Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Cornell Virgin Legend

Nationality: American, Polish, Russian, a little bit of French
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ithaca, New York
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

“Okay, so the deal is, there’s A.D. White and Ezra Cornell. So, there are statues of each of them. Ezra Cornell is the first president of Cornell and, I forget, I think A.D. White was the founder. Oh, no, no, no, A.D. White was the first president and they named the school after Cornell. So, um, what happened is, there’s statues of them on opposite sides of the Arts Quad, and Cornell legend says that if a virgin crosses the Arts Quad at midnight, the ghost of the two statues walk to the center of the Arts Quad and shake hands in appreciation of chastity. Okay, in recent years, students have painted footprints of the two umm, one in white, one set of footprints in white and one set of footprints in red that lead to the center circle on the Arts Quad as if the statues actually were able to get up and walk.  

I dunno really where I heard this from. Everyone just sort of knows it. I think maybe I heard it from my Orientation Leader or a tour guide but I can’t remember.”

 

The informant was pretty shaky on the details of the legend, and seemed somewhat flustered when she forgot who founded the school and who was the first president. It was pretty funny because even though there are statues of these two important figures at her school, that does not seem to be very important to her, and understanding the actual, historical roles of these two figures is not imperative to understanding the legend.

The legend is a quaint throwback to the notion of chastity and is particularly ironic in a college environment, where the attitude usually seems to be that everyone is having casual sex or losing their virginity. It almost seems to be making a joke out of the idea of a virgin on campus, as if to say that having a virgin on their campus is so impossible that if there was one, supernatural things would occur. It is interesting that students have taken the urban legend and perpetuated their own sort of folklore by making a folk tradition out of painting the footsteps onto the quad.

A variation of this legend appears in the book Campus Legends: A Handbook (Greenwood Folklore Handbooks), compiled by Elizabeth Tucker. The book says, “…if a virgin graduates from Cornell, the two statues will meet in the middle of their courtyard to shake hands” (Tucker 16.) The book also notes that students have a tradition of painting the red and white footsteps in the courtyard between the two statues. It is interesting that the version of the legend in this book, which was published in 2005, has a distinct variation from the version of the legend that the informant told me. In one version, the statues shake hands when a virgin graduates, whereas in the version the informant told me, that statues shake hands when a virgin crosses at midnight. The canonized version of the legend suggests that it is rare for a person to graduate a virgin (that is, to make it through all four years of college and remain a virgin), whereas the version the informant told me suggests that it is rare for someone to maintain their virginity at all once they arrive at college. Perhaps this variation implies a changing view of sexuality over the past few years and suggests that modern college students are much more sexually aware and sexually active than ever before.

Penis Names

Nationality: various
Age: 20-22
Occupation: College Students
Residence: Los Angeles, USC
Primary Language: English
Language: none

While at a party I accidentally infiltrated a room full of boys. The conversation had moved to naming one’s penis – apparently a common practice among college aged men. The boys at first expressed regret that I had found out about this secretive practice, and in fact seemed ashamed. I convinced them to explain the phenomenon.

According to this room full of informants, boys will name their penises around the age they begin to establish their sexuality. This first name is not necessarily permanent or even acknowledged by the boys explicitly (one informant said he would never say the name of his penis out loud). After this initial naming of the penis with the onset sexuality and adulthood, the penis begins to take on an identity. One informant described finding a proper penis name much like, “getting a sick band name, or naming your puppy”, implying that the name came from the penis’ own characteristics and identity and required a lot of thought. After they became sexually active (with others), and especially after established relationships the penis name would be more concrete and permanent. By the time they were college-aged the penis had an established personality expressed by its jealously guarded special name.

The informants, all being college students, could not confirm whether this practice was as common outside of college culture, but they strongly believed so. They told me about friends back home who also named their penises – most of them were also college students, but some were not and they vouched for their equal enthusiasm for naming penises.  It seems the early age of first naming penises would imply that it is likely to occur regardless of the college atmosphere, although a male camaraderie seemed to be an integral part of the naming practice. One informant let me know I was only the third woman to know his penis’ name, and the only he did not tell after sex. However, most of the guys in the room seemed to already know each other’s penis names and there was less discomfort in sharing with each other than with me.

The development of male sexuality and owning said sexuality also seems to have a lot to do with the practice of naming one’s penis. As these men become more intimate with their own penises they seem to want to name them. One informant said his penis was like his “buddy” and a name seemed necessary for those times he felt the need to address his penis as though it was it’s own person.

