Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays and holiday traditions

Dia De Los Muertos: Holiday

Context:

BS is of Mexican descent from Michoacan, Mexico. BS shares his experience growing up with the Dia De Los Muertos Holiday, what it means to him, and how it has impacted him growing up.

Interview:

Growing up, I have always had to celebrate the death of my family members whether I knew them or not. I always questioned my mother, the one who would set up the ofrenda (offering) as to why we had to celebrate those who are dead if they are no longer with us and I was always scolded and told that it was our way of celebrating their life and what they stood for. Celebrating the 1st of November was always the saddest for me. The 1st is the day that we celebrate the death of children and typically there are a lot of toys and action figures put up on the offerings. As for the 2nd of November, that day is used to celebrate the adults that have passed. Usually, this ranges from 18 and up. The central idea of Dia De Los Muertos is to invite those who have passed back to the land of the living. A great example of this is in the movie COCO where those who have passed travel through a bridge of marigold flowers to the land of the living where they reach their destination, usually their past home or tombstone, where they can pick up and take back what is left out for them. Although my idea of Dia De Los Muertos has always been like any other holiday, I didn’t take it seriously until my father passed and I found that the only way to honor his life is to remember him by setting his picture up and placing items that he enjoyed during his time on earth. Dia De Los Muertos is a holiday used to reconnect with those who you want to remeber, whether that be a close loved one or anyone you believe is worthy of being remebered.

Analysis:

BS ties his connection with Dia De Los Muertos to his personal life and explains how they didn’t take the holiday seriously until they found a way to benefit it for their personal use. According to the interview, Dia De Los Muertos is a way to connect with spirits and give them humanistic/living traits to image the idea that they are still living and traveling to visit from the afterlife.

Festival of Lights in Downtown Riverside California

Text

Collector: “Did you participate in any specific rituals or festivals growing up?”

Informant: “I grew up attending the Festival of Lights in Downtown Riverside, California. It’s always around Christmas time. They cover the entire downtown city in Christmas lights. It’s beautiful. There are musicians, usually solo artists, that come out they’ll put a bucket right next to them to collect tips. There’s a guy who brings his dog with him every year while he plays banjo. There’s a lot of different vendors, like there’s one specific hot cocoa stand that’s usually there. I forget the name. Some people sell glow stick toys to kids. The crowd is mostly families and couples.”

Collector: “Is there a main ceremony or is it just seeing lights?”

Informant: “There is like a main ceremony where they turn all the lights on. You know, the first night that’s when it’s the most crowded. Everybody goes downtown and they wait for them to turn on the lights.”

Context

The informant is a twenty-year-old male from Riverside California. 

Analysis

I found the informant’s description of the Festival of Lights interesting, as I also grew up in Riverside but rarely participated in this downtown tradition. The Informant spoke fondly of the festival with warmth and smiled as he remembered small details from his childhood. I took the festival for granted, but his perspective made me see the tradition in a whole new light. The Informant feels very connected to the city of Riverside because he participated in community events annually. I felt disconnected from the community in my childhood, as I wasn’t involved in many hometown traditions. Local festivals have the power to create a sense of belonging in communities and build a strong emotional connection to a geographic location. 

Purim Jewish Religious Festival Celebration

Text 

Collector: “In your childhood, have you participated in any specific rituals or festivals?”

Informant: “I did a lot of Jewish religious holidays as a kid. During Purim at my temple — Temple Israel of West Hollywood— we eat different religious foods. There’s a cookie called the Hamantash which is like a triangle-shaped shortbread, filled with jelly. It’s so good. And then you have to do certain prayers and like community activities. The celebration is obviously like about one of the many genocides of the Jewish people, we overcame that, let’s party. And part of it has to do with this woman named Esther. Basically, she had to disguise herself as like, not being a Jew. So part of the ritual is to dress up in costume. So it’s like the Jewish Halloween!”

Context

The informant is a female Jewish undergraduate student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Los Angeles. She regularly attends on-campus Jewish religious events at Hillel. 

Analysis

Learning more about my friend’s religious traditions showed me how different my religious celebrations are in comparison. The costume ritual stood out to me the most. To make a Purim feel like a distinctly special day, inverted social rules are applied. People are expected to dress differently than in their everyday life. The Hamantash cookies were another tradition that piqued my interest. Indulging in this treat is reserved/associated with this special holiday. In my religion, I can’t recall any treats that have the same significance.

Holi Festival

Text: 

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.

Christmas Advent Calendar

Text: 

“My family has a tradition where at the start of the month of december, we hang up an advent calendar. It was a physical calendar you would hang up on the wall, and each date on the calendar leading up to Christmas would have a little door that you could put treats inside. My mom would hang it up and fill each door with chocolate, or sometimes a small toy. Then, every morning my siblings and I would rush downstairs to see what was behind that day’s door. 

“Does your family still hang up the calendar every year?”

“Yeah we do, as my siblings and I got older it’s definitely not as exciting to grab the candy or toy every morning, but it’s a thing we’ve always done and it’s become more of just a special decoration for our family.”

Context: 

My informant is a friend of mine who grew up in a family that cherished christmas traditions. While he is 20 years old now and says the excitement of the calendar has faded, he says the calendar is a crucial part of his family’s christmas celebration, and that when he has a family of his own he will be doing the same for his kids. 

Analysis: 

The advent calendar is more than just a decoration or a way to give out treats to young family members. The opening of each door on the new day provides a symbolic countdown that heightens the anticipation and excitement for when Christmas finally comes, providing an aspect of daily ritual within the festive season leading up to the holiday. It’s quite interesting how the appeal of the calendar to my informant changes from being the excitement of getting a treat each day to a symbol of their family bond and celebration. This change signifies a maturing view of the holiday season, from a child’s excitement for new toys and no school to an appreciation of being together and being able to celebrate with one’s family. This also highlights why customs are passed through generations, as even though my informant doesn’t get the same excitement from the calendar as he did as a child, the impact it made on his view of Christmas makes him want to pass it on to his kids as well.