Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

New Year’s Day traditions

Nationality: USA
Age: 54
Occupation: accountant
Residence: Northridge, CA
Performance Date: 04/27/16
Primary Language: Korean

Informant is a Korean born immigrant who went to primary school in Korea and college in Hawaii lives in Los Angeles

Tradition as told by informant: New Years Day is a big holiday for Koreans, usually lasts 3 days long. It’s a fun day for children because they get to eat, play games, and practice the Sebeh tradition( Sebeh is the best part for the children), bow to the parents and grandparents and wishing them a good fortune for the new year.  And parents/grandparents or elders will bless them back with money.  It’s a  family tradition.

Done every year with the whole family together, and yes it is my favorite part of the holiday when we get free money.

Ginger Root Cures the Fever

Nationality: American
Age: 59
Occupation: Family Therapist
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Performance Date: 3/20/16
Primary Language: English

Gale recalls a memory from her childhood when she was growing up in Houston, Texas. Her neighbors, who were from Vietnam, introduced her to folk medicine used in their culture.

 

G: “When we lived in Houston, our neighbors were from Vietnam, and the dad told us that in Vietnam they didn’t have any aspirins or medicines or anything, so if you got a fever, they would take a ginger root and cut part of it off, and then they would take the freshly cut part and rub it on the bottoms of your feet, and that would make your fever go down. When I heard that I was thinking, “Oh my gosh! What a bunch of Malarky this is, you know!”

 

“And so then later, I was reading an article. It was talking about how porous the palms of our hands are and the bottoms of our feet. It was saying that stuff will get through it, and so this article was saying that if you cut an onion and rubbed, you know, the freshly cut part on the palms of your hand, within just a little bit you’ll taste onion on your tongue. And so I was like,” Oh! that reminds me of rubbing the ginger root on your foot!” And then later, I was reading this article about natural remedies, and it was saying that ginger root would reduce your fever. Yeah, and so then I decided, well that probably wasn’t malarky after all. That was, you know, folklore that was really true.”

 

Although I had an idea that the surfaces of our feet and palms on our hands were naturally more sensitive to touch,  I actually didn’t know they were considered porous. It seems strange to me that we can rub a substance on our palms and perhaps later taste that same substance in our mouths. I thought this story was interesting because it tells of a natural, folk remedy apart of the Vietnamese culture. This idea that ginger root can cure fevers is vastly different from American solutions. In America, we don’t seem to have a many unusual remedies. Maybe this is due to our economic stability that has allowed for advanced medicine in the United States that doesn’t require Americans to find alternative therapies for illnesses. Although some certain remedies may seem bizarre or uncommon, they become popular over time, being passed down from generations on because of their effectiveness on patients. I think it is also important to note one of the reasons that many minority groups turn to “natural” remedies is because of a lack of access to health care services in their environment in the first place. For more information on ginger spice as a cure for common illnesses, see

“Ginger to Cure Many Diseases.” – SPICES VIETNAM. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

 

Annual Critter Dinner

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: English

The informant is a Freshman at USC studying Biology. Originally from Charleston, West Virginia, he tells a narrative about a bizarre tradition held in his hometown.

 

Me: “Tell me about where you’re from? What is the community like?”

 

D: “So, yeah, Charleston isn’t a very big city, but it’s the capital of the state, so it’s where most of the festivals and things take place. West Virginia culture is very country… all the hillbilly people you see on TV?, that’s us, West Virginia. They’re all about hunting and four-wheel riding and things of that nature. But it is a beautiful place, though. I can’t take that from it, I love the scenery – especially in the fall. So, overall, I guess Charleston was a solid place to grow up. I’m just glad I don’t have the accent.”

 

Me: “You mentioned festivals taking place in the city. Can you tell me about a specific festival in your hometown and what your community does for it?”

 

D: “One of the festivals that is closest to me is called the ‘ Annual Critter Dinner.’ And yeah, it’s exactly how it sounds. People bring their roadkill to the community center that isn’t too far away from me and they gather around to cook it and eat it. They bring things like possums, racoons, deer, birds – all sorts of things. I, for one, have never been, and I don’t plan on going either. That isn’t for me, but the people of WV love things like that. Umm it’s an annual thing, and it’s always a surprisingly big turn out too. You see it in the papers and on TV and everything. The whole city gets involved pretty much.”

 

Me: “ When does this festival take place?”

 

D : “It’s always in December. It’s always cold outside and it’s right after a part of hunting season and it’s kind of like our own mini feast between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

 

Me: Is it celebrating something?”

 

D: “Mmmm, I guess you could say so. People celebrate in what they’ve hunted through the season, and then other people are just proud to present their roadkill.”

 

Me: “Present it? Do you know if they have contests, like maybe over who can get the most roadkill?”

 

D: “Yeah, whoever brings the most get’s some kind of prize, but I’m not exactly sure what it is. Like I said, I’ve never been… but I also know that the person with, like, the biggest roadkill gets to eat first after everything is cooked.”

 

Me: “So what do you think this tradition brings to your city? Why is it important for your city to have an Annual Critter Dinner?”

 

D: “It’s definitely a good time for all the people that go. So for the city, it brings people together, and it’s something that’s unique to our state, so we feel a bit special. It kind of makes us stand out, because it’s an odd tradition.”

 

I think this tradition for the city of Charleston held every year speaks a lot to other places about what some of West Virginia’s people are like and what they value and celebrate as a culture. I think the citizens participating in the contests and festivals enjoy expressing their hunting culture. The Critter Dinner is a unique event to the city of Charleston, and, although it is an odd one, the festival brings citizens together to enjoy a meal, which adds to the unity and structure of the city.

