Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Dabke

Nationality: American, Lebanese-American
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 3/26/23
Language: English, Arabic

[L]: For weddings, we always have like specific instruments for like the ceremony. We have tabals, which are a certain kind of drum that will be at every wedding, every Lebanese wedding reception. There’s also the darbuka which is another type of drum and then there’s also a little like flute…I don’t really know what it’s called but if you googled “lebanese flute” you could find it. [I did google it, and it’s called a zamour] And those three instruments are essential for Lebanese weddings.

[Me]: Do you happen to know why?

[L]: Well those are just the instruments that are used for all parties, aka hafle, but those instruments are just like at the center of almost all like party music and they’ve all been used in the region forever. You’ll find variations of those instruments in every other country in the Middle East..but yeah.

[Me]: Are there particular types of songs that they play? Or even a particular mood or tone or rhythm of them?

[L]: Usually very upbeat, um, and the mood or rhythm…there’s a very iconic Lebanese party music if you look up Faris Karam, he’s a very….iconic singer and his songs will always be at weddings. There’s also a dance that we do called dabke and we do that at all of our parties and weddings.

L is 20 years old and a student at USC. She grew up in Michigan, but spent most summers in Lebanon with family. Her dad grew up in Lebanon and immigrated to the United States in his early 20s, and her mom grew up in the United States in a Lebanese immigrant family. L has been to multiple Lebanese weddings—though only in the United States—so this information comes from her first-hand experiences as well as her general knowledge of Lebanese culture from her upbringing. 

I was fortunate enough to attend a USC Lebanese, Egyptian, Persian club crossover event with L very shortly after conducting this interview, and was able to experience and witness dabke first-hand. The dance didn’t make an appearance until about 2 hours had gone by of vibrant Arabic music blasting all around, but when it did surface, it was unstoppable. There was no distinction between those of Lebanese or Egyptian or Persian origin, this was a moment of people coming together to perform a dance that they knew as well as their own names. The most wonderful part of dabke, in my humble opinion, is that it works in a similar fashion to a conga line—participants can keep joining at the end of the chain—but instead of being linear, the front of the line begins to spiral inward to create a sort of pinwheel of people, all holding hands and united in dance. It makes perfect sense that this would be a dance performed at weddings and other celebrations alike—upon doing a little bit of research, I found that the dance has ties to community, family bonding, and resilience: “A simple message of locking arms together, stomping to the ground, and singing or chanting has left a deep mark in the culture…it unifies us against our oppressor” (Dabke Dance: A Shared Tradition of the Levant). Dabke is a folk dance known well in regions like Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, where people live and die by their connections to their family and community. Speaking to the specific wedding performance of dabke, a wedding is a liminal period in one’s life, and thus a dance promoting and encouraging resilience and unity would serve to reassure the newlyweds and make sure that they know they have the strength and love of the community behind them. All in all, dabke is a beautiful manifestation of the dearly held beliefs, ideals, and traditions of both Lebanese and other middle-eastern cultures.

Swedish Christmas Traditions

Nationality: American, Swedish
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English, Swedish

[E]: During Christmas we have a bunch of Swedish traditions…we eat a lot of food…i’m not gonna say the food is great, it’s more traditional food. It’s fish, peas, potatoes, it’s very…you know…viking. But we do this celebration before we end up opening presents which is always on Christmas Eve and we all hold hands and the person in the front, who’s usually the oldest person in my family so it’s always my grandmother, we all hold hands in a line and sing this song and dance around the house and we go into every single room in the entire house singing this song. It’s basically just talking about how it’s a new year and we’re ridding the house of any negative spirits from the year before or any negative auras, like saying a room but everyone’s in there and we’re all singing together. So then we go back to the kitchen and we wrap around this island in the kitchen and we pass around this big…what’s it called…pitcher of beer and you pass it around to every person next to you and they do that in Sweden to make sure that nobody poisoned the beer because that would be the beer that they’d drink from for the whole night. You say these things, it’s a bunch of Swedish words that mean “can I drink this? Yes you can drink this! Cheers” and cheers is skol.

E is a 20 year old college student who grew up in Pasadena, CA and has grown up visiting her family in Sweden often. She is also very close to her grandmother, who was born and raised in Sweden and who has passed a lot of knowledge down to E.

