Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Post-Joke Toe-Grabbing

Nationality: American, Irish
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Downtown LA
Performance Date: 4.16.14
Primary Language: English

The Informant is 21 years old, is a junior at USC studying Screenwriting, and is from Chicago, Illinois.

Me: Okay, so explain what just happened!

Him: Well, we’re all comedians in this house so we like to tell jokes. So we have a lot of joke competitions? It actually started in my dorm with my freshman year roommate. Whenever someone came over and jokes started being told, and mind you, they’re usually SUPER cheesy…just sad jokes…we’d have the guest pick which joke was funniest between me and my roommate. Whoever the guest deemed had told the funnier joke had to have their toes pulled by the losing joker. Don’t ask me how we decided to do that. I think we were pretty drunk and thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.

Me: So, what do you do now?

Him: Well, now I live with 5 dudes, including my freshman year roommate, so we brought it with us not thinking it would really stick. And now there are ALWAYS people over, so that toe-pulling thing happens all of the time now. It caught on! We’re always just yanking on each others’ feet. It’s embarrassing. Don’t ask me why we do it *laughs*.

Me: Who usually wins?

Him: The person who comes up with the wittiest pun, typically. It’s whoever the guest chooses, also! We don’t really even think about it anymore. The people that come over also know the process now, too, so jokes will be told and someone will  just shout “M*******!” and I have to go pull M*******’s toes for him. Actually, people don’t even have to be over and we’ll just do it between ourselves. It’s rare that I get my toes pulled though *laughs*.

Analysis:

This presents an unique folk gesture by involving competition, humor, and an atypical interaction of body parts. The informant seemed almost embarrassed of his house’s little ritual because of how ridiculous even HE thought it was. I remember when it was first performed I was so confused by the course of events. I looked over at the informant after I deemed him the winner, and he turned red with embarrassment at the little ritual of his toes being pulled. Yet, despite his embarrassment, he clearly enjoyed the ritual in the the ways that it brings him closer to his roommates and friends. This shows that a lot of pride can be created from the establishment of a ritual, despite whatever level of ridiculousness it may involve. It’s this exact reason that we always play pranks on someone when it’s their birthday, why clubs have embarrassing inductions for their new members, and why college seniors always try to pull of the biggest school prank. Though they may be embarrassing at times, these rituals create a self-established sense of pride among those involved.

Rashid Family Grace

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Downtown LA
Performance Date: 4.22.14
Primary Language: English

The Informant is 21 years old, a junior at USC studying Dramatic Arts, and is from Evanston, Illinois.

Him: You know how a lot of people say grace before every meal? Like they pray to God to bless their food before they eat it and stuff? Well, my family have always said a different grace than my family friends and stuff. Every time I go to someone else’s house and they do grace, it’s different from my family’s. We say this prayer, ‘Bless us Our Lord, for these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive, through thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.’ I’ve never heard another family say it like us.

Me: That’s the one my family and I say!

Him: What, really? No way.

Me: I swear to God.

Him: Well, also, we do it for a different reason, I think. Like, my family has never said grace to bless the food. When I hear that other people do that, I don’t get it. We do it so that we can center the family and meet as one before we eat. Like, when I eat alone, I never do grace. I only do it when I’m with people. Like, why would I bless my food? I want to bless the company I’m with, you know? But yeah. No one does it like us in that regard. I don’t know if it’s always been that way, like I don’t know the actual reason why the Rashids started doing grace, probably for purely religious reasons, but that’s how I know it now.

Me: So in other words, it’s not for religion purposes, it’s about bringing the family together.

Him: Yeah! Like, we don’t go to church or anything like that at all. And I don’t really pray or anything. But when I’m with my family, I say grace with them for the purpose of being closer to them.

Analysis:

This shows the ways that prayer can bring non-religious families together with different intentions. By seeking to bless the family  rather than the food, the Informant’s family place a larger emphasis on their company and their bloodlines than on the sustenance that has been provided. In other words, they probably also value family quality time over income and time spent at work. Knowing the informant rather well, I can affirm this. The Informant spends as much time as he can with his family, probably because the significance of family has been instilled in him since a very young age.

It’d be interesting to compare the familial closeness of an orthodox catholic family, where prayers may strictly be followed based off of their original intentions, with the Informant’s family where tangible experiences with the present company are the ones that are most valued.

Theatre Camp – Horror Story

Nationality: American, Brazilian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Downtown LA
Performance Date: 4.22.14
Primary Language: English

The Informant is 20 years old, a sophomore at USC studying Communications and Journalism, and is from New York, New York.

