Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays and holiday traditions

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

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 51
Occupation: IT Help Desk
Residence: Naperville, IL
Language: English

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

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 51
Occupation: IT Help Desk
Residence: Naperville, IL
Language: English

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.

Shabbat Tradition

Text: “I first did Shabbat with my family growing up every Friday. Then I went to a Jewish school from kindergarten to eighth grade. Every Friday there, we did Shabbat lunch where we mixed with all the grades. It was a more reformed school so it wasn’t super intense. When I started going to sleepaway camp, we did Shabbat on Friday there and it was just a really great community there. As my sister and I got older, things got busier so we couldn’t spend every Friday night doing Shabbat. We would always try to find a time once a month to do it. I grew up with my grandpa being a rabbi so we would go to St. Louis with my family and do a shabbat there. First you light the candle, then you do grape juice and wine, then you would do the Havdalah. This was a special part of camp for me because we always sang special songs. My parents, my dad especially, are very religious so this was always an important celebration for me.”

Context: The informant is Jewish-American, and originally from Chicago. She describes Shabbat as a significant celebration for her. Shabbat is a traditional Jewish celebration. It is the Jewish day of rest, from Friday to Saturday evening, and it is a time to rest from work and gather with loved ones. Specifically, as the informant describes, it is celebrated through a dinner. This is especially true because her grandfather is a Rabbi, so she grew up very tied to the Jewish religion. She says she is not as strictly religious as her father and grandfather, as they keep kosher and she does not, but she still feels that being Jewish is an important part of her identity. She says that Shabbat has been a part of her identity ever since she can remember, as she did it since her early childhood and continued this tradition throughout school and camp. Shabbat reminds her of her family and friends, which is why it remains so special for her, even if she is not able to celebrate it every Friday.

Analysis: 

Shabbat functions as a vernacular religious practice, as it is celebrated and adapted by individuals in different ways, and is often diverged from institutional expectations. The informant grew up in a religious household, but her Shabbat experience is shaped by other environments, including school and summer camp. Each experience has added a different layer and new meaning onto the ritual. The informant’s talks about both the loss and adaptation of the celebration over time. Throughout her life, she has had phases where she celebrates Shabbat weekly, and then other, busier times of her life when she is unable to. This shows how the ritual can act as identity performance. Even if she is unable to practice it weekly, the symbolic power still retains, and it is just as special and important to her.Also, the fact that she celebrates it in so many places (at home, camp, and school) shows that rituals can evolve contextually. Specifically, at her camp, she sings special songs, which is not something she does at other locations. This shows key features of folklore, including multiplicity and variation. Additionally, the ritual can create community, as she mentions. For her, camp becomes a site of ritual performance, creating a sense of communitas. This social unity is what makes the celebration so special for the informant.

The celebration of Shabbat becomes ritualized through the routine that takes place—the candle lighting, wine, and Havdalah. These acts are not only religious, but are also acts of folk performance.

Additionally, with her grandpa being a rabbi, this shows how heritage can play an important role in rituals. She is able to sustain this sense of family and heritage through celebrating the Shabbat tradition. This speaks to the purpose of folklore as a whole, she is learning the lore from her folk, in this case, her family. The relationship with her grandfather also reflects the combination of institutional and vernacular religion. He is an institutionally religious figure, but the way that they celebrate Shabbat is reflective of vernacular religion. This concept of heritage also shows how rituals can act as a method of cultural continuity. She is connecting to her Jewish heritage through ritualization.

Holi – The Festival of Colors

Nationality: Australian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hyderabad, India
Language: English

Festival: Holi — The Festival of Colors

Background/Informant’s Interpretation: Playing with colors, since a young age in India, Holi is something fond to him, and is happy to find in the United States, being abroad and away from home. Introduced by his family, specifically, his dad, at the age of 4, Holi is a Hindu festival where individuals throw color and water at each other. To him and those across the country, it symbolizes that good has beaten evil hence spring has arrived. Music, loud drums are played and people dance in the streets with traditional food being passed around normally cold drinks and desserts like thandai and khulfi. Sweets are also made to be shared with family and friends. Recently, playing holi at USC brought fond memories of throwing colors at his sister, demonstrating shared memories through a heritage-centered festival

My Interpretation: Besides sounding like a good time, this festival is key in his development as a person, and also symbolizes how part of your heritage can be shared and showcased with others. With traditions such as the type of food and the objects being used in the festival remaining consistent, we can see that the past is being shared with the present through a shared means. Furthermore, culture is something that is shared here as it is with family and loved ones. This association plays into the idea that this festival appears on campuses and nontraditional locations, which previously would have been colorless.