Category Archives: Festival

Qingming

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 23
Residence: Irvine, CA
Language: English

Text:

A: informant

B: Interviewer

A: It’s this festival question mark. Called Qingming. It’s the date where the dead will supposedly return from, supposedly come back to life and yeah, I don’t remember the story associated with it. But I do know that this day every year, most Chinese people visit their deceased people, deceased family or friends’ grave and then bring them food and stuff.

B: Do you remember the date of this festival?

A: If I search I can find it *laughter*

B: Do you know what kinds of food people would bring?

A: People bring all kinds of food. Something special I guess question mark. We have something it’s called hell’s—not hell but like, there isn’t a concept of hell or heaven but there is a place where people go to when they die and Chinese people will believe that is where reincarnation occurs. Um what we do on Qingming is that we burn money to them and we also burn other paper products like we burn a paper car, a paper house. And supposedly anything that’s burned by smoke should be received by them. And so we also it’s not particularly related to Qingming. People do that on Qingming, but it’s not just Qingming, it’s anytime for their dead family friends. It’s called, they do, it’s like some kind of intense. It’s sort of similar to what you would see in a budest temple. I’m not sure if you’ve seen one before. People like to burn three of them for dead people. It’s said that two is for alive and three is for dead and then sometimes people do one. Anyway, it’s singular and people just use the smoke to convey their thoughts, feelings, and emotions to people it’s believed that anything that burns can be transferred.

Context: The informant was born and grew up in China before moving to the United States to attend High School. The informant grew up always away of Qingming, but has not partaken in the tradition as of yet.

Analysis: Qingming is also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. It is celebrated in China and several other countries in South East Asia. It is celebrated around April 5th as the spring time is supposed to be a time for people to enjoy the outside and take care of their deceased loved ones’ graves. Burning paper makes the paper disappear similar to how a deceased person disappears from their body when they die. Furthermore, fire and smoke climb upward away from human existence and therefore mirrors the deceased’s journey. Therefore the offerings are following a similar path to the person they are supposed to reach. The informant is unsure as to the reasoning behind the purpose of burning three incenses as opposed to two.   

Swedish-American Happy Birthday

Text: 

This tradition involves bringing in a Swedish apple cake with candles on it to the birthday person and waking them up with first the American Happy Birthday song:

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear  [the name of the person]

Happy birthday to you

Followed by the Swedish Happy birthday song:

Swedish:

Ja må hon leva! 

Ja, må hon leva! 

Ja, må han leva! 

Ja, må hon leva uti hundrade år! 

Javisst ska hon leva! 

Javisst ska hon leva! 

Javisst ska hon leva uti hundrade år! 

Ett fyrfaldigt leve för [the name of the person], hon leve, 

hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra!

Transliterate/translation: 

Yes, may he (she) live!

Yes, may he (she) live!

Yes, may he (she) live for a hundred years!

Of course, he (she) will live,

Of course, he (she) will live,

Of course, he (she) will live for a hundred years!

Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray!

If any of the candles are not blown out that is the number of new partners that person will have in the next year of their life.

Context:

The informant is the daughter of a Swedish immigrant who came to the US for college and ended up staying here and marrying an American. This tradition is done at every birthday by all people present.

Analysis: 

For me, this indicates the merging of cultures, Swedish and American. As neither one wants to let their culture go the traditions are combined to form a new one. The Swedish song is very common throughout Sweden and is not unique to the family, however, combining the two songs is something only done by the half Swedish half American side of the family. In addition, the Swedish apple cake with candles on it was part of the Swedish tradition as well as the idea of the number of remaining lit candles correlated with the new partners. The reason for the keeping of these traditions is to preserve a sense of identity and culture. All of the grandchildren participate very strongly in all of the traditions and are proud of their Swedish heritage. Even when new people like significant others join the family it is very important to keep these traditions, although the addition of the American Birthday song may also be there to soften the entry.

King Cake

Text (traditional foods/folk belief)

“I bought King Cake one year. I thought it was just going to be a slice, but it was big enough for multiple people.”

Context 

My informant has attended the Mardi Gras parade twice and tried King cake once when she went with friends.

Q: “What is King Cake?”

