Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

The Mano

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Gilroy, California
Performance Date: April 19, 2012
Primary Language: English

“Respecting your elders is a very big thing in Filipino culture. There’s a tradition we do in Filipino culture where when you greet an older family member, you grab their hand and you put it up to your forehead. It’s called “the Mano” and it’s just a form of respect. It’s a respectful greeting for your elders. I did that to my older family members. The ones from slightly younger generations knew that I was American, so they were confused as to why I was doing that. But the older generation really cherishes it. They expect it. Before I went to visit my relatives in the Philippines, my dad, whose grandparents emigrated from the Philippines, told me that that was a custom. He told me about the Mano.”

 

As my informant said, the importance and continuation of this folklore in Filipino culture comes from the great respect they have for family and their elders. In addition to the surface level of using the Mano to demonstrate respect for their older relatives, the younger generations’ continued use of the Mano allows them to show their respect for the Filipino culture and traditions of the older generations. By keeping up customs that are held so dearly by the older generations, the younger generations acknowledge how important these customs are to the older generations in how they perceive of their culture. Continuing to use these customs is, in a way, a promise to the older generations that these customs will be kept going even after those generations are gone. That promise commits the younger generations to respect their elders in the long-term in a way that goes beyond the simple gesture of the younger relative putting the older relative’s hand to his forehead. Its use by members of the younger generation who did not grow up in the Philippines (in this case, my informant is a third generation American immigrant) speaks even further to that respect. Although not a custom a non-Filipinos would be familiar with or perform, visiting descendents of emigrants are still expected to, and do, use the Mano to demonstrate that their respect for their elders transcends their nationality and cultural upbringing.

The Balikbayan Box

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Gilroy, California
Performance Date: April 19, 2012
Primary Language: English

“So, a lot of Filipinos emigrate from the Philippines, and my family is one of them. I’m third generation—my grandparents immigrated here. I’m not sure how it is for every Filipino family in America, but for my grandparents, it was hard to get assimilated into this culture because of the language barrier and the accents. My grandfather had a hard time getting jobs and people would look down on him because of his accent, so when they came to America, they didn’t want to give their kids that experience. They wanted them to learn English and speak it well, but even though they value their Filipino heritage, my grandmother was very strict about ‘we’re in America now. We’re going to adopt this culture.’ Since we were benefiting from America and living in America, we should use that culture. And that’s where they stopped practicing many Filipino customs. She was very excited about the opportunities in America. But one thing we have always observed is the balikbayan box. In Filipino culture, it’s custom that if you move to America, you send a balikbayan box back to the Philippines. It’s basically a box of things from your new culture and things you can’t get in the Philippines. So, for a long time, that included things like chocolate. That’s more readily available now, but you would send a box full of things that were hard to come by in the Philippines. And also, when I visited my family in the Philippines, we brought a lot of stuff with us. It’s kind of a custom that when you visit your family in the Philippines, you bring a balikbayan box. Treats and different things for them. At the airport, it was funny, because a lot of the luggage was boxes that said “balikbayan box” on them. It’s just a way of bringing them things from better-developed countries like America. I think it just goes along with the whole culture of a close family in Filipino culture. Family is extremely important, so it’s an expected thing. It’s not necessarily a sign of respect. It’s just a thing you do for your family because family is so important.”

 

In other parts of our interview, my informant stressed how important the idea of respect is in Filipino culture, particularly respect for elders. Although she did not feel that that played a large role in the case of the balikbayan boxes, I believe the story of her grandparents’ immigration suggests otherwise. Her grandparents decided to try to make life in America easier for their children by ignoring many Filipino traditions. Although this is not something that was done maliciously or that would have been paraded in front of older relatives still in the Philippines, it still could be seen as a rejection of the culture and customs imparted to them by their older relatives for their entire lives. In this way, it is almost a rejection of their older relatives and the culture that is so important to them. Having the tradition of sending the balikbayan box allows Filipino emigrants to temper that rejection. They send a box full of only items from their new country and culture, but it is sent according to the traditions of their former country and culture for the enjoyment of the family they left behind. It becomes a gesture of respect, almost a promise to their relatives that, despite the large influence of the new culture the emigrants are becoming absorbed in, they will still remember Filipino traditions and practice those that affect older relatives still in the Philippines. Regularly presenting gifts to their family promises that their respect for their family, even in a different country with different traditions, is still intact.

