Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Tradition

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 7, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

Tradition – Football

Captains: I smell pussy!

Team: What!?

Captains: I smell pussy!

Team: What!?

Everyone: It’s time to bust these hoes! It’s time to bust these hoes! It’s time to bust these hoes! It’s time to bust these hoes!

Captains: What time is it?

Team: Game time!

Captains: What time is it?

Team: Game time!

Captains: Where my dogs at?

Team then jumps up and down making barking noises and runs onto the field.

The informant, Manoj, reports this chant as the way his varsity football team would get pumped up before games. Manoj says the team would all gather in tight group in the end zone before performing it. The captains of the team would then initiate the chant. The pregame ritual chant was practically screamed by the team, so that they would get psyched up for the coming battle. Manoj learned the chant in his junior year of high school from older members of the team. He says the energy with which the team performed the chant could be carried over into the game. When the team really got into the chant, they always came out with a ferocious intensity. While jumping and barking at the end of the chant, the team members would bump into each other as a way of getting physically ready for the game. At the completion of the chant, manoj says the team would run onto the field through a paper banner held up by his school’s cheerleaders. Manoj is unsure of the exact origin of the chant, but says it has been a pregame ritual for many years at his school.

Pregame rituals are not uncommon and occur in many sports in many places all over the world. A chant like this psychologically readies the players to engage the other team. The chant obviously makes the team feel unified and probably is at least on some level intended to intimidate the opposing squad. The barking at the conclusion of the chant seems to be an attempt to get the players to connect with their ferocious, wild animal side. Professional as well as amateur teams have rituals very similar to this, which suggest to me that rituals like this make a team play better. I think sports in general are mock combat and chants like these help ready the chanters for their mock combat. A pre-game chant similar to this one being performed by a football team can be seen in the movies “Remember the Titans” and “Friday Night Lights”.

Game

Nationality: Mexican, Norwegian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2008
Primary Language: English

Game – Car Trip

The Shotgun Game

In 2006-2007, during my senior year of high school, whenever my friends and I went on a car ride, we would determine who would sit in the front right seat AKA shotgun by playing a game. The way one claimed the right to that most favored seat was by being the first person to yell shotgun after seeing the car. There were a few stipulations to the game-you could not call shotgun from indoors or before you could see the car. I am not exactly sure when I had learned this game, but all my friends and I knew of it independently. We played the game fairly religiously and quite intensly, but it rarely became a point of argument or contention. I had heard of a variation of the game where you must yell shotgun no joust to secure the seat. If a person yells joust after you say shotgun, but before you get no joust out, they play you in rock paper scissors for the seat.

The game is interesting because it sort of reveals a core dynamic of any group of boys. Generally the front seat isn’t that much more comfortable than the back and most of the trips we went on weren’t more than a few minutes. So really the front seat isn’t that much more comfortable than the other seats. And yet we competed for it. Admittedly the game and the competitive aspect of it were fun, but I think the major motivation for the game was status. The front seat represented, perhaps not consciously, dominance and status.

Drinking Song

Nationality: Scottish, Lebanese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 17, 2008
Primary Language: English

Rugby Drinking Song

Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he’s got holes in his hands

All x2: Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he’s got holes in his hands

Chorus: Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause his father fixes matches

All x2: Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause his father fixes matches

Chorus: Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he only has 12 friends

All x2: Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he only has 12 friends

Chorus: Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he only drinks red wine

All x2: Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he only drinks red wine

Chorus: Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he only knows ten rules

All x2: Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause he only knows ten rules

Chorus: Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause the cross would give him flashbacks

All x2: Jesus can’t play rugby ‘cause the cross would give him flashbacks

Chorus: Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

All x3: God we’re only kidding

All x3: Jesus saves

According to the informant, Matt the song is sung to the tune of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Matt says the rugby team he is a part of sings the song at after game celebrations and really anytime the team gets together to drink. While singing team members may only hold their cup in their left hand. The song is not definite in length or form. According to Matt the first line of each verse can be started by anyone, who has an idea for why Jesus can’t play rugby. To start a new verse a person must put their cup on their head and then say the line they have come up with. If the team approves of the line, they repeat it and the song continues. However if the person messes up or the team disapproves of the line, they dip their hands in their drinks and flick their drinks upon the person who messed up while chanting, “Redeem thyself” until the person come up with a suitable line. Matt says the song lasts until no one can come up with another verse or until the team simply gets bored of singing the song.

