“So the ghost light is that light you leave on in the back of a stage, or any theater. And you do it for, like, the spirits in the theater, or like, um, the souls of the departed who wish to participate.”
This folk object/tradition was described by a friend while we were eating lunch at a restaurant. I asked him when he had first heard of this tradition.
“Uh, my production and design overview class, uh, freshman year of high school.”
“The ghost light, oh. Honestly I don’t know a whole lot. I remember, I know…so what it looks like is, it’s this…it’s kind of like a stand that has wheels, with a light on top. Usually blue, I think. At least, the one I saw was blue. Um, and I believe it’s there…I know it’s there at the beginning of plays. Like, I think it’s to light up the stage so that there’s some sort of lighting so that people can see somewhat and don’t fall, ‘cause stages are dangerous.”
This folk object/tradition was described by a friend after class ended. She worked in theaters (where this tradition takes place) during high school, but she does not anymore.
I asked what she knew about the origin of the name:
“I haven’t really heard many stories about it that have to do with the name. Um, yeah, I don’t remember why it’s called ghost light. Maybe ‘cause it floats, and people are like, ‘Floating lights are ghosts!’ But I really don’t know.”
The folk practice of homebrewing was described to me by a friend as we ate lunch in a dining hall. There is no official recipe for this practice, and my friend’s homebrewing was influenced by many sources, both official and unofficial. ‘A’ refers to my friend, and ‘B’ refers to me.
A: What I do is I make homemade uh, hard ginger ale. So, um, it’s a pretty interesting process that…I mean like, I kind of crafted this recipe from a bunch of different recipes. Um, I have no clue where these recipes came from, but…
B: Where did you find them?
A: Uh, online, word of mouth, uh, I have some homebrewing friends who sent me, you know, their family recipes and stuff. Uh, and so, yeah, I started taking bits and pieces from uh, those recipes and…made uh… It’s become, it’s become a hobby, you know? Like, like, I mean on one end, you know, it’s cool ‘cause, like, you get, you know, a good beverage. But on the other hand, it’s like, it’s this…thing that you piece together, uh, from multiple different sources and craft it into your own thing. And you get your own sort of take on all these other forms of this…the same drink, just different, you know, recipes.
Transcription:
Interviewer: “What’s your family tradition?”
Informant: “Okay…in Japan it is pretty traditional and normal that in the beginning of the New Year,in January, you eat sukiyaki. It is a winter food so It’s really only made in winter. Uh…my grandmother is a native from Japan. As a native from Japan, she takes a lot of the traditions with her. One of the…key being…actually that’s the only one we really celebrate anymore, one of the key ones being that. So on January 1st every year we all pile into my Aunt Judy’s house in the morning around 11am or so and she, and my dad, and all of my aunts, who are her children, spend the entire morning making sukiyaki and preparing all the rice, and the meat, and the vegetables, and the noodles, etc. And by 5 o’ clock it’s finally finished and we all get in line and we pack our plates with sukiyaki and rice and we mix it up, we eat it, and we have a grand old time. And it’s not too cold here in Southern California but if it was cold, I would imagine that sukiyaki would feel like a warm hug on a cold winter day. “
Summary:
The informant has a family tradition where her family gathers together for New Years. When they do, her grandmother, father, and aunts all cook a big sukiyaki meal. This is based on a Japanese tradition. Since her grandmother is native Japanese, she held onto this tradition. We have a similar tradition where my grandmother would make black eyed peas on New Years. It was supposed to be good luck.
Transcription:
Interviewer: “Do you have any cool family traditions?”
Informant: “Hm… that’s an interesting question…um…because I don’t…I have a really small immediate family um… cuz I don’t have many living grandparents. It’s just- and I’m an only child of my mom and so…um we don’t- we as a small family don’t have any but I have a larger family…um…of step siblings and half siblings who I’m close to. And with them we do a family reunion every year…out in Ohio which is like the big tradition that we all partake in. Yeah.
Interviewer: “What kind of things do you do there?”
Informant: “Um…we…so we gather in this…in the house that my…dad’s…not my stepmom but my dad’s ex-wife lives in. Um on an island called ‘Balast Island’(?). Uh…she’s awesome. She was excommunicated from the catholic church for being secretly ordained as a female priest. Um and so she’s weird and great. Um…so we all gather there and it’s about anywhere from 20 to 45 people depending…cuz on how many people come…um cuz yeah I have uh 6 half siblings. Yeah we play games, we cook. Um…one thing is the kids always play Ghosts in the Graveyard, where we wait til the final night and have like a bonfire and roast marshmallows, we do that. Um… yeah that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.”
Summary:
The informant doesn’t have any big family traditions with his immediate family. However he does have a big family reunion with his step family. They have a tradition of meeting up in Ohio and having a bonfire as well as a multitude of activities. The kids have a tradition of playing Ghosts in the Graveyard. The informant tried to bring Ghosts in the Graveyard to our school when he was helping us plan an event. He was spreading a folk game that many of us hadn’t heard of at the point. The plans ultimately fell through but we were introduced to a new game nonetheless.