Category Archives: Festival

Puttari Festival

Age: 23

Context:

This festival is celebrated in November to early December. People come together to prepare special foods and honor the gods for plentiful harvest, which is important for the informant’s community that is is dependent on agriculture.

Text:

Puttari is a traditional festival of harvest for Coorgs. “Puttari” means new rice and is celebrated when crops are ready to harvest. On the day of the festival, family members come together at their ancestral family home, or “aine-mane” and cut sheaths of rice to bundle up. During the festival, they pray to the gods of agricultural, transportation, and tools for good harvest.

Analysis:

Puttari is a calendrical festival that celebrates the agricultural cycle. From a functionalist perspective, the ritual expresses gratitude towards the gods and reinforces cultural values around family and dependance on land. The emphasis on returning to the “aine-mane” demonstrates how folklore is rooted in cultural meaning, places, and ancestry, and the festival acts to maintain continuity between the past and present.

Kaveri Shankramana Festival

Age: 23

Context:

The informant comes from a cultural community that values agriculture. He comes from a distant line of native farmers and plantation owners. The festival is performed back in the city he is ancestrally from. It is not performed during a specific time, but instead depends on the progression of nature. The informant remembers his mother lamenting on the importance of this festival.

Text:

Kaveri Shankramana celebrates when fresh spring water flows into the Kaveri river. This is an approximate time and people tend to bathe in the river during this festival. Rice is thrown in celebration to honor the goddess Kaveri. A jug of the holy water from Kaveri is kept in each home and when people fall ill, they are to sip from the cup to heal them.

Analysis:

This festival acts as a ritual tied to the time of year according to nature. The acts of bathing in the river and throwing rice turn nature into a sacred, meaningful place that connects the informant to the goddess Kaveri. The use of the stored water for healing invokes the idea of sympathetic magic, as described by James George Frazer. Specifically, the healing property of water reflects contagious magic, in which contact with a sacred source continues to influence others even once separated from the original source itself. As a result, ritual healing appears to produce real perceived effects for those suffering from sickness.

Salmon Days

Text: Salmon Days is a local festival about the return of the salmon to Issaquah creek. It is the first full weekend in October because that is when it’s most likely for the salmon to be fully back.

The festival started around 60 years ago, starting either before my father was born or when he was a small child. It used to be small, though still had face painting, booths, crafts, etc. my dad says that craft fairs were big back then, every town has its own little craft fair. By the time my father was in high school he can remember there was a year when 20,000 people came, in comparison the population of Issaquah back then was about 8,000. “It was one of those times where you’re just like, Maybe this isn’t such a little festival anymore”. There also were very few towns around that were doing a festival of that scale. Now it’s “freaking huge”.

At the Festival:

They remember there was little crafts you could either do or buy. When my mom was a kid there was a trend where they gave you a “weird” shaped bottle, then you filled it with styrofoam balls (my dad who is older remembers it used to be sand). Then you’d put a hat and hair on it.
Elephant ears; which are according to my mom a “big slab of buttery deep fried gluten with cinnamon and sugar” — They have been “Epic forever”. “Anybody you ask about Salmon days is probably gonna talk about elephants ears.
The Parade: Saturday Morning is the parade. It used to be little and go down Front Street (the town’s main street). It would have little floats and Miss Issaquah riding down the Salmon float, a couple of marching bands. Then by the time my dad was in high school or just out of high school it became so big they had to move it to a different street. There was one year where the parade was three hours long. My parents talked about how in the pre internet world it was The thing to do, The place to be.

They remember that when they were in school it was a great way to be social and connect up with your friends on the weekends. My dad, who didn’t have many friends, remembers it being a weird social experiment.

Dad (cleaned up): You weren’t in school, so suddenly people would–you’d be walking along and people would be like, “Hey D”, you know, “Hey, how are you doing?” It’s like, “Hey, you want to go walk around with me?” You know, even though you barely knew this person. So, it was definitely a weird, like, social experiment. (laughs) So I remember walking around with people that I’d never even like talked to before.

Interviewer: And you wouldn’t again?

Dad: Uh, you know, maybe we’d say hi again on Monday, you know, at school, but then you’d drift back apart, you know, it’s like.

Mom: Please remember the source of this.

Dad: Yeah, I mean, me. Hello?

Mom: He just doesn’t maintain that sort of thing very well, so they may or may not have tried it’s unclear.

Context: I interviewed my parents, my mother who is 49, white, and moved to Washington from Idaho when she was at the age of 9 and my father who is 60, white, has lived in this town his entire life. Both my parents are introverts, but my mother had friends during high school while my dad was a bit more of a loner due his shyness and obliviousness.

Analysis: This festival is a tradition that is long standing and has evolved as the town grew, becoming a part of the way of life of living in Issaquah Washington. Salmon are a big part of living in Issaquah, with the salmon hatchery and the return of the salmon, but I think that’s really just a jumping off point for this festival for community and evolving traditions are also a big part. Both my parents remember community in high school being a huge thing that the Salmon days brought, for my dad it created a frame that allowed him to connect to his peers in a way he wasn’t able to otherwise. The Salmon return and the people gather in a ways that normally don’t, allowing for a different experience than everyday life. It’s also been going for so long that people have established their own traditions within the festival, like getting elephant ears. It started out small but took on a life of itself. It also makes me wonder if this celebration in part kept the Salmon hatchery alive, though that is speculation as I have no idea the financial situation of the hatchery nor have I heard anything.

