Category Archives: Festival

Santa Barbara Fiesta Spanish Celebration

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Collector: “Do you have any specific rituals or festivals you have participated in?”

Informant: “In Santa Barbara there’s Fiesta. We celebrate the Old Spanish Days the first week of August every year.”

Collector: “How do people celebrate fiesta?”

Informant: “There are parades with dancers and Clydesdale horses. We make paper mache eggs that are filled with confetti and you place confetti over people’s heads by cracking the eggs. Eating tamales, corn on the cob. They make all kinds of tamales and Spanish drinks. We have different concerts and bands playing mariachi in the center of town.”

Collector: “Is it restricted to only a certain group of people?”

Informant: “Anyone can join in. It’s a festival for the whole town to celebrate.”

Context

The informant is a black forty-eight-year-old woman from Santa Barbara California.

Analysis

After learning about Fiesta’s rituals, I found it interesting that the informant participated in Spanish cultural events when she was black. Though she doesn’t share Hispanic ethnicity, attended Fiesta annually as a child and it is now part of her identity. Thus it can be argued that one’s culture does not come from race, but from customs and traditions one participates in. The informant said Fiesta is for the whole town to celebrate. I found it ironic that outsiders felt welcomed in Fiesta, as it is very culturally specific to the Spanish. Instead of “othering” the community, this celebration brought people together.

Flower Moon Music and Arts Festival (Chapman University)

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Collector: “Do you participate in any specific rituals or festivals?”

Informant: “We have Flower Moon. It’s a Music and Arts Festival that’s been happening every year for the last three years on the last week of April. It’s usually at the same venue the Garden Amphitheater in Garden Grove, California. It has three stages. And we have 15 different artists, five artists per stage. And it’s not just the music it’s also the arts because we get six different vendors who are all champions to us in the arts. Artists, by the way, are all Chapman students and alumni. And we also get vendors to come sell clothes, jewelry, and food. And it’s like basically like our version of Coachella because it’s the weekend after both the Coachella weekends happen so we call it Coachella weekend three.”

Collector: “How much does it cost for a ticket?”

Informant: “$20 for Chapman students and $30 for general admission. And it’s sponsored by our school, we get sponsors from SGA. So Student Government.”

Context

The informant is a female undergraduate student at Chapman University in Orange, California. She is co-president of The Collective, a music club on campus that’s responsible for organizing the Flower Moon Festival each year.

Analysis

The Festival showcases Chapman Student’s artistic and musical abilities. The financial sponsorship from Chapman University shows that the school enables artistic expression. They provide a space where student’s talents can be appreciated and commodified. The showcase restricts artists to a very niche group: Chapman students and alumni. In my opinion, this makes the event more attractive to people in that university folk group. Ticket price differences urge students to attend, as they get in at a discount. 

Holi Festival

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When I visited India with my family, I got to experience a Holi celebration, which is a Hindu festival for the coming of spring. It starts by lighting a bonfire on the night before Holi, which for us was just a relaxing time with our family in the area. The next day, everyone is celebrating in the streets, throwing colored powder and water everywhere and all over each other.

“Is there a main activity for the holiday?”

“It’s kind of like this massive color party. There’s music playing, people are singing and dancing, and cooking/sharing traditional Indian foods.”

Context:

My informant is a classmate at USC. While he grew up in the United States, his parents are from India, and has experienced the celebration of Holi when visiting India with his parents. He says that even though he didn’t grow up there, the celebration festiveness of everyone makes him feel like part of the community. 

Analysis: 

My informant’s experience of Holi highlights the meaning and importance of the celebration for my informant’s family and the Hindu culture. Despite growing up in America, the celebration made my informant feel at home with a community he did not grow up with. This highlights the Holi celebration as a time for leaving behind personal differences, and celebrating a festive time with those around you. Additionally, being covered in colored powder and splashed with water would normally be uncomfortable, but the fact this is embraced during Holi shows it is a time for the release of negative emotions and inhibitions. This ability to bring people together and cause them to let go of their worries shows a strong value  of community, and focusing on relationships with those around you despite any challenges.

Mid Autumn Festival

My informant usually celebrates this with family, and the date depends on the lunar calendar, but is typically in the autumn and is always the night of a full moon.

During this festival you typically gaze at and appreciate the moon and eat mooncakes. Mooncakes are typically sweet pastries but they can be savory with a variety of different fillings from date to a sweet nut paste to lotus paste and salted egg yolk.

This festival is celebrated because of a Chinese myth with many variations. The basic story is that a woman ended up drinking an immortality elixir that would have brought her to heaven, but her husband was still on earth. Because of this she chose to live on the moon instead so in the mid autumn festival, moon gazing is like how every year the husband would eat mooncakes and look for his wife on the moon. Due to this, the festival is generally a family activity.

The story itself can depend but in a few variations my informant is pretty sure that they were once gods, but the husband had to shoot down several suns (which were the children of the emperor of the sky) and as punishment the couple were turned into humans. However, they received the elixir at some point and wanted to split it to be together, but they had to wait until the full moon for the effect to work, but one month the husband was away and someone attacked the wife for the elixir so she drank it so the attacker wouldn’t get it.

This festival is based on a myth based on the cycles of the moon. Not only is the meaning based on the moon, but the food eaten is also moon based

Tomb Sweeping Festival

Informant: N.N

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Residence: Burbank, CA

Performance Date: 04/26/2024

N.N is 19 years old and is from Burbank, CA. I am close friends with his brother, so N.N is an acquaintance of mine.  I asked him if there are any festivals or rituals he participates in regularly. He tells me about the Tomb Sweeping Festival that his family participates in every year as well as the funeral customs they do during the festival. 

“Every spring break, around March or April, my family and I go to Thailand to celebrate the Tomb Sweeping Festival. It’s a tradition that’s been part of our family since I was thirteen. During the festival, we visit the altars of my great grandparents and clean them meticulously. It’s not just about tidying up; it’s a whole ritual. We bring offerings for my ancestors—my grandma’s parents. These offerings usually include their favorite foods and flowers. One of the most vivid parts of the festival is when we light firecrackers and sparklers on their altars. We then pray in Thai because our ancestors, grandma and mom used to live in Thailand. My mom and grandma always remind us, “If they weren’t alive, you wouldn’t be here”. I think they say this to instill a sense of respect and gratitude towards our ancestors. To them, and now to me, it’s important that we acknowledge and remember where we came from. Honestly, I think it’s a beautiful way to remember and pay respects to those who have passed away.”

Their Tomb Sweeping Festival reflects deep cultural values of respect, remembrance, and family ties. It emphasizes the importance of honoring one’s ancestors and acknowledging their contributions to our current lives. This ritual also shows the value of continuity and connection across generations, which reminds us of our heritage and the cycle of life. It’s a way for them to bond over shared history and instill a sense of gratitude for the past even in younger generations. The festival also embodies Chinese cultural values such as filial piety, showing their cultural roots.