Category Archives: Festival

Chinese New Years

Nationality: British (Hong Kong), American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 24th, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Chinese New Years

The informant who told me about the traditions associated with Chinese New Years was born and grew up in Hong Kong for a great part of his life. He speaks fluent Chinese and has had significant exposure to Chinese culture, given the fact that he and his family still speak the language and practice many of the traditional customs. He moved to the US in 5th grade.

Chinese New Years usually takes place during the end of January or in the beginning of February based on the Gregorian Calendar, because it is lunar based in comparison to the Western Calendar and therefore follows the moon. It is formally a fifteen day celebration, however, the informant’s family usually doesn’t celebrate past the second or third day and then the fifteenth day because it is significant in its own right. Throughout the New Year’s celebration, there is a tradition of saying auspicious phrases, which are usually 4 character phrases, related to good luck and happiness in every situation (See entry: Auspicious Phrases for Chinese New Years).

On New Years Eve there’s a big dinner, where the family eats a lot of food. The informant’s family, like a lot of Chinese families, places a lot of emphasis on abundance so the meal is a lot about saving up to have an abundance and then not wasting it. It is traditional to clear the table of food. There are puns, given that some of the foods have significant meanings – for example fish is eaten during New Year’s Eve dinner because fish sounds like the Chinese word for “abundance”. Tonal difference again is important. You eat foods like this to get good luck, homeopathically. In a more modern context on New Years Eve, you turn on the TV to a station that is celebrating. It is a really big deal, with people doing traditional plays or traditional performances like the dragon dance, which all come from stories about monsters and how New Years originally was a way to scare away those monsters with noise and fireworks. According to the informant, there is not too much of a liminal sense to the way in which his family celebrates New Years, other than making noise. Although here in the US there are stricter regulations on fireworks, back in Hong Kong, streets explode with fireworks, especially in more rural areas where the tradition stays really strong. New Years Day is a day when the entire family spends time with the fathers side of the family. Visiting his father’s parents is very convenient for the informant, given that the informant’s grandmother lives with them. It is therefore a pretty normal day, however there is a tradition for the elders to give kids red pockets or red envelopes. Giving a red envelope with money to a child meant that you hoped they would live long enough to use it. It used to be a reality that before the age of 1, many children in China died. The giving of red envelopes was an assurance that they would survive. New Years Day also involves more food, but it is a different set of food. This includes a vegetable that sounds exactly like the Chinese phrase for good luck or prosperity.

The Second Day, you visit the mom’s side of the family, which can be difficult for some people like the informant’s family since his mom’s family lives in Hong Kong. Instead he calls. The third day is called ‘Red Mouth’ which is connected to the fact that you are not supposed to talk to people that day. In a modern context, no one really practices that anymore, but it used to be practiced because apparently you risked making inflammatory remarks, angering people, and ruining relationships. The informant’s family doesn’t observe it. In fact his family primarily observes only Day 1 and Day 2 because that is all about visiting family and congratulating everyone for making it to the new year. An interesting fact is that in China, instead of saying “Happy New Year” you say “Congratulations”. This is due to the belief back in the old days that there were monsters that terrorized villages, and to escape being eaten by the monster on New Years Eve and to survive and make it to the new year was a big deal. Fireworks have something to do with why monsters don’t exist anymore, because they scare them off and starve them to death. The informant doesn’t really know what happens from day 4-14, given that his family doesn’t observe these days. Day 15, however, is the end of the New Year period, and it is celebrated with the lantern festival. Traditionally people would make lanterns with riddles on them. Its all about riddles, poetry and also eating dumplings, since the word for these dumplings is a pun of “lantern festival” in Chinese. The informant knows that in China and Hong Kong give breaks from school for students, but due to the fact that it is not the case here, he and his family work around and celebrate the most significant days of it. As he says, “It’s Chinese New Years in a very light sense.” He also said that his family used to dress traditional dress during this time, but after immigrating to the US a lot of things got watered down because people do not have the time. The informant has celebrated the traditional Chinese New Year for the entirety of his life.

Auspicious Phrases for Chinese New Years

Nationality: British (Hong Kong), American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 24th, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Auspicious Phrases for Chinese New Years

“These are nice, compacted ways of wishing very generic and relatable positive thoughts during New Years. They are usually 4 character phrases… It is interesting that there is an entire canon of what you’re supposed to say at the event of greeting people during the New Year. There’s a certain ring to the way these phrases are said. And to be able to say these things, the more you’re able to say and the more pertinent they are to the recipient, the more impressive they are. Also, the more metaphorical they are and the more artful they are, the more impressive they are to the recipient.”