Smacking for Luck–Magic and Football

Nationality: Italian-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Park Ridge, Illinois
Performance Date: April 19, 2012
Primary Language: English

“Outside the Loyola Academy locker room, in the hallway, they have one of those motivational signs that saya, you know, ‘Play Like a Rambler Today’ (the Rambler is the football team name) and it was just put up there in the locker room, but kids took to pounding it as they walked out before the game. When we walked in the hallway, there was the sign at the end. No one would think about going by it without smacking it. If you all smacked the poster, then the game was going to go well. If you didn’t, well…”

 

This practice probably started as one player just deciding to smack the poster once for fun and then being mimicked by the other players on the team. However, it has since evolved into a form of folk magic. By smacking the poster, the players are hoping that their opponents will also be smacked down. Because so much of the outcome of a football game is the result of chance (if the wind was blowing right at the right moment, if a player was left unguarded at the perfect opportunity to score, etc), the use of folk magic allows the players to act as though they have control over these moments of chance. If the entire Loyola Academy team smacks the poster, they have ensured that those moments of chance in the game will go well for them. It also provides them with a scapegoat in the event that the game does not go well. “Well, x wasn’t here today, so he didn’t smack the poster. That’s why we lost.” Any failure on the field, whether it was something that the players could have controlled or not, is now attributed to whether the poster was smacked by the whole team. It releases the team as a whole from blame and culpability.

The Slick

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cerritos, California
Performance Date: April 20, 2012
Primary Language: English

“One of the things you have to do as a freshmen, no matter what section of [the University of Southern California’s Trojan Marching] band you’re in, that has been done for twenty or thirty years, is that you have to eat this thing called the slick. At its most basic, it’s chili, French Fries and root beer all put in one cup and mixed together. In a lot of sections, the people who are graduating get to put whatever they want in there, like peppers, oatmeal… just really gross things. They say that if you don’t finish it, then you’re still a freshmen. It’s supposed to signify that you’re done with your freshmen year, and you’re now an older member of the band. The gist of it is that you have to finish it, and that’s just that. But this past year, there was a senior in one of the sections who just didn’t want to do it because he didn’t want to get in trouble and he thought it was just mean. It was interesting to see how that was such a huge deal. People in other sections were really angry. I was angry. ‘We had to do it when we were freshmen. Why don’t those freshmen have to do it?’ It was so scary, the mob mentality we had. ‘No, we’ve all done it! You all have to do it! It’s a ritual!’ We didn’t stop to even think about the logic of it.”

 

What I find particularly compelling about the slick is that it represents the last band event before a liminal period for both the freshmen and the seniors. Over the course of my interview with my informant, she mentioned several instances of freshmen hazing. The slick is the last of these. Every freshmen who eats the slick is then considered to be no longer a freshmen. They cannot actually be called sophomores until the next fall. Eating the slick is their initiation to that liminal stage where they are no longer freshmen, but not yet sophomores. They are no longer subject to the hazing of the older band members, but they are also not yet allowed the status or perks of being a sophomore and older band member. For the senior band members, this represents the end of their domination. While they will still be seniors for the remainder of the year, they have lost the ability to haze the freshmen because there are no longer any freshmen (assuming all the freshmen eat the slick). They are allowed the final gesture of putting whatever combinations of food and drink they find most disgusting into creating the slick. But that large part of their identity as seniors in having that domination over the freshmen is now gone. After all the freshmen have eaten the slick, the band no longer has freshmen and also, in some ways, seniors.

White Side Out–Tricking Marching Band Freshmen

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Gilroy, California
Performance Date: April 20, 2012
Primary Language: English

“So as part of our [USC] marching band uniforms, we have capes. On one side, the cape is gold and on one side the cape is white, and you’re supposed to wear the gold side out because that looks nice. But every year for the first home football game, older band members tell the freshmen ‘oh, it’s the first home game, so you’re supposed to wear your cape white side out.’ And they do this every year. Sometimes the freshmen are lucky enough to figure it out or have older members tip them off, but that’s one thing they try to trick us with. You look really stupid if you fall for it, and band alumni tend to be really rude and they’ll heckle you. When you get to the call time outside Heritage Hall and you have your white side out, people will laugh at you.”

 

This is part of the initiation of the freshmen into the band culture. Part of becoming a fully fledged band member is learning the customs and traditions of the band. The first home game is a very important event for freshmen band members because it is the first time they perform in the stadium during a football game for thousands of people. Being tricked by the older members into dressing incorrectly for that first big step reminds the freshmen that they have a lot to learn and will be held publicly culpable for all mistakes that they make. They are the lowest, most ignorant members of band and will be shown that in the most embarrassing way possible until they learn better. When the freshmen learn that they are always supposed to wear their capes gold side out, they have made the first step in separating lies told by older members from true band traditions. Freshmen who are not tricked prove that they are not gullible and are aware of their lower status in the band. It also allows the sophomore, junior and senior band members to flaunt their own knowledge of band traditions, and appreciate how much they have learned in the years they have been in the band, as they would not have been tricked into wearing their capes white side out. This serves to create a band hierarchy with a severe difference between the freshmen and all older band members.