Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Soul Pole

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/22/16
Primary Language: English

Piece:

It was this wooden stick–kind of like a paddle, kind of like a stick–whenever someone was out of line the prefect (a senior who had authority) would threaten to get the “Soul Pole” and beat them with it. This is no longer a tradition.

Informant & Context:

My informant for this piece is a student at the University of Southern California who graduated from the boarding school (Cate) from which this folk object originates. His knowledge of this phrase dates back between 3 and 11 years ago, though it is reasonable that it has existed for longer. He said that the use of the folk object had been discontinued after it was discovered by the schools faculty.

The object references social periods in which a room was occupied by seniors and underclassmen, in which the seniors had direct authority over their younger peers.

 Thoughts:

This is a folk tradition in which older students beat up younger students for disobedience. This was a sacred object used to conduct an act of hazing that could only occur at the school given the confinement into the school’s campus of the students and lack of adult supervision. The result of these circumstances was apparently the rise of a new hierarchy with a strict judicial system in the fashion of Lord of the Flies.

Freshman-Senior Brawl

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angelas
Performance Date: 4/22/16
Primary Language: English

Piece:

Freshman-Senior brawl: at the end of each year, the senior boys and freshman boys gather in the schools old gym (this tradition is unknown by the school’s faculty) to have an unofficial freshman-senior brawl to celebrate the moving up of freshman to sophomores and the graduation of seniors moving on from the school. “I do this to you so you can do this to freshman some day.” The idea is that freshmen are hated for being new, young, and naïve and this is the last chance for them to be bullied before they are no longer freshmen. The seniors sort of intentionally go easy on the freshman because they’re 18, whereas the freshmen are 14.

Information & Context:

My informant for this piece is a student at the University of Southern California who graduated from the boarding school (Cate) from which this tradition originates. His knowledge of the tradition dates back between 3 and 11 years ago, though it is reasonable that it has existed for longer.

Thoughts:

It is curious to me that a ceremony of physical violence can be viewed as a positive thing. My informant explained to me that it was seen as a right of passage—after which, both parties move up in the world. I would point out that both parties would move up, regardless of the ceremony, but it is important to note that this is how the community reacts to such a passage. It becomes a “you get bullied now so you get the right to bully later” type of scenario.

Variations in Chopstick Lengths in China, Korea and Japan

Nationality: American
Age: 45
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Orange County, California
Performance Date: February 16th 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Context

Although it is often assumed by outsiders that the three neighboring countries – China, Korea and Japan – share a common culture of some sort, their cultures are clearly different upon close observation. One such example comes from the chopstick. Unforgettable when mentioning Asian culinary culture, the chopstick seems like a simple tool for a simple job, being ‘just two sticks put together’. However, the differences between the chopsticks are very deliberate and practical, as per the excerpt from a conversation with the informant shown below.

Informant Information

The informant is my roommate’s mother. She is a naturalized American citizen of Chinese descent. Having lived her early life in Guangzhou, China, and having married a Korean-American, she is familiar with both Mainland Chinese and Korean culture. While eating a Korean-style dinner together, she taught me the differences between the chopsticks of the three countries of the Far East:

“We [Chinese] use longer chopsticks because we share our dishes across large tables – longer chopsticks give us ‘more range’ [laughs]. In Korea, a lot of people use flat, metal chopsticks because they are very durable and easy to grab tricky things like beans. Japan uses shorter chopsticks than either country. Since Japanese people traditionally ate a lot of fish and mixed grain rice, there was a need for a pair of short, pointy chopsticks for taking the bones out of fish and scooping grains out of the bowl.”

Analysis

The informant’s statement on the uniqueness of types of chopsticks used in the three neighboring countries show that despite the rapid technological development, some traditions stay in practice due to their continued practicality. Although all three types of chopsticks are shaped in unique ways to serve completely different functions, they share a commonality in that they have evolved to best suit the traditional and current cuisines of their respective countries.

Magpies and Baby Teeth

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 51
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: April 14th, 2016
Primary Language: Korean

Context

Instead of giving them to the tooth fairy, Korean children that shed their baby teeth used to toss them on top of roofs, hoping for a magpie to take it and bring back a new, permanent tooth. But as South Korea rapidly developed itself, the surge of high buildings inevitably modified the context in which the tradition was performed, creating difficulties in its practice.

Informant Information

The informant is my mother, who first learned of this custom during her childhood from her maternal grandmother.

Informant: “…so when I showed grandma my tooth, she scolded me, telling me that I should throw it [onto the roof] so that I can ‘get my new tooth from the magpie’. The idea of not having my tooth grow back scared me – I didn’t want to be toothless like an old person! I ran off to the yard and threw my tooth as far up the roof as I could.”

Collector: “Is this still a thing? I think I read that story from an old book, but I don’t remember any of my friends doing it.”

Informant: “Probably not, since traditional tiled rooftops are only in expensive traditional housing – all we get are apartments nowadays…”

Collector: “Fair enough. Why the magpie though? Why not some other bird?”

Informant: “Because magpies symbolize the coming of spring and good luck.”

Analysis

The ubiquitous nature of folklore pertaining to baby teeth in contemporary societies can be explained by the necessity of certain rites of passage in traditional societies. Since the eruption of baby teeth begins around the age of 6, the first loss of teeth marks the physiological change to adolescence. But also, by giving away one’s own baby teeth (one’s former juvenile self) for good luck, the child ritualistically readies oneself for an adolescent life with greater responsibilities such as helping out with family work or starting school.

Nowadays this superstition is seldom practiced in urban Korea. Formerly practiced on Korea’s once common one-story homes, contemporary Korea and its forest of buildings over ten stories high forces the tradition to contextualize itself to the world of tall buildings or be left with an “expiration date” of sorts.

Celebration of the First Birthday in Korea

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 42
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Seoul, South Korea
Performance Date: March 16th 2016
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Context

The celebration of a baby’s first birthday in particular is widely practiced across the world, as infant and child mortality rates were much higher in previous eras. In the eastern Asian regions, this traditional celebration includes a ceremony where the objects are placed in front of the baby and good things are said about the baby’s future based on the grabbed object. In my native South Korea, the objects typically associated with the occasion are books, writing tools and money. Other objects – even microphones and calculators – can also be used in the celebration, though that depends on how traditional the practitioner wants the celebration to be.

Informant Information

The informant is my uncle, who recently celebrated the first birthday of his twin sons. He first learned of the tradition in childhood, then through from his mother and grandmother. As a celebration for his sons, the performance of this tradition was of a personal importance to him. I was unable to attend the celebration in person, but I was able to ask the informant about it during spring break.

According to the informant, he placed a pencil, a book, money and a ball of strings – traditionally included symbols/items – on the table, but he also placed modern picks: a computer mouse and a basketball. The traditional symbols refer to a future in education, academics, riches and healthy life, respectively. The informant said that his contemporary additions represented “technological savvy” and “athleticism”. In the end, both his children picked up the pencil and the informant wishfully said that he was “happy he shouldn’t have to worry about their [the twins’] grades”.

Analysis

It can be observed that the practice of traditional celebrations sees variation based on the practitioner, as do works of folklore in general. Though it is entirely up to choice to follow tradition or not, the informant’s use of contemporary objects to update the objects to be grabbed by the baby show that celebrations can be altered to be contemporary yet not taking away from the traditional meaning of celebration.

To see the traditional Chinese version of this tradition, see “To Catch the First Year” in the Folklore Archives
(http://uscfolklorearc.wpenginepowered.com/?p=30617)