opinion having a family bond is always necessary. People normally grow up and with time are not as close to their family like they were before. Brendan says that he is not a very religious person but he still participates on these religious family dinners not only to celebrate the Jewish community but most importantly to have a time where the family can meet on a regular basis. I am catholic and although I believe in my faith I barely partake on religious practices. These dinners are meant to represent something bigger than religion and I think it is really important for people to have these family reunions, especially with such regularity. It is a time where they can share their experiences and ask for advice. I wish I had the opportunity to do that with more frequency.

Same Socks

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; NY
Performance Date: 04/19/2018
Primary Language: English

When I played football in high school, for our games I liked to wear the same socks every time. First of all they were comfortable, but I was also superstitious and it made me feel better and confident going into each game. It was just a tradition I had that, you know, I kept throughout middle school and high school. It wasn’t the same pair of socks throughout the whole time; it was basically one for every season. And it was just the consistency that made me feel confident going in each and every weekend in the games against the opponents. I think it’s really important to keep a superstition like that because it’s something psychological and I believe that there are studies that show that your performance does increase when you have something like that.

I believe that having a kind of superstition will actually increase your performance. As he said, there are studies that show that you do better when you have these kind of psychological motivations. I used to do something similar during my soccer games, listening to the same song during the warm-ups. It worked pretty well because I got into the game hyped up and thinking I would win. Of course that there is no direct impact on the way you play but rather an indirect consequence that will help your mind put yourself in the game. I highly recommend doing something similar to this.

Eyelash Wishes

Nationality: Brazilian/American
Age: 22
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/18/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Portuguese

One habit that I have is when an eyelash falls on my cheek or in someone else’s cheek; I blow it or tell them to blow it and make a wish. The first time I did that I was in middle school and an eyelash had fallen on my cheek and I hadn’t noticed. A girl came up to me and took it off my cheek and put it on her finger and told me to blow it. She told me to make a wish. And that’s how I started. I liked that girl so I kept doing it. It is meaningful because (pause) I think it was a start of a beautiful friendship, and after that happened I really became close friends with that girl. It just kept me doing it, with different people. And coming from her I think it was nice because now I actually think that my wishes will come true.

I think Thomas was more concerned about the relationship he built with the girl than the consequence of making a wish and realizing it. I actually have this same superstition of making a wish after an eyelash falls in my cheek or in front of me but instead of blowing it I put it in my chest. That’s how my mom told me to do in order for the wish to become a reality. I am not very superstitious with these things but I do it because everyone does it too. Even though I perhaps have a positive feeling that sometimes it might become a reality, I don’t really have a lot of faith on these things. However, it became an automatic response to an eyelash falling.