Category Archives: Narrative

La Befana

fields:
AGE:23
Date_of_performance: 13 century – present
Language: Italian + English
Nationality: Italian
Occupation: USC Masters Student
Primary Language: English, Italien
Residence: Los Angeles

Quote: ““Okay, so in Italy, we have this super cool tradition on January 6th called La Befana. Basically, she’s like Santa, but make it a broomstick-riding grandma witch. She sneaks into houses at night and leaves candy for good kids and ‘coal’ (which is usually just black sugar candy) for the naughty ones. Legend has it, she was invited by the Three Wise Men to see baby Jesus, said ‘nah, I’m good,’ and then regretted it forever—so now she flies around looking for him and dropping off presents. It’s chaotic but iconic.”

Historical context: this has been around in italy since the 13 centuary, in some tuscan villages they burn large statues of la befana; it is both a pagan and christian tradition; thus very italian folkloric. it is a custum entrenched in the national identity of italians local and abroad like my friend who grew up in the bronx in new york city. But his grandmother who immagrated to the US. Italian-American families keep La Befana alive by adapting the tradition to city life. Instead of chimneys, stockings are hung by windows or doors, and in the morning, kids find a mix of Italian treats like panettone and torrone alongside American candies. Some families tell the legend of La Befana the night before, while others celebrate with a big meal on Epiphany. Though it’s not as widely recognized as Christmas, it remains a special way for the community to stay connected to their Italian roots while blending in with New York’s diverse culture.

Tiger’s Wedding Day

AGE: 53

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 02/19/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Attorney

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: New York 

INTERVIEW SUMMARY:

When asking my mother of any proverbs she grew up on she told the story of the Tiger’s Wedding Day. Whenever it was raining on a sunny day, her mother [my grandmother] would say “it’s tiger’s wedding day,” referencing the tale. While my mother does not remember the exact story of it, this is the basic premise of how the story goes:

The Tiger, the King of the Mountain, was getting married to the Fox. During the wedding ceremony, the Cloud fell in love with the Fox, causing it to weep.

This story comes directly from the translation of sun shower from Korean to English. In Korean, the term for sun showers is yeowoo bi (여우비), which directly translates to “fox rain” in English.

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

I think it’s interesting how our culture can weave into parts of the proverbs and phrases we use and pass down generations. Even though my mother didn’t remember the actual story itself, she remembered the phrase that her mother would say every time there was a sun shower. Storytelling is such a deep part of Korean culture (and especially culture as a whole), so there is no surprise that it shows up in the every day phrases my family uses.

Shaking the luck out of your leg

AGE: 53

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 02/19/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Attorney

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: New York 

Interviewer: Are there any superstitions or other phrases you remember being used around your family growing up?

TL: “Well there’s not anything distinct that I remember people saying, but my grandma was a very superstitious woman. There’s a saying in Korean that when you shake your leg [like a habit], all the luck will come out. When my grandma first met your dad, she saw the dent in his forehead and lost her mind. She thought all the luck was about to come out of his head.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

This superstition of “losing your luck” reminds me a lot of when parents will tell their kids scary stories to prevent them from going out and causing trouble. For example, the story of La Llorona or of skin walkers. In East Asian cultures, there’s a lot of superstitions and phrases surrounding luck. Such as, in Chinese culture, having an “auspicious nose” means you have a lucky nose and you’re bound for success and wealth. In this case, I guess my great grandmother saw my dad’s “deformity” (for lack of better terms) and deemed it as unlucky. Although he wasn’t born with the dent, but was just dropped as a baby, there is some tie between body parts and the luck they hold. Could breaking a bone cause luck to pour out of me then? And would there be a way to earn it back or is it gone forever? These are some questions I have about this concept.

‘A Lazy Fellow Moves a Mountain’

Age: 21

Date of Performance: 02/24/25

Language: English, Malayalam

Nationality: Indian

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Main Transcription:

“Alright, do you have any experience, personal experiences, with any of these minor genres of folklore?”

“One comes to mind. When I was young, I used to water the plants, my mom’s plants, in the back garden. And we had to fill the bucket, and then go scoop it [the water] up, and put it in the pot. I would always fill it all the way up and struggle to bring it out, and my mom used to say ‘Malayalam,’ which is a language I speak where I’m from. “

….

