Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays and holiday traditions

Ritual – Easter egg hunt

Nationality: American
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

My informant spends every Easter with their extended family, having dinner together and going Easter egg hunting as a kid

“Every Easter the parents spend the night before Easter hiding plastic eggs filled with candy and money all around my uncle’s property (they have it there every year) for the kids go hunting for. The winner each year gets a large chocolate bunny as a prize.”

Easter egg hunting is a good example of a family-based ritual that revolves around a season. Rituals like this strengthen family bonds, create shared memories, and transmit customs and cultural values from one generation to the next. The parents hiding the eggs creates this element of mystery and preparation adding to the sense of excitement and wonder the children have for Easter. The eggs themselves serve as a reward for effort and exploration, while also having folklore ties to fertility, renewal, and abundance associated with springtime festivals. The ritualized competition for the large chocolate bunny adds another layer of folklore. It creates a structure (hunt and prize) that builds excitement and anticipation for this event, making it stand out for the children. In many folk traditions repetition and structure are key to keeping a ritualized tradition like the Easter egg hunt alive.

Ritual – Going to Church every Easter

Nationality: American
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

My informant comes from a deeply religious family so Easter is an important holiday. They grew up celebrating it as a family and conducting the same rituals each year

“Each Easter my family and I go to our local church, receives the eucharist, and pray. We focuses on remembering Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, a belief that is central to what Easter means for us”

Rituals are a way for communities to reaffirm their shared beliefs, identity, and values through repeated actions. My informant’s Easter – going to church, receiving the eucharist, and praying – fits perfectly into this framework. These aren’t merely personal religious acts, but also serve as communal rituals which are an important part of Christian tradition. Celebrating with your community in this way has been passed down through generations. Receiving the eucharist is a rite of communion, both with God and with your faith-based community. It’s a performative ritual symbolic of the Last Supper, reenforcing Christian’s core belief in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Prayer during this time further deeps the ritual connection, serving as a collective and personal reaffirmation of faith.

Ritual – Christmas Eve

Nationality: American
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

My informant is Catholic and his family makes a point to go to church every Christmas Eve and then have a family dinner

Pulled from a conversation I had with my informant:

“Every Christmas Eve we drive up to Pasadena to visit my grandma (grandpa is unfortunately not around anymore) and we all go to her church at 5pm. Then we have a family dinner at her house. We say grace and then everyone shares their favorite memory they had with someone in the room from the past year. Then we drive back home that night”

This Christmas Eve tradition is a great example of a family-based religious ritual that blends secular and sacred elements into a meaningful experience. This ritual is considered a “calendar custom” because of it’s tie to the holiday of Christmas. This ritual tradition reinforces shared values, communal identity, and connection across generations. Going to Mass on Christmas Eve is a formal religious ritual within Catholic tradition, serving as a reminder for the family of the sacred narrative of Christ’s birth. Folklorists would call this a “ritual performance” which is a symbolic act that makes this occasion distinct from the ordinary. After Mass, the family engages in a more domestic, intimate ritual centered around having dinner at Grandma’s house. Having a shared meal itself reflects the classic folklore structure of reinforcing social bonds and fostering kinship between family members. Saying grace is a continuation of the previous religious observance but now in the home space, adding a private ritual to the previous public one. A very meaningful part of this ritual then follows, with the sharing of favorite memories. This act is a personalized, reflective practice that serves to deepens the emotional bond between the people present at the dinner. Folklorists would call this a “narrative exchange”, an oral tradition that strengthens collective memory and honors individual experiences. The drive home is a shifting period, back into ordinary time, after a structured and meaningful experience. Overall, this tradition reinforces family bonds, religious identity, and storytelling across the generations.

Waiting for the Kings

Nationality: American/Ecuadorian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington, DC
Language: English

TEXT: “ In my household, we celebrate both Christmas and Three Kings Day. We don’t open presents on Christmas day, instead, we wait until January 6th. It’s a holiday that my family has celebrated for generations, even if it means I have to wait to open presents. It’s considered a Christian holiday and is celebrated in both of my parents’ home countries, as well as some of my friends from school and people in my community.”

CONTEXT: This tradition was shared by the informant, A.J, during an interview about holiday customs that are somewhat different from mainstream practices. A.J explained that instead of opening presents on December 25th, their family celebrates Three Kings Day on January 6th, following a tradition passed down through generations. This Christian holiday, also known as Día de los 3 Reyes, is celebrated in both of A.J’s parents’ home countries and is also familiar to others in A.J’s community. Even though the wait to open presents is longer, it’s a meaningful tradition that connects them to their cultural and religious roots.

ANALYSIS: This is an example of a culturally specific holiday ritual that reflects both religious belief and heritage. While Christmas is widely celebrated in the U.S. with gift-giving on December 25th, Three Kings Day holds special importance in many Latin American and Spanish-speaking cultures. Celebrating it shows how immigrant families and multicultural households preserve their traditions while living in a different cultural setting. For A.J, the celebration is not just about receiving gifts but a way to honor family history, cultural identity, and share that experience with others in their community.

Grandma’s Singing Teeth

Age: 23

Story: “Growing up, I had this insane birthday tradition that my grandma would do every single year, for all of my siblings. And brace yourself, cause honestly it’s extremely weird. But growing up, I think honestly, for as long as I can remember, after we sang “Happy Birthday” my grandma, who wore fake dentures, would take out her teeth and make them sing “Happy Birthday” AGAIN. It wasn’t until after she was done singing with her fake teeth that we were allowed to eat cake and celebrate. It was honestly really embarrassing anytime I had a birthday party, because I was afraid my friends would think my family was weird … and honestly we are. But since my grandma has passed, I miss the days she would make me laugh and she would sing with her dentures. For a few years, my mom bought those fake chattering teeth and we sang with those. I would like to start doing that again.”

Analysis: This story is the epitome of how even the most unconventional and wackiest rituals can have such significant meaning. This person’s account of their grandmother’s quirky birthday tradition demonstrates how humor and repetition can turn an ordinary moment into a memorable rite of passage. While the tradition may have felt embarrassing in childhood, it has since taken on a lot of weight as a symbol of familial ties and connection to the past. From a folkloric perspective, this tradition blends oral performance with material culture, showing how objects can become vessels of meaning and memory. The story also touches on the intergenerational passing on of rituals, how the narrator’s family adapted the tradition after the grandmother’s passing, keeping her spirit alive through the toy chattering teeth. I interpret this to be such a sweet tradition, and coming from experience, I know how important and special it is to have a fun-loving memory of family members that have passed, so I love how this tradition has grown for this person. Ultimately, this tradition reveals how homegrown rituals can function as intimate forms of cultural expression, bringing together families, and showing the strength of a tradition.