Category Archives: Material

Twelve Grapes, Twelve Wishes: A Central American New Year’s Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 31
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California

Informant Information

Age: 31

Date of Performance: 04/18/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Text

“It’s basically just a New Year’s tradition that, growing up, my mom always did. I thought it was just something unique to my family, but later I realized that a lot of families actually do it, especially Central American ones. My parents are Salvadoran, but I also know Guatemalan and Mexican families that do this too. So basically, for New Year’s Eve going into New Year’s Day, you get 12 grapes, and you eat them right at midnight, at 12:00 AM. Each grape represents a wish for the new year. It’s one wish for each month, 12 months, 12 grapes. Every year we do it, hoping those wishes come true.”

Context

The informant first learned this tradition from her mother when she was around 7 years old, which was around the time she learned to write. Her mother included a writing element in the ritual, having her write each wish down on a piece of paper as she ate each grape. This additional step not only reinforced the intention behind each wish but also allowed her to reflect on her aspirations later in the year and see whether they had come true. Writing the wishes gave the ritual a deeper sense of meaning and permanence. The informant originally believed the ritual was exclusive to her household, but she later discovered it was a widespread cultural practice shared by many Central American communities.

Analysis

The practice of eating 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight is a well-known New Year’s ritual in many Latinx communities, rooted in Spanish and Latin American cultural traditions. In the informant’s experience, the ritual serves as a bridge between personal belief and cultural heritage. What began as a family custom reveals itself to be part of a larger collective identity that transcends borders.

Her family’s unique addition of writing down the wishes transforms the ritual into both an oral and written tradition. This adaptation highlights how folklore evolves over time and reflects the values and practices of individual families within broader cultural norms. Writing down the wishes adds an intentional, reflective dimension to the practice, reinforcing ideas of goal setting and emotional renewal. The ritual embodies hope, aspiration, and the human desire for a better future, encapsulated in a symbolic and communal act.

Induction Pranks of Passage TTRPGs

The Informant

GL is a long time tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) player with years of experience as a Game Master (a special role in TTRPGs). When I first asked about Induction Pranks in TTRPGs, GL had some time to discuss with some other members of the community before our interview.

The Text

The informant reports a few different induction pranks and common shared experiences that qualifies someone as a member of the TTRPG community, distinctly differentiating two sets between GMs and players. For Game Masters, the common experience is dealing with the first problem player, a whole subset of narrative genres emerging from this experience can be found on the subreddit r/RPGHorrorStories. The informant cites chaotic and evil player characters, which is a distinct tradition of D&D alignment stemming from Original Dungeons and Dragons. When he exchanges stories with other GMs, while telling success stories can be fun, tales of how terrible a particular player was to work with is an effective way of relating to each other. For players, while the informant reports that the community is generally averse to gatekeeping in recent years due to the nerdy and niche reputation and history the game has, he recounts how older players in the OSR community will put new players through the “death funnel,” a meat grinder dungeon that will kill several player characters to get the player accustommed to the brutal game style of older games. We discussed how this reflects a cultural shift in the TTRPG landscape in the modern age where players become more attached to their characters and think of themselves as the hero of the story whereas older D&D is more about the dungeon crawl, with any given character not expected to live through the story.

We then talked about unique signifers of the TTRPG player identity, such as maps and miniatures, which led to our discussion of how conversely, despite being a “tabletop” game, most TTRPGs can be played without a map or grid or any miniatures at all with the “theater of mind,” which we agreed was very unique to TTRPGs as wargames tend to rely on a grid or map and the miniature sets. Extending from that, we discussed how owning a set of dice can identify a TTRPG player, particular the 20-sided dice, which is hardly ever used for any other game and iconic to D&D. If someone owns a cohesive themed set of dice from 4-sided to 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20, then that is a sure certain sign of a TTRPG player. In a way, the moment a player buys their own set of dice instead of borrowing someone else’s indicates a commitment and thus induction to the community. The other example he talked about was creating one’s own first character, which players nowadays are more likely to be attached to as mentioned earlier. Even though the character may never be played in an actual game, a TTRPG player can likely be identified by their excitement to share their character ideas, character sheet build, or even stories involving that character from a game.

Analysis

This was a particularly interview as the informant came prepared, giving a blason populaire about his own ingroup of fellow GMs and particularly problematic players who play chaotic and evil characters, citing a specific experience that identifies a particular community. Older players also have an “induction prank” for newer players when playing older systems to shatter their idea of TTRPGs before welcoming them to the experience, but it’s also interesting to note that this hobby doesn’t try to gatekeep newcomers with anything that could be qualified as hazing. Aside from the “death funnel” and Gary Gygax’s Tomb of Annihilation dungeon designed to kill player characters, we both thought of a particular video as an another example of this “induction prank” in D&D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmNThMZJ1U

“Off record,” he joked that the real hazing is letting new players play 5th edition (a particularly divisve version of the game he dislikes but is otherwise a popular gateway game), but he notes that many other players in the community would disagree with the sentiment of the joke. Noting the uniqueness of TTRPG dice sets, a rite of passage presents itself in the form of buying the first set of dice, an example of Stuart Hall’s reception with the expression of community membership identity performance via consumerism. We laughed about how cheap it is to actually buy a dice set (you can get like a pack of 10 sets of 5 dollars), but at the same time, nobody else would bother with buying such a set of dice.