Her: Uhm. Okay. So, when I was like in middle school, like ages 11-14-ish, I used to go to this theatre camp every summer in like upstate New York. And, like, over a period of 5 weeks we’d put on a play. I don’t remember what play we did that year, but this was like my 3rd year and they always told the same story about this girl who died at the camp. They’d tell it the midnight before opening night.

Me: Is this like a yearly ritual?

Her: Oh, totally. Everyone was always stoked about it and the new girls would get scared because they didn’t know it was coming.

Me: What’s the story?

Her: So…okay. Let me think about this. Okay…I got it. So there was this girl that died backstage at the camp like 40 years ago because of a set piece that fell from the lighting truss or something like that, and she was a virgin, and they said that because she was never able to go back home after camp, her ghost still stays there in the woods. And they say that the night before opening night if you look out your cabin window and you’re a virgin you can see her in the woods staring at you into the cabin. Apparently she’s supposed to come out of the woods and like kill you or something. But, I don’t know. I was always too afraid to look out of the window and risk it *laughs*, but none of my friends who looked died!

Me: That is terrifying. So you never saw her?

Her: No, but my friend Charlie swears to God that she did. But she didn’t die or anything so I don’t know.

Me: How long have they been telling the story there?

Her: I’m not sure how long they’ve told the story, but even the girls that were 3rd years when I was a 1st year had been hearing it for awhile too. So I wanna say it’s at least been awhile. And the camp counselors were in on it, too.

Analysis:

Being that the Informant attended an all-girls theatre camp in a liminal age period (the onset of puberty), I can understand how stories like this became very popular. Especially with the specificity of the involvement of virgins in the process. It’s clear that stories like this are created to help unite the girls in a way that helps them cope with the onset of womanhood. Also, from my experience, stories like this can be fun to share with girls you don’t know that well yet because it can lead to the onset of friendships and bonding over similar fears and the adrenaline rushes that result from them. The development of relationships with people in your age, gender, and school groups are very important for young adults.

Kabbalat shabbat rituals

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/9/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

INFO:
After the Sabbath starts, is that part of any eating ritual is that before you eat, you wash your hands in a ritual way just with water and say a prayer. Between saying the prayer and eating a piece of bread, you can’t talk. When you have a family or guests over, it takes a moment for everybody to go through the ritual before blessing the bread and partaking in it together.

In the few minutes that it takes for people to come back and sit back down at the table, no one can talk, but everyone will hum songs. These tunes are just known from growing up together, and sometimes it’s just the head of the house humming it and sometimes other people will join in, but it makes the space very happy. There’s no reason for it other than just to make the space beautiful.

BACKGROUND:
Literally means “the welcome of shabbat (Sabbath).” Practically, all the blessings and songs and rituals that you do to welcome the Sabbath in on Friday night, though there are rituals, such as the one listed above, that you can do on the Sabbath itself.

The idea behind it: making things beautiful to welcome in the Sabbath — you’re not just celebrating, but you’re doing it even though you don’t need to. Generally, it means being unnecessarily fancy for the Sabbath, e.g. cleaning the house, wearing fancy clothes, getting out nice dishes.

The informant has a memory of her grandfather always humming when her family would come over on Friday nights, or when he came over on Friday nights. He’s a huge part of her life, and one of her greatest inspirations.

CONTEXT:
I spoke to my informant during an on-campus event.

ANALYSIS:
During my undergrad years at USC, I sometimes went over to my Jewish friend’s house to partake in their shabbat dinners. I never knew there were religious rituals attached to it, but this one really captivates me because of its inherent quietness. When many people think of rituals or festivals, they think of noise and excitement, but this is one ritual that’s incredibly low-key in practice, but still shows a strong devotion to and respect of the religious rite.

USC game days – kicking the flagpole

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/9/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

INFO:
During any game day, while walking to the Coliseum, Trojan football fans (anyone who’s rooting for USC) kick the bases of the flagpoles at the end of Trousdale for good luck during the game.

BACKGROUND:
On the way to the Coliseum (USC’s football stadium), it’s common to see fans passing into the stadium park to kick the flagpoles. The informant, as a marching band member, was told from the first game on to kick the pole as the band marched by, but other USC students find out from student friends or USC alumni at the games.

CONTEXT:
I spoke to my informant during an on-campus event.

ANALYSIS:
It doesn’t appear that there is any real rational behind the practice? Maybe it’s like the theater practice of “breaking a leg” or the general saying “knock on wood,” with the caveat that since not all USC Trojan football fans are USC students or alumni, the flagpoles are a universally-recognized symbol that all fans can engage with.