Matt told me that the song is a really good way for the team to bond and enjoy having a few beers together. The song is always performed in a very jovial manner. Everyone has fun while singing it, even if they are forced to redeem themselves. He thinks that the song will likely live on as a rugby team tradition. Although he identifies himself as a Catholic, he doesn’t see the song as blasphemous because it is sung in a light and joking manner. He also says the song is really more about rugby than about Jesus. Matt was taught the song, after joining the rugby team, at a post practice get together. He said it was easy to learn and made him feel connected to the team

The song is obviously a very good way for the team to come together and bond. The slightly socially taboo nature of the song makes the participants feel all the more close. The song makes use of many puns that are formed by comparing bible terminology to rugby terminology. The song is a way to demonstrate knowledge of rugby and to show an individual’s creativity through the creation of a funny lyric. The song is a way for the teammates to blow off a little steam after a game or practice and enjoy a few drinks.

Toast – Ireland

Nationality: Irish
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Rancho Mirage, CA
Performance Date: April 12, 2008
Primary Language: English

May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you’re dead.

The informant, Brendan Murphy, says his family uses this toast at family gatherings right before everyone begins to eat. Brendan learned this toast from his grandfather, who is a native of Ireland. Brendan says his grandfather always proposes the toast. One time Brendan’s dad started the toast and it was weird for Brendan. He says that the eldest patriarch of the family is supposed to start the toast. According to Brendan, the toast is way of wishing everyone present good fortune throughout life. Brendan likes the toast because he sees it as a family tradition that is distinctly Irish and he is very proud of his Irish heritage. Brendan hopes to continue using this toast at family gatherings and wants to propose the toast at some point in his life.
The toast has several elements that make it seem distinctly Irish. First the presence of the devil and heaven in the toast relate to the strong Catholic beliefs many Irish people hold. The devil is obviously seen as a malicious figure in this toast. The toast being about good fortune also suggests it is Irish as beliefs about luck are ubiquitous in Irish culture. The toast is essentially saying may you be so lucky that you get to heaven before the devil realizes you have died. Wishing someone luck in the afterlife is wishing him or her a lucky life in general. Although the quote is not specific to their family, the family has adopted it, so it must have had some special significance to them at some point.

Festival – India

Nationality: Marathi
Age: 55
Occupation: Public Relations
Residence: Cerritos, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati

“In my house, we used to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi. Ganesh is the god of obstacles; he has a human body and an elephants head, with only one tusk. Initially, people used to do this in their homes. Then it became more of a community event, especially in Bombay. Small communities would get together and keep a deity of Ganesha and do prayers everyday and have events, like childrens programs and presentations and such. It’s a 10 day event. You have to do it either for 10 days, 5 days, or 2.5 days. After praying every day, on the 10th day you take the deity to the sea and submerge it and let it go. It’s called Visarjan. Every year, people would make these deities, from as small as an inch to as large as 100 feet tall. The deities were made from clay, they were made very beautifully. There are artists who make the statue of the deity Ganesha.  Every day you would have prayers, and Prasad which is sweets prepared to offer to god and is shared with everyone.”

In my mom’s house, they used to prepare for this by clearing the front room. They would go buy a deity and create a sort of alter and present it with silk garments and plants and lights and things. Every day, they would do the Pooja (prayer ceremony) in the morning. Generally the men in the family would do the Pooja, it was usually my mom’s father or one of her brothers or uncles, depending on who was there that day. Every day, after the Pooja they would have Aarti, which was a prayer after the Pooja. My grandmother would make Prasad every day. People who didn’t have the deity in their home would come visit them and we would share the Prasad and food with them. On the 10th day, they would submerge the deity.

I haven’t ever been to the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in India. But, from what I have learned from Sunday School and from what I have read about or seen on TV, I know that the Ganesh Chaturti is a festival that is meant to honor Ganesh, as given by the name. But, I also know that it is a big deal in Bombay more than other parts of India. Thousands of people gather to take part in the Ganesh Chaturthi. When we did the Ganesh Chaturthi at my house, I don’t remember it being that large of a deal, mainly because it takes a while to prepare and having to continue the same process for many days requires a decent amount of time that wasn’t always readily available.

Annotation: This festival is documented in an article in the NewYork Times.

New York Times. Parade Caps Festival for a Hindu God. 30 August, 1997.

<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E2D71031F933A0575BC0A961958260&scp=3&sq=ganesh%20chaturthi&st=cse>