Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

ID10-Tag

Nationality: Jamaican
Age: 28
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: 04/21/12
Primary Language: English

My informant was in the United States marine core from 2002 to 2006. He was deployed to Fallujah Iraq for a total of 14 months (two 7-month tours). He also spent time in Bagdad, Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and various other Iraqi cities, but the majority of his time was spent in Fallujah.

My informant told me that in the marines, there are numerous initiations that jr. marines go through to be enculturated. Essentially, to be brought into the fold.

“Traditionally we just fuck with them… a lot. As much as we can. But it’s important. Regardless of how we actually do this or how we get it done, you want to make sure that the people you’re working with are capable of acting in such a way that it’s not entirely selfish, because in the marine core, especially when you’re in a combat environment, you want to make sure that individuals are going to act in such a way that is going to benefit the group and your fellow marines. It goes beyond bonding on an individual basis but also on an institutional basis because if you’re talking about, ya know, I’m going to do what’s best to make sure my fellow marine stays alive, you’re also going to what’s best for your fellow solider, fellow sailor, fellow airman, and we did a lot of collaborating with other branches. Whatever is best for your fellow service member.

Usually when you have a new individual you want to make sure they understand the hierarchy that’s in place. So, one thing that we did that I can remember specifically is, we had ID10-tags which are—if there’s a piece of equipment that you’re responsible for repairing, you’d put a tag on it and it’s a yellow tag and it has information about whatever the name and description is of that piece of equipment whatever the malfunction is, the date that you noticed this, the serial number, and things of that nature. And that was a yellow tag, but we called it an ID10-tag but, semantically, it’s an idiot tag, because if you break it down it’s ID, 10 is I-O, and tag if you use the T, just the acronym, it’s i-d-i-o-t. So you’re an idiot if you believe what I’m saying is what this ID10-tag phenomenon is all about. So you would say something like, “can you get me an ID10-tag for this rifle” and you would have this new marine go to another marine and say, ya know, “Sargent Lynch told me that I need an ID10-tag for this M-16, it’s misfiring and it has a problem and I need an ID10-tag to put on it”, and they would play along. So someone tells you that you need an ID10-tag and you go and find it and ask the people that you consider to be the authority on this subject and they just play right on along. You don’t find it until someone is nice enough to tell you that you’re being fucked with, or they don’t tell you and later on you find out that you were being fucked with, but eventually you find out you were being fucked with. One way or another you find out.”

My informant went on to explain that this ritual goes far beyond just messing with one’s fellow marines. It is also a way of testing a jr. marine’s character. This wild goose chase for the ID10-tag is a way to see if a jr. marine will go through the proper channels to solve an issue. It is also a way to see how dedicated they are to solving a problem, even one that may seem (or is quite literally) impossible.

“If that means you go and speak to so and so and that person doesn’t know the answer, then you speak to so and so.”

I asked my informant what happened when this was done to him and unfortunately for those pranking him, he saw it coming a mile away.

“I was used to being pranked, and I was used to being tricked. So when I was told that there was an ID10-tag, I immediately saw the connection, and I saw from an acronym connection that it said idiot. So when they said I need an ID10-tag, I went outside, busted open a pack of Marlboro somethings, spent about 10 minutes sitting around and went back in and said, “I can’t find these tags”. Knowing that I was being fucked with, I figured I’d just take a cigarette break and then just come back in and report my failure—inability to locate this magical ID10-tag. I didn’t realize they were trying to test my character. I thought they were just trying to fuck with me because I was the new guy.”

Mexican-Catholic Protection Ritual

Nationality: Latino
Age: 86
Occupation: Retired marriage and family therapist
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: March 14, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“I remember a religious custom which I think my paternal grandmother brought with her from Sonora, Mexico. It utilized a dried palm frond that had been blessed on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Good Friday which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.

In the New Testament Jesus is described as entering Jerusalem seated on an ass where he was greeted by crowds of people, cheering and waving palm fronds in welcome. Thus was fulfilled the messianic prophecy of Isaiah.

