Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Vishu

Nationality: Indian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: April 24, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi, Tamil

My informant is a young Indian-American woman who takes great pride in her cultural customs and retains a strong connection to and knowledge of these practices. She told me about a practice known as Vishu, a New Year’s celebration specific to Kerala (but different variations are practiced in other regions).

The new year in Kerala is the day of the spring equinox. The preparations for Vishu are performed by the head woman/matriarch of the family, usually the grandmother or mother. She goes and makes an arrangement in the puja (prayer) room of the house, which is where a shrine usually is located. A core part of this arrangement is a metal mirror. Other components include fruits (specifically jackfruit, mangoes, and an open coconut as these are native Indian fruits) to signify a bountiful harvest, a little bit of money, and uncooked shelled rice.

The god in the shrine tends to be either Vishnu or Krishna, but sometimes they can be the regional South Indian deity Ayyappa. The ceremonial plate that holds all of the puja items is made of tin and is very flat with raised sides. There is also a lamp, flowers, vermillion (kumkum) for bindis, and turmeric which is also applied to the neck and forehead.

After the preparation is complete, the woman who prepared it will sleep overnight in the puja room, so that the arrangement is the first thing that she sees when she wakes up. There is a specific time frame that she is supposed to wake up between, as it is auspicious. My informant had trouble remembering the exact times, but she believed the time frame was between 3 or 4 and 6 am. After she awakes, she will pray at the shrine. Then, she goes around the house and wakes up each family member one by one, blindfolding each family member and leading them to the puja room so that the arrangement is also the first thing that they see.

In Malayalam, “vishukani” essentially means “the first thing that you see”. My informant told me that Vishu has a distinctly calmer and more laid-back tone than most other Indian holidays, focusing on being happy with family rather than loud community celebrations. Vishu is also more of an astrological than religious holiday, as it centers around the spring equinox rather than a specific Hindu date.  Other customs surrounding Vishu are the practice of wearing new clothes, occasionally giving money to the children, and popping small firecrackers. Also, there is a traditional meal that is supposed to have every kind of flavor (ie. sweet, sour, bitter, etc.). Sometimes there is bitter mango, or this one sweet that has coconut milk and rice flour.

I love the idea of purposefully setting up an elaborate and auspicious arrangement so that you can begin the new year with a vision of beauty and prosperity.

Namaskar(am)

Nationality: Indian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: April 24, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi, Tamil

My informant is a young Indian-American woman who told me about an important symbol of deference in Indian culture.

In India, it is customary and a sign of respect to touch the feet of people who are considered to be your social superior. This includes mainly elders, teachers, and highly respected individuals. One generally greets the person, kneels down, and touches their feet before standing back up again. Occasionally, the person might stop this individual from touching their feet, insisting that they do not need to be so formal. My informant tells me that it is then extremely awkward if the individual then insists on touching the person’s feet, so they usually drop the matter then.

Naturally, this gesture carries over to the gods when Hindus pray. However, the gesture is a little different when interacting with gods than when doing the same to other people. The act of symbolically touching a god’s foot is known as Namaskar in the north, or Namaskaram in southern Indian regions.

During this process, one does not actually touch the god’s foot, but it is implied through action. Men and women perform this task differently. Men lay flat on their stomachs in a prostrating position, with their arms in front of their head and hands put together in a pointed shape. Women curl over in a face-down fetal position with their forehead touching the floor and their hands laid flat in front of their head. This is a very important form of Hindu prayer.

My informant tells me that a common theme in Hindu mythology includes the negative ramifications of not touching someone’s feet, especially the gods. One particular example of this includes a story of Vamana, one of Vishnu’s incarnations. Vamana has the appearance of a poor old monk, and one day he visited the home of a demon king who used to be kind but had become arrogant and dangerous. Vamana showed up to this king’s home and pretended to beg for alms. The demon king boasted about how he would be glad to give the monk anything he wanted, because he would be able to do so. Vamana then asked for four steps of the demon king’s land, to which the king readily agreed. Vamana grew to a massive size, and made three steps that encompassed first heaven, then earth, then the underworld. When he asked for the fourth step, the demon king realized that there was nowhere left for Vamana to stand and so he offered up his head, thus redeeming himself and restoring his humility. This story has significance to the practice of Namaskar because offering oneself to come into contact with another’s foot is an intense sign of humility. Feet are gross, and furthermore are at the lowest possible point of a person. By willingly touching the foot of someone else, you are lowering yourself in respect to their position.

I always find it fascinating to see the intersection between mythology and cultural practices/values.

Romanian Bear Dance

Nationality: Romanian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Romanian

My informant is the daughter of Romanian immigrants. She has spent much of her childhood visiting relatives in Romania, in an area that she describes as “Romanian hick country”.

There is a traditional Romanian dance known simply as the Bear Dance, in which Romanian men dress themselves in real bear skins and dance through the streets of their town. This tradition takes place some time between Christmas and the new year, as a way to ward off evil spirits and welcome in a safe and prosperous new year. Everyone in the town comes out and watches this dance, even though it is the dead of winter and freezing cold. Romanian winters are similar to Russian winters, and these people are not dressed in the heaviest of clothing. My informant speculates that this was most likely a pagan celebration that has over time become “Christianized” as a holiday ritual.

I’m curious as to how these people acquire so many bear skins – I asked my informant and she admitted that she had no idea.

