Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Freshman Traditions

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 41
Occupation: Principle
Residence: Sante Fe Springs, CA
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

St. Mary was an all girl’s school and Cantwell that was an all boys school at the time, now they’re mixed, umm… but they made the freshman at Cantwell come and sell us rolls of toilet paper for a quarter and they were like “You wanna buy some toilet paper”(IN A DEEP VOICE) They were all like embarrassed about it and I was like “NO!”

My informant experienced this high school tradition while she was an eighth grader at school and freshmen boys were forced to sell toilet paper to the younger students. This came a tradition and sort of an initiation for the freshmen boys. I enjoyed this piece of folklore because it reminded me of the freshmen traditions at my own high school. The seniors would make the freshmen pay them money in exchange for a ticket to get in to the pool on the roof of the gym, however this pool did not exist. My informant grew up around the Montebello, California area where this piece of folklore took place.

 

Camp Basement

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2nd, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: French

K is a freshman majoring in psychology who attended the same camp almost every summer before college. The campers were told this story in the basement where the events occurred at nighttime to explain why one wall is newer than the rest.

“The camp used to be a homestead, around 1812, and the family who lived there was part of the underground railroad. The escaped slaves were hidden in the basement of the house, and one night confederate soldiers showed up to confiscate the slaves and punish the family for helping. As soon as the father opened the door, he was shot in the face, and the soldiers continued to kill everyone else in the family. When they reached the basement, they decided not to kill the escaped slaves – a mother and child – but rather make them suffer. They barricaded the two in the basement behind a new wall. It’s said that at nighttime you can still hear the child scratching the wall.”

K’s story encompasses many ghost story motifs, such as the wrongful deaths of those involved and the liminal space of the basement. It is also a lesson to young campers, both not to go out at night and not to go in the basement, and helps them to feel more connected to camp through the knowledge of it’s history.

Jewish tradition

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student/ event planner
Residence: Los Angeles, California.
Performance Date: 04/17/16
Primary Language: English

Subject: Jewish Traditions

Informant: Abby

Original script: “Matzo Ball soup is a Jewish tradition usually made for high holidays like Yom Kippur or Shabbat. However, in my family we make it when we are also sick. I don’t know, it really makes us feel better.

Background Information about the Piece by the informant: Abby grew up in a traditional Jewish family but they ere very reformed and adapted the soup to sickness as well as holiday celebration.

Thoughts about the piece: The matzo ball soup has been removed from its traditional place in Jewish tradition and made it’s was to everyday practices of Abby and her family. Much like chicken soup, matzo ball soup, for Abby, is associated with home and curing sickness, a comfort food that has it’s origins steeped in tradition.

 

Chopstick in rice bowl

Nationality: China
Age: 24
Occupation: Student
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: April 20, 2016
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

My informant is a student who was originally from China but came to study in US since high school.

“In China we are not allowed to place our chopsticks perpendicularly into rice bowl while eating. It is very inappropriate to do that there, because it would look like you are worshiping dead people.”

This is a common habit that parents always forbid their kids to do on the dining table since their very young age from decades to decades. My informant says that she still keeps that rule in mind every time she eats with chopsticks now, even though she no longer thinks about the reason behind it anymore.

It is quite interesting to me that there are many homeopathic folk beliefs like this in Chinese customs, which I think more or less relates to their hieroglyphic language that allows them to randomly connect two things that share similar features together.

Kitchen Witches

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: University professor
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 24, 2016
Primary Language: English

My informant is an American from Minnesota, who has ancestors from Czech republic and Sweden, back to 1880.

“The other thing that Sweden has, we have the kitchen witches. So hang a witch in the kitchen and they protect the kitchen. I still have kitchen witches, I have several.  It’s like a little figurative witch on a broom, but they go in the kitchen, they’re called kitchen witches. They protect the food in the kitchen. So it’s a very Scandinavian sort of thing. It may have different looks in each family, but it has to be a witch, and you hang it in a kitchen. It keeps you up from messing up your kitchen.”

She is very proud of this specific object that they keep in Sweden culture, even though she has been immigrated to US for a long time. I think it’s very lovely that in many Scandinavian cultures they believe in magic and magical creatures, and sometimes they really work when you believe in them. In this case if you do believe in the kitchen witches can protect you from messing up your kitchen, and hang them there, you may really become more cautious while cooking.