Based on this interview, it’s easy to see that these Swedish Christmas traditions are deeply tied to Swedish history, ideals, and customs. E refers to the traditional Christmas food as “viking,” indicating that she sees a direct connection between Sweden’s long history and the present. The ritual of going through each room of the house while singing represents a belief in the importance of cleansing and renewal, and the idea of starting the new year with a clean slate. I’d be interested in further exploring what E meant when she talked about “negative spirits,” specifically whether or not she actually believes that there are metaphysical spirits or if that’s just the tradition that’s been passed down. Additionally, the act of passing the pitcher around to make sure that no one has poisoned the beer shows a level of trust and community spirit, as well as a wariness of potential dangers—likely established over a long period of time, when people used to be legitimately poisoned at such gatherings. All in all, these Christmas traditions show that modern Swedish customs and celebrations are very connected to the physical and cultural history of the nation and its people.

New Year’s Day Sauerkraut

Age: 24

Text: “On New Year’s day my family eats sauerkraut for good luck. It’s a German thing. We have smoked sausage and mashed potatoes with it. We’ve been doing this since I was a kid, and my mom did it as a kid as well. We do it for good luck. To start the year off right.” 

Context: The informant grew up in Ohio and his parents did as well. His mom is part German, and passed on some of her German traditions to her kids. His mom grew up in Hamilton, Ohio where there is a portion of town called “Germantown” because a lot of German immigrants settled there. The German tradition is thought to bring about good luck and was brought to his Midwest my immigrants.

Analysis: For many people, the new year is an opportunity to make changes, set positive intentions, and start over, in a sense. And so, many rituals often surround the idea of prosperity and good fortune—This tradition does just that. Sauerkraut is believed to have certain healing properties including improved liver function, removal of bacteria and parasite, and is even thought to prohibit the growth of cancer. And so, I believe that the tradition of eating sauerkraut in the new year is done so in hopes of bringing good health and good luck in the new year.

Thankful on Thanksgiving

Age: 22
Occupation: Student

Text: “For Thanksgiving, my family always celebrates the day before Thanksgiving and we sit at the table and go around saying what we’re thankful for. We’ve been doing that every year for as long as I can remember. And since we celebrate the day before, on actual Thanksgiving, we reflect on those things and it sets the tone for the day.”

Context: The informant grew up in Las Vegas, NV. Her parents are divorced, and so she grew up celebrating with one side the day before Thanksgiving, and the other side the next day. However, the sharing tradition is only on her dad’s side of the family.

Analysis: I believe that this tradition was implemented by the informant’s father’s side as a way of drawing attention away from the fact that her entire family doesn’t celebrate all together, like they may have in the past. I believe that it was a method put in place by her parent figures to bring positivity and gratitude to a situation that may have been less than ideal for a younger child. I also think it is a way of practicing mindfulness and communication with important people in your life meant to encourage similar discussion at other times. 

New Year’s Black Eyed Peas

Age: 22
Occupation: Student

Text: “My family is very superstitious and every year on New Year’s Day, we make Texas Caviar which is a dish made up of black eyed peas, black beans, corn, jalenpeños, onion, avocado and a vinaigrette dressing. Everyone who comes over to our house to celebrate the New Year absolutely has to have a bite of Texas Caviar to ensure they’ll have good luck for the whole year. The black eyed peas are what specifically create this good luck. I remember when I was younger, I didn’t really like beans and hated being forced to eat them but my family would always force me.”

Context: The informant grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and her mom is from there too. Her dad is from New Jersey. They have been partaking in this tradition for as long as she can remember. Her mom’s side of the family partook in the tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day before her family did, but they ate them straight out of the can rather than in Cowboy Caviar.

The tradition of black eyed peas goes back to the Civil War, when eating black eyed peas was considered a privilege and lucky. They are supposed to symbolize luck and prosperity, and the informant’s family views them as such still. 

Analysis: The new year is a particularly superstitious time for many people and I believe it is because it is the start of a new cycle. People often see it as a reset, a chance for change, and a new beginning. Because of this, the first day of the new year can be extremely important, as it may set the tone, or the outcome of the rest of the year to follow. So, I believe that in partaking in this tradition, it is the informant and the informant’s families hope that the new year is prosperous and brings good luck.