Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Coin Checks in the Air Force

Speaker: “In the Air Force, if someone does a really good job or performs especially well, they might be rewarded with a coin. These are usually special coins with the unit’s insignia on them, or sometimes with a special design or the insignia of a high-ranking officer. They are given out as a reward to recognize good work or outstanding behavior.

Most people have at least one or two of these coins. Usually, people carry them around because of something we call a ‘coin check.’

A coin check can happen when people are out together, like at a bar or during a gathering with the unit. If someone accidentally drops something metal, like a fork, spoon, or even a coin itself, and it makes a loud sound, someone will usually hear it and immediately take out their coin and hit it against the table.

Then they will start yelling, ‘Coin check, coin check, coin check.’

As soon as people hear that, everyone has to respond by taking out their own coin and hitting it on the table too. If somebody does not have a coin with them, or cannot put one on the table, then everyone knows they do not have one.

When that happens, the person who does not have a coin usually has to buy drinks for everyone else, or take a penalty drink themselves.

It is really just a tradition that has been passed down for a long time and is still kept around today.”

Context: This conversation is about the traditions and customs in the military. The speaker described the practice of giving commemorative coins as rewards for good performance, as well as the related tradition of “coin checks.” He explained that many service members carry these coins with them at all times because they may suddenly be challenged to produce them during social gatherings. If someone cannot produce a coin, they are expected to buy drinks or take a penalty drink.

Analysis: This folklore highlights the importance of group identity and shared symbols within military culture. Challenge coins serve not only as awards for achievement, but also as visible signs of membership and pride in one’s unit. The practice of coin checks turns these objects into part of a social ritual, encouraging people to keep their coins with them and reinforcing a sense of belonging. While the consequence for failing a coin check is usually playful, such as buying drinks, the ritual helps strengthen camaraderie and reminds members of their connection to the larger group.

Cuban New Year Traditions: Grapes, Water, and Roasted Pig

“So my dad’s thing, his folklore I guess, is that on New Year’s you eat 12 grapes, one for each month of the coming year. Each grape is basically a wish, a month of good luck. And then you fill up pots and pans with water and you throw the water out to get rid of all the bad luck from the year before. And you bang the pots together to scare away any bad energy, bad mojo. That’s his Cuban heritage, that’s where all of that comes from.

And then more generally, for any big holiday, it’s just about getting the whole extended family together. Like everyone comes. And the food is a huge part of it. The main thing you’re always going to have is roasted pig, and then black beans, rice, and fried plantains. It’s not a gathering without those. The food is really the center of everything, honestly. That’s just how those family holidays work.”

Context: This is from my friend whose father is Cuban. The informant was relaxed and a little giggly about it, clearly fond of these memories. It’s about the specific rituals their family does on New Year’s Eve, and then more broadly the way big family holidays just always look a certain way, same food every time, same people crowded around the same table. Someone in the room kept kicking them partway through, which did not help.

Analysis: The way he describes it shows that he is not quite sure what category it belongs in. But that slight distance actually makes it more interesting, because it shows how folk traditions get transmitted within families without ever being formally taught. Nobody sat this person down and explained the symbolism of the grapes or the water. They just grew up watching it happen, and now they know it.

The grape-eating and pot rituals are recognizable from Cuban and broader Latin American New Year’s tradition, but what stands out here is less the rituals themselves and more the fact that they’ve survived the distance of immigration intact, still tied to a specific identity, still understood as distinctly Cuban even several generations in. Throwing water out to expel bad luck, banging pots to scare off evil, these are physical, almost theatrical acts, and that probably has something to do with why they stick. They’re hard to forget once you’ve seen them.

The food side of things is doing something a little different. Roasted pig, black beans, rice, plantains showing up at every single holiday isn’t really about any one occasion. It’s more like a recurring proof of belonging. The meal is the same because the family is the same, and making it together, eating it together, is how that continuity gets felt rather than just assumed.

This entry was posted in Calendar Custom, Festival, Food, Family Folklore and tagged Cuban heritage, New Year’s, grapes, luck, roasted pig, family gathering, Latin American tradition on 0420.

High School Coming-of-Age Rite

Text:

H: “Each class had its color, like I was the yellow class. So there was like a spirit day where you all wore your colors and at the end of the day, the seniors would jump in [a big fountain on the school’s campus] first and with all their kilts on – like our uniform kilts – and no one else was allowed to wear their kilt. And like they were allowed to go in the water like class by class you went in. So like senior, junior, sophomore, freshman, but like only the seniors could wear their kilt. And that was like a fun thing to jump in the pool ’cause like you weren’t really, the pool wasn’t used. It wasn’t like used for swim practice; it was only used this day. Yeah, it was like a fountain type thing. So yeah, if you were senior, you could wear your kilt. And I remember one year, like a freshman wore her kilt and she was like heavily trash talked, ’cause you’re not supposed to do that. It’s like a respect thing.“

Context:

H went to an all-girls high school in Philadelphia. Every grade level was assigned a color, and on spirit day they would wear their colors and jump into the school’s fountain in grade level order. However, only seniors were allowed to jump into the fountain wearing their kilt – a special piece of the school uniform.

Analysis:

High school seniors exist in a space of liminality: they are in-between youth and adulthood. Because they exist in the doorway between identities, many rites of passages are created to celebrate and commemorate the time. “Communitas” is created because of the special bond seniors form together as they transpire the liminality between youth and adulthood. This establishes sacredness of rites of passage. They are something to be earned that one cannot attain prior to their own existence in liminality. That is why students at H’s school would become very upset if a non-senior wore their kilt while jumping into the fountain – the ritual is being broken and its sacredness is being tarnished.

Women’s National Championship Celebration

Age: 20

Context:

The informant attends the University of South Carolina, which has a nationally ranked women’s basketball team. In the past few years, the team has won the NCAA championship multiple times. The informant has witnessed campus wide celebrations each year they win.

Text:

The informant recounts that if the USC women’s basketball team wins the national championship at the end of the season, crowds gather to jump in the fountain outside Thomas Cooper library to celebrate. Hundreds of people gather to celebrate immediately after the game is won.

Analysis:

This celebration is a ritual that helps create a sense of communitas since the entire student body joins in to cement a social bond through their sports team’s victory. Jumping into the fountain serves as a rite of passage that transforms a mere fountain outside a library into a place with communal meaning. This tradition turns the team’s success into a part of the entire university’s identity to create a collective sense of pride and belonging.

Blessing a New House

Context:

The informant has only moved homes twice in her life. Each time she moves her family does this custom before moving their stuff and furniture into the space. It is a Hindu tradition.

Text:

When the informant moved into her new home, a priest had to ensure the space was good to move into. The priest blessed the home and performed a pooja involving incense, allowing for her family to fully move in. The priest had the family repeat after him to chant in Sanskrit. The informant admits that she does not know nor understand this language.

Analysis:

This practice is a transition ritual, where moving homes involves leaving the old home, a liminal blessing of the new one, and re-introduction into a purified environment. These processes within the ritual reflect Van Gennep’s rites of passage where the pooja holds culturally shared significance. Using incense and chanting, the house is symbolically transformed into a sacred, safe space. In this way, people can manage their anxieties and uncertainty over new environments with such spiritual protection. Additionally, the informant’s relationship with Sanskrit demonstrates an instance of esoteric communication, where meaning is rooted in tradition even if it is not fully understood by participants.