Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Crash Course in Indian Culture (Holi/Colors/Bindi/Henna)

Nationality: Indian, American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Miami, Fl
Performance Date: March 30th, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

Continued from the prior interview. Collected from 20 year old female. Indian, raised Hindu. Here she talks about the festival of Holi, as well as the importance of color and how that is demonstrated at weddings and in traditional garb.

Informant: In the spring we celebrate Holi, h-o-l-i. That is when everyone throws colors at eachother . That is for a couple of reasons. This one is hard because I don’t know the whole story about it, I just know the general gist. There is a demonness, like a bad guy who is a woman. And her name is holika, h-o-l-i-k-a. That’s where the name comes from. And I am pretty sure she was evil and somehow either she just died in a fire or someone killed her using fire, but because she finally died, we all celebrate holi as we all are hapypy becuasse spring came out of that. So holi is also the celebration of the start of spring. That is why you throw colors and stuff because spring… colors… happy. So when you celebrate holi, everyone has a bunch of colored powder and a bunch of water and you just kind of throw them at eachother and you say happy holi. It is also a happy time. I don’t think… maybe it is just we never celebrated them… but we don’t have any depressing holidays. You know how like Jewish people have Yom Kippur and stuff like that. We don’t really have that because there is no like, in Hinduism there’s not really like in Christianity and Judiaism where hthey have sins and atonement and all that crap. Hinduism, which is really why I like it, it is not about doing bad things and making up for them, it is more just about positive ways to live your life. So that is why they are all around central tennents like karma… doing good things comes around. That is a huge thing for Hinduism. There are a lot of other stories. There are books. The ramayan is all about rama, but there are a lot of gods in Hinduism. There is another book that is about a lot of them. It is called the mahabaharta. That is the story of ginesh, who is our elephant god. There are a lot of stories in it, but one of the stories that is the most important is talking about ginesh and how he is with his parents and basically the reason why in Hinduism your parents are so important is because someone told ginesh “circle around your world twice.” And what he did was walk around his parents twice because your parents are supposed to be your world. There are just a lot of loyalty stories like that. There is another story, that is called the gita, I think that is g-i-t-a. bhavagad gita. People chant that.

Me: what do you mean they chant it?

Informant: there are a lot of verses to it and sometimes when you pray, some people have whole chapters memorized and they will say them. But that is a very long story. That story is about a normal human guy named arjun. He is in a war. It is a war between 2 families. He is on one side and all of his brothers are on the other side. And he doesn’t know whether he should or shouldn’t fight against his family. He doesn’t know what to do. So he is visited by a god named krishna, who is one of the gods that is always depicted as blue. And the god coaches him and talks him through what he should do. And that is basically the whole gita. It is another story about loyalty and karma. Those are the main things of Hinduism which is again why I like it. It is really not an intrusive religion. It is very spiritual, like these are some good things that you should keep with you as you live your life. It is a pretty chill religion.

Me: Where did you learn all of this?

Informant: Sunday School. When I started to go to Sunday school in kindergarden, it was held out of a temple because it was very few people. But then it expanded and all of these indian people came out of no where. Then there was like hundreds of kids so we started having it at an actual elementary school because we needed to have classrooms. It totally expanded… because you know indian people run the world. It got crazy. We had a website, they published a text book for us. We got sweatpants and sweatshirts. It went crazy.  There are a lot of kids who already know everything because their parents teach it to them, obviously my parents know it too. My grandparents reallyyyyy know this stucf because older generations know it more. My parents wanted me to go to Sunday school because they wanted me to make some indian friends. It wasn’t really about learning hindi. My Sunday school we had language class and we had culture class. The culture class was where we learned all of this religious stuff. Or culture stuff. We talked about the differences between americans and Indians and all that kind of stuff. And hindi class, like language class, is specifically where you just learn hinidi or gidrathi. Hinidi is the language my mom’s side of the family speaks and gidrathi is the langage my dad’s side of the family speaks. They’re from 2 different parts of india. We just learned hindi because I think hindi is the national language of india so my parents were just like, ehh. My mom is very fluent in hindi, she is a hindi teacher so they were like, just learn hindi. So that is what we learned. That is all hindu stuff. As far as indian cultural stuff goes… but then again at the same time, if we are going to talk about weddings as being an indian thing. At the same time, there are a lot of different religions within India. They all have different wedding. Muslim weddings are way different than hindu weddings. And so I guess this is still hindu, but the whole idea is like, everything is still really loud and fun and colorful. Brides wear red, you know that. They always wear a sari. We put… in English it is henna… in hindi it is mehndi. I wish I knew the significance of it. I honestly think it is just a really beautiful art form. I am sure there is a story or a reason why we put it on, but I think it is just another way to make you look really beautiful. It goes on your hands, your feet, sometimes up your arm to your elbow at least. So the bride gets the most intricate mendhi, and everyone else in the bridal party gets both of their hands done. They make weddings really colorful because it is such a happy event. White is actually a sad color. So at funerals, when we have them, everyone wears white. No one wears black. Black is never worn to anything. And also, we don’t really have funerals. People don’t really get buried. We have cremations. Hindus believe in reincarnation. So if you are burned than your ashes go up and you can come back as something nice if you did good things in your life.