In the religious Mexican folklore I refer to, the dried palm frond blessed on Palm Sunday bore special power. That is, at the onset of a thunder and lightning storm (a sometimes powerful phenomenon in Arizona), a small piece of the palm frond would be burned to ward off any potential lightning strike.

It worked. Our home was never struck by lightning.”

Today, my informant regards this practice as a superstition, rather than a religious practice. Yet, this unusual ritual seems to exemplify the fine line between religious ritual, folk ritual, and superstition. Although not specifically sanctioned by the Catholic Church, this practice was clearly a spiritual experience for my informant’s family, as they believed that the palm frond bestowed their home with divine protection. At the same time, however, this practice seems rather like homeopathic magic–it employs palm fronds due to their association with Jesus in the New Testament.

The Afikomen: A Passover Tradition

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 17
Occupation: High school student, planning to major in physics or chemistry
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: March 15, 2012
Primary Language: English

“On a Passover seder, the adults hide the afikomen—a special piece of matzah [unleavened bread]—and the kids have to find it. (Usually, the adults hide it in really dumb places, like under a book.)  Our family, though, does this the other way around: the kids hide it, and the adults have to find it. I think this tradition comes from my Grandpa Ned’s side of the family.

“We always plan out our hiding places in advance, and try to make them good enough that the adults won’t be able to find the afikomen. Once, we opened up an old computer, put the afikomen inside, put the computer back together, and turned the computer on. My favorite hiding spot, however, was one I thought of last year: my friends and I opened up the smoke detector, took out all of the electrical equipment (so that the afikomen would fit in it), and put the afikomen there; meanwhile, we hid the electrical equipment somewhere else.

“When the adults were searching, one of them actually suggested looking inside the smoke detector. My dad, though, said that ‘there’s no way it could fit in there with all of the electrical equipment,’ because he didn’t think that we would take it out. Finally, when the adults gave up, I showed them the smoke detector electrical components to give them a hint. My dad had no idea what the equipment was, so I told him to hook it up to a battery. He said, ‘What is this? Am I going to get a secret coded message telling me where the afikomen is?’ When he connected a battery, the equipment made the sound of the smoke alarm, so he finally figured out where the afikomen was hidden.”

This tradition of hiding the afikomen has long been a part of the Jewish holiday of Passover, an eight-day festival that celebrates redemption from slavery in Egypt. The seder (a Hebrew word meaning ‘order’) is a ritual feast that families carry out in their homes at the start of Passover. Since a seder cannot end until the afikomen is eaten, hiding the afikomen has almost become a ritualized prank.

My informant feels that the afikomen tradition makes the holiday of Passover more meaningful and memorable for him personally, as it is one of the main reasons that he looks forward to Passover each year. He definitely intends to pass this tradition along to his children, stating that “I would definitely want them to come up with creative hiding places.”

The afikomen custom also reflects this holiday’s focus upon the younger generation. Seders customarily involve rituals in which children ask adults questions about the holiday; the Haggadah, a text that Jews read on Passover, even advises adults upon how to answer different sorts of questions from children. The afikomen ritual fits naturally into the seder, as it serves to keep children actively engaged with the holiday in the face of a long series of prayers.

Rule-Breaking Custom in the U.S. Army during World War II

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 86
Occupation: Retired Engineer
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 25, 2012
Primary Language: English

At the end of World War II, U.S. troops in Europe had little to do and were generally restless.  To entertain themselves, soldiers would take leave without permission and—more interestingly—challenge each other to take leave without permission. Here are some examples of this military tradition, from my informant’s wartime experiences:

“During the journey, some of the soldiers came down with Scarlet Fever, so all of the men who had been on our ship were quarantined. After a week or more in quarantine, some of the guys began to get restless.  They noticed that it was possible to sneak out by crawling across the road on one’s belly between the guards when they were marching in opposite directions.  About a dozen of us sneaked out together to explore the countryside.  The Allies had heavily bombed Le Havre to create a diversion from the main D-day landing to the North. Given the resulting ill feeling of the locals towards Americans at that moment, our excursion wasn’t very sensible.  The guys practiced firing their pistols, and after a few hours we sneaked back into camp.  The only other noteworthy event during this period was that one of the idiots in the camp fired off a pistol, making a small hole in the tent about a foot above my head.