 

Chinese New Year

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 3/27/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

The informant is a junior at USC. She is Chinese origin, and was born and raised in America. Kim talks about a special holiday, Chinese New Year, and some of the traditions special to her family and Chinese culture.

 

Me: “Okay…So tell me about Chinese New Year and then, like what you do, what you and your family do…what your culture does.”

 

Kim: ”So like Chinese New Year is like the New Year based on the Lunar calendar, not the Greek Orientation I think it’s called. The calendar that we use…is based on the lunar cycle, and then so it usually falls around the end of January, beginning of February, according to our calendar. In China and Taiwan…it’s like a big holiday so the kids have like two weeks off of school and stuff…so it’s very much about like ringing in the New Year, and like being like a new person, and then like just bringing good luck for the New Year. So Traditions are, in the house, we decorate with red, and red is supposed to scare away the demons and bad stuff… back in the day, people believed in that kind of stuff, and it’s also a good luck thing, and that’s why there’s also- I don’t know if you know about like fire crackers, but it’s a really big thing that’s also to scare away- that’s where it came from, but we just do it for like fun and tradition now- to scare away like evil and bad feelings…we also hang, they’re called spring couplets which is like poems, and it’s basically like… a long piece of paper with characters, and it’s basically just a poem that’s about good fortune, good luck and stuff like that… it usually is hung upside down because if you say something is upside down in Chinese… the sound of it is very similar to, “it’s coming.” So like fortune (a chinese character)  is coming…We also clean the house…”

 

Me: “Do you guys have any New Year’s meals?”

 

Kim:” Yeah, so that’s one of the biggest things, New Year’s Eve meal, New Year’s Eve dinner, so it’s like the biggest meal…all your family comes in from everywhere.”

 

Me: “Would it be equivalent to our (American) Thanksgiving?”

 

Kim: “Yeah, definitely. We also eat specific kinds of foods like there’s this thing called a year cake. It’s made out of flour and stuff, I don’t really know.”

 

Me: “But you have it every year?”

 

Kim: “Yeah, you’re supposed to…we eat like fish and stuff… there are a lot of food specific to the New Year that are supposed to give you good luck…You’re supposed to eat like long noodles or something because that signifies a long life. I’m not really sure if that’s a New Year’s thing or a birthday thing. I know you do it on your birthday, but I’m not sure about New Years, but I’m pretty sure I’ve had to eat noodles every year. Another thing for me is like this thing called New Year’s Eve TV or something like that…it’s broadcasted in China on New Year’s Eve, and it’s basically this really long-”

 

Me: “Is It counting down to the New Year?”

 

Kim: “Kind of, yeah. You know how we have a time square thing? It’s similar, like they have people do like magic tricks and a lot of stuff for like a long time, so I don’t know how long it is. It’s like five hours maybe. So you just sit there and watch it on New Year’s Eve.”

 

Me: “How is the New Year significant to you? What do the customs mean to you personally?”

 

Kim: “So, like cause I was born here and grew up here, so I’m not very in tune with my culture, so it helps me to stay in tune…there’s a few holidays throughout the year and this is probably the big one where like I do see all my family and see like the Chinese traditions and stuff like that… Red envelopes is a thing. So like people who are married have to give you money, so once you get married you can’t receive any more (laughs).”

It’s important to note the parallels and similarities found within two different cultures: the American and the Chinese. Just as American’s have an official declared New Year’s Eve Holiday, many Chinese celebrate their own start to a new beginning. The reason of celebration for both cultures seems similar, though the dates ending the years are just a few months apart. Americans broadcast “The ball drop’ in Times Square in New York, and Chinese have a similar broadcasting for which is especially unique to their cultural celebration. One difference between the way that the cultures celebrate is that the Chinese decorate their homes with the color red to mean good fortune, while American society doesn’t seem to place great significance on one, individual color, but rather has officially paired colors with different holidays so that the colors are more of a mere association rather than underlying symbolism.  

 

Rice at the Filipino Wedding

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 19
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: English

 

The informant is a freshman at USC. She’s from the Philippines, where she was born and raised. She talks about why it’s tradition to throw rice at Philippine weddings.

 

Chelsea: “Okay so in my culture, in the Philippines, when people get married, instead of flowers, they throw rice.”

 

Me:” Like the flower girl ?”

 

Chelsea: “Yeah, like the flower girl. She throws grains of rice. Like, uncooked grains of rice. All around. And then apparently it’s supposed to give you good luck and it makes you prosperous and it’s to make the couple lucky.”

 

Me: “Okay, so who told you that?”

 

Chelsea: “My aunt told me.”

 

Me: “And what does it mean to you?”

 

Chelsea: “I love rice (laughs) and I don’t think you should waste it like that.”

 

Me: “So when your grandma got married and your mom got married, did they throw rice?”

 

Chelsea: “I don’t know but when my aunt got married, my cousin and I were the flower girls and we had to throw rice.”

 

Me: “So in your country, it’s good luck and prosperity?”

 

Chelsea: “Yes.”

 

It’s interesting that this folklore piece is an integration of symbolism and superstition with wedding rituals. In the Philippines, rice is thrown and symbolic of prosperity, while American culture uses flowers as the element of life and good fortune. I then wonder if American culture has a flower girl, would the technical term for Philippines be a ‘ rice girl’ ?…

For more folklore on Philippine Wedding customs, visit  “Philippine Wedding Customs and Superstitions.” Asian Recipes. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.