Here are some examples collected:

The Swordfish

Vladi (The Impaler)

DJ (“Spin that Shit”)

The Yellow Submarine

Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock

The Hammer (Of The Gods)

The Thinking Man

The Hulk

Monty Python’s Holy Grail

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Master Bates

Senor Balzac

Clip Tip Dave and His Cheeky Darkies

One informant refused to tell me his penis’ name, but did tell me he had named his testicles: Dr. Kenneth Noisewater and Col Wilkins (R-L).

 

Korean Dream Superstition – Pigs

Nationality: Korean
Age: 51
Occupation: Nurse
Residence: Cerritos, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

“A dream about a pig is a very good sign promising riches.”

 

My informant first heard about this superstition from her mother when she was about eight years old, living in Pusan, Korea.  Her mother told her that pigs were a welcoming sign because it would mean the household would flourish with wealth.  That is why dreams with pigs in it were always a delight in Korea.  Her mother was discussing that if she married a man with the Chinese sign of a pig, she would most likely live in riches.  My informant also told me that many people are carefully strategizing to become pregnant in the year 2007 because this is the year of the Golden Pig in the Chinese calendar.  The Golden Pig is unique to the ordinary pig sign because it only comes once in a thousand years.  People believe that if they are to bear a child in the year of the Golden Pig, that child will bring propitious results.

I am not surprised pigs are considered the signs of wealth in Korea because of the nature of the animal.  Pigs are stereotypically obese, food-grubbing, and filthily self-indulgent.  Having a dream about a pig reminds the dreamer about his or her self-indulgences or greed.  Since most people are in a great desire for more money, the pig’s self-indulgence for food would mean indulgence in money for people.  Pigs also provide very good meat, pork.  Therefore pigs can conjure the image of meatiness, sufficiency, and fullness.

Korean Superstition – The Ill at Funerals

Nationality: Korean
Age: 51
Occupation: Nurse
Residence: Cerritos, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

“The physically ill in Korea do not attend funerals in fear that death will find them.”

 

My informant first heard about this superstition when about a decade ago, she was puzzled by her mother-in-law’s unwillingness to attend her (as in the mother-in-law’s) brother’s funeral.  When Gwi questioned her opposition to attending, her mother-in-law who is from the rural city of Daegu in Korea, explained that she was already ill.  Spirits at the funeral could sense an ill person’s presence and would follow her home.  She was afraid of the spirits following her after the funeral to take her with them, so she avoided going.  This kind of superstition is wide spread among the country folks in Korea.  They would never attend a funeral no matter how beloved the deceased was to them if they are ill because they believed the spirits would mark them as the next to die.

If I were battling a fatal disease, I would feel too vulnerable to go to such a gloomy and morbid ceremony.  Not necessarily that I believe spirits would follow me home, but I would be afraid to watch a funeral because death would just seem so real and closer to me.  However, I would still find the courage to attend a beloved’s funeral because perhaps I may find consolation in that death does not have to be so scary and remote as many people make it out to be.

M A S H = Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House

Nationality: Mexican-American (2nd. Gen)
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Downey, California
Performance Date: January 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

M A S H = Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House

This is a grid for the children's game, MASH

 

My informant first learned how to play this fortune-telling game in her middle school in Downey, CA from one of her girlfriends during lunch time.  In MASH, on each side and corner of the square, you write a list up to four items you desire or absolutely hate.  For example, one side of the square can have four names of potential husbands.  On another side, there could be four names of the cars you may have in the future.  MASH is at the top of the square indicating if you will live in a mansion, apartment, shack, or a house.  The girl whose fortune is being told must close her eyes and at any time says, “Stop!” while the fortune teller would be drawing sticks.  When the fortune teller stops, she counts how many sticks she has drawn.  Then she counts from the “M” on the square around the square counting to however many sticks she had drawn.  Whenever her count ends, she crosses out whatever item she lands on, and continues with her count again until only one item from each category is left.  In the end, the girl will discover who she will marry, what kind of compartment she would reside in, what her job would be, how many kids she’ll have, what the color of her car will be, what her car will be, and where she will live.

I have also played this game several times as the fortune teller and as the person whose fortune is being told.  It can take up a lot of time when needed and is quite entertaining.  It is especially fun for girls because most girls typically like to daydream about who their husbands will be or where they will live in the next ten years and so on.  Favorable results can be exciting and unfavorable results can be funny.