“We finally arrived in Namur [in Belgium] and were taken to the kaserne (a barracks surrounded by a 10- or 12-foot high brick wall). During the first few days at the kaserne, only soldiers who had arrived earlier were granted passes to go into town.  There was, however, a section of the wall that was blocked from view by other buildings in the kaserne.  By having one person climb onto another’s shoulders, and a third scramble over the two of them, it was possible to form a chain and scale the wall.  The third guy climbed on top of the wall, assisted the second to get up, and then lowered him by the ankles so that the last could be pulled up.  It was difficult and painful, especially for the man on the bottom.  We went into town and had a great time drinking beer, but somehow it was more difficult to climb back into the kaserne.  We managed to accomplish it without anyone getting hurt.

“The next time that I got a pass [to take leave], Foti had forgotten to get on the request list, and did not have a pass.  There was only a single guard who stood opposite the entrance to the main gate.  I noticed that some of the men would just wave their pass at the guard and say that they were going to turn it in at the orderly room, and that he let them go by without checking.  I convinced Foti that he should come out with me and that we would do the same thing.  When we came back at about 2 AM, I waved my pass at the guard, but he lowered his carbine and said: ‘Soldiers—You’ll turn in your passes here.’  So, I handed him my pass, and told him: ‘That’s his pass—I’ll look for mine.’  To give Foti time to get back to the barracks and into bed, I proceeded to leisurely go through every pocket in my overcoat, jacket, and pants, and then turned over every piece of paper in my wallet four times.  The guard finally started to lose patience with me, demanded my dog tags, and took down my name and Army serial number.  He said: ‘We’ll find out whether or not you had a pass’ and he let me go.  At the next morning’s roll call, with about 1,000 men standing at attention, the Colonel called out my name and told me to march front and center; I did so and saluted him.  He shouted at me: ‘NO ONE MAKES A MONKEY OUT OF MY M.P.’S.  I’M GOING TO COURT MARTIAL YOU IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!’  The following day we were ordered to move to Germany, and the Colonel told me that he was going to let me off.

“I suppose that my involvement in these escapades reflected annoyance at the seemingly arbitrary regimentation and restrictions of the Army.  In retrospect, resentment and boredom overcame common sense; it’s fortunate that no one was harmed by any of this.”

Analysis: Aside from providing the soldiers an outlet with which to escape from their boredom, this tradition forces soldiers to demonstrate their guts, thereby reaffirming their manliness. By taking leave without permission, soldiers could prove themselves to the group and gain acceptance through the process. Especially in a high-risk, wartime environment, it seems reasonable that young men would search for ways in which to establish themselves as courageous amongst their peers. Thus, this practice reflects the pressurized situation of war.

Similarly, in Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, which is based upon the author’s experience of fighting in the Vietnam War, the soldiers’ behavior to one another often tends to be characterized by false bravado—the men endeavor to mask their fears so that they can appear braver than they feel in actuality. For instance, Tim O’Brien portrays a soldier named Curt Lemon, who initiates such dangerous games as “pass the smoke grenade” as he endeavors to exhibit a total lack of fear. (Tragically, he steps upon a mine while playing one of these games, and in this way meets his end.)

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1990. Print.

 

Chinese/Taiwanese Custom of Praying at a Temple for Success in Exams

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 19
Occupation: USC student, majoring in electrical engineering, minoring in computer science
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 7, 2012
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English, French

“China does not have one unified religion. The closest things we have are Buddhism and Daoism, but they tend to stick in their own temples and mountains. So unless you’re a very firm believer in it–it doesn’t trickle down to the normal population. What does happen is that Chinese gods are very practical. The general philosophy is that it doesn’t matter who you believe in, it doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, if you step in a temple, you offer your money, you pray, the gods will answer. So, the gods aren’t creators or great beings to be worshipped, they are beings with super powers that you trade with. Basically, we have what is called ‘paper money.’ You buy the paper money from the temple, and then you burn the paper, and you offer fruit, food, or whatever, to the gods, and the gods give you the good fortune that you want. So, we don’t pray at nights before we eat or before we sleep, we don’t call to God for help, but if we’re, for example, going to an exam, it’s very typical in Asia to take your sons or your daughters to a temple and pray to the gods before the exam starts to pray to the gods for a successful exam.”

