Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

If you don’t drink, you’re a spy

A couple of my roommates have gone to my informant AF’s house for dinner.  Each time my friends have come home at least tipsy, maybe even drunk.  It is atypical for my friends to come home tipsy or drunk from dinner with a friend’s parents.  Yet, when they go to AF’s house, it always seems to happen.  I wondered why.

Both of AF’s parents were born in Russia.  As a result, AF grew up in a Russian American home.  Besides the fact that vodka is a Russian drink, I’ve wondered why Russians seem to be so good at drinking. My friend AF explained that it is custom for men to drink anything and everything in Russia.  Why?  AF explained, “If you don’t drink in the pace with other people, you are a spy in Russia.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man refuse a drink. Or at least it is very rare.”

This mentality is definitely present within the Russian American community.  In fact, this mentality perseveres outside the community.  My friends expressed that they felt uncomfortable or rude turning down a drink in AF’s home. The paranoia that AF’s parents experienced in Russia has had residual effects.  It is custom for Russian Americans to prove that they are not spies by drinking heavily and possibly impairing their judgement, simply because they can.

 

 

613 Seeds in a Pomegranate

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: St. Louis, MO
Performance Date: April 20, 2015
Primary Language: English

When collecting folklore from my friends, I asked, “Jodie, what d’ya got?”

My informant Jodie told me that she believes that there are 613 seeds in a pomegranate.  When I asked her where this came from, Jodie told me that it’s a Jewish belief.  Still not understanding the connection between Jews and the number 613, Jodie explained that there are 613 commandments in the Jewish Bible.  I was under the impression that there were only 10 Commandments given to Moses, but contrary to my belief there are 613 commandments within the Jewish tradition.

Jodie learned this in Jewish day school in her youth.  I asked if this belief had any significance.  Do you eat pomegranate on any special occasions? Any special dishes with pomegranate?  She explained that its sometimes served on high holidays.  However, she does not celebrate the high holiday where the pomegranate is most popular, Tu B’Shvat.  This holiday is known as the New Year for the Trees and eating fresh fruit is a custom on this holiday.

I asked Jodie if she had ever counted all of the seeds of the pomegranate.  She said that she did in elementary school, but how can you trust elementary school students to count that high?

The fact that Jodie and her classmates counted the number of seeds in the pomegranate demonstrates that this belief is present within the Jewish community.

Scouts’ Own

Nationality: Scottish
Age: 77
Residence: San Pedro, CA
Performance Date: April 20th, 2015
Primary Language: English

My informant was the President of the Girl Scouts of America (the Los Angeles chapters) for several years in the 1990s. My mother was a Girl Scout and my informant was her troop leader all throughout her school years. She has many wonderful stories about being my mom’s troop leader.

I sat down with her the other night and asked her if she could share a custom, or ritual that the Girl Scouts have.

Informant: “We had something called a Scouts’ Own. It’s a spiritual, thoughtful ceremony. It can have any kind of theme. I remember one that was very meaningful to me… the idea in girl scouting is that each girl, through all of these things that we do, is to develop leadership… we never told them what to do but they were to be creative. This Scouts’ Own– the challenge for my junior high girls was to put on a Scouts’ Own for all the neighborhood Scouts, the younger girls. Young girls always look up to older ones…They chose the theme of friendship. That was a special one. The Scouts’ Own can happen anywhere…we’ve had them in the forest, in the desert…”

Me: “And what might happen at one? What happened at this particular one?”

Informant: “There is always a point of silence, where when everyone gathers, once they cross the point of silence, they are not to speak. You go in and are shown silently where you are meant to sit and then they begin… They had candles…I can’t remember… they had music and they all shared some important piece of friendship. The children were enthralled by these older girls sharing something important to them. When you are all through, you sing a girl scout song. There are many wonderful songs. Whatever it is, it has to be done thoughtfully. It is very meaningful. A Scouts Own is a very important part of girl scouting.”

 

I was a Girl Scout, as well, all the way until I was in 9th grade. Being Girl Scouts is always something that has brought the three of us together. We all love to camp and camping skills were one of the things we learned the most about. My informant loves and respects everything that the Girl Scouts hold dear. Since she was President of the region, she is also very knowledgable about practices and has seen many.

The Scottish Play

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Actress
Residence: Los Feliz, CA
Performance Date: April 14th, 2015
Primary Language: English

My good friend, informant, was a theatre major at USC. She has been very involved with theatre throughout her life, especially attending various theatre camps in middle school and high school. Camps have a lot of lore surrounding them, so I believed she might have some theatre superstitions to contribute. I called her on the phone and asked a bit about theatre suppressions. Another thing she had to contribute was one superstition that I was already well aware of. This is a bit of a famous one:

 

Me: “Any others?”

Informant: “Well, the Scottish Play… are you recording my version? [Laughs] I hope I don’t get it wrong.”

Me: “Tell me!”

Informant: “You are NEVER supposed to say the word Macbeth in a theatre. It is terrible luck. If you must refer to the play, you call it the Scottish Play.”

Me: “Why is it bad luck? I always heard that but I never knew why people think it’s bad luck.”

Informant: “I know some people think the play itself is bad luck or cursed. But I also know just saying it is supposed to bring bad luck to the actor who says it. If you say it… you leave the theatre and spin around three times. That’s the cure we’ve come up with.”

Me: “Have you ever said it?”

Informant: “No!”

 

This is, of course, a very popular superstition — many of us, even those outside of the theatre world, have heard variations of this.

 

[For other versions of this superstition, check out the Steppenwolf website, “Theatre Superstitions: Volume 1”. Steppenwolf is one of the nation’s leading theatre companies]

Italian Christmas Eve

Nationality: Italian/American
Age: 55
Occupation: Masseuse
Residence: Nantucket, MA
Performance Date: April 22nd, 2015
Primary Language: English

My informant is my best friend’s mother. She comes from a very Italian family, and learned a lot of folklore from her own grandmother. She is a fascinating woman who has traveled the world. She has a wide knowledge of Native American history and folklore. She is involved with the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, a diverse group of women from around the world who are devoted to prayer. She lives on Nantucket, so I was able to Skype with her one day to talk about things she has learned from her Italian heritage, in particular, as well as her other vast knowledge of folklore from around the world.

 

[On Italian Heritage]

Informant: “In Italy, they didn’t have Santa Claus. For Christmas…on Christmas Eve… they had their big Christmas dinner and children would lay out an article of clothing on the front lawn. The story was that the three wise men would come and leave them a little something, an orange or some candy, or something really small. It was always something small, simple.”