Category Archives: Game

Swim Lessons Tea Party

Informant: We were trying to get kids to go under the water. We were trying to get kids to learn how to hold their breath, open their eyes, and the way to distract them from the fact that they’re going under the water, holding their breath, and opening their eyes, was to say, “We’re going to have a tea party sitting on the bottom of the pool.” The idea for a young kid to sit on the bottom of the pool, that’s intriguing, nobody necessarily has a problem with that, so when you tell them, “We’re going to sit on the bottom of the pool and have a tea party but you have to tell me what you’re eating and what you’re drinking,” they’re thinking about about what they’re eating and what they’re drinking, they’re not thinking about the fact that, ‘I have to hold my breath, open my eyes, and go under water which is fuckin’ freaky.” And so we had tea parties.

Background: The informant has been teaching swim lessons in the summer with family for many years now. The tradition of teaching local children how to swim goes back multiple generations starting with the informant’s grandmother and continuing with her children. This game has been played for many years when teaching the children. 

Context: The game was played with children mostly in the 4-6 year old age range. They were in the stages of learning to swim where they are gaining mobility in the water but are still battling discomfort and fear about going underwater. The game would be played in small groups, and the children would go around the circle telling the instructor what they were going to eat and drink. Then, all at the same time, the children would jump up and then allow themselves to fall down to sit on the bottom of the pool (in the shallow end). While on the bottom, they would mimic eating and drinking at a tea party and open their eyes to look at one another. 

Thoughts: As the informant explains, having a “tea party” with the children on the bottom of the pool is a very effective way to distract them from the aspects of the water that they are afraid of and allow them to practice essential skills to swimming. The idea of a tea party is a very common one when talking to and interacting with children, and this familiarity helps them to engage with it easily and readily.

Afikomen Ritual

In Jewish tradition, during Passover, um, there is like this big long dinner called a seder… One part of it, that is fun I guess, is the Afikomen, which is, at the beginning of dinner, you are supposed to take the middle piece of matzah and break it in half. And you eat one half of it now, and the other half becomes the Afikomen. So it usually comes in this fun cloth bag and the adults hide it, and the kids have to find it and ransom it back. People have gotten like, money from the Afikomen, and I always got like a dum dum lollipop. It’s kind of like the desert, there are other deserts, but the traditional dessert is the Afikomen once it’s found.

Context:

The informant is a college student discussing different family rituals that their family partakes in, leading them to bring up this specific tradition. The informant is explaining this ritual when discussing Passover, and how this is a common ritual that takes place during this time. 

Personal Thoughts:

This is an interesting ritual as it shows the overlap in folklore, since this is both a ritual and a game that takes place. From this, one can gather that this is not only a specific tradition to this family’s folk group, but also one that many folk groups take part in for Passover, as the informant discussed how this is a common ritual that many families participate in. As the informant mentioned, there are also variations to this ritual, children will get different prizes from the Afikomen. This is reflective of the multiplicity and variation of this specific ritual, and how when practiced by different families, or folk groups, that there may be different visions of this, allowing for the tradition to continue on. 

High School Tennis Traditions

Informant Information — SD

  • Nationality: American
  • Age: 16
  • Occupation: Student
  • Residence: San Pedro, California
  • Date of Performance/Collection: April 3, 2022
  • Primary Language: English

The informant is currently a junior in high school. In an in-person interview, I asked her about any school traditions that she had participated in before.

Interviewer: 

Does your high school have any traditions that you’ve participated in before?

Informant: 

Yeah, I’ve been on the tennis team every year of high school so I’ve done stuff for their traditions. One is that we all wear one yellow sock and one black sock for our important games. A couple girls refuse to even wash the socks that she wears, but I think that’s gross so I don’t do that part. 

Interviewer: 

Is there any significance to the colors and which color goes on which foot?

Informant: 

It doesn’t matter which color goes on which foot. We do yellow and black because our school colors are gold and black. My school doesn’t include socks with our uniforms so we just do yellow because it’s easier to find than gold. 

Interviewer: 

Do you know how long the tennis team has been doing this?

Informant: 

No, but it must have been started a really long time ago because our uniforms aren’t even black and gold anymore. They changed the colors to white and yellow a couple years before I joined the team. 

Analysis:

Wearing coordinated mismatching socks is a fun way to demonstrate membership in this high school folk group– the tennis team. This ritual is supposed to bring good luck to the team, an example of superstitions being popular when there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding an event. I can think of lots of examples of sports teams using lucky colors and accessories before important games. It’s also interesting that the traditional sock colors have outlived the matching uniforms. In this case, it seems like the colors are just as important as the practice of wearing two mismatched socks.

Bloody Mary

Informant Information — GD

  • Nationality: American
  • Age: 57
  • Occupation: Teacher
  • Residence: San Pedro, California
  • Date of Performance/Collection: March 20, 2022
  • Primary Language: English

This informant learned about Bloody Mary in elementary school in the late 1960s. Most of her friends from school also attended the same church and Bible study group, so they felt like they were a part of a very tightly-knit religious community. She shared this information with me in an in-person interview. 

Interviewer: 

Can you tell me the story of how you first experienced Bloody Mary?  

Informant: 

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my group of girlfriends and I learned about the Bloody Mary game from some older girls. Our school bathrooms were really dark– they didn’t have any lights except for windows near the ceiling so they were really creepy. 

In the game, you had to lock yourself in the bathroom alone and stand in front of the mirror. You were supposed to close your eyes, say “Bloody Mary” three times, and then open your eyes. When you opened your eyes, you were supposed to be able to see a ghostly woman in a ballgown with black eyes and crying tears of blood. 

If you were a true Christian and believed in God, she wasn’t supposed to be able to touch you because you were too holy. If you only believed a little bit, she supposedly scratched you and left three bloody lines on your face. And if you didn’t believe in God at all or if you were evil, she was supposed to bring you into the mirror with her. 

Interviewer: 

Did you ever play the game? 

Informant: 

My friend went first, and she said that she saw Bloody Mary. I went after her but didn’t see anything in the mirror. I wasn’t sure what I did wrong so I lied about it and never admitted that I hadn’t actually seen her. 

Analysis:

This adaptation of Bloody Mary is very interesting to me as it reveals the large role of religious belief in the informant’s folk group. In this story, being exposed as a non-believer results in removal from the community as they are dragged into the mirror and disappear with Bloody Mary. Those of wavering faith are physically marked, seemingly teaching the person a lesson and informing others that the individual needs to be brought back into the community. 

The 11:11 Game

Informant Information – SI

  • Nationality: American
  • Age: 20
  • Occupation: Student
  • Residence: Los Angeles, California
  • Date of Performance/Collection: April 20, 2022
  • Primary Language: English

The informant grew up playing this game with their sister. They started playing this game as children and still play when they are together at their parents’ house. This information was shared with me in an in-person interview. 

The 11:11 game is played by the informant and their siblings; they began playing it as children and still play as adults when they are all together at their family home. 

If someone notices that it is 11:11am or pm, they must announce the time and shout out a task, such as standing on a chair or knocking on wood. Everyone that wants to play will then complete the task and then shout out a different task. 

Players should try to complete as many tasks as possible before the minute ends. Playing this game and completing these rituals is supposed to bring the players good luck. 

Analysis:

In this game, the time, 11:11, is ritualized. Participants must perform a prescribed set of actions, hoping that they will produce a desired result, good luck. As in other rituals, the bounds of acceptable behavior become flexible– while it might be strange to stand on a chair at another time, it is encouraged at 11:11.