Me: Do you know why white is sad? Because that is the opposite of American culture

Nayna: I think it is because how people see white as pure and clean, that is our thing. So white is pure and cleansing so you wear that just to celebrate because when you creamate someone that is their purest form. You are burning them. I think that is why white is a nice color like that. Because black is just like never touched. We never wear black to anything. I don’t think white is really a sad color actually, it is really just a very full circle, ending color. Everything else, happy events, everything is always colorful. Weddings are always super colorful. Colors are hugely symbolic in the hindu culture. Holi is huge. You make these things called remgolis and they are basically big pieces of art and they are all different shapes and you color them in with the colored powder. Color is huge. Like indian women wear bindis on their foreheads when they wear their indian clothes. But also when religious ceremonies happen, you put a tikka on your head, but you use red powder and make a dash. That’s religious. Bindis are more for fun, to be pretty. More art and decoration for your body. There is a lot of hindu things. Boys, when they turn 11, 12, 13 or 16, some teenage year, they have something called a thread ceremony and only boys have it. It is like a right of passage, becoming an adult thing. It is a lot of prayers. You get threads tied around you as a bracelet and you keep it on for a while. We actually use a lot of thread in Hinduism. I think temples have what they think is holy thread. It is really just normal red thread. A little prettier. There is some red, some gold. We do a lot with thread. Another thing we do is, it is called rakshabandan. It is a brother sister day. Sisters tie a rakhi, it is like a bracelet, on their brother. It can just be a piece of red yarn or a thread. My sister and I like to make it fun, so we make a bracelet for our brother. So basically that is supposed to be protection for him. For all bad things that could come his way. So raksha means protection. Bandan means to tie. So literally tieing protection on your brother. And then your brother gives you like a present or something on that day. You feed him something sweet. You tie your rhaki, and he gives you a present. So it is like sisters protect brothers, brothers protect sisters, something like that. Oh by the way, I think I was supposed to tell you that like the bindi. The significance is that it is supposed to be like a third eye. So it is supposed to ward off evil. It is supposed to look over you. Red is really important. It used to be in the olden days that married women would put the same red power that you put here [touching space between eyes], they used to put it in their parts. In the part of their hairs. That is supposed to signify that you are married.

Me: Do you know why the part of their hair?

Informant: I guess it just so that you do not have to wear it on your forehead. It is very old. People do not walk around with that anymore. It used to be. Married women also tend to wear a red bindi. And widowed women wear a black bindi. My gradmother, when her husband passed ago, way before I was born, she always wears a black bindi on her forehead. Sorry… I keep talking!

Analysis: The informant does a lot of subtle analyzing of what she is saying as she goes.  She clearly takes a lot of traditions and myths with a grain of salt.  Rather than actually believe xyz, she believes in the moral behind it.  She already understands that reason why there are a lot of traditions and stories which makes my analysis much less needed.

Christmas Tradition

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Charlotte, NC
Performance Date: March 20, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant is a 21 year old girl, and one of my closest friends. She told me about a tradition she takes part in at Christmas time every year.

