Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays and holiday traditions

Christmas Pickle

Content: 

C: It’s really pretty straightforward. Um, so ever since your mom was little, we put this pickle ornament on the Christmas tree. Just like a ceramic little pickle. But, um, you put it on and, and whoever finds it first wins a present. 

Me: Where did you get your pickle ornament?

C: Um… I think mine right now is from The Christmas Mouse.

Me: What’s the prize for the winner?

C: Anything. Candy or money or something like that. 

Background: C was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, where she resides today. Her family claims German heritage. The Christmas Mouse is a local holiday decor store. 

Context: This story was told to me in-person by my grandmother, C. 

Analysis: The Christmas Pickle has always been a big deal for my family. I grew up with two sisters, and we often got competitive in the days after Thanksgiving when the tree was being decorated. When we spend Christmas at my mom’s, there isn’t a prize for finding the pickle. I remember us having prizes when we were younger, but she stopped as we became teenagers. Now, finding the pickle is purely for bragging rights. When we go to my grandmother’s for the holiday, however, she still takes the hunt very seriously. The prize nowadays is often a gift card or mug- things that are more appealing to adults than candy and toys. 

August 15th festival

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 53

Occupation: Senior VP for a development company

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as MW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a father of 2 who grew up and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona. He lived in Belgium for a period of years, which is where he saw and participated in this festival.

K: So, what’s the festival called and why is it performed? Just give me like background info

MW: I can never remember the official name of the festival, but a lot of people just call it the August 15th festival uh because the major date of it is on the 15th but it goes from the 14th to the 16th. It’s performed for normal festival reasons, celebration and such but mainly for Tchantes and other uh folk heroes, I guess.

K: Ok cool uh…ok go ahead and just describe the festival. Like what is performed and eaten and who is celebrated and stuff like that

MW: Ok so like I said the festival is for folk heroes, especially Tchantes and characters like that. There’s actually a huge flea market the weekend before I forgot to mention, its giant and lasts the whole weekend. Anyways the uh festival the first day is just drinking a lot of Peket (an alcoholic drink in Belgium) and celebrating everyone coming together before this huge concert really late in the night. Kids are there as well, normally having super watered-down peket *laughter*. The big day is the uh 15th where it starts with a big sermon and mass, and then in the middle of the day these huge uh…they’re called the Giants of Outremeuse are paraded down the street so everyone can see all the folk heroes, and then throughout the entire day there’s uh a bunch of concerts and smaller parades. The festival ends on the uh 16th in the evening with the burial of Matî l’Ohê, which is another folk hero I think *laughter*, I was too drunk to really remember! Anyways, these uh mourners follow that and throw celery onto the crowd to represent his bone.

Interpretation:
I really enjoyed hearing about this festival! I was told about Tchantes earlier in the day when interviewing the informant, so being able to hear about the effects of Tchantes in daily/yearly culture was really interesting. I also thought it was interesting how much of a role alcohol played in the festival, as even children have a very watered-down version of peket. It seems that you drink until you can’t drink anymore, and then go to concerts and watch the parades and participate while everyone is drunk and having fun. It seems like a safe, fun occasion rather than a drunken frenzy.

Oga no Namahage Festival

–Informant Info–

Nationality: Japanese

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Japanese

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as NN, the interviewer as K, and the mother as M)

Background info: NN is a 17-year-old student at a High school in Los Angeles, California. They moved here from Japan when they were 13 and remembered participating in this festival. I was told this story at their home over tea, with their mother occasionally interjecting to add detail. She will be referred to as M.

K: Ok, so uh, what’s the name of the festival, how do you know about it, and what’s the context of the performance? Like under what circumstances is it uh performed?

NN: The festival is titled Oga No Namahage, and it is a new years festival. I know about it because I grew up in the region where it was performed.

K: And what region is that?

NN: Oga city, in Akita prefecture. But it’s performed nearly uhm everywhere in Akita Prefecture.

K: Cool! So you said you just wanted to talk about one aspect, correct?

NN: Yes, the namahage visit.

K: Ok, whenever you’re ready

NN: Thank you! Its very simple. Young men, normally around your age (20) dress up as namahage, which are like…

M: Ogres or demons

NN: Yes! Those. They have…big red faces and dress up in these straw uhm…costumes that are cool because if you move slowly, then you are silent, but once they want to scare someone, they make so much noise! *Raises arm and makes whooshing sounds to emphasize how loud they are*

K: So its a scary thing?

NN: Oh yes. They dress up as namahage and sneak up on lazy children, ones who are sleeping or not paying attention at the fire and scare them so bad *laughter*. They will get you every year, they are that good at sneaking

Interpretation:
I really loved hearing about this festival! It’s a relatively small festival and doesn’t have a whole lot of tourism surrounding it, so it stayed pretty faithful to how it’s always been done, down to stories around large fire pits. NN has also mentioned to me later on that at least at her town’s festival, technology wasn’t allowed because it spoiled the fun. I think it’s interesting how deeply ingrained Japanese folklore is with their culture, like with the namahage. This is a scary event, but also fun, so it reinforces the idea that namahage, which can seem almost comical looking from an older point of view, is scary and is meant to be feared. It allows Japanese folklore to exist in a more pure form.

Thanksgiving Song – “I Heard Mr Turkey Say”

Song Lyrics Transcribed from Informant

I heard Mr. Turkey say

gobble, gobble, gobble

Soon will be Thanksgiving day

gobble, gobble, gobble

People say it is such fun

But I know that I must run

and hide until the day is done

gobble, gobble, gobble

Context

My informant learned this song from her mother at an early age, and would sing it in November around Thanksgiving. When asked how she interpreted the song she said she that it was about a “Mr. Turkey” trying to escape the fate of many turkeys on Thanksgiving. She remarked that compared to Christmas and even Halloween, there weren’t a lot of Thanksgiving songs, but even though she learned the song from her German-Russian mother in North Dakota, she wasn’t certain that the song was necessarily invented by German-Russians.

My Analysis

I find this song to be really catchy, and I think it’s fun that it’s Thanksgiving-themed as that’s not necessarily a super-popular subject matter for musical composers. Overall, it’s a fun song about a Turkey trying to hide during Thanksgiving, and features a fun onamonapia with the repeated “gobble, gobble, gobble.” I agree with my informant that the song maybe wasn’t entirely invented in North Dakota, but I was unable to find a source of where or how the song was made.

Song Sung by Informant

Christmas Tree Tradition – Star Topper

Main Piece:

SE: “When I was a kid, every Christmas, we’d have the Christmas tree set out and all decorated. But instead of having a normal angel on the top, we have an angel with the head of an airedale terrier.”

Me: “A dog?”

SE: “Yeah, it was the first kind of dog we had. The star actually has a name that my sister gave it. We call it the ‘Guinness’ angel named after our first dog. And we have a rotation between us kids of who gets to put Guinness up each year.”

Background:

The informant, SE, was raised Catholic and grew up in Pasadena. He’s been celebrating Christmas his whole life, and the dog angel has always been a part of the holiday for him.

Context:

We were exchanging Christmas traditions amongst our friends and SE explained his family’s unique ornament ritual. Important to note, their dog Guinness has since passed away, but they still put up this star topper as their angel.

Thoughts:

My family also has a tradition around who gets to put up certain ornaments on the tree, and a rotating system for how that is decided… but I’ve never heard of the dog star topper. The style of object significance is much alike how tourismus can garner a much greater value despite being of such cheap materials. Having the knowledge that Guinness is no longer alive almost makes the star have even more spiritual value, as the family’s own animal watches over their home when the holidays come around.