Title: Fête des Rois (Epiphany / King’s Day)
AGE: 55
Date_of_performance: May 1, 2025
Language: French
Nationality: American grew up in Paris
Occupation: Consultant
Primary Language: English
Residence: Toronto, Canada
Folklore Explanation:
“We always did Fête des Rois growing up—it was just part of the rhythm after New Year’s. We’d have the galette des rois, that puff pastry cake with almond filling, and there’d always be a fève hidden inside. The person who got the slice with the fève was the king or queen for the day, and they got to wear the paper crown that came with the cake. In our house, the winner would either kiss the person they loved, or if you were sitting with friends or siblings, it was the person to your left. It was lighthearted, but it felt kind of royal as a kid.
What I remember most, though, was in elementary school. They made a big thing of it. We’d all sit under the table—literally under it—while someone cut the galette, and then they’d call out who got each slice. That way it stayed random. And the second someone found the fève, it was chaos. The winner had to kiss someone, and in a room full of eight-year-olds, that was about the most dramatic thing that could happen. People would scream, laugh, hide under desks. It was silly, but it was something everyone looked forward to. It made January feel less gray.”
Analysis:
Fête des Rois is a form of religious calendar custom celebrated on January 6, tied to Christian Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Three Wise Men (Les Rois Mages) to visit the newborn Jesus. The tradition of the galette des rois with a hidden fève (originally a bean, now often a porcelain figurine) is a blend of symbolic folklore and ritual foodways. Its transmission is both domestic (within families) and institutional (through schools and bakeries), making it a hybrid of private and public tradition.
The custom of crowning a “king” or “queen” and engaging in playful rituals like kissing someone at the table represents performance and participatory folklore, especially powerful among children where the act becomes a rite of social play. Though rooted in religious narrative, the modern version often emphasizes community, chance, and lighthearted social interaction over doctrine. Its survival in French and Francophone cultures is supported by oral tradition, seasonal food marketing, and educational reinforcement, making it a strong example of enduring cultural folklore with evolving forms.
Category Archives: Holidays
中秋节 (Zhōngqiū Jié) Mid Autumn Festival
autumn moon festival
Title: 中秋节 (Zhōngqiū Jié / Mid-Autumn Festival)
AGE: 54
Date_of_performance: May 1, 2025
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Nationality: Canadian
Occupation: Retail worker and teacher
Primary Language: English
Residence: Toronto, Canada (formerly lived in Beijing, China for 20 years)
Folklore Explanation:
“When we lived in Beijing, we always made a point to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. It’s such a beautiful time of year—the air would start to cool, and you’d see mooncakes everywhere, all wrapped in ornate boxes. We’d pick some up, usually with lotus seed or red bean filling, and head to one of the parks in the evening. The full moon that night always felt enormous, almost too perfect to be real.
We’d find a quiet spot, usually one of those pagodas near a pond or on a hill, and set up a little picnic. Tea, fruit, mooncakes. It was never fancy, but it felt meaningful—just sitting together and watching the moon. Around us, you’d sometimes see other families doing the same, or even lighting lanterns, but we usually kept it simple. It wasn’t about tradition in the strict sense, more about soaking in the atmosphere. It was one of those nights where everything felt calm and reflective, like the city was collectively exhaling.”
Analysis
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a calendar-based seasonal ritual, rooted in harvest celebration and lunar worship. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month and centers on themes of family reunion, cosmic harmony, and abundance. The legend of Chang’e, the moon goddess, is the mythological centerpiece, making this a form of mythical and narrative folklore. Its practices—moon-gazing, eating mooncakes, lighting lanterns—are considered participatory folklore, passed down through domestic traditions, community gatherings, and increasingly, commercial influence. While originally tied to agricultural cycles and Taoist cosmology, the festival today blends spiritual symbolism with secular celebration. In urban areas like Beijing, participation often includes public space rituals, shared meals, and aesthetic appreciation of the moon—bridging the traditional and the contemporary.
清明节 (Qīngmíng Jié) Tomb Sweeping Day
Title: 清明节 (Qīngmíng Jié)
AGE: 55
Date_of_performance: April 4, 2025
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Nationality: United States (lived in china for 20 years)
Occupation: Employee of the British Council in China
Primary Language: English
Residence: Beijing, China, currently Toronto, Canada
Folklore Explanation:
“Qingming is a public holiday, so everything slows down for the day. You probably remember—we’d get the day off, and if we stayed in the city, you’d notice how quiet it felt in the morning. Most families would head out early to visit the graves of their relatives. You’d see them cleaning the tombstones, pulling weeds, and laying out offerings—usually food, flowers, or incense. Some people burned paper items, like imitation money or little paper houses, as offerings to the ancestors.
