Category Archives: Game

The Egg Game

Nationality: Armenian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 12, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Armenian

Every Easter Allison’s family meet together to share a meal. Before the meal starts they play a game. She’s not sure what it’s called, but explained the premise. Each family is served a hard boiled egg at their place at the table. Each family member takes their egg in their hand, so that all but the tip of the egg is covered. Two relatives tap the end of the eggs together. The person who’s egg shell breaks loses, and they are out of the game. This continues until only one egg remains intact.

Before the game, people go around the table, switching eggs in order to get what they think is the hardest egg, therefore the least likely to crack. Allison told an anecdote about her grandfather, who she described as a “jokester,” playing this game. One year he took a decorative wooden egg, closed his hand around it so only the tip was showing, just as everyone does, and played the game. He cracked every egg in every round using the wooden egg, and revealed to the family after he had won that he had been using a wooden egg.

The game has a special meaning because it is only performed at Easter and only in the context of a family meal.

Laps- Trojan Marching Band

Nationality: Sri Lankan; Irish, Scottish, German; Irish, German, Norweigan, Polish, Swedish; American
Age: 21; 19; 18; 18
Occupation: Student; Student; Student; Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2013
Primary Language: English

The Trojan Marching Band (TMB), otherwise known as The Spirit of Troy and The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, is the marching band at the University of Southern California. The band plays for the university’s sports teams, especially involved in football games, promoting school spirit and acting as a source of entertainment. The TMB has a culture of its own, teeming with tradition. Being in the band myself, I gathered four of my friends to discuss these traditions. Mishan is a junior, Angie is a sophomore and AJ and Travis are freshman, all in the clarinet section.

 

During rehearsal the band director, Dr. Bartner, speaks from the podium. Whenever he says a word or phrase that has some sort of association with an individual, they take a lap (in which the individual runs around the entire band). The association could be with a band name (see Band Names entry), a personality trait, a physical characteristic or some other association. For example, AJ’s band name is “air bud” and whenever Bartner says “lick” (as in a phrase of music) AJ takes a lap (as if it were a dog’s lick). Angie played water polo in high school, so anytime Barnter mentions our water polo team she takes a lap. My informants described this ritual as a way to publicly take pride in ones individuality. Laps are taken by the band in its entirety, therefore this tradition unifies the band.

Laps are also taken when mistakes are made. The mistakes might be playing something wrong in the music or not executing a drill correctly. These kinds of laps are a way of publicly taking responsibility for your performance during rehearsal. Public activities like these make band members less self conscious in performance. Angie pointed out, there is plenty of reason to be nervous when the band enters the Coliseum holding 90,000 people. But activities like these decrease the tension.


Like many other traditions in the TMB (see Cadence entry), I believe that laps are a productive distraction. By taking laps throughout rehearsal based on silly or fun associations, focus is taken away from any redundancy or potential annoyance during rehearsal. Searching for associations amidst Bartner’s words is also a way to ensure band members are in fact paying attention to instructions. By running laps for mistakes, all band members are held accountable for their performance, ultimately making a better band.

Band Names- Trojan Marching Band

Nationality: Sri Lankan; Irish, Scottish, German; Irish, German, Norweigan, Polish, Swedish; American
Age: 21; 19; 18;18
Occupation: Student; Student; Student; Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2013
Primary Language: English

The Trojan Marching Band (TMB), otherwise known as The Spirit of Troy and The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, is the marching band at the University of Southern California. The band plays for the university’s sports teams, especially involved in football games, promoting school spirit and acting as a source of entertainment. The TMB has a culture of its own, teeming with tradition. Being in the band myself, I gathered four of my friends to discuss these traditions. Mishan is a junior, Angie is a sophomore and AJ and Travis are freshman, all in the clarinet section.

 

When freshman enter into the band, each is given a band name by the older members. My informants likened the tradition to pledge names of fraternities and sororities. The tradition is an initiation ritual, showing that the freshman is being accepted into the wider group of the TMB. All sections give their freshman band names, unifying the TMB as a whole.

The names are given a few weeks into the marching season so older members have an opportunity to analyze the freshmen personalities and give them a fitting name. I asked my informants their names and why they think they received them.

