Category Archives: Earth cycle

Seasonal and celetial based

Chinese New Year in Shanghai

Nationality: Chinese/Canadian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 19, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese

Informant Data:

The informant is an 18-year old student who was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1996. He moved from Canada to Shanghai, China when he was in middle school. Both his father and mother have Chinese ancestry. He is a freshman at the University of Southern California and thus currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

 

Contextual Data:

My informant was Skyping with his family on Chinese New Year, which in 2015 happened to be in mid-February. Once he finished Skyping with his family, I asked him if he could tell me a little bit about Chinese New Years and specifically how he celebrated Chinese New Year in Shanghai. I asked if I could record his response and he agreed.

When asked what he liked most about the traditions he does on Chinese New Year, he said his favorite part of it was definitely lighting the fireworks at midnight and watching them with his family as they exploded in the sky above.

 

Item:

(Audio recording transcribed)

“So what we do is we go and buy a ton of fireworks early on in the week. It’s like we’re celebrating the arrival of spring. So then on the day before Chinese New Year,  my whole family including my extended family, get together usually at my family’s house. And all the kids, my cousins…they get these little red envelopes which I guess symbolize good luck. And then we all have dinner, which includes dumplings, which I guess are eaten for good luck too. And then, once it gets to midnight, we always light a bunch of these fireworks and set them off right in the backyard.”

 

Analysis:

I can note there’s an interesting emphasis on good luck in the Chinese New Year customs in Shanghai, so it seems that good luck is an important belief in that society. There also seems to be an importance in celebrating with fireworks every year, which might speak to the importance of Chinese New Year as a holiday in that society, since at least to the informant, one usually celebrates Chinese New Year with big festivities like firing off many fireworks at midnight at one’s home with one’s entire family.

A Wedding Artifact

Nationality: American
Age: 20s
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

A Wedding Artifact:

J.S.: “I cannot recall seeing, so much as hearing about certain artifacts that have been a part of my cultural folklore. The first artifact that comes to mind is a broom that would be used in wedding ceremonies. I remember my mother talking about “jumping the broom” at parent’s wedding. To this day she doesn’t know where the broom is. I have even seen a picture of family friends jumping over a broom at the doors of the church at the end of the church service for their wedding. My paternal grandmother, or E’ah, would tell me that jumping the broom was a tradition dating back to slavery, when black slaves technically could not be married, because marriage was a civil contract, and civil contracts could only be entered into by free persons. The couple would jump over a broom at the conclusion of their wedding service, usually held where the slaves would gather for worship. It has some connection to west-African traditions, though my grandmother never elaborated much more than that.”

J.S. explains here his experience concerning artifacts of folklore in his life, especially one that pertains to a wedding ritual. He reflects upon this ritual fondly, despite not knowing where the broom is at present. Jumping the broom is something he regards to be an African American tradition that is even supposed to have roots back to West Africa itself.

The Blackbirds of Los Terrones

Nationality: Guatemalan
Age: 45
Occupation: Landscaper
Residence: Boston, Massachusetts
Performance Date: 4/1/2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

“The first thing I learned as a boy was how to farm. I would help my father out tending the small plot of land we had…um…cultivating the corn. The winter months were the driest in Guatemala, so we always yearned for the black birds to come back in the spring. Every year during April, hundreds of little black birds would fly over the town. 40 days after the day they flew over, it would start to rain. In November, the birds return from their migration. When they return, the rain stops and dry season begins.”

Context and Analysis: The informant grew up in the highlands of Guatemala, and first heard this folk belief when he was younger and spent time with his father. This belief is significant to him because it reminds him of his deceased father. His father had told him the belief, indicating how they would both feed his four older sisters and his mother with the crops they grew. Ultimately, this folk belief is an explanation for the unusually consistent pattern of dry and wet season in the Guatemalan highlands. It is used to calculate the ideal time to plant corn and other crops.

 

Holy Innocents Day

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 25
Occupation: PhD student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: Spanish

“En Latinoamérica, diciembre 28th es también conocido como el día de los “Santos Inocentes,” el día en el que niños inocentes murieron de acuerdo con la religión Cristiana. Se acostumbra en mi familia hacer una broma en este día en particular. La broma consiste en pedir algo prestado, y si el que pide prestado dice la siguiente frase:

“Inocente palomita, que te has dejado engañar, sabiendo que en este día nada se debe prestar”

….entonces, la posesión del objeto prestado pasa a ser suyo. (La seriedad de esta broma depende de cada miembro de mi familia.)

Ejemplo: (Suponga que hoy es diciembre 28)

-¡Hola hermana! ¿Puedo mover tu carro para poder jugar en el estacionamiento?

-Claro

-Mmmm… ¿Entonces me prestas tu carro?

-Si

-¡Caíste! ¡Inocente palomita!

-¡Ay! ¡Olvidé que hoy es día de los inocentes!

-Así es, y ahora tu carro es mío. Voy a tomar las llaves de mi nuevo carro.

-¡No! ¡Dame mis llaves! ¡Yaaaa!”

