Category Archives: Game

Christmas Pickle

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student, Musician
Residence: Los Angeles and Florida
Performance Date: 04/21/2019
Primary Language: English

LC: “So every year that we would celebrate Christmas at my grandmother’s we would have all the grandkids gather around the Christmas tree and try to find the pickle on the tree and I think it was for Jesus or good luck or something. And one year I found the pickle and that was cool! But we haven’t been to my grandparents’ house in so long now, so it’s just a fond memory.”

Is this just a tradition in your family, or was it a regional thing, do you know?

LC: “I feel like other people do it as well, but I haven’t really met anyone else who does it. I feel like it’s a Southern thing maybe?”

LC: “Really it was just a game for kids to play in the family. You know the thing with the wishbone where you pull it apart and whoever gets the big piece wins? It’s sort of like that except only one person wins out of the like 9 grandkids or so.”

Background:

LC picked up this tradition from her family, who live and have lived in both Florida and Texas. It is not particularly significant to her, and serves more as a fun game than a serious tradition. She remembers it fondly; it has no positive or negative ideological significance, only nostalgia.

Context:

LC mentioned this custom during a discussion of family holiday traditions after we had Easter dinner with friends. The tradition takes place only during Christmas, and is associated with other physical aspects of the holiday; it piggybacks on the larger, more general tradition of decorating the Christmas tree.

Interpretation:

I tend to agree with LC that this tradition, wherever it might be practiced, is almost certainly a lighthearted game played for fun among families. She mentions that it might be for Jesus or good luck, but her uncertainty and lack of concern about such significance suggest it has no particular ideological or religious role. As for the extent of the tradition, LC is right in that other families also have Christmas Pickle ornament traditions. However, its history is fairly uncertain. A brief search suggests that it could be a German tradition, or could be a fabricated tradition by 19th-century glassblowers to sell ornaments. Either way, it seems to be a moderately common Christmas tradition, similar in some ways to Elf on the Shelf. Both are unconnected with the more religious aspects of Christmas, and both involve adults hiding an object from children. Furthermore, both might be created to encourage product sales.

For another description of the Christmas Pickle tradition given by a seminary employee, see here

 

 

ZAIDS

Nationality: Canadian / American
Age: 19
Occupation: Undergraduate Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA / San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/22/19
Primary Language: English

Piece:

Interviewer: “Can you explain the concept of ZAIDS?”

Informant: “Oh god. Yeah… I guess I can. Basically in high school there was this fake disease called ZAIDS. Obviously it came from AIDS, but we put a Z in front of it to make it different. We had this one friend who we said got it originally, we made him patient zero. So when he finally kissed another girl we all made the joke that she had ZAIDS too. Soon enough the entire grade was tracking the spread of ZAIDS from him and that girl, and people were drawing out diagrams to figure out who exactly had the ‘disease’. At the very end of our senior year, at a point where most of the class had ZAIDS, we decided the only way to break the curse was for our friend who was patient zero to kiss that same girl again. I guess it was a funny way of ‘breaking’ the curse.”

Background:

The informant participated in this game in high school. Obviously he recognizes this ‘disease’ is fake but still thought it was a good excuse to give friends a hard time if they had ZAIDS. Before the ‘breaking of the curse’ described above, the informant was even a carrier of ZAIDS according to his classmates.

Context:

Because I went to the same high school as the informant, I was familiar with the story. This conversation was recorded while we were reminiscing about high school experiences after I realized the folkloric connections this game had.

Thoughts:

This game is clearly a more mature version of cooties, the game played by elementary school boys and girls. Instead of simple physical contact spreading the disease, however, in this version a kiss is required to transfer ZAIDS from one person to another. I think the significance of this game is simply an evolution of the significance of cooties. The game cooties allows kids to grapple with the ‘taboo’ topic of contact with the opposite gender. In this case, the ‘taboo’ topic is romantic involvement with the other gender, which is a natural progression of cooties. The game was most prevalent during early high school, like 9th grade, and faded from view as the class became older and the topics of romantic involvement became less taboo. The final moment of ‘breaking the curse’ during the senior year almost represents the class recognizing the absurdity of such a game or concept and shutting it down for good in a poetic way.

Gamer Terminology

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: CPA
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 4, 2019
Primary Language: English

“Yeah, it’s called lagging. When your internet is slow and glitches you can say to the other people online that you are lagging.”