 

Mishan’s band name is “punxsutawney phil.” Mishan is generally a quiet person, so as a freshman, whenever he said something the older members saw it as if he was “coming out of his hole.” Mishan is Sri lankan, and says that another association he makes with his name is that he’s brown.

Travis’ band name is “squakward tentacles.” Although he is not sure exactly there this name came from, he guessed it was because he was awkward. At this point in the interview, Mishan and Angie reminded him that he was an awkward dancer and that he flailed his limbs like tentacles. Travis added that he liked the television show Spongebob Squarepants, so his name has an association with Squidward, the clarinet playing, tentacle- possessing character of the show.

Angie’s band name is “once upon a time… in ecuador.” Angie explained that the summer before her freshman year she went on a trip to Ecuador. When she returned, her excitement about her trip mixed with her natural tendency to tell stories meant that she talked about Ecuador a lot. She recalls being teased a lot for her zealousness, and her band name was an extension of this.

AJ’s band name is “air bud.” His reasoning was “I guess I’m like a dog… kind of.”; a response which Travis deemed as exactly what a dog would have said.

 

There are various traditions associated with band names, including Laps (see entry) and Name Jokes. This tradition is performed when someone asks “Who are you?” The individual responds with their band name. Then they are asked “Why?” To be deemed an acceptable answer, the response must be offensive, sexual or really funny. I asked my informants to tell a name joke based on their name, but none of them were able to.

The fact that none of my informants were willing to think of a name joke during our interview is evident of the unique culture and atmosphere surrounding the TMB and that there is a specific time and place for the performance of this folklore

Calling “shotgun” for a car

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/13
Primary Language: English

The informant describes a game his friends and he would play at home throughout high school and still today in college.  He recounts many times fighting over spots in the car by playing the game, “shotgun.”

Shotgun is a game involving a group of people about to drive somewhere and get into the car.  The game involves deciding who gets to sit where in the car.  The driver takes the driving seat, but the second best seat is generally accepted as the “shotgun” or the passenger seat in the front.  The goal of the game is to get the “shotgun” seat by calling “shotgun” out while the car is visible.  Another individual can steal the “shotgun” seat if they yell out, “blitz” after “shotgun” is yelled.  This indicates that the other person is blitzing the “shotgun” call and getting the front seat.

Interestingly enough the phrase “riding shotgun” originated in 1919 and was later used in print and especially film depictions of wagons and stagecoaches in Wild West movies.  The game is commonly played among teenagers who have recently acquired their licenses.  This shows an interesting liminal stage teenagers enter when they first gain the ability to drive in high school and it makes sense that there are traditions or games that are popular among this transition.

Christmas Eve Dinner (Danish-American)

Nationality: Danish-American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/19/13
Primary Language: English

The informant describes how his Danish family celebrates Christmas each year in San Francisco.  The informant details the Christmas Eve dinner and a game involving rice pudding and an almond at the end of the meal.  The informant explains that he learned this tradition from his Danish family and has partaken in the tradition every since he was a little kid.  The tradition of the dinner has sentimental value for him because he has done it for so long with his family.

The informant explains that his Danish-American family celebrates Christmas Eve in a distinct fashion.  The family always has a roasted duck for dinner and after eating the duck the family always eats a bowl of rice pudding, but plays a game along with the eating of the pudding.  The family places an almond into a large bowl of pudding and the goal of the game is to pass the bowl of pudding around with each participant taking one scoop of pudding until someone finds the almond.  The participant who finds the almond typically wins a prize.  Traditionally the prize was marzipan, but the informant explains they do not eat that anymore because it does not taste good.  The trick of the game is to do your best to keep it a secret if you have found the almond because you want to make your other family members continue to eat the pudding without them knowing the game is actually over.  The informant explains that he actually added a variation to the game by putting in two almonds into the pudding without letting the others know.

I find the Danish celebration interesting as it varies largely from the celebration in the United States.  There are apparent Danish adaptations to the celebration of Christmas as seen with the roasted duck meal and the rice pudding game with the almond.  I have never heard of either of these practices in traditional U.S. Christmas celebrations.  The games give possible deeper insight into the traditional food eaten within the Danish past and how they play games.