 

“In Hispanic America, December 28th is known as “Holy Innocents” day, the day where innocent children died according to the Christianity. It’s common among my family to play a particular prank during this day. This prank consists of borrowing a special item from a lender and if the borrower says the following saying,

“Naïve little dove, that has let yourself be fooled by me, knowing that today nothing has to be lent”

…then, the ownership of the item is supposedly transferred to the borrower. (The seriousness of this joke depends on the members of my family.)

Example, (Suppose that it’s December 28th)

-Hey Sis! Can I move your car so I can play in the garage?

-Sure

-Hmmm… can I borrow your car then?

-Yes

-Gotcha! “Naïve little dove!”

-Oh no! I forgot today is “Holy Innocents” day!

-Yes! Now your car is mine! And I will proceed to take the keys of my new car.

-No! Give me my keys! Stop it!”

 

The informant is a PhD student at the University of California, studying Electrical Engineering. He is from Mexico City, Mexico, where he was born and lived most of his life. His native tongue is Spanish, but he is fluent in English, as well. He got his undergraduate degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which he graduated from in 2012. He enjoys ballroom dancing in his free time.

 

The informant was asked to send the collector a description of a holiday celebrated in Mexico that has a particular tradition associated with it. He typed it first in Spanish, then was kind enough to translate it. This tradition is a particular game of his family, that everyone participates in, but he knows of other families who participate in similar games or pranks.

 

As the informant explains, his family has a prank that they play on each other on Holy Innocents Day. If a member of their family loans them something, then they get to keep it. The example that the informant gives is that he gets his sister to land him her car, then he says the special phrase, and gets to keep her car. He would likely return her car, but there are other members of his family that take this game more seriously and would keep it. This is a popular game of Mexican children, that they get to borrow things from friends or family and, if they say the phrase, then they get to keep the thing.

This arrises from the forbidding of lending on this holy day. Christians, up to at least Shakespeare’s time, were not allowed to lend money or items with interest. Jews took the niche market and became money lenders. This is a major part of the plot in The Merchant of Venice. This rule is not enforced anymore, but the idea of lending is still enough of a forbiddance that it is attached to this holy day.

The actual phrase said to catch someone lending changes from family to family or town to town. Sometimes it is a short song, sometimes just “Naive dove.” The informant, for example, shortens the phrase to “Naive little dove!” instead of staying the full phrase that his family normally uses. The idea of the dove is the symbol of innocence ties into holy Innocents Day. The rest of the phrase just calls the person out on their lending when it is forbidden.

Day of the Dead

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 25
Occupation: PhD student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: Spanish

“Una de las tradiciones que es muy popular en la universidad donde estudié mi licenciatura (la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) se celebra cada primero de noviembre, el día de los muertos. Una de las actividades que se efectúan en esta festividad es la de construir altares y ofrendas para honrar a los muertos. En esta universidad las ofrendas son especialmente gigantescas. Se acostumbra a que los estudiantes de diferentes facultades se reúnan para construir enormes calaveras con adornos artísticos usando flores de cempasúchil.”

 

“One of the traditions that is very popular in the university where I did my undergraduate work (the National Autonomous University of Mexico) happens every first of November, when the day of the dead is celebrated. One of the activities that includes this festivity is to build offerings or altars honoring the deceased. In this university the offerings are famous for being gigantic. It’s very common for students from every school to get together to create enormous skulls along with artistic decorations using marigolds.”

 

The informant is a PhD student at the University of California, studying Electrical Engineering. He is from Mexico City, Mexico, where he was born and lived most of his life. His native tongue is Spanish, but he is fluent in English, as well. He got his undergraduate degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which he graduated from in 2012. He enjoys ballroom dancing in his free time.

 

The informant was asked to send the collector a description of a holiday celebrated in Mexico that has a particular tradition associated with it. He typed it first in Spanish, then was kind enough to translate it. As he says, this tradition was practiced at his undergraduate university, though he had celebrated the holiday all his life.

 

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on the first day of November. The holiday’s main purpose is the gathering of friends and family to pray for loved ones who have died. The holiday originated in Mexico, and originally was celebrated at the beginning of the summer, but was moved after the colonization of the Spanish to correspond with All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day. The celebration can often last three days, beginning on All Hallows’ day to make the alters; Day of Innocents, to pray for dead children’ and Day of the Dead, for lost adults.

The altars are the main focus of the holiday. On them, people will place memorabilia from the dead person, whether it is pictures or their favorite food or sometimes they will play their favorite music. toys can be brought for children. Often times, there will be marigolds, the traditional flower in Mexico to honor the dead. Altars can be located at the cemetery where the deceased is buried, or within people’s homes if they are far away from the cemetery.  Family members can spend all night at the altar, praying. Most public schools create their own altars, avoiding religious symbols that might exist on other altars.

The informant’s university also builds its own altars. It is famous for building especially large altars in comparison to other schools, and that is a source of pride for the university (showing how important this holiday is). The students get together to decorate skulls, a major symbol for the holiday. In some places, people wear skull masks or make chocolate or sugar skulls for the day. At the informant’s university, the skulls become works of art, decorated with marigolds to show respect for the dead.