Category Archives: general

Never accept money with your left hand

Age: 23

MN: “I have Nigerian ancestry. My parents both immigrated from Nigeria at a young age, so they are, you know, American largely, but they also have their roots in Nigeria. I have many family, both there, and here. So we kind of kept a somewhat watered down version of Nigerian culture in our family for a while now. Um, I was told a lot when I was a kid or younger that I should not ever take money with my left hand. You know? If someone could be able to give me change or if I’m taking money from an adult for- for a gift, I won’t ever use my left hand to take it.”

Interviewer: “Who specifically would tell you?”

MN: “Uh, a parent, an older person, an aunt, an uncle, a grandma, would all say the same thing, have the same note. Like: ‘hey, don’t do that. That’s not good.’ Right? I never got a deep dive into why, but it was always kind of a, like, it’s not respectful. It also has some element of bad luck to it. Like, you know, it doesn’t bode well for you to take money or take things with your left hand, which, in a sense, is kind of like a more ‘evil’ or, you know? Unlucky. I think there’s a worldwide kind of culture against left-handedness in general. We have the same thing over in Nigeria, I guess. There was also, what was it? There was the… Um… pockets. Yeah, hands in pockets. That was more directly related to laziness and being seen as lazy. Like if you’re at home and, you know, you should be doing chores maybe, having hands in your pocket shows shows that you are- that you have free time. Those kind of had the same “correction” when I did those things, either taking money with the wrong hand or having my hands in my pockets. It always felt like ‘this is not good for you to do.’ So, I don’t know if they’re related in any way beyond that. But I’ve always had the same kind of like, It always had like, it always felt like those 2 things were kind of related. In a way.”

Context: As stated in the interview, the informant is Nigerian American, and grew up in the United States. During the interview, he stated that some Nigerian customs that his parents were taught may have been “watered down” the longer they have stayed in the United states. He still feels as though these customs have heavily influenced how he grew up, and he still practices many of them to this day.

Analysis: There is a strong cultural association with the idea of left and right equating to good and evil. This isn’t specific to Nigerian culture, and can be found across many cultures around the world. It’s interesting how multiple different cultures can develop similar folklore, and how those ideas can also vary depending on the family, location, or personal experiences of the person sharing those ideals. I believe this is a mix of family folklore and a folk belief/ superstition that accepting money with your left hand is “bad luck”. This also reinforces social norms, like what is considered polite and rude specifically within the informant’s family and within his overall Nigerian folk group.

Christmas Ritual

Age: 23

informant: “For Christmas, we read ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ and we used to like, throw, what was it? There was a thingy we would put in a bag and mash up and throw in the yard. We would call it Reindeer Food, and then [my siblings and I] would act out the story of Jesus being born.”

context: My roommate is from Rome, Georgia, and has a lot of holiday rituals that they celebrate with their family. The reenactment of Jesus’ birth was done with a nativity scene; they did not actually physically act out Jesus’ birth. My roommate, unfortunately, could not remember what they put in the bag they called reindeer food for Christmas, but did recall that they did this ritual every year when they were a child.

Analysis: This is a ritual performance, performed by both parents and children for a holiday. This is also religious folklore, since the stories of the Bible, specifically Jesus birth, is acted out and turned into a live performance using a Nativity scene. It reinforces spiritual identity, because the informant’s family is very religious, and identify as Christian. Although it is very widely socially accepted, I still think it’s interesting how intertwined this holiday and religion are, even with folkloric figures like Jesus and Santa Claus. The meaning of Christmas can change based on the folk lens you’re looking through, for example, people who are not religious may celebrate Santa more on the holiday, and more religious families may celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Throwing Salt Over your Shoulder

Age: 22

“I feel like this is a fairly common superstition slash like, like little thing that you do, um, but this was particularly common on my dad’s side. I don’t know why. He’s from the Midwest, and I think that maybe people are just more superstitious there. They’re like pretty rural Midwestern. My dad was the one who taught me to always throw salt over my left shoulder when I’m cooking. So, if I’m grinding salt from a salt grinder, I won’t do it. But if I pour salt into my hand to put it onto something, you always have to take a few grains and throw it over, specifically your left shoulder. The left is the side of the devil. If you throw the salt grains over your left shoulder, they’ll hit him in the eye, and he’ll run away from you, which I think is also an Italian thing. It’s weird, because I don’t have any Italian ancestry.”

Context: The informant, who is ethnically Irish and grew up in California, recalls an Italian tradition that was taught to her by her dad. She typically does this while cooking, and notes that her family is very superstitious and follow many rituals that center around good and bad luck.

Analysis: I think that it’s interesting to note that Folklore is so strongly spread across cultures and places that even the informant was wondering how her family came across this specific ritual even though she has no Italian ancestry. Different kinds of folklore can be removed from its origins and put into different cultural contexts, even though the Italian ancestry is absent, its still meaningful within the informants family. Folklore has a common connection to good or bad luck based on rituals, and this salt throwing example is no different. Life is very unpredictable, stressful and sad, so it makes sense why this ritual emerged in order to “take control” of the uncontrollable (life). Since it involves protection against the devil from the Bible, I believe this may also fall into Folk magic since it is a way to ward off evil.

Vietnamese New Year Celebration “Tet” Traditions

Context:

My informant is a 56-year-old woman of Vietnamese descent. She was born and raised in Vietnam, and immigrated to the United States when she was young. She was raised Buddhist, surrounded by Vietnamese culture and traditions, passed down from the generations of her family.

Text:

In Vietnamese culture, lunar new year is celebrated with a celebration called Tết. This celebration is often multiple days long.

The first day of Tết starts on the day before the start of lunar new year on New Year’s Eve. You are supposed to cook food and offer it to the altar to bring home your ancestors for the New Year. Her mom also waits for midnight to come and offer food and pray to the ancestors. The family also visits temple to ring in the New Year at midnight.

On the second day of Tết, New Year’s Day, the family would cook food to offer to the altar again to send off the ancestors. Prayers are also involved. They again visit a temple to pray for a good, healthy year.

On the last day of Tết, they visit families and relatives, to offer good wishes and give red money envelopes to younger children and young adults. It is also encouraged to visit ancestors at their gravesites to wish them well.

The celebrations and activities might go on for longer, but the three days are considered Tết.

Analysis:

Tết combines many forms of folklore together such as ritual, superstition, and material folklore. There is the ritual of going to temple, to cooking, and visiting family on specific days every year. There are also the superstitions of what day to do each action in order to bring prosperity and good luck into their homes in the new year. Then the food and red envelopes are material folklore that they use to bring wealth and prosperity.

Chinese New Year – Chun Lian Good Luck

Context:

The informant grew up in a Taiwanese household in the Bay Area. He grew up always celebrating Chinese New Year, a holiday that occurs every February. The holiday celebrates the start of the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Text:

“For Chinese New Year, we have, like, a red sheet of paper with Chinese calligraphy on it called Chun Lian. We stick it on the outside of our door, to ward off like evil and also brings in good luck as well.”

I asked, “Is this something that you’ve always done, like, on Chinese New Year.”

“Yeah, like, we did it always growing up.”

“So you just learned it from my parents?”

“Yes, I learned it from my parents.”