Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

4/20 Folklore

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Residence: Marin County, CA
Primary Language: English

Type: Legend

  1. “There is the holiday 4/20, when everyone smokes week (laughter). So apparently, 4/20 started near me, in San Rafael. A couple kids in San Rafael at San Rafael High School, would smoke everyday at 4:20. After lacrosse practice or something, they would go sit next to some statue, a statue of a person, some famous person I think. Yeah everyday after practice at 4:20, and ever since then 4/20 became a holiday. I don’t know how it became so famous but I heard that in Marin and in other parts of California, especially San Francisco, friends of friends started doing it.”
  2. I obtained this piece of folklore from my cousin Clay. Clay is a year older than me, and grew up in Mill Valley California, which is located in Marin County (just North of San Francisco). Marin County is nationally famous for its breathtaking natural elements (forest, beaches, lakes etc.), as well as being known as a more earthy, “hippie” place, in which San Rafael is also located. Clay heard this legend from friends at school, as well as siblings of friends. San Rafael is only about 20 minutes away from where Clay grew up, and he told me that he hears this legend all the time.
  3. This piece of folklore is usually passed throughout high school groups. I grew up about 45 miles south of San Rafael, and I heard a very similar story in my high school group of friends, as well as my siblings telling me. The legend is most popular on the actual holiday of 4/20, in which many people are curious to how the holiday became a holiday. No one really talks about when the holiday became a holiday, just that kids at San Rafael High School was the origin place.
  4. I have heard this legend numerous times and I firmly believe it is true. Even on Wikipedia it talks about San Rafael High School and some statue. Everyone in Northern California basically knows this piece of folklore, it is very common.

 

The Willow Man

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Residence: Marin County, CA
Primary Language: English

Type: Legend

  1. “In elementary school there was a big urban myth I guess is what I would call it. So near my elementary school there was a willow tree, and there was this whole willow man myth. All the kids were scared of it. Kids were not supposed to go near the tree but we did anyway. There was a forest next to my elementary school and the only way to get in was to go under the willow tree because the grass was too tall. Yeah we weren’t supposed to but we all would, go run around, and explore the forest. There was this urban legend of the willow man, I guess he lived in the forest and if you went into the forest you would see him sometime. It was a creepy thing but there was no explanation, no ‘take you away’ it was just the willow man. He was just there, living in the forest near the willow tree and he just would creep us all out.”
  2. I obtained this piece of folklore from my cousin Clay. Clay is a year older than me, and grew up in Mill Valley California, which is located in Marin County (just North of San Francisco). Marin County is nationally famous for its breathtaking natural elements (forest, beaches, lakes etc.), and all his schools as well as his home is surrounded by forest basically.
  3. This piece of folklore, according to Clay, is incredibly popular among the kids at his elementary school. It is passed down grade to grade and is therefore kept “alive.” Now that he and his friends are older, they no longer believe in the willow man myth, as their age and height allows them to explore the forest and it is no longer scary for him and them. This legend is unique to Clay’s school, and therefore will probably not exists in other schools to this exact detail, but I and he is sure that other schools probably have similar legends.
  4. I never had never heard of any legends like this when I was in elementary school, but in high school I had many legends about teachers and substitute teachers. None of which were scary or frightening like the willow man legend. Either way, I think that these types of legends like the willow man bring students closer, and they establish a unique basis for communication within this specific community.

How to Name Scottish Royalty

Nationality: Scottish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Milton, MA
Performance Date: 3/25/17
Primary Language: English

Context: Gathered from one of my roommates once he found out about my collection project.

Background: My roommate comes from “a long lineage of Scottish kings and clan leaders of a certain group of isles.”

The Tradition: In Scotland, the ritual for naming a child in a family line, particularly if they’re royalty, is to simply add the prefix “Mc” or “Mac” to the name of the father and make that the child’s surname.

Example: My roommate has an ancestor with the full title Angus McRonald McDonald Sworely, King of the Isles. Thus, he is alternatively know as King Angus, Son of Ronald McDonald Sworely, who was himself at one point King Ronald, Son of Donald Sworely.

(Note: The proper spelling of the surname “Sworely” is unknown.)

Analysis: I found this Scottish process of naming is most comparable to the Vikings’ method of creating the “____son” surname (Ex: Lief Erikson, or Lief, Son of Erik). I put a little research into the claims my roommate made, and the only thing I found off about the whole thing was that the names mentioned above are in fact “MacDonald” rather than “McDonald” (I kept the piece above as is for the sake of putting down what I was told by my roommate).

The Unitarian Universalist Church

Nationality: Scottish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Milton, MA
Performance Date: 3/25/17
Primary Language: English

Context: Gathered from one of my roommates once he found out about my collection project.

Background: My roommate has never had a set religious background, and was always in something of a melting pot of faiths when he went to churches like the one described here.

Dialogue: So, I don’t know exactly how Unitarianism, like, started, but… At some point it was just this sort of culmination of, like, various Christian sects, like Episcopalian or Protestant or whatever was around Massachusetts going on. Just a bunch of them sort of, like, coalesced into one group that’s like… “You know what, Trinity or Unity, doesn’t matter! We all have spirit!”

Analysis: The intereseting thing about this piece of folklore to me is how much is blended together in a church like this. It’s not only a mixing of various religious sects, either: at one point, my roommate sang a song he was taught as a kid, about the “Seven Guiding Principles of Kindness.” He remembers only these lines:

One, each person is important
Two, be kind in all you do

The song, interestingly enough, is set to the tune of “Do-Re-Mi” fromthe mucial The Sound of Music. So we have a mashup of popular culture, religion, and folk belief, all in this single church.

The Family Car Story

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Portland, OR
Performance Date: 3/13/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese (Mandarin)

Context: I collected this from a friend on a trip over Spring Break, after he’d heard me talking about folklore with another friend I was collecting from.

Background: This is a story my friend’s father like to recount at family gatherings or parties they host.

Dialogue: A large part of my family comes from this one place in Wisconsin called Steven’s Point, um, and, for a while they were… uh, I think, one side of my family was a— uh, was pretty wealthy and lived there for a while, and so, I think, when cars started rolling in across the country, um… So in the 1930s, I think, or, uh, the 1940s, my… great-grandmother, uh, she, moved to Steven’s Point, Wisconsin, uh, and, I think she was, she was starting to get kind of old, and she had to go renew her driver’s license. Now… there were only two cars in Steven’s Point at that time: the one she was driving, and the one she crashed into.

Analysis: The fact that my friend’s father likes to regularly tell this story at gatherings/parties convinced me to mark this in the Customs category, since it’s a familial custom for him to tell it. And while it’s not the most universal story in the world to tell, it feels very important in the legacy of this particular family. So it works as a more personal piece of folklore that way.