Category Archives: Folk speech

Parable / Wisdom Tale

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Context:

A story my informant was told when they were growing up, used to reframe seemingly bad things into a positive light. It’s an example of intergenerational folklore because his mother was told the story as a child as well.

Text: Pulled from a message my informant sent me

“My mom would tell me this story about a man that seemingly fell into continuous fortune and misfortune. The man owns a farm and has a son. His son falls off his horse, and breaks his leg. Everyone tells him “how unfortunate,” but he says “don’t say how unfortunate.” A week passes and there’s a draft, all young men must go fight, but his son isn’t taken because of his broken leg. Everyone says “how fortunate,” again the man replies “don’t say how fortunate.” Later when the boy was healed, he wasn’t able to use his leg the same way. My mom would say this to keep me centered no matter what I’m doing. That not everything that happens to you is bad luck, because everything can change. She was trying to teach me a moral lesson that we must be thankful in every situation and not focus on a specific outcome.”

This story can be categorized as a teaching tale, which are used to convey moral, spiritual, or philosophical lessons. It’s not just a story for entertainment, it’s supposed to be instructive. This story teaches us patience, perspective, and detachment. It also overlaps and can be condensed into some common proverbs like “everything happens for a reason” and “don’t judge too soon”.

Fable – The Ant and the Grasshopper

Nationality: Thai
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English and Thai

My informant is from Thailand and this is a story they were told by their parents as a child.

The Ant and the Grasshopper:

The story goes that the one Fall, there was a group of ants and a grasshopper. The ants were hard working, collecting food for the upcoming winter. However, the grasshopper was not. All he cared about was having fun and playing around without a care in the world. Later, Winter comes and the ants have food to eat but the grasshopper doesn’t. He begs for food but they scold him and say he can’t have any because he was being lazy and didn’t get it for himself. Since he didn’t work for his own food and the ants won’t give him any, he dies from starvation.

This story would be categorized as a tale, more specifically a fable. This story is a fable because it’s a fictional tale with talking animals who are being used to teach a moral lesson.

The moral lesson of this story is that you shouldn’t be lazy and expect people to help you out when you didn’t do the work you were suppose to. It’s a fable that discourages laziness, shortsightedness, and expecting people to give you things you don’t deserve. It encourages being like the ants who work hard for what they have, practice collective and collaborative labor that benefits them all, and are well equipped for the Winter (hard times) because of their hard work.

Chinese New Year – Folk Origin Myth

Nationality: Chinese and American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Context:

My informant is from China. In China they celebrate Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Lunar New Year, which is the most important traditional holiday in their culture. Lunar New Year, marking the start of the lunar calendar year, is said to symbolize a fresh start and the opportunity to leave bad luck behind and welcome what the new year has to offer. The lunar calendar follows the moon’s monthly cycles and is about 354 days, making a leap month necessary to stay in line with the seasons. Lunar New Year is widely celebrated in many other East and Southeast Asian countries. Its significance lies in the blending of ancient traditions with modern day practices.

Conversation pulled from audio:
Informant:

“This is like a Chinese New Year’s story, basically. Like why you have to put like you have to have fireworks and like you have to put up like red stuff or wear red on Chinese New Year’s. It’s because like basically there was like a town in the past that was like always like attacked by like I was like tormented, I guess, whatever, like by a monster that lived in the mountains and it would come down once a year to like eat people. And basically like they realized that like by setting bamboo on fire, it causes like a bang, like a really like loud popping and like banging sound. And like the monster would be like scared of the sound. And then they also realized that like the monster was like scared of red because it’s like really it’s like looks like fire, right? And then so, but this is really out of order, but you guys can Polish it.

{ 1:01 }
And so like they did these things and then the monster would like stay away. And like when it did come down, it would like run away. So yeah.

Me: { 1:10 }
The red scared it off?

Informant: { 1:14 }
The red and then the firecrackers because it’s like when you set the bamboo on fire, it like kind of sounds like a firecracker.

Me: { 1:19 }
A ritual. Gotcha. I like that. That’s awesome. Thank you so much.”

Analysis:

Is this story true? Who knows. That’s what makes it a folk myth. Does it even matter if it’s true? I don’t think so. I find it interesting nonetheless. The fact that my informant was told this story as a child as the origin of Chinese New Year is all that matters. That’s what makes it folklore because this story has been pasted down by the folk, true or not.

What I find interesting is it’s explanations for why people wear red and light firecrackers during this holiday. The monster, symbolic or not, is scared away by the color red and the lighting of firecrackers because it’s scared of fire. Is this symbolic? I think so. I think it could represent bad luck, chaos, hardship, or winter and with the new year you celebrate to ward these things off. Often in folklore monsters are used to represent natural or social fears. This monster could also represent the warding off of doubts about the new year and struggles like famine and fear of invasion from the closing year.

The girl and her games. 