Informant: So, every year, the day before Christmas, since we were little, my mom acts like she is the elf…  And puts out Christmas presents and rings a little bell. We all run into the living room, and there are presents. And they are our Christmas pajamas to wear so that when we wake up we are all matching in Christmas clothes.

Me: You used to think it was an elf though?

Informant: Oh, definitely I used to think it was an elf.

Me: And then she told you?

Informant: Well it was her handwriting.  Back when I thought it was the elves, I really thought it was them. I pictured them as the little ones, you know? Little guys with green and red hats and little outfits with little boots. Like the size of… a pencil… that height.

Me: When did you start practicing this?

Informant: As long as I can remember.

Me: When did you figure out it was your mom?

Informant: Probably in 4th or 5th grade I figured it out.

My analysis: When I first heard this story, I was not very drawn to it.  Christmas is somewhat the “go to” topic when talking about different traditions. Looking back, though, that in and of itself is what makes it so interesting. Once I interviewed another informant (transcribed under: Hungarian Christmas), I ended up coming back and rethinking this tradition.  Both of the informants talked about a very very similar Christmas tradition, but one learned it at her home in North Carolina and the other in Budapest, Hungary.  The concept is the same: some figure puts out presents the night before Christmas, a bell is rung, and kids can go see those presents the night before. Which one of these cultures started practicing this first is beyond me, but the fact that they all do gave me a newfound appreciation for something I originally did not think much of.

Body painting at the fair

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/22/2015
Primary Language: English

My informant is a regular attendant of the Oregon Country Fair. The Oregon Country Fair is an annual non-profit craft fair held in Eugine Oregon held on the second weekend of July. In its inception it was known as the Oregon Renaissance Faire,  however in 1977 it changed its name to better reflect what it represented. At the start of every day there is a booth of painters near the entrance of the fair who offer to pain the chests and faces of anyone who desires to have their body painted. While the face paints are just for fun, the body or chest painting serves a much more important purpose to regular attendants of the fair. According to my informant, serious female fairgoers are “almost expected to paint their chest.” This is not a mandatory thing for women who attend the fair to do, but it is a culturally accepted and encouraged action” and that “when you see a women walking around the figure 8 (the fairground) without a shirt and a painted chest you know that they are a part of the community.” The significance of the body paint, however, is much deeper than it may seem at first glance. It is much more than a simple declaration of your Oregon Country Fair experience. Rather, it is actually meant to be a metaphor for fertility. When I asked my informant on the meaning behind the painting he revealed that “while it doesn’t mean much to me, to the people who do the paintings, this ritual is a celebration of fertility. [The painters] sometimes get very particular about this and usually will not paint men or young girl’s bodies because, well they cannot [birth a child].” Because of this, the paintings are almost always some type of flower placed in a shape that “look a lot like ovaries.”

This ritual is interesting because it is both not mandatory and seemingly out of place in a summer modern American fair. Fertility rituals often are performed in the spring during religious events, but the Oregon Country Fair is a community run fair taking place in the middle of summer. I believe that this implies that this tradition was not inherent to the fair but rather was brought to it. This notion is reinforced by the fact that the body painting is a part of, but not a central event of the fair. Usually if there was a sort of fertility ritual at a community gathering, it would be integral to the experience, but at the Oregon Country Fair it seems to be a well respected afterthought. Furthermore, at least from what I gathered from my informant, the Oregon Country Fair is in no way advertised of or talked about as a fertility festival.  I think that this shows that at the Oregon Country Fair, people are free to bring and repeat traditions from other cultures even if they do not necessarily have anything to do with the fair itself. If I were to go to the fair, I would assume that this painting is just one example of many such rituals performed at, but not integral to, the Oregon Country Fair.

Gamefaqs signature habits

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/15
Primary Language: English

The ritual:

Gamefaqs is a very popular gaming website and forum that people use as a communal portal for gamers. On this website, there is a sub-forum for essentially every game out on the market today. Each of these sub-forums has its own community with its own culture and cyber-rituals. My informant frequently posts on and reads the sub-forums dedicated to fighting games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and BlazBlue. While all of these sub-forums reference different games, they are very similar games and as such these sub-forums contain similar communities. Because so many people post on these forums, it can be hard to establish a unique identity for yourself even if you are a frequent visitor and poster. However, there are two ways a poster (someone who posts on the online forums) can distinguish themselves from the pact: their avatar (a picture next to their profile) and their signature (a blurb of text shown after everything they post).