Q. Have you ever done that?

A. My parents have taken me to temples when I was little.

Q. Was that a meaningful experience for you?

A. I never really believed that that would help, but since my parents took me there, I prayed. I’d say, “God, give me a good exam result.”

Q. Is the practice of taking kids to temples before exams very common?

A. Well, the temples get a burst of popularity every time final exams come around.

Q. On what other occasions do people go to the temples?

A. People also go on New Year, to have a good year, before you start a job, after you buy a new house. Also on the Day of the Dead, the day we honor our dead, a lot of people go to the temples. And some people come more than others; my family goes very rarely because we’re not very religious, so we go once every month or two.

Q. You said that you don’t believe that going to the temples actually helps. Do your parents believe in it?

A. They are agnostics. They take the Pascal’s gamble approach. If it works, it works, and we pay the money, it’s good. If it doesn’t work, well, we paid a little money, it’s not actually that much, and it’s an experience for our children, so that’s fine. They’re very busy people, and visiting the temple takes time, so we don’t do it very often.

Q. Can you talk more about what the experience of going there is like?

A. Temples are usually very noisy, very loud and crowded. Unlike Western cathedrals—I’m not very much into religion, but I love cathedrals because of the architecture—which are serene, and you walk into them and feel awed by God, in Chinese temples, it’s loud, they’re sort of a social gathering. Also, temples are markets—they’re markets with great food. Temple food is good. You know how in the New Testament, they describe Jesus as being very angry at the peddlers who were in the Temple, and he flipped their stalls? There’s a section in the New Testament where Jesus goes to the Temple and he gets very angry at the peddlers for defiling a sacred place. But this is the opposite. In the temples, you’re supposed to have that kind of people. If a temple doesn’t have peddlers, it means that it’s not very popular, and if it’s not very popular, then its gods aren’t very good. So a temple that is empty and sort of quiet and serene is a bad thing. Temples are supposed to be very loud, and there’s supposed to be smoke everywhere from the incense. That’s the Chinese temple.

There are these things, I’m not sure what they’re called, but they’re two crescent-shaped pieces of wood that are painted red. They look like slices of oranges. And you’re supposed to throw them on the ground. You’re supposed to throw a pair of them on the ground. And how they land will tell you how’s your luck. And you’ll hear those things clattering against the ground the whole time. Sometimes you’ll buy a little bag full of rice that’s supposed to be blessed, and you keep them as a sort of talisman or amulet for good luck. You can buy one for the kind of thing you wanted good luck from. So, if you want success in exams, you can buy a success in exam one, if you want success in love, you can buy a success in love one. It’s a very business-oriented thing. There are certain temples, even until now, which are very sacred and which treat money as less of an issue, like the Shaolin Temple and the Daoist temples. But your average temple—they all worship multiple gods, and it’s just whatever god’s most popular in the area. Actually, speaking of the Shaolin Temple, which is very famous for its martial artists—they are said to be the most business-oriented temple now. Shaolin martial arts have spread all over the world by virtue of them being very business-oriented. The head monk of Shaolin no longer sits in his room praying, he goes all over the world on private jets for business purposes.

Q. Does that mean converting people?

A. No, they’re not converting people to the religion. They are not encouraged, nor are they motivated to convert people to their religion. But they welcome people to come and practice Shaolin martial arts, and they get paid quite a bit of money for it.

Analysis: This tradition of praying at temples for success in exams displays a way that religion has adapted to fit people’s present-day concerns, pressures, and needs.