Category Archives: Material

Coin Checks in the Air Force

Speaker: “In the Air Force, if someone does a really good job or performs especially well, they might be rewarded with a coin. These are usually special coins with the unit’s insignia on them, or sometimes with a special design or the insignia of a high-ranking officer. They are given out as a reward to recognize good work or outstanding behavior.

Most people have at least one or two of these coins. Usually, people carry them around because of something we call a ‘coin check.’

A coin check can happen when people are out together, like at a bar or during a gathering with the unit. If someone accidentally drops something metal, like a fork, spoon, or even a coin itself, and it makes a loud sound, someone will usually hear it and immediately take out their coin and hit it against the table.

Then they will start yelling, ‘Coin check, coin check, coin check.’

As soon as people hear that, everyone has to respond by taking out their own coin and hitting it on the table too. If somebody does not have a coin with them, or cannot put one on the table, then everyone knows they do not have one.

When that happens, the person who does not have a coin usually has to buy drinks for everyone else, or take a penalty drink themselves.

It is really just a tradition that has been passed down for a long time and is still kept around today.”

Context: This conversation is about the traditions and customs in the military. The speaker described the practice of giving commemorative coins as rewards for good performance, as well as the related tradition of “coin checks.” He explained that many service members carry these coins with them at all times because they may suddenly be challenged to produce them during social gatherings. If someone cannot produce a coin, they are expected to buy drinks or take a penalty drink.

Analysis: This folklore highlights the importance of group identity and shared symbols within military culture. Challenge coins serve not only as awards for achievement, but also as visible signs of membership and pride in one’s unit. The practice of coin checks turns these objects into part of a social ritual, encouraging people to keep their coins with them and reinforcing a sense of belonging. While the consequence for failing a coin check is usually playful, such as buying drinks, the ritual helps strengthen camaraderie and reminds members of their connection to the larger group.

Lunar New Year Visiting Tradition in Shanghai

Age: 21

Speaker: “So in Shanghai, during the Lunar New Year, there is this custom where the whole family takes turns visiting different relatives. Usually, the family decides whether to follow the father’s side or the mother’s side for that year. For example, on my mom’s side, my grandmother has several siblings, maybe four who are still around, and everyone stays in touch. Before the New Year, they will coordinate and decide the schedule.

On the first day of the New Year, everyone usually goes to the oldest elder’s home. In my case, that would be my grandmother, since she is the eldest in her generation. Then on the second day, people go to the next person in order of seniority, like maybe my great-uncle. And after that, it just continues, going from one household to another. So it is kind of like each day there is a big family gathering hosted by a different relative. And whoever is hosting that day has to prepare everything themselves. You are not supposed to just go out to eat at a restaurant. You have to cook at home and make a full table of dishes, a really big spread with all kinds of food.

It is not just about eating, either. If dinner is in the evening, people usually start arriving around noon. Everyone just hangs out together, chatting, sometimes playing mahjong, and doing different activities. It usually goes on like this for several days during the New Year. Interviewer: “Are there any specific foods that are important or traditional?” Speaker: “Yeah, definitely. One thing I remember clearly is that there always has to be a fish, because it represents ‘surplus every year.’ That meaning is really important. For soups, a more traditional Shanghai-style one would have napa cabbage, egg dumplings, glass noodles, and tofu skin rolls, sometimes with a bit of cured meat. It is kind of like a big mixed pot with a lot of ingredients.

For cold dishes, you might have things like marinated jellyfish or white-cut chicken. And for hot dishes, there is usually a wide variety of meats. You will see pork, beef, and all kinds of dishes, basically everything you can think of. There are always a lot of different plates on the table. So overall, it is really about having a full, abundant meal and spending time together as a family.” Interviewer: “So it lasts for several days?” Speaker: “Yeah, it usually goes on for a few days like that, visiting different relatives and gathering together.”

Context: This conversation took place during an informal interview about Lunar New Year customs in different regions of China. The speaker described a common practice in Shanghai in which extended family members organize a rotating schedule of visits, with each household hosting a large meal. He emphasized both the importance of hierarchy, such as visiting the eldest relative first, and the expectation that each host prepares an elaborate home-cooked feast.

Analysis: This account highlights how Lunar New Year functions as both a ritual and a social structure for maintaining extended family relationships. The rotating hosting system reinforces generational hierarchy while ensuring that responsibility is shared among relatives. Food plays a central symbolic role, especially dishes like fish that carry meanings of prosperity and abundance. At the same time, the gatherings are not limited to eating, but also include social interaction, games, and conversation, emphasizing the importance of togetherness. The multi-day nature of the visits reflects the broader cultural value placed on family continuity and collective celebration during the New Year period.

Cuban New Year Traditions: Grapes, Water, and Roasted Pig

“So my dad’s thing, his folklore I guess, is that on New Year’s you eat 12 grapes, one for each month of the coming year. Each grape is basically a wish, a month of good luck. And then you fill up pots and pans with water and you throw the water out to get rid of all the bad luck from the year before. And you bang the pots together to scare away any bad energy, bad mojo. That’s his Cuban heritage, that’s where all of that comes from.