A: “King Cake is a large type of cake in a circular shape but hollow in the middle almost like a rope that is decorated in icing and sugar of the Mardi Gras colors: green, gold, and purple. It typically has a tiny toy baby in the center of it that represents baby Jesus and is a symbol of a year of good luck and prosperity to whoever finds it in their slice”

Analysis

King cake during the celebration of Mardi Gras is a collective ritual most people participate in to celebrate and participate in the cultural experience as well as hoping to find the plastic baby looking forward to prosperity in the coming year. Stemming from Frazer’s ideas of belief and sympathetic magic, this shows how non-scientific belief has an influence on the natural world implying good luck and warding off bad energy. It’s a form of homeopathic magic as “like produces like” or finding the baby Jesus produces good luck and prosperity. This custom is rooted in European traditions dating back to the Epiphany, a Christian holiday representative of the Magi visiting baby Jesus. Originally, a baby Jesus figure was hidden in bread and whoever found it would be king or queen for the day. After the spread of this tradition in New Orleans, bakers would add their own spin on the ritual varying decorations and selling the cakes during Mardi Gras season. The cake is very large and meant to be shared and eaten with others as a community bonding ritual that brings people together in celebration and festivities reinforcing communal cultural identity. This is an example of the ways folklore changes through time based on the cultural context of a community. Steering away from medieval societal structures, the context in which the toy baby Jesus was used changed from an aristocratic nature to an uplifting optimistic symbol of luck and prosperity brought by the baby Jesus. Also exemplary of religious folklore, this practice is a for Catholic belief to be communally shared, and enjoyed by festival participants bringing people together to cherish and understand more about the religious custom and how it has evolved through time.

Mardi Gras

Text (festival)

“A week-long festival celebrating New Orlean’s culture and heritage.”

Context

My informant has lived in Louisiana for 4 years and attended the Mardi Gras festival two times.

Q: “What exactly is Mardi Gras?”

A: “The celebration originated in New Orleans and people travel from all across the country to celebrate Mardi Gras here in New Orleans. Basically, it’s a week-long festival/series of parades that happens at the beginning of January lasting until Fat Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday.”

Q: “What is the significance of the celebration?”

A: “It’s essentially a ‘last hoorah’ before lent so it’s the last time you indulge, drinking, eating sweets, especially king’s cake, before you give it up for lent.”

Analysis

Mardi Gras is a French phrase meaning “Fat Tuesday” translated into English. This comes from the custom of using up all of the fats in the home before lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence. Important families will create floats and dress up in extravagant glittery costumes driving the float around the city throwing out beads, coconuts, candy, etc. There is jazz music, performers, and people in costumes. New Orleans has a lot of French culture stemming from the Louisiana Purchase which gave the United States new land, including New Orleans. People typically dress up in the Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold, and green. People not coming from “important” New Orleans families will typically just wear comfortable clothes aligning with the Mardi Gras colors and walking shoes as they’ll be outside walking a lot. Different parades are happening throughout the week at different times and the streets are filled with people in celebration. The celebration marks the beginning of Lent, a yearly 40-day fasting period leading up to easter. This is exemplary of the connection between festivals and yearly cycles/the calendar as well as religious folklore. Festivals are often symbolic of cyclical time and the calendar year as Lent is a practice occurring yearly in Christian communities and the festival serves as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Christian practices and beliefs. Larry Danielson, a religious folklorist explores these themes of religious rituals and practices including communal groups participating in religious originating festivals representative of shared belief. Mardi Gras specifically has Catholic roots and people use festivals as a way to come together and provide a more deep appreciation and nuanced understanding of religious tradition.

Luminaria

Text:

My informant, from Kansas City Missouri, describes a Christmas tradition in his family: “So later on the day of Christmas Eve, my family helps organize a neighborhood tradition called Luminaria. I think the tradition is very Christian and comes from like Italy or Spain but we do it as a non-denominational neighborhood thing. Basically you light a bunch of candles and place them along the street on Christmas eve.”

Context:

“There’s probably a religious reason behind it that we’re unfamiliar with, but afterwards people walk around and look at the candles and it’s like a nice moment to talk to people and stuff. I think the Luminaria thing is just a source of coming together as a neighborhood for the holidays. Everyone helps and it’s a big neighborhood thing and people walk and talk and stuff. It has a sort of religious connotation but it’s kinda lost it for us and our area. I think it might be organized with other neighborhoods through a local church but our area is kinda disconnected from that.”

Interpretation:

The informant is aware of the religious origins of the traditions, but does not perform the tradition for religious reasons. What matters about the tradition is not what it is meant to represent religiously, but what it represents to the community now: It’s a way of bringing people together and connecting the neighborhood through conversation and common activity.