Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Blessed Easter Baskets

Nationality: American
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Chino Hills, California
Performance Date: 4/24/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Every Easter my informant, her mother, and her brother would all get to together in order to fill an Easter basket with the food they would eat the next day. They would have polish sausage, butter lamb, candy, colored eggs, salt, vinegar, and bread. They would take the basket and bring it to their church and the priest would sprinkle holy water on it. Once this was done they could bring it back home and wait for Easter to start as they were fasting up until Easter morning. My informant said that this was a polish tradition.

This tradition is deeply tied to religion, but is also one to focus on family. The family got together in order to put focus on what they believe is an important event. It wasn’t a completely solemn activity as candy and colored eggs were brought to be blessed in an attempt to fuse the two aspects of fun and family and religion.

Christmas Wafers

Nationality: American
Residence: Chino Hills, California
Performance Date: 4/24/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

My informant had a tradition that they took part in every Christmas. My informant and her family would go buy thing bread wafers. They would then meet up with their larger family for a party. At this party each person would have one wafer and would walk around and meet everyone there. After this started when they talked to someone they would hand out their wafer and the other person would rip off a small piece. The ripper would then wish the holder of the wafer “good health” or “prosperity”. The ripper would then eat the small piece. They would then switch places and wish the other good health or prosperity while ripping off a piece of the others. The people at the party would go around doing this until everyone had ripped off a piece of everyone else’s bread. It was a polish tradition according to my informant. My informant eventually moved away from her family though and she no longer participates in it.

This tradition is a way to bond a community closer together. The ripping and eating of pieces could represent giving yourself to the other person and becoming closer as a family. Christmas is traditionally that focuses on family and this reinforces that belief. This is especially as seeing that the tradition isn’t celebrated without a large family present. Even the responses became rituals over time as promoting a positive theme at the event is really important.

Hawaiian Leis

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/24/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Giving of Leis

My informant told me of a common custom in Hawaii, the giving of leis as a positive gesture at events. The type of events can range from funerals to birthdays to welcoming tourists to the islands. Whether comforting or welcoming the tradition is embraced by all on the islands not only the native Hawaiians. The leis are supposed to represent a hug that encircles you all day long. Traditionally they are sewn by hand and made of flowers with the better smelling flowers costing more, but as time passes more and more types of leis become acceptable. There are candy leis, ribbon leis, and money leis, that people give out at various occasions. These types of leis are prominent at graduations as people have many to give out and often do not want to spend as much money on a fancier flower lei that won’t last as long as a ribbon one or isn’t as fun as a candy lei. Flower leis are still the most common type though as they are the most meaningful. These are also given to tourists entering the state in order to make a good first impression and it wouldn’t be acceptable for the state to welcome visitors with candy leis.

The giving of leis used to be an exclusively native Hawaiian activity but as immigrants to the islands stayed there longer it become part of a new island culture. Leis are given out in Hawaii as much as before but as the culture evolved the types of leis changed as well showing that while the tie to the past is there so is the new. The leis are physical symbols of positive emotion that are physical remembers one can take with them. The various different materials can often give different meaning to the giving of the lei that wouldn’t necessarily exist if flowers were the only medium. This shows that the evolution of the leis also expands what can be done with them.

Herring at New Year’s Eve

Nationality: American
Occupation: Owner of a fire sprinkler company
Residence: Chino Hills, California
Performance Date: 4/24/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

One eats herring on New Year’s Eve for good luck

When my informant was younger he can remember celebrating New Year’s Eve with his family. For most of the night the kids would be separate playing games while the adults played cards and talked. When the count down to the new year started the whole family would gather up and right at zero one of the adults would hand out a piece of herring on a toothpick and everyone would eat it. While this was happening everyone would wish each other a happy new year.  This was supposed to ensure good luck for the new year.

My informant no longer partakes in this new year’s eve ritual, but he remembers it being important in the past. My informant has polish ancestry and this is where the ritual came from. He told me that he has heard of other polish families doing this ritual, but not from others. When asked my informant could not remember the particular reason for choosing herring as the food though. The tradition may have come from a desire to start the year off right and people associated herring with being a food item that would go along with that sentiment.

Red Envelopes

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

There was once a village that was terrorized by a monster at the same time every year. The monster targeted children. The townspeople could not defeat the monster and the monster would not leave them alone. One day, a young man with a red pouch went to battle the monster, but the monster ran from him. The man returned to the village, telling the townspeople that the monster was frightened by the color red. So, everyone in the village dressed their children in red. When the monster came to the village, it quickly fled, fearful of the color red. The villagers took the color red as a symbol of luck and gave the children red envelopes every year to ward away the monster and to bring good fortune to the child.

My informant has known this story as long as he can remember. His parents would tell it to he and his cousins around Chinese New Years. The monster described serves as a form of boogeyman, and the fact that the red envelopes given by the parents are needed to ward him away the monster allow for a form of black mail to make the children behave as the new year approaches, much as Santa does around Christmas time for Christians. It would be interesting to know if these traditions developed independently or if one inspired the other.