“So the saying was: ‘Madiyan mala chumakkum (a lazy person tries to move a mountain)’”

“Okay, you’re going to have to write this down”

”I’ll write it down for you, haha. And what this means loosely is: ‘A lazy fellow moves a mountain,’ which, basically, I think, relates to this folklore tale of these, like, two girls, and there was water in these two glass jars, and the one girl, the wise girl, like, put of lots of small pebbles to make the it [the water] rise, but the lazy girl took a big pebble, threw it in, and broke the glass. Which means, you are meant to take, like, or put smart effort into what you do and try to advance in small intervals.”

“A work smarter, not harder-type thing.”

“Hahaha, yeah.”

“Do you think this was a formative experience for you? Like, how was that?”

“Yeah, I mean, she would say it a lot for many things, because a lot of times, there were many things I would try to get over with quickly, but she would repeat that and it sticks.“

“So it was a recurring thing?”

“Yeah.”

Context:

My interviewee first heard the saying from his mother during his childhood, and since then, it seems that it has maintained relevance throughout his upbringing. It is interesting that his experience carrying the bucket of water parallels the story of the two girls filling their glass jars, which I am sure is not coincidence. I tried looking deeper into the tale itself, and it seems to be a retelling of an old Aesop fable, though I have yet to make a confirmation on that connection given how little information there is. It could be that the tale, given in Malayalam, could be a local reinterpretation or retelling in India of an older story that could have originated elsewhere, but that is only a theory.

Analysis:

The proverb, and the tale it derives from, assert that overloading the self with work will not lead to genuine change, and that change itself comes in increments. Anyone who has tried to transform themselves by changing every aspect of their life, or ‘moving a mountain,’ eventually fails and ‘breaks the glass.’ I find this sentiment holds relevance in a hyper-optimized and demanding world where people are expected to make radical changes, ‘moving mountains,’ in their lives with the promise of wealth, social status, success, etc. Most of the time, change is difficult, but it becomes impossible when you pile everything on yourself like a mountain.

College Ghosts

Age: 19

Date: 12/3/24

Language: English

Collector’s Name: Lia

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

Subject: I haven’t personally experienced any ghost stories myself, but there is a story in my dorm about some freshmen with spirits. Would that work?

Interviewer: Definitely. Could you tell me a little about it?

Subject: Sure. Okay, in August of the 90s, three freshman guys were roommates. Two of the guys were trying to join a fraternity, and the last roommate was a little bit different from the other two. Let’s call him Jake. Jake spent a lot of time in his room alone, was not that conversational, and secluded himself from the other roommates. One night, Jake randomly invited the other two roommates to partake in a haunted ritual to connect with spirits. The roommates were excited that Jake might finally begin to open up, so they agreed. 

Interviewer: Wait, so there wasn’t any sort of hesitation from either of the roommates about a haunted ritual they are only just hearing about? 

Subject: No, not at all, really. They are teenage boys who likely felt invincible and thought the whole thing wasn’t real. Jake started telling them about how to perform the ritual, which needed to take place in the haunted dorm room of the college. The three roommates walked over to this room that nobody stays in anymore, and messed with the lock to get in. Jake instructed them on how to begin the ritual, where each person would stand in one corner of the room with their eyes closed, leaving one corner of the room vacant. In increments, all of the boys would switch corners. They repeated this process on Jake’s command until being told to abruptly stop. Jake told them all to slowly open their eyes and shift their heads to the vacant corner. They all did as he instructed, and in the corner was a boy, one that looked just about their age. He was a little bit translucent, and his eyes had been scratched out from their sockets. There was dried blood all over his hands. The most notable thing about him, they say, is just how silent he was. His presence could take noise away from anything around him and leave this empty silence. Until he began to scream. He screamed the loudest any of the boys had ever heard, and all of the roommates covered their ears with their hands. He continued to scream with his piercing, angry voice and then started to walk towards the roommates. Immediately they all ran out of the room, closing it behind them. They returned to their dorm, trying to find somewhere that felt safer. They locked themselves inside of their room and sat down trying to catch their breath. Slowly, one another looked at each other, noticing that each of their eyes had scratches around it, and were slowly starting to swell. 

Interviewer: Did anyone else in the dorm building hear any of this?

Subject: It is a very well-known story, but that night nobody but the three roommates heard anything. Now, people who have a dorm room near the haunted one claim that every once and a while they will hear screams through their wall, but only one room can hear it at a time. Nobody really knows who that boy is, or what his story is.