Category Archives: Festival

Holi Festival

Nationality: Indian
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mumbai, India (Los Angeles, California during the school year)
Performance Date: April 21, 2017
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: Actual Primary is Marathi, but can also speak Hindi, Konkani, Kannada, and English

“It begins in March, so the first week of our New Year has Holi. It’s the festival of colors because in North India, like few states in the North, they say that colors make you look beautiful and initially, in medieval times and, you know, the early civilizations, they used to apply turmeric to look fairer. So, that’s how the concept of putting colors came in. Later, it got a little fancy, from yellow to green to pink and then everything. So, that’s how it is. Now, it is more of a water sport. I mean, people splashing water on each other and colors and everything. And, in India in fact, everything is closed. It is a national holiday and even if you don’t know each other, you can go on splashing water without anyone being offended.”

For the Hindu calendar, New Year begins in March. This is one of their many festivals, but this one more specifically honors color, which is very important in Indian culture. It is a very communal festival as well. There was even a celebration on the USC campus that the informant participated in with her friends.

Historically, the idea of applying colors came with the concept that being more fair was more beautiful. Since then, as she said, it has expanded to more bright colors representing individual things in Indian culture.

The informant relayed this to me while we were re-shelving books in the stacks of Doheny Library at USC. She is one of my co-workers.

Personally, I feel as if the Holi Festival has spread into American culture through the forms of “color runs,” where people run a 10k while being pelted with color. I also have seen it in one of Coldplay’s music videos, so knowledge about it is spreading quickly.

I find it interesting how much it has changed from the “original” tradition, yet that the color aspect has carried through while evolving in its own way. It is also interesting how Indians outside of India are taking the festival with them where they go, preserving their culture and allowing people to see and often participate in it with them at the same time.

Hoya Hoye Festival

Nationality: Ethiopian and Greek
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Portland, Oregon
Performance Date: April 21, 2017
Primary Language: Amharic
Language: English, Spanish, and Attic Greek

“There is a festival in Ethiopia. It’s called “Hoya Hoye.” It’s in August, which is in neḥāsē. I forgot exactly what it’s about, but the big thing that we always do is like we have a huge bonfire in our front yard, so to speak, and you just kinda like chant with like sticks, which we call “dulas” and they’re like taller than you and your like “duh duh duh” and then, you’re like “Hoya hoye, yeena geatta.” It’s a religious festival because “yeena geatta” menas like kinda like “My Savior,” so you are like praising Jesus.”

The Hoya Hoye festival is widely renowned throughout Ethiopia. It is a festival that is both very participatory within your family, but also within the entire neighborhood. Even though the houses in Ethiopia are separated by gates, people come together in celebration by banging on their neighbors gates saying “Hoya hoye” or “Salem.” It is a simple way of saying hello during the festival in a friendly way that brings the community together to celebrate.

The informant compared it to the typical American celebration for the Fourth of July, where people will have a barbecue with a lot of their family and friends coming together to celebrate. However, instead of patriotism, it is religious. For both though, there is the sense of community and connection to your culture and the people within it.

The informant explained that she would never celebrate Hoya Hoye in Oregon, where she is from, because the community and appreciation is not there. However, she has been able to go the last couple of years to Ethiopia to experience this. She explained that it was a real honor to be present at that time.

The festival usually falls between August 10th and August 20th. For the informant, it has been difficult to make it back to Ethiopia because that is when the fall semester for school begins, but she still has managed to make time for it.

The informant relayed this to me while we were sitting on a bench on the USC campus.

I find it interesting that this festival does not necessarily cross boarders of Ethiopia. With other festivals, like the Indian Holi festival, the people of the culture have been bringing it with them wherever they go, actively continuing it.

For the informant, the Hoya Hoye festival was something that she would never feel comfortable doing outside of Ethiopia. In part, I think it has to do with the lack of people to participate in it in Oregon. I also think that her being a mostly passive bearer also plays a role into why she only feels completely comfortable performing it with others who maybe understand the meaning behind it more.

Trip to find Sasquatch

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Palo Alto, Ca
Performance Date: 4/19/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Rowan is a sophomore double majoring in Math and economics. He is from the Bay area.

Piece:

So i’m really interested in Sasquatch. The plural of a Sasquatch is just Sasquatch. Not sasquatches which everyone says and it always bugs me. So a lot of people believe that there are Sasquatch that live in the pacific northwest. And I have cousins from Idaho and we are spending a week hiking around Washington trying to find him and after that end our trip at the Sasquatch music festival on memorial day.

Collector: Do you believe sasquatch exists?

Informant: 100%. For sure. Sasquatch are out there, they are just really good at hiding. There have actually been a lot of sightings of sasquatch up there and we are pretty confident that we will see one.

 

Collector’s thoughts:

I find it interesting that an informant who studies extremely quantitative, fact based subjects in university, is interested in finding sasquatch. The informant was adamant about his belief in sasquatch in his words, but his tone suggested otherwise. Additionally, upon researching further I found the Sasquatch music festival to be a yearly sasquatch themed music festival that occurs each year in washington.

 

Chang’e and Hou Yi

Nationality: Japanese, Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 2, 2017
Primary Language: English

My friend and I got to one of our classes early. While we waited I asked her if she knew any folklore. She happily gave me a  story:

“I can tell you why in China people place food beneath the moon during the Mid-Autumn festival.

