Category Archives: Earth cycle

Seasonal and celetial based

Chinese New Year

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Irvine
Performance Date: 04/01/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese, French
  1. The main piece: Chinese New Year

“Um… so, Chinese New Year is also called Lunar New Year and it’s… I don’t really know why they celebrate it, I guess because they used to use the lunar calendar. But basically, there are 12 cycles of the lunar year or something like that, and each of them has an animal, and the animals cycle through in rounds of 12, and so each year is the year of the something. It’s not super relevant anymore, so I don’t really know what it’s supposed to mean, but every person is born in the year of the something, and I was born in the year of the rabbit. And that’s supposed to indicate certain traits about you, but obviously that’s fake [informant laughs].

“Other things about Chinese New Year, the festivities last two weeks in China and you’re supposed to wish for good fortune and good luck. That’s why people say “Gong hay fat choi.” That’s Cantonese for good luck. Or, not good luck but congratulations on your money. That’s basically what it means.”

  1. Background information about the performance from the informant: why do they know or like this piece? Where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to them? The context of the performance?

While the informant doesn’t necessarily agree with the folk beliefs surrounding Chinese New Year, she still faithfully celebrates it every year with her mother, sister, and grandparents. She learned it from her grandparents while her parents were still in school, and it means more to her because she was closer to her grandparents than her parents during this time. After they moved in with her family in later years, it became even more important to the informant to strictly adhere to the rules of Chinese New Year.

  1. Finally, your thoughts about the piece

I think that this festival is interesting, because it is an annual festival or celebration, yet the assignment of a year and resultant traits to each person makes it a uniquely individualized annual celebration. Since it follows the lunar calendar and is also known for celebrating the coming of spring, this festival probably originally began as a celebration of a renewed growing season for crops. It could have became more personalized as societies grew less agricultural and needed a way to highlight their differences while still celebrating their unity.

  1. Informant Details

The informant is an 18-year old Chinese-American female. While she grew up in the southern California area, she spent more time with her grandparents than her parents growing up, and felt that learning their Chinese traditions and language was the main way she bonded with them, while her younger sister never had that experience because her parents were out of school by then.

For another version of this folk festival, see:

“Chinese New Year 2018 – Year of the Dog.” Chinese New Year 2018, 2018,

chinesenewyear2018.com/.

Aboriginal Myth about “Dreamtime.”

Nationality: Australian
Age: 19
Occupation: Social Media
Residence: Australia/ Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

The informant is my friend (referred to as CM) who is Australian. She is 20 years old and grew up in Brisbane Australia and lives in Sydney now and has moved to Byron Bay. I was enquiring about the Aboriginal people and if she knew any stories. Below she discusses an Aboriginal myth about “Dreamtime.”

 

CM: “Yeah the Aboriginal people are so beautiful. They’re not as much in Brisbane or Sydney but in places like New South Wales and Queensland. Yeah growing up my best friend was Aboriginal and her mother would always tell me about the belief system of the ‘Dreamtime.’ She would say that the earth was created by all of these spiritual beings who physically were the land and sea and the animals on the earth. Everything that was in the natural world was kind of like, a representation of the spiritual aspect of the world. Dreaming exists before you’re born and after you die.  Your spirit or I guess dream spirit, exists when you can’t humanly perceive it. A lot of aboriginal myths and stories are just so beautiful, but there is still a lot of racism and hate. They’re the oldest people on Earth. They know so much.”

 

I have been to Australia three times myself now and I think that this is such an interesting concept expressed by the aboriginal people I have found that mainstream Australian culture is deeply rooted in spirituality. Along the streets of Byron Bay and Sydney, there are crystal stores, dream catchers, tarot decks and so many “spiritual” healing objects that I find it so surprising that the aboriginals are actually treated so horribly and disregarded. So much of the Australian spirituality culture is rooted in this idea of the Dreamtime, and I definitely see that in all of my Australian friends.

Spa on New Year’s Eve

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/17/17
Primary Language: English

Background: Iris Zhang is an 18-year-old student living in Los Angeles, CA. She is a student at USC. She was born in Diamond Bar and raised in Arcadia, California.

Original script: “Ever since i was young, my family and I have had this tradition of going to a Korean sauna on New Year’s Eve. It’s weird because most people have New Year’s Eve parties with their friends but my family spends the entire day together at a spa. My parents told me it’s because they want to wash away all the dirt of the past year and literally start fresh into a new year. It’s some sort of cleansing ritual for them and makes them feel good about starting the New Year off all sparkly clean ”

Background Information about the Piece by the informant: there are a couple of holidays that her family celebrates and insists on spending together: 4th of July, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Years. For each holiday, her family has an annual tradition to follow.

Thoughts about the piece: This superstition sounds like it’s a great way to bond with your family as well as start off the New Year clean. Aside from the symbolic sense, I feel like it must be nice to just go and bathe yourself one last time in the year with your family before the New Year starts. It seems to be a very important family tradition for Iris.

 

Mid Autumn Festival

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/18/17
Primary Language: English
Language: mandarin

Background: Anna Lim is a 21-year-old student living in Los Angeles, CA. She is a student at USC. She is currently studying electrical engineering.

Original script: “Hmm.. festivals that I celebrate with my family? Honestly the first one that comes to mind is the Mid Autumn Festival. It’s held on the night of a full moon but just being real with you, I don’t really remember the significance behind it. I just know that it’s a night that I go out with my family, and you know, party it up and play games and eat lots of good street food. It’s just like a carnival, but there’s something a little magical about it because it’s a full moon. My favorite part of it is the lighting of lanterns. I used to make my own lanterns with my family and go to Redondo Beach and let them go. We would write a wish on the lantern on the inside and then we weren’t allowed to tell anybody what we wished for because it wouldn’t come true if we did. I always asked for money. Never got it. And then after letting the lanterns go we would eat mooncakes!! Always super excited about the mooncakes. But yeah, it was probably my favorite holiday as a child.”

Background Information about the Piece by the informant: Her family always celebrated the Mid Autumn festival as a full day event. The family would spend time together in the day and then go to a local festival at night.

Thoughts about the piece: This holiday sounds like so much fun! I actually went to the Mid Autumn Festival in LA for the first time with my roommate this past year and it was a lot of fun, with live music, games, and delicious food. I’m pretty sure it was not truly authentic because it’s LA and it’s such a huge conglomeration of cultures, but I still was able to experience a lot.  

 

For another version of this holiday please see https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/mid-autumn.htm

Holi

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Santa Barbara, CA
Performance Date: 4/16/17
Primary Language: English

Anshika is a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara. She went to Whitney High School in Cerritos, CA, which was a small public high school that was #1 in the nation.

Original script: “There’s a festival called Holi that we celebrate with my family. It basically translates to ‘festival of colors’ and people use the holiday to celebrate the coming of spring. We have these chalk like colors that we throw around with each other. People wear white shirts coming out to the celebration so the colors show up better. My mom told me it basically is supposed to look like a flower field of different colors all around. It’s supposed to be a family celebration but it’s grown quite popular throughout the years. Last year, I invited my friends who weren’t necessarily Indian and we just ate Indian food together and then threw colors at each other afterwards. It was awesome.”

Background Information about the Piece by the informant: My informant has celebrated Holi with her family every year. It is a huge family tradition and she invites all her extended relatives as well. Family friends are also welcome to the event. It is mostly the children that participate with the throwing of colors.

Thoughts about the piece: I have actually attended a Holi before with one of my friends and I can personally attest to how fun and celebratory this festival is. It’s fun for everybody regardless of what religion or ethnicity you are.