The informant who told me about these auspicious phrases was born and grew up in Hong Kong for a great part of his life. He speaks fluent Chinese and has had significant exposure to Chinese culture, given the fact that he and his family still speak the language and practice many of the traditional customs. He moved to the US in 5th grade.

 

出入平安 “Chu ru ping an”

“May you have peace wherever you enter and wherever you exit”

“Peace and safety to all who come and go”

This is said to someone who travels a lot, because it means you have peace both in and out. It is also popular to put over entranceways.

 

学业进步 “Xue ye jin bu”

“Improvement in studies”

This phrase is about good luck and success in academics. People say this when they greet each other during New Years, especially to younger people, students, who are indeed studying.

 

恭喜发财 “Gong xi fa cai”

“Congratulations on your luck”

People wish each other congratulations on New Years because of the old belief that there was a monster called “Nian” (which is a pun in and of itself because the Chinese word for “year” is “nian”) that would come out every New Year’s Eve and eat villagers. To survive that was good luck and something to be celebrated. In a more literal sense, the phrase is a pun, since it means “surviving” the year as well as surviving the monster. This is the traditional way of wishing “Happy New Year”, and is used most frequently in China.

 

新年快乐 “Xin nian kuai le”

“Happy New Year / New Year Happiness”

This is the modern way of saying “Happy New Year”. It is used more commonly now due to the fact that it comes closer to the meaning of the wester phrase of “Happy New Year”. This phrase is used more frequently in Hong Kong and the West.

Romanian Wedding Traditions

Nationality: Romanian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Las Cruces, NM
Performance Date: March 19th, 2013
Primary Language: Rumanian
Language: English

Romanian Wedding Traditions

The informant who told me about these customs was born and raised in Romania until she came to high school in the US. Given the fact that she is a native Romanian, she knows a lot about the customs and traditions of the country, especially due to her large family, and the setting she grew up in from an early age.

“The wedding day has three parts. However, before the entire ceremony starts, everyone who wants to, meets at the bride’s house, and they put little balloons and bows on all the cars. The entourage of cars then goes from ceremony to ceremony, honking all the way. This happens between the three different parts, and whoever wants to join the parade of cars can. The first is the civil union, which is basically all the paperwork at the courthouse. That usually happens during the morning and is pretty quick because there are a lot of couples getting married on the same day. Then, in the afternoon, there is the church ceremony. That’s longer, it takes like 1-2 hours. Romania is of the Eastern Orthodox faith, so instead of having the parents bring in the bride and groom, it is actually the godparents who do it,  the godfather brings in the bride, and the godmother brings in the groom. Godparents are very important in the wedding process, because they have both social and financial responsibilities during the event. Godparents are chosen by the bride and groom, and usually they are people who are very close. Anyway, after they come in, they arrange themselves in the front – the bride and the groom, then on either side are the godparents, the man is on the grooms side and the woman is on the bride’s, and then there’s another couple that hold two large candles on either side. The priest then talks about the duties of each partner – its pretty sexist in favor of the man. The bride and groom then get crowns that they put holy water on and then everyone who sits in the front has to kiss the crown, everyone who sits in the front also has to kiss a portrait of the Virgin Mary as well as cross themselves. There is also a table in the middle, and everyone who sits at the front holds hands and circles the table. The bride also has bridesmaids, whose main duties are to pin either flowers, or bows, or some type of ornament onto the guests to distinguish that they are in a wedding. When exiting the church, the guests line up into a semicircle outside holding flowers, and the bride and groom walk through. At the end of this ceremony there is a more modern custom which is the taking of a group picture in front of the church.

The final part of the wedding is the night party, which is equivalent to a reception in the US. Unlike American weddings that end pretty early however, Romanian weddings last all night long, until the next morning. There’s a lot of food, a lot of alcohol, however this is the most stressful part of the wedding to plan out because most Romanians have really large families and you have to invite all of them. Even if you don’t know them, you basically invite who your parents want to invite. You also have to take into consideration how you’re going to seat them all, because you don’t want relatives who have negative feelings towards one another to sit next to each other, but if they have friends in common they have to be close to them. Anyway, its a very complex process, and you make diagrams of where everyone is going to be seated because there is assigned seating basically. How it works is the family and closest friends are closest to the dance floor area, and then everyone else is further away, ranked by how well they know the family. The closer your relations are to the family, the better seating you’re gonna have. In the very middle is a very large table where the bride and groom sit, along with the godparents, children of the godparents, and the parents of the bride and groom as well. Usually there are musicians, called Lautari, who play traditional Romanian music or Muzica Populara. There are also specific Romanian dances that are part of a wedding. There are the group dances, the Hora and the Sarba, which are danced in a circle by a lot of the guests, and then there is the Brasoveanca, which is danced by couples. The guests don’t dance until the bride and groom have their opening dance, which is usually a slow dance by themselves. It opens the last part of the wedding ceremony. There is also a wedding cake, like in Western culture, and the bride and groom get to cut the first slice. The bride also throws her bouquet and garter at some point in the night, there is no set time, but when she does, whoever catches it also gets her bridal veil.