Less materialistic indications of membership are player characters, where a newcomer exploring the hobby might borrow a prebuilt character while TTRPG players committed to the hobby will not only have the knowledge to build their own characters but be actively invested in them as a proxy of themselves that they would like to roleplay as. In a sense, this is akin to a fantastical identity localized within this particular hobby or at a particular table, and modern players who focus more on the epic narrative of a band of heroes on an adventure invested in the safety and prosperity of their characters as an extension of the performed identity of the self. This is comparable to the process of an initiation ritual for community membership.

Miyeok Guk (Seaweed Soup)

Text:

Seaweed soup is traditionally eaten every year on someone’s birthday. Historically, seaweed soup was eaten by mothers who were about to give birth or just had given birth, as a way to boost their iron levels in their blood–seaweed has exceptional levels of iron. This would help the mother’s body heal or prepare for the birth, as at the time it would be dangerous, with high mortality rates.

Context:

The informant has eaten seaweed soup every year for their birthday; not only have they eaten it every year, they also learned how to make it from their mother.

Interpretation:

Because miyeok-guk is traditionally consumed by women after childbirth due to its rich nutrients like calcium, iodine, and iron, and belief that it helps with recover and milk production, the soup is now closely associated with mothers, maternal care, and birth. I assume that it is eaten on people’s birthdays(regardless of whether they are or plan to become mothers) as a way to honor the mothers who gave birth, recognizing the sacrifices that one’s parents–especially the mothers–make. Beyond its symbolic meaning, miyeok-guk is also a regular part of everyday meals due to its nutritional value and accessibility. This highlights Korea’s traditional food culture, which often views food as medicine—a concept rooted in hanbang, or traditional medicine that reflects the often health-oriented approach to food in Korean society.

On a personal note, for many Koreans, whether they live in Korea or are part of the diaspora, miyeok-guk can evoke a strong emotional pull for family, home, and heritage–many have grown up eating it together with their families–serving as a cultural anchor and linking personal identity with tradition.

Hongsam (Red Ginseng)

Text:

Hongsam is an herbal tea made from the root of a red ginseng plant. It is supposed to raise your body temperature, giving you energy and improving blood circulation, and getting rid of infections/illnesses and boosting natural immunity.

Context:

The informant grew up with their own mother giving hongsam to them. As Korea began to modernize, they began to see hongsam change from a medicinal herbal tea to more widespread consumption types(tea, capsule, powder, and even candies)

Interpretation:

Hongsam is very popular among today’s generation in Korea. I personally think this is an interesting phenomenon, as many other traditional medicinal practices are usually met with skepticism and a growing mistrust, or are simply dismissed as pseudo-medicine/treatment. However, unlike some traditional remedies that have declined in popularity, hongsam has sustained and even increased its status due to both cultural trust and the Korean government investing heavily in researching and standardizing ginseng products, showing a blending of traditional knowledge with modern science. The industry is both a point of national pride and a strategic economic sector. Its success reflects Korea’s broader tendency to commercialize and globalize cultural assets—turning tradition into a competitive modern product, much like K-pop or Korean cosmetics. It also shows how wellness has been integrated into consumer behavior.

Sports Hoodie

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: United States
Language: English

Text:

“Anytime ACFC is playing I have to wear my ACFC hoodie or else it’s a guaranteed loss.”

Context:

The informant started doing this in freshman year because nobody cared about women’s soccer and they wanted to market for it. They state that it’s important to them to encourage people to watch women’s soccer and also believed in doing this after wearing it watching their first game and their team won because of it.

Analysis:

This idea marks magical superstition as a ritual behavior is performed with the hopes of influencing the game. More specifically, this acts as sympathetic magic, where the action of wearing the hoodie will influence and help boost the chances of the team winning, and apotropaic magic with the idea of warding off bad luck. In addition, if the person fails to wear the hoodie then the game would be doomed from the start, creating a sense of avoidance ritual by continuously wearing the hoodie so there will be a chance for a victory. Besides representing magical superstition, this also emphasizes material culture with the hoodie. Some people, most that are outside of the sports community, would believe this to be a normal hoodie that one wears with market value, but the informant has a deeper connection to the material. They find it to have a deep personal meaning to the object that makes it invaluable and even giving power to the hoodie, which now acts as a talisman associated with good luck. This ritual behavior establishes identity with the sports folk group as well as acting as a tool that eases anxiety towards a game. It might also act as an explanation as to why a game won or failed with whether or not the hoodie was worn. Because there was a correlation between the object and the victory, the object then develops more power and is seen as something that influences the outcome of a game.