Nationality: African American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): French

Age: 49

Occupation: Digital Marketing Consultant

Residence: Upstate, NY

Performance Date: 4/18/2025

Context: 

My informant, YD, is a family member of mine who lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. YD has always been into music, YD’s was a fantastic singer, and music was their whole thing. Though I’d never really asked about their earliest exposure to music, not like on the radio, but more like a tall tale, something that had to be passed over, like musical performances by the campfire on a lonely night with a couple of friends. So, they told me this:

Text: 

“The earliest musical experience or song attached to a personal history are the various patty cake games I played as child on the playground, after school and during the summer with a group of adolescent girls. These are songs sung between two people while hand-clapping and hand-slapping in unison, and with rhythm. These were songs like ‘Miss Mary Mack,’ or ‘Down Down Baby.’ I learned them from other girls on the playground and females in my family. They were passed down through generations with slight lyrical and rhythmic variations. I know my mother and my grandmother had their own variations. 

Why this stands out and is important to me is because of the history and impact of generations of young girls being taught my mommies, aunties and sisters; these whimsical yet deep songs are fun and have little meaning as a child, but deeper meaning as you get older and realize the things you were sing about. The socialization of kids, the fantasy and awareness of hardship and evil intent. We were so carefree and blissful, yet the world around us was dangerous, sad and we were so vulnerable. 

Here’s one those song I remember:

‘…Down down baby, down by the roller coaster

Sweet sweet baby, I’ll never let you go

Shimmy shimmy cocoa pop, shimmy shimmy pow

Shimmy shimmy cocoa pop, shimmy shimmy pow

My momma said to pick the very best one….’”

Analysis: 

Yes, this entry is a great example of children’s folklore, particularly in the form of hand-clapping games, which are rich sites of cultural transmission, memory, and performance. And so, I assume I don’t have to explain much about songs like the ‘patty cake’ one, but, in my research, the songs like “Miss Mary Mack” and “Down Down Baby” have circulated across generations, especially among young girls, often passed down orally with slight lyrical and rhythmic changes depending on region, family, or even the moment. These rhymes, on the surface, seem playful and nonsensical, but as YD notes, they often contain deeper themes that only become clear with age, even something I grew up realizing from my personal experiences as well. I love the way YD reflects on these songs too, it’s exactly what makes these pieces of folklore so powerful. They function as socializing tools, helping children build rhythm, coordination, and friendships, while also encoding cultural knowledge in a form that’s accessible and repeatable. What hits hardest for me is the idea of inter-generational bonding, something the history behind these childhood games supports heavily. This makes YD’s personal memory not just nostalgic, but part of a larger cultural practice that links them to their ancestry and community. And I think that duality, innocence on the surface, depth underneath, is what makes playground folklore so endlessly fascinating.

There’s a snake in my… Pocket?

Nationality: African American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): French

Age: 65

Occupation: Management Consultant

Residence: Upstate, NY

Performance Date: 4/20/2025

Context: 

My informant, WB, is a family member of mine who lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. They used to tell me a lot of riddles as a child, and loved to play games with riddles all the time. One day I decided to ask them if they ever heard of an original riddle that stuck with them personally, one they had not yet shared with me. This is what I got: 

Text: 

“‘What do you get when you put a snake in your pocket? You get bit.’ The meaning of this is to beware of trusting and getting too close to scrupleless people. While I hate that it puts snakes in a bad light, this saying has always taught me to take the time to get to know people who may become a business partners. AND, even then, you may still get bit!! I think this is one that my grandfather created, perhaps it was passed on from an experience his parents had who were in the restaurant business back in the 20’s and finally lost the business to their business partners.  This means a lot to me, it has taught me to pay close attention to the motives of people in general when it comes to finance, positive or negative. I know most people say ‘I trust people until they prove otherwise’ but for me, ‘I don’t trust people I meet until they prove trustworthy.’”

Analysis: 

Okay, so, this proverb they exemplified, I personally had never heard before, and upon looking it up, I found next to nothing, which is great! This might actually be unique to WB’s family (or at least not widespread) adding to the idea that it was coined by their grandfather or adapted from an older phrase. What’s interesting is how it uses the symbol of the snake, which in many global traditions (from the Bible to African trickster tales to Greek mythology) represents deceit, danger, or moral testing. In this case, the snake stands as a metaphor for untrustworthy people, especially in financial or business settings, with the “pocket” standing in as a symbol for closeness or vulnerability. It’s also compelling how the proverb serves not only as a warning, but also as a reflection of a real, generational experience. I think it’s cool that the personal history gives the phrase emotional weight and makes it more than just a casual saying, almost becoming a tool of survival and a form of inherited wisdom. What I find most fascinating is how WB uses it to define their personal philosophy on trust, flipping the more common belief that trust is given until broken. I honestly lean that way too. Plus, WB seems to approach trust as something earned, which they frame not as cynical, but as careful. It’s a great example of how even a small, family-rooted piece of folklore can carry over an entire worldview.