Flat 7UP Settles a Sick Stomach

Nationality: Irish
Age: 54
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Dublin, Ireland
Performance Date: January 21st, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Irish

Background: Informant is 54-year-old woman living in Dublin, Ireland. She was born and raised in rural Ireland without access to modern medicine for minor ails, and so knows many folk-remedies for everyday pains. She is married and has one grown daughter. In this conversation, she is signified by the letters C.D.

 

Main Piece:

C.D.: My mam used to always do this when I had a sick stomach. Back home, at the time there was no access to fancy antacids or the like that there is nowadays, so this was pretty much Gospel – all the neighbors used to do it too, and when I asked the other people at school a good few of them had heard of it.

Basically, what you do to settle a sick stomach is you pour out a glass of 7up and just let it sit on a window-sill to go flat. And then you drink it, and your stomach should be all good in about 20 minutes. I think it replaces some of the sugars and fluids you lose when you’re sick too, sure there’s no harm in it anyways.

 

A.: Does it have to be a window-sill?

 

C.D.: Probably not, but that’s how my mam would do it and it seemed to work most of the time so why mess with a good thing, right?

 

A.: True. Where did your mam learn it?

 

C.D.: Would it be a cop-out to say that she learned it from her mam? But I actually think I do remember Granny coming around and minding us when mam went away and she did the same thing for my brother, but I think it was just flat Coke she used. It’s probably just a placebo effect anyways, the fact that we’ve been brought up to believe that it works probably gives you a false sense of feeling better after you drink it.

 

Performance Context: I interviewed the informant over FaceTime due to her being in Ireland and I in California. When I mentioned that I was feeling unwell and she prescribed this remedy. The original context as far back as I could discover was her mother. However, after a quick Google it is clear that this is a common ‘remedy,’ and is particularly associated with Irish folk medicine despite the origination of soft drinks in America.

 

My Thoughts: I’ve actually used this remedy and to an extent it seems to work. Perhaps it’s just because I was brought up in a culture where this was the first port of call when you had a minor stomach upset that it works for me purely based on placebo effect. This is similar to how it has been observed that people whose doctors wear white coats get better faster from the sense of confidence in their treatment the coat symbolizes. Considering the popularity of this remedy in Ireland, I’d be interested as to how someone discovered that flat soft drinks worked as a ‘cure’ in the first place, considering they’re not all that appetizing.

“Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin.”

Nationality: Irish
Age: 54
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Dublin, Ireland
Performance Date: January 22nd, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Irish

Translation (Literal): There’s no hearth like your own hearth

Translation (Modern English): There’s no place like home

 

Background: Informant is 54-year-old woman living in Dublin, Ireland. Raised in rural Ireland, she has a wealth of Irish proverbs and sayings, which are called seanfhocail in the original Irish (literally “old words”). She is married and has one grown daughter. She is signified in this conversation by the initials C.D.

 

Main Piece:

C.D.: The saying goes, “Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán fein.”

 

A: Would you be able to define that for me?

 

C.D.: Of course. It’s an old Irish seanfhocail – that’s like an old proverb or saying – that means ‘there’s no hearth like your own hearth,’ kind of like the modern ‘there’s no place like home.’ I’d say that’s the most popular one of all the old sayings. I think a lot of them got assimilated into English because there’s loads of things that are kind of cliché sayings nowadays that got taken from the Irish and made their way into popular culture. I suppose that it helped that there was already a phrase in English ready to accommodate it.

 

A.: And do you think that it’s true? Is there really no place like home?

 

C.D.: Well, it’s nice to go on holidays and everything, but I don’t think I’d ever leave Ireland for good. A lot of my family emigrated and it was tough on them, they could hack it of course but they’d always be counting down the days until they came home – and then they’d be off again! I don’t want to live my life like that. I’ve made a life for myself here and I couldn’t be happier with it. I wouldn’t want to have to be wishing my time away, sure life’s too short for that! I suppose that’s why we use it when welcoming people home, because it’s such a quintessentially Irish phrase and in the language it has a bit more punch to it.

 

Performance context: I interviewed the informant over FaceTime due to her being in Ireland and I in California. In conversation about me coming home at the end of the semester, she mentioned this saying to me. However, this saying was not new to me as seanfhoclai are taught during Irish class at about the age of 10/11 in most Irish primary schools. At school, the purpose of the exercise of learning these proverbs was to enrich our spoken Irish and connect us with a history of Gaeilgeoir (Irish speakers). These phrases are very common in speech, even in their Anglicized format.

 

My Thoughts: Folk speech and expressions are some of the most enduring and transmitted forms of folklore. Alan Dundes says that proverbs are concise statements of situational philosophies, and so this leads us to consider in particular the Irish history of emigration in relation to this saying. This has a twofold effect. Firstly, this saying appeals in particular to emigrants, who would experience homesickness on a scale perhaps unrivalled by any other people. Romantic Irish writers abound write about their longing for Ireland, but acknowledge that they did leave for a reason. Secondly, my informant’s clever linking of this saying with the Anglicized and more popular ‘there’s no place like home’ illustrates the inherent and large field of transmission in folk-proverbs. I am personally unsure whether the English or Irish phrase came first, or whether this exists in a multiplicity of cultures, perhaps further collections can shed light on this. This saying is also past-focused, reinforcing Dundes’ idea that European culture is less future-focused than American society, as this saying suggests the ultimate comfort exists in what one has, as opposed to what one will have in the unreachable and ever-fleeing future.