There is also the famous tradition, the ‘stealing of the bride’. So at some point during the night, someone steals the bride, usually friends who want to have some fun. They basically take the bride to a random place, they took my cousin to a pub, and everyone started dancing and having a good time. Then they call the groom, and the groom has to pay the friends who stole the bride in alcohol. So they negotiate how much is too much, and come to a compromise, and whenever the friends are pleased with the offer, they bring the bride back. The party usually stops at some point in the early morning, and guests either sleep over or go back home at like 5 am.”

From the informant’s account, we see how many of the wedding customs in Romania are similar to those of the West, while others, like the stealing of the bride, or the traditional dances are very different. Another important distinction is that, unlike many American wedding ceremonies that have drifted from the traditional format, most Romanian weddings adhere to tradition very strictly. We see this both in the religious ceremony as well as during the reception with the traditional music and dances. The responsibility resting on the shoulders of the godparents instead of the biological parents is also quite different, and points at the fact that Romania is a very religious country, where God and the church are very important. There is also a great respect and loyalty paid to the entire family, which not always happens in the US, illuminated by the fact that the entire family is invited by the parents. The practice of “stealing” the bride is a tradition that is found with slight variations throughout Eastern Europe and some of the Middle East. It takes multiple forms – whether it be stealing objects that the bride is wearing, or the bride herself. However, the overarching goal is for the groom to symbolically “buy” her back. This stems from tradition in the old days when the groom would literally buy the bride with something of value – whether it be money, or treasures, or even livestock. The informant has experienced three Romanian weddings first hand, so she has had exposure to the traditions associated with them.

Festival de Amancaes

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 22
Occupation: student
Residence: Lima, Peru
Performance Date: February 15, 2013
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Informant is a Peruvian friend who was visiting me this week. She first heard of the Amancaes festival from her grandmother. The Fiesta de San Juan was a festival that took place in the hills of the Amancaes located in the seaside Rimac district of Lima. The Amancaes are bright yellow flowers that grew on these hills during the months of June and July.
The Festival of Amancaes evolved from the pilgrimage site because of the beautiful Amancay flowers that blossomed during the months of June and July and covered the hills in their entirety. In these celebrations, limeñans of all classes and races came down to the hills for unlimited food, music and dance. This celebration went on until 1952 when it was discontinued because the hills of Amancaes were invaded by squatters coming from the outskirts in search of better opportunities in the capital.
This festival was meaningful because Limeñan society has always been very stratified and segregated by class and race. Limeñans of European descent always looked down upon the indigenous and African populations, but on this one day (like Mardi Gras and the Ancient Roman’s Saturnalia) all of these social mores are forgotten and people of all races and classes would party together and share food and drink. Now, there is a festival that was started two years ago called Mistura, this is a gastronomic festival organized every year in Lima and it has become so popular that tickets are sold out almost immediately after they go on sale. This festival is doing the same purpose that the Festival de Amancaes used to do which was to bring society together by providing them with something that people of all ages, races and social classes enjoy: good food.

Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas for New Year’s

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 3rd, 2013
Primary Language: English

This is a New Year’s tradition practiced by my informant and her family every year.

“If you have collard greens on January first then you’ll make a lot of money, maybe because they’re both green. Similarly, if you have black eyed peas, then you’ll have luck throughout the rest of the year. And it has to be on January first. And then you just have meat, that’s not symbolic but you need something to go with collard greens and the black eyed peas. My grandmother told me that, and so she cooks for us for every new year.”

The tradition of eating black eyed peas for luck is also a Jewish tradition, and goes back for many centuries. It’s popular in the American south, probably brought there by the Jews and adopted by the society at large. As the informant says, collard greens are also a common New Year’s food thought to bring wealth in the coming year, as they resemble American bills. Both foods are exceptionally common in the American south (thus allowing most people to partake in the tradition without causing undue budgetary stress), which is where my informant’s family lives. The emphasis on it being January 1st also reflects the notion of its importance as the beginning of a new unit of time, in a liminal period where anything could happen and one could presumably set the tone for the next stage in life (ie, the new year).