And then more generally, for any big holiday, it’s just about getting the whole extended family together. Like everyone comes. And the food is a huge part of it. The main thing you’re always going to have is roasted pig, and then black beans, rice, and fried plantains. It’s not a gathering without those. The food is really the center of everything, honestly. That’s just how those family holidays work.”

Context: This is from my friend whose father is Cuban. The informant was relaxed and a little giggly about it, clearly fond of these memories. It’s about the specific rituals their family does on New Year’s Eve, and then more broadly the way big family holidays just always look a certain way, same food every time, same people crowded around the same table. Someone in the room kept kicking them partway through, which did not help.

Analysis: The way he describes it shows that he is not quite sure what category it belongs in. But that slight distance actually makes it more interesting, because it shows how folk traditions get transmitted within families without ever being formally taught. Nobody sat this person down and explained the symbolism of the grapes or the water. They just grew up watching it happen, and now they know it.

The grape-eating and pot rituals are recognizable from Cuban and broader Latin American New Year’s tradition, but what stands out here is less the rituals themselves and more the fact that they’ve survived the distance of immigration intact, still tied to a specific identity, still understood as distinctly Cuban even several generations in. Throwing water out to expel bad luck, banging pots to scare off evil, these are physical, almost theatrical acts, and that probably has something to do with why they stick. They’re hard to forget once you’ve seen them.

The food side of things is doing something a little different. Roasted pig, black beans, rice, plantains showing up at every single holiday isn’t really about any one occasion. It’s more like a recurring proof of belonging. The meal is the same because the family is the same, and making it together, eating it together, is how that continuity gets felt rather than just assumed.

This entry was posted in Calendar Custom, Festival, Food, Family Folklore and tagged Cuban heritage, New Year’s, grapes, luck, roasted pig, family gathering, Latin American tradition on 0420.

The Hidden Meaning Behind Spring Festival Customs in Northeast China

Age: 53

“During the first fifteen days of the Lunar New Year, there are certain things you’re not allowed to do. No sweeping the floor, no needlework. When I was young I just thought these were old rules, traditional customs that everyone followed without much explanation. But later I heard it from your grandfather. He said the real reason behind it is actually for the women. Women are busy all year long, doing every kind of housework you can think of. So those fifteen days of not sweeping, not doing needlework, it was actually just a way to give them a break.

And then there’s the dumplings. In families like your grandfather’s, before the New Year even starts, everyone would get together and make huge batches of dumplings, enough to fill these enormous vats, about waist-high, big wide ones. In the Northeast you can just leave them outside to freeze, so they keep. The idea was the same. So that during the holiday, the women wouldn’t have to be in the kitchen cooking big meals every day. You just boil some dumplings. It’s like a fast food solution, really.

Looking back at all of this now, it’s actually a set of practices designed to protect women, or at least give them a little breathing room.”

Context: This account was shared in a casual family conversation, with the informant recounting customs observed during the Spring Festival in a northeastern Chinese household. The informant recalled being told the reasoning behind these practices by an older family member, specifically the maternal grandfather, who reframed what had always seemed like arbitrary traditional rules as deliberate, if unspoken, gestures of consideration toward women in the household. The conversation had a warm, reflective tone, with the informant noting that this interpretation only became clear in retrospect.

Analysis: What makes this piece especially compelling is the gap between how these customs are experienced and what they were apparently designed to do. On the surface, the prohibitions against sweeping and needlework during the first fifteen days of the Lunar New Year look like straightforward ritual taboos, the kind of rules passed down without explanation, simply because that’s how it’s always been done. But as the informant’s grandfather reframed it, the logic was never mystical. It was practical and protective: a built-in rest period for women whose labor was otherwise unceasing.

The mass dumpling-making tradition carries the same quiet logic. Filling enormous vats with pre-made, freezable dumplings before the holiday begins is, as the informant puts it, essentially a form of meal prep, a way to reduce the domestic burden during a period officially designated as celebration. The fact that this required collective effort before the holiday, and yielded convenience during it, reflects a kind of community-level care that operated below the surface of festive ritual.

Together, these customs illustrate how folklore can encode social values in ways that aren’t immediately legible, even to the people practicing them. The meaning doesn’t disappear just because it goes unspoken. It gets carried forward in the practice itself, waiting to be named.

This entry was posted in Calendar Custom, Festival, Domestic Life, Folk Belief and tagged Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, Northeast China, women, dumplings, household customs, folk practice.

Plastic Covered Furniture

Text:

“Whenever new furniture was bought, they would immediately be covered in plastic”

Context:

In my dad’s Italian family, when new furniture was purchased and moved into the house, it was immediately encased in plastic. My mother had similar experiences at her Jewish friends’ homes.

Analysis:

The ritual of covering new furniture in plastic is a common, repeated & patterned practice found among Mediterranean immigrants. Many Mediterranean immigrants were fleeing poverty & crime, coming to America with next to nothing. Because of that, new things were a rare commodity. My dad only had hand-me-down clothes, shoes, anything until he was in high school and got his first NEW pair of sneakers. So, whenever something new was bought with hard-earned money, immigrant families wanted to keep it as new and clean as possible. It was a symbol of pride, success, and hard-work paying off, and immigrants wanted to preserve it.