Before our time, the sky held ten suns. The sun’s power was far too strong and the plants were all burnt away and people began to die.

Hou Yi, a famous archer, shot down nine of the suns. As a reward for his triumph, Hou Yi was gifted a vial of an elixir. The elixir made anyone who drank it immortal, but the vial allowed for only one drink. Hou Yi wanted to become immortal, but he loved his wife more. Hou Yi decided to give the elixir to his wife, Chang’e, for safe keeping. Hou Yi’s fame began to grow. His superb archer skills attracted many, and Hou Yi eventually garnered several students. One of his students, Pang Meng, had an evil heart. He wanted to steal the elixir from his master.

One day, Hou Yi and his students journeyed into the mountains to hunt but Pang Meng remained. He had fooled the other students into believing that he was ill. After ensuring Hou Yi’s departure, Pang Meng entered Hou Yi’s home and demanded the elixir. Chang’e knew she could not defeat Pang Meng in battle, so she drank the elixir. The elixir made her fly high into the sky. Chang’e ascended for several days, she felt no hunger and she felt no thirst. Finally, she reached the moon.

Hou Yi felt a great sorrow for the loss of Chang’e. He came back home, but felt lonely. Hou Yi placed a table beneath the moon and began to prepare food. Hou Yi hoped that offering would help his wife return.

That is why during the Mi-Autumn Festival, people place food beneath the moon.”

Collectors Analysis:

My friend’s mother grew up in China, so the Mid-Autumn festival was a huge part of her culture. My friend’s mother and grandmother soon moved to the United States. Her grandmother did not want to lose touch with China and so she began to retell stories daily and celebrate the festivals more rigorously. My friend first heard this story from her grandmother, but she does recall her mother telling a slightly different version. She remembers hearing the legend often during her childhood because it was told several times to the children of her family to remind them of tradition. To my friend, this legend is a reminder of her heritage. She enjoys being half Chinese and really embraces the culture.

I had several questions about the legend, many of which my friend was unable to answer. She did say that in one version Chang’e is actually the goddess of the moon. I wondered how Hou Yi shot down the nine suns and I wondered what happened to Chang’e on the moon. Still, I found the legend rather peaceful. It is a common told story with a hero and a tragic ending. I did enjoy learning about Chinese tradition. Many of the other legends I have collected help relay a hidden lesson but this legend actually introduces a tradition.

 

Dia de los Muertos

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 31 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Background of informant:

My informant (AG)’s parents moved from Mexico to Los Angeles before her birth. She speaks Spanish to her parents in home and is surrounded by Mexican culture.

Main piece:

AG: “I think here in the State when talking about ghost people think of horror films, but for me, I think of deceased family members. In Mexican culture, the dead is not seen as scary as it might be in some other places. Especially, when someone really close to you dies, you kind of want to have a experience to know that their soul is still out there. So ghost for us, of course they are scary, but there’s another connotation to them, because it’s such a big part of our culture. We feel more acceptable to believe in them. Oh, and we even have a whole celebration, the Day of the Dead. ”

SH: What is it?

AG: “We call it ‘Dia de los Muertos’ [AG wrote this down on my note]. It’s every year between October 31st and November 2rd. It’s originally a indigenous festival, cause then the Catholic church said, ‘No, don’t do that’, so they catholicized the festival. The indigenous name is ‘Dia de los Muertos’, which means ‘the Day of the Dead’, but the Catholic church don’t allow them to worship the dead, so they changed it to ‘All Saints Day’. I went to this festival several times here in LA. It’s not a super big festival, since we’re not in Mexico. So you juts build little altar in your home, it’s the day that you remember the deceased. So you just put those orange flowers, called ‘cempasúchi’, that has the smell to attract the dead to their way back home. With a picture of the deceased member on the altar, you put everything that they loved, or anything that reminds you of them on the altar as well. Real food. Or since my grandpa loved soccer, so we put a soccer ball on the altar.

“Here in LA, you can go to some cemetery and it will be parties where you’ll have ‘Mariachi’, which is the ‘Mexican Band’. So you just bring the favorite food of the deceased family member to the party. For example, my grandma loved coffee, so we made her a pot of coffee and put it on his grave. Just anything they loved, we would bring it to their grave.

“This is the day that people believe, that the gap between the living and the dead is the thinnest. So the dead can actually come back to be with the living people. On that day, they are with us. Or they are supposed to be us on that day, in spirit. It’s just a way to make sure that we never forget them. ”

 

Context of the performance:

This is a section of the entire conversation about believing in ghost and respecting the dead in Mexican culture.

 

My thoughts about the piece:

Recalling the proverb, “The cactus on your forehead”, and the story of La Malinche that my informant AG told me, I observe some similarities among these folk pieces. The importance of the past, the ancestor, and the lineage is always emphasized. Just like what AG said, Mexican people don’t see the dead as scary things but deceased family members that come back to reconnect.

 

A related folklore piece is discussed in a short ethnographic film, “Muerte Querida (Dearest Death)”, by Ileana de Cardenas, USC MVA 2016. This film explores a Mexican folk icon, Santa Muerte, and a community of devotees in East Hollywood. The special attitude about death and toward the dead of Mexican culture is further discussed in this short film.

Description of the film: http://cool939.wixsite.com/mva2016/muerte-querida

To watch the film, you might need to contact the department of Anthropology in USC.