Gamefaqs users in particular place a lot of value on the signature. Users will often use their signature to show to the community who they are. As such, the creation of and transformation of a user’s signature is highly ritualized in the Gamefaqs fighting game sub-community. In these communities, the most respected and revered users have a picture of their favorite or best character from the game they play the most in their signature. For example, if someone played a lot of Blanca (a playable character) in the game Street Fighter he would put a picture of Blanca in his signature. The picture is often accompanied by a line of text saying something along the lines of “Gamefaq’s official (insert character here).”

While this seems like a fairly simple and non-confrontational thing to do, my informant, a Gamefaqs user of many years, revealed to me that members of this community take these signatures very seriously. Once someone has a character in their signature, nobody else is allowed to use that character in their signature. My informant told me that “if someone tries to put a character that has already been taken in their signature, they will be ignored or harassed until they change their signature to something else.” He continued to say that, “sometimes, when a user is completely unwilling to change their signature a moderator of the site will ban them from the forums temporary or forcefully change it.  This is something we take very seriously. Your signature is almost your entire identity on [Gamefaqs] so when someone challenges that of course the community is going to fight back.” However, if someone feels like they should be the true “owner” of a certain character’s signature, they may challenge the current “owner” to a best of three (sometimes best of five) match up to claim the title for themselves. Whoever wins gets to keep the signature.

 

Analysis:

Clearly identity is very important to the members of this community. Because it is one of the few ways to separate yourself, it makes sense that a user’s signature would be very important to him. The interesting thing here is how the entire community seems to respond when someone challenges the identity of a single user. This reveals that there is some form of a herd mentality in this community; if you mess with one member you mess with everyone. I believe this may be based on a fear of their system being challenged. If one person’s signature is taken freely, then anyones suddenly becomes up for grabs. In a community where anyone can join at any point by registering online, the old members can only secure their identity by helping each other keep the status quo.

Sauna Singing

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/22/2015
Primary Language: English

My informant is a regular attendant of the Oregon Country Fair. The Oregon Country Fair is an annual non-profit craft fair held in Eugine Oregon held on the second weekend of July. In its inception it was known as the Oregon Renaissance Faire,  however in 1977 it changed its name to better reflect what it represented. During this fair, there are a number of initiation rituals that the people who work at the fair go through when they first join the community. Most of these rituals happen at night after the fair is closed to the public so the workers can act as they please without having to worry about the fair attendants. One of the initiation rituals takes place in the communal sauna during the first night. According to my informant, around midnight of the first night “all the newcomers and whoever else wants to join head over to the sauna. Then they take off their close and start singing songs together.” Aside from being “a ton of fun for everyone” this ritual is used to initiate people into the community of the Oregon Country Fair workers. My informant said that the community there believes that “by getting all the new members to get naked with some of the older members of the community it shows that we are all naked and open with each other and that everyone is fine the way there is. It makes it clear that there is no reason to hide anything. Thats also why we sing. Of course a lot of us are terrible singers, but that is the point. By just doing something fun together, regardless of if anyone is actually good at it or not, the people start to come together.” After everyone has spent a sufficient amount of the time singing in the sauna, everyone runs out together across the cold fairground into the cold high pressure showers.  This signifies the end of the ritual and all the new members how participated are now treated as a “real part of the community”.

It seems that this ritual is a very integral part of the Oregon Country Fair experience. Until you physically remove anything hiding your body and show yourself completely to the community, you aren’t really considered one of them. This reveals a lot about the values of this unique community. For one, it shows that they prioritize openness over most everything. The ritual involves both embarrassing yourself (through the bad singing) and showing yourself in the most naked way possible. The openness of the community is only reinforced by having initiates and the initiates perform this ritual together. In a way, this implies that the ritual is used to introduce the new members of the community to the older members of the community. The social experience of running around the camp naked, in front of everyone, is what brings these people together; through this ritual the community hopes to learn as much about its new members as possible.