Context: The informant has been playing video games for over 10 years and would consider himself a serious gamer.

Informant Analysis: He noted that he first heard the term lagging when he was in middle school playing Call of Duty. He also said that the term lagging is solely a gaming term that just about every common gamer understands. It is meant to tell the people you are playing with online that you are unable to do something or your screwup in a game was not your fault.

Collector Analysis: Although the informant said that the purpose of the term lagging is to let your friends know your errors are the internet’s fault, I believe it is more than that. Utilizing the term lagging can also be used if you do mess up but can blame something out of your control as the problem. It also is term that signifies to the other gamers that one is part of the group– a regular player. In the gaming world, there is a certain amount of respect for people who are good at particular games. If one is good enough, you can be live streamed for people to watch. At this level, lagging becomes a term that signifies that you are not bad at the game.

Bote Pateado/Kick the Can

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 27
Residence: California
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

Main Piece:

This is a game similar to hide and seek, but it involves a can and you don’t have to tag a person with your hand. These are the rules:

Pieces: A can or bottle that is heavy enough to go far, but not too far, when kicked.

Number of players: At least 3

Rules: The person that is “it” stands next to a can that is inside a drawn circle. One of the other players kicks the can as far as they can and then they all run to hide. The person that is “it” must walk to the ca, pick it up, then walk back to the circle and pace the can inside. The person that is “it” then begins to search for the other players. If the person that is “it” spots another player they must race toward the can and say “1,2,3 (Name of player caught).” “It” does this until all the players are caught. Other players in hiding can try to release the caught players by beating “it” to the can and kicking it out of the circle. This act releases all the caught players and “it” must again walk to the can, pick it up, walk back, and then set the can in the circle. This continues until “it” catches all the players hiding.

Context:

The informant is a 27-year-old Mexican-American college student. He learned this story from his uncle. His uncle would gather all the nieces and nephews to play this game. It was a way to entertain the kids when they didn’t have any other form of entertainment. Also, to make the kids exercise more.

For another version, see “Kick the Can.” Play & Playground Encyclopedia. 23 August 2012.

Urban legend: Momo

Nationality: American-Israeli
Age: 14
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/19
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Informant: Oh my god Momo, can we please not talk about Momo oh god. Momo is this like, texting game that some of my friends play at school. You know what WhatsApp is? Yeah, so like, my friends will text this number and whoever is behind it will respond and ask them to do weird stuff. Like watch a scary movie with the lights off. Apparently the number once asked some girl to kill herself. I’ve never texted it so I’m not too sure. Yeah also the photo is this absurd picture of the ugliest doll you’ve ever seen.

Interviewer: Where did you hear about Momo?

Informant: At my high school.

Interviewer: What do you make of it?

Informant: The doll is terrifying. I try to not think about it that much.

Background: The informant is a freshman in high school here in Los Angeles. He just recently moved from Woodstock, NY, so I asked him if he’s learned about anything new since he started at a new school. This interview was recorded and I got his father to sign his release form.

Context: I had previously heard of the internet phenomena that is Momo and wanted to get the interpretation of someone within the its target audience. After doing some research on my own I was able to learn about the backstory regarding this piece of cyberlore. Allegedly, the Momo came about from a Spanish speaking Facebook group and evolved into the mainstream when it was introduced to the US in the summer of 2018. The WhatsApp number that children text asks them to complete a series of bizarre and dangerous tasks. Momo reached a tipping point when a 12 year-old girl was found dead shortly after messaging the number. Momo is represented by the same doll every time, which I have attached below. Interestingly enough, the Momo doll wasn’t created with the intention of its current function. The Momo sculpture was created by a Japanese company that makes props for horror movies. However, the sculpture is supposedly based off of the ubume, which is supposedly the spirit of women who die in childbirth.

Analysis: As digital technology has progressed, we are now coming face to face with an entirely new subsection of folklore. These pieces of cyberlore are incredibly viral and mainly target children on the internet. Slenderman was the first of its kind and Momo is an extension upon the principles which gave Slenderman its cult following. These pieces of cyberlore speak to the effectiveness of global communication in spreading folklore. Now we are able to communicate across the globe in a manner of seconds. This kind of cyberlore, contrasted with memes, serve to shock the consumer and play on the gullible nature of younger individuals.

 

momo