But it wasn’t just a solemn day. After the rituals, families would often go on long walks together—some even make a trip of it. A lot of people leave the city and go into the surrounding countryside or small towns where the holiday is more deeply rooted. You could see whole groups picnicking, flying kites, or gathering for a big meal. It’s a day about remembrance, but also about being together as a family. The weather’s usually mild by then, and it kind of marks the real start of spring.”
Analysis:
Qingming Festival is a form of calendar custom and ritual folklore, rooted in ancestral worship practices common in Chinese folk religion, Confucian values, and Taoist and Buddhist influences. It is an example of commemorative folklore, observed at a fixed point in the solar calendar (around April 4–6). The festival’s customs—tomb-sweeping, food offerings, and symbolic paper burning—are passed down intergenerationally, typically through oral tradition and communal practice, rather than through formal education. While deeply spiritual, Qingming is not tied to a single organized religion but reflects a broader cultural reverence for lineage, harmony with nature, and seasonal change. It continues to be transmitted through family practices, media portrayals, school education, and public rituals, maintaining a strong presence in both rural and urban areas of China.
Wearing Dots on New Years Eve – Holiday Ritual/Folk Magic
Text:
If you wear dots on your clothing (shirt, pants, underwear, socks, etc.), you will manifest wealth for the new year.
Context:
Since the performer can remember, her family always celebrated New Years together and everyone in her town (a small, rural town in the Philippines) would get together and all wear polkadots on New Years Eve. She brought the tradition to America and passed it on to her kids. The other Filipino-Americans she knows also wears dots on their clothes when they celebrate the new year.
“Prosperity for the whole year because the dots are like money. If you have money at the strike of midnight then the whole year you will have money.” “It’s Chinese, the circle is the symbol of something like wealth.” “We just know growing up. But it’s Chinese related but Filipino culture likes to mix cultures.”
Analysis:
Dots are circular shaped, and circles look like coin, and coins symbolize prosperity. Therefore, wearing dots is a form of homoeopathic magic. By wearing “dots,” it produces the like of “prosperity.” This new years tradition is often coupled with using movement, sound, and taste for good luck as well with many Filipinos also jumping at midnight to grow taller, shaking coins to ward off evil spirits, and opening doors and windows to “let in the good luck.” Many of these traditions are similar to Chinese values as in Chinese culture, round objects symbolize harmony, wholeness, and wealth. Therefore, for Chinese New Years, they also include many “round” items such as round fruits (ex: oranges) or giving out coins in red envelopes. The influence of this culture can be greatly attributed centuries of migration and trade from Southern China which is why there is even a sub-section of Filipino communities known as Tsinoy.
Simbang Gabi – Filipino Holiday Festival
Text:
Simbang Gabi translates to “Night Mass” in Tagalog.
Context:
The performer grew up Filipino in a community of mainly Catholics, then immgrated to the Midwest in 2003 where they joined a “Simbang Gabi” program at their local Catholic church with other Filipino immigrants.
“Simbang Gabi a Filipino tradition that is actually nine days. Basically we go to mass for 9 days in a row before Christmas. It happens at Dawn.” […} “We choose to continue it so the other kids who grew up here would experience our culture and it at te same time our community, it would be a Filipino event that people would congregate to. ” […] “Our Simbang Gabi program would showcase the way we dance, the way we have food, the way we have Filipino games… My sole purpose to do it is for the kids, to continue the tradition, to continue the culture.”
In the Philippines, celebration happens since “the moment we are conscious” and is celebrated by all Catholics (80-90% of Filipinos are catholic). They were told that if they finished all 9 days of Simbang Gabi and they make a wish, it will come true. “It’s like you’re praying or petitioning for something.”
Analysis:
The performer’s version of Simbang Gabi is intriuging because it’s an example of how a Filipino tradition is Americanized and yet celebrates the culture in an “authentic” way despite not being an exact replica of the tradition. Simbang Gabi in the United States is a wonderful example of cross-cultural diaspora as Filipino immigrants “perform identity” and preserve the culture after physically moving and assimilating with American culture.
Simbang Gabi in the Philippines is reflective of Filipino traditions of faith, family, and folklore as it mixes the Catholic influences of Spanish colonizers with communal values of meeting in church daily as well as creating a lasting tradition that defies borders.