Category Archives: Festival

Dia de San Juan

M is 44. She was born in Los Angeles, her parents are from Guadalajara, Mexico. She told me this custom about St. John the Baptist day in person.

“El dia de San Juan… June 24th, you’re not supposed to go in the water, like not even take a shower. It’s a religious belief… I remember my mom always telling me I couldn’t even take a shower that day… I’m not sure why, I think because on this day water is holy?”

San Juan, or John the Baptist is associated with water because he baptized Jesus. Some observations of this day involve the opposite of what M told me, where people bathe and splash in bodies of water (see https://www.nativeseeds.org/blogs/blog-news/celebrate-dia-de-san-juan). For information about celebrations in Spain involving fire, water, and plants, see https://centromundolengua.com/the-night-of-saint-john-in-spain/.

Mardi Gras Cake

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Lewiston, Maine
Performance Date: 5/1/22
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

CONTEXT: 

E is a junior at Bates University where she skies for their cross country team. She grew up with me in Sun Valley, Idaho.

TEXT: 

Me: “How does your family celebrate Mardi Gras?”

E: “Well there is this figurine, a little, small plastic, baby. 

They bake it into a cake

And when the figurine—or—when you’re cutting the cake, 

whoever gets the baby is supposed to pay for the cake next year.”

Me: “Did you ever get the baby and pay for the cake?” 

E: “No. They would just always tell me that I had to buy the cake next year—I was about 10 years old when I got the baby, 

but it was a very exciting moment to get the baby and I would keep it forever and ever.”

Me: “What does the tradition mean?”

E: “It’s from a biblical story. 

The three kings who brings gifts to Baby Jesus 

The baby represents Jesus

the cake was always the colors of Mardi Gras—

Purple, Yellow and green.”

ANALYSIS:

Receiving the baby (who represents Jesus) in your slice of cake, symbolizes luck and prosperity. In E’s family, the person who gets the baby has to pay for next year’s cake, however, traditionally receiving the baby means that the finder become the ‘king’ or ‘queen’ of the evening.

To read more about these cakes, and a different variation on the story you can click this link:

https://www.southernliving.com/holidays-occasions/mardi-gras/king-cake-meaning

Windsor Caroussel of Nations

Background Information: 

The informant is a middle-aged person who grew up in Windsor, a city in Canada. They emigrated to Windsor from Turkey, at a young age. They are describing a festival that they remember from their childhood. 

Main Content: 

ME: Can you tell me about the Windsor Caroussel of Nations? 

ED: So there was this festival called the Caroussel of Nations when I was growing up, and you know Canada prides itself on being a multicultural society and they consider themselves a cultural mosaic, as opposed to a melting pot, like the US. They fund a lot of festivals that, you know, help people stay connected to their cultural backgrounds and stuff. So one of those things was the Caroussel of Nations and it was around Canada Day. It was a festival where all of the cultures that wanted to get involved sign up, and they get a little grant for their space, and people have arts and crafts that they sell or display, there’s some different venues that have people who do shows like cultural dancing and displays. There’s always food, of course, which is probably the biggest thing and my mom would always make Turkish shish kebabs and shish koftes and things like that. People from all the community go around and check out all of the different cultures and enjoy the food and the environment.

ME: Did you ever participate? 

ED: I used to do this Turkish dance as a kid, we used to dress up in old traditional Turkish outfits and do a traditional Turkish line dance called Halay, you know? We would do that as a display, we would be like performing monkeys for the visiting Canadians (laughs). It was a lot of fun, everyone was coming together and the whole Turkish community would come together to put this on, it was fun visiting the other communities too. I think it’s still going on today.

Context: 

This interview happened at my house.  

Thoughts: 

The informant is my father and it seems that he really enjoyed it growing up. It seems like the Turkish community in Windsor would rally together to put on a good event and it would bring the community closer together. I have attended this festival once, and it is really amazing to see dozens of different cultures on display. It is also interesting to analyze the approach that Canada takes as a “cultural mosaic” as opposed to the “melting pot” here in the United States. I think that festivals like these are great examples of the difference. This festival is not about assimilating to Canadian culture at all, but it is about celebrating the folk dancing and traditional food from the countries that people immigrated from.

Cherry Festival

Main Piece:

Well in Traverse City during the summer is the Cherry Festival. Oh, my sister was the cherry princess! And I remember that cuz I was like in preschool and basically for that the parents the dads make a float. So all the cherry princesses they which is one from every school, and there are 25 schools or something. And so all the two princesses someone from a first graders have a girl and a guy Tirpitz is for prints, and the cherry princesses and princes from each school make a float, and our float was Herbie. There’s like a theme of the float, which was like Disney or something. And we did Herbie, do you remember that like the racecar? So I vividly remember like we took a car, we painted a car, like a dumpster car, and it was on a float. And then on the cherry festival parade all of the floats go through. And then they vote on like a Cherry Queen and the queen is like in high school or older. She like takes pictures with all the princesses. That’s a big deal and Cherry Festival, well there’s like a fair and there’s events that happen every every day and it’s like a very big thing a lot of fugdies, a lot of people would call fudgies people from like South Michigan who to Traverse City for the cherry festival. It’s a big deal. But none of the people who live in Traverse City actually like the festival because they make the grass dirty, without it the grass is like fluorescent green. 

Context:

My informant is one of my roommates, a 20-year-old dance major at USC. She’s from Michigan and this performance took place in our kitchen as she was cooking. 

Background:

My informant grew up with this festival and her sister was a cherry princess one year. She loves cherries and says it’s the only fruit that tastes better in Michigan than in California. 

Analysis:

I thought it was fascinating how much my informant talked up this festival and her families involvement, only to reveal at the very end that the people who live there don’t actually like the festival, that it’s much more for the people in Michigan who live outside of Traverse city than for the actual residents. So while this festival is a part of Michigan culture, it’s a yearly annoyance for the actual residents of the city.

Rakhi

Main Piece: 

Informant: Oh, during ​​Rakhi, so Rakhi, when you the sisters in the family will tie a string like if you can, you can see them on my arm. (gestures to his wrist where he’s wearing strings). Of course that’s not going to be known but like you can see them on my arm. You tie them around the brothers. And the point of it is for the brothers to say I will protect you no matter what like this. I do it with my sister as well as my cousins every single year because they’re near and dear to me and I want to show that I will protect them through whatever happens to them. So every single year we do that I give them money as well. And then on top of that, and then they give me a specific treat that I prefer the most. So for my uncle and myself we both like this Indian treat called Jalebi it is-all Indians treat like desserts and everything are really sweet in general, but this one’s like- It’s like fried and then dipped in syrup. It is the sweetest thing you can get. But it is it’s so good. It’s amazing and that’s what I tell them to get me every single year. It’s my favorite. 

Context: 

My informant is a 21-year-old Indian American gerontology major at USC, this folklore was told to both me and his girlfriend (my roommate) in my living room. 

Background: 

He said that this is one his favorite celebrations because he gets to renew his commitment to his female relatives while also getting one of his favorite desserts. 

Analysis: 

It almost sounds like siblings are bartering for protection in this ritual, but my informant wears the proof of his commitment to his female relatives and is reminded of his promise every day. There’s visible proof of his relationship with his family and this ritual is a way to celebrate it.