Chang’e Journey to the Moon, and the Origin of Mid-Autumn Festival

Age: 51

Interviewee:

Hou Yi is an ancient mythical hero who shot down nine of the ten suns in the sky and rescued the entire humanity (in the myth “Hou Yi Shooting Down the Sun”). Because of Hou Yi’s bravery, the ruler of heaven—who we call [Yu Hang Da Di] or “The Jade Emperor”—and his wife decide to give Hou Yi a bag of elixir that could make him immortal. Taking half of the bag would make him immortal, and taking the whole bag would make him transcend the mundane and ascend to heaven to be alongside the Jade Emperor and his wife.

Hou Yi has a wife whom he loved very deeply. Her name is Chang’e. He didn’t want to go to the heaven on his own and leave Chang’e alone in the human world. Therefore, Hou Yi gave Chang’e this bag of elixir for safekeeping. They had a simple and sweet plan: that they would both take a half, and they could live forever with each other on this earth.

However, unluckily, word got out about the elixir. One of Hou Yi’s disciples whose name was Peng Meng was extremely greedy. One day when Hou Yi was away from home hunting, Peng Meng faked an illness and talked his way into staying at Hou Yi’s house. Chang’e kindly let him in, not knowing Peng Meng’s intention was to steal the elixir. That night, Peng Meng drew his sword and threatened Chang’e, asking her to hand over the elixir.

Chang’e knew that there was no way for her to escape, but she refused to let the elixir fall into the hands of someone wicked and greedy. So she made a split-second decision: she swallowed the entire packet. The elixir took effect immediately, and Chang’e floated to the moon.

Hou Yi was devastated to find this out when he went home. The moon was so far away, and there was nothing he could do to bring her back or revert the effect of the elixir. Therefore, Hou Yi would look up at the night sky all the time, missing Chang’e.Especially when there was a full moon, he would try to figure out Chang’e silhouette on the moon. If you look at the shadows on a full moon, it actually looks like a rabbit—that’s what people believe Chang’e turned into on the moon.

And so, every August 15th on the lunar calendar became the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is the day when the moon is the brightest and the fullest. On this day, Hou Yi would set up an altar in his garden and lay out Chang’e’s favorite fruits and snacks. Over time, ordinary people began to follow his example. They would make offerings to Chang’e by making mooncakes and pray for peace and reunion or togetherness of their families.

(This myth was told in Chinese and translated.)

Context:

The interviewee learned of this myth from both participating in the Mid-Autumn Festival herself and also learning about this myth more systematically at elementary school. She interprets this myth as a warm one about missing someone you love, and she points out that the Mid-Autumn Festival is actually a quite romantic festival—it’s just that, as it was turned into a ritual, many people have now forgotten about the romantic aspect to this traditional festival.

Analysis:

This myth is an etiological myth—it looks at natural phenomena using a humanistic lens, explaining that Chang’e lives on the moon, as well as explaining that the shadows on the moon are the contours of this person Chang’e.
Greed as the antagonist / villain: in this myth, the antagonist, Peng Meng, is explained as someone who is “very greedy.” This shows the cultural attitude toward “greediness” in Chinese society.
Myth as an explanation of ritual: Chang’e’s myth explains the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated by the Chinese annually in September. The exact date of the Mid-Autumn Festival echos the “day when the moon is the brightest and the fullest,” which also gives this festival a deeply humanistic and emotional—explaining that this isn’t just a normal day, it’s the day when Hou Yi can see Chang’e the clearest. This myth thus gives the festival an emotional touch, making it a festival where people who practice the rituals can resonate with Hou Yi’s longing for reunion and family, even across space and time.

Tomb Sweeping Day [Qingming Festival] Rituals

Age: 19

Text:

Tomb Sweeping Day, or [Qingming Festival] in Chinese, is a traditional, nation-wide festival that usually takes place in April. It is typically when we would go to sweep the tombs of our deceased ancestors and honor the family members who passed away by just cleaning their tombs, bringing food to their tombs, and sometimes burning fake money in front of their tombs.

These acts related to this traditional festival carry their own symbolic meanings. For example, burning money—typically, it will be fake paper money—is a gesture of providing basic needs in life, or ensuring the material needs, for our ancestors. We will also put food like fruits, desserts, and nuts, or anything that the deceased loved to eat, on top of their tomb. This, symbolically, allows them to enjoy the food they like to eat and enjoy the material well-being we as descendants provide for them in the afterlife. I think that through these acts of giving, or offering, of material things, we are trying to give back to our ancestors who passed away the way they took care of us before. And so our ancestors wouldn’t have to worry about not having enough food to eat or money to spend in their afterlife.

This, to me, is also a way of expressing reassurance—a way of telling them (the deceased ancestors) that we are having a good, decent, and dignified life, and we are making genuine efforts in our lives as independent and capable individuals—so here’s the proof: we are making our own money, and we are buying you food, so no need to worry about us!

Family members typically gather together to visit the tombs of their ancestors. Some families, like mine, would typically talk to our deceased loved ones in front of the tomb. We would update them about our recent lives, like our progress at school or at work, just like having an everyday chat with them when they were here, right in front of us. Finally, at the end of this tomb sweeping ritual, we express kind words and blessings to them in their own world.