Category Archives: Adulthood

Coming-of-age, courtship, marriage, weddings

Wedding Soup Noodles

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English, Chinese

NATIONALITY: American, Taiwanese 

OCCUPATION: Student

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Los Angeles 

Text

Interviewer: What’s a tradition that you and your family have done during the holidays or certain celebrations? This can include holidays, birthdays, weddings, funerals, etc.

AC: “Weddings are huge in my family, so the day of the wedding there’s this thing called wedding soup noodles. It’s like sweet/sour soup and mushrooms and seafood in a thicker soup. Noodles are also thicker. Also the bride still wears white!”

Context

AC and her nuclear family are the only ones from the rest of their family that is currently in America. The rest of her family (her extended family basically) all still live and reside in Taiwan.

Interpretation

I had never really heard of wedding soup noodles before, so this was definitely really interesting to hear about another tradition in Asian culture. Although, I think if I was to ask my family there would probably be a lot of wedding traditions also in Korean culture. The wedding traditions I know of are more ritualistic and concerned with what you wear. But, after some quick research, noodle soup is also a thing in Korean wedding culture! A lot of traditions overlap across Asian cultures, so it makes sense that there also includes “wedding soup” in Korean weddings as well. I’m not sure if I’ve ever ate these wedding noodles since my family leans more on the Americanized side and I honestly cannot remember the last time I went to a wedding.

Beach Bonfires/Senior Sunrise and Sunset

Age: 21

1. Senior Sunrise and Sunset (ft. a bonfire) to mark the beginning and end of the final year of high school. 

2. Growing up in Huntington Beach, this participant went through a special tradition in high school, called the senior sunrise and senior sunset. When the participant first “officially” became a senior (that is, the weekend right before school started for the year, he explained), he and his graduating class drove down to the beach and lit a giant bonfire and waited for the sun to rise so they could all watch it together. Then, at the very end of the year, right before graduation, the class all drove down to the same spot, lit a bonfire, and watched the sunset together. At the very end of the year, during the sunset trip, some kids brought all of the school work they had done throughout the year and burned it in the large fire pit they had going. The participant explained that he thought this ritual – done every year by the graduating seniors at his high school – was supposed to be symbolic of how special the year was supposed to be for them, and how at the end of it, it was almost as if the sunset was not only concluding the day, but their year as seniors and time together. 

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: Upon hearing this ritual from the participant, I believe that I agree with his interpretation. The sun – often used as a representation of the life cycle of something – is used here as a symbol for their time at high school, and the experience of the bonfire retreat was obviously meant to unite them all in this feeling of great achievement – unifying them in their shared accomplishment of making it to the end of high school. The bonfire itself I think is also symbolic, especially at the sunset event where kids would burn their old homework. If we are to consider fire in its traditional symbolic sense as a way of cleansing, I would argue that the graduating seniors were, in a sense, cleansing themselves not only from their past work but also from their former selves. Leaving high school, they enter a transitional period in which they’re meant to go on and become adults; as such I think it could be seen that the bonfire is also meant to represent their cleansing or rebirth of themselves – no longer children.

California Lemon Ritual: Visiting Family On The East Coast

Nationality: American
Age: 63
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Alameda, California

Informant Information

Age: 63

Date of Performance: 2/18/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: English

Residence: Alameda, California

Text

“If you grew up in California and all your family lives on the East Coast, you grow a lemon tree. When you visit family there, you bring lemons because it’s very exotic because you can’t grow lemons on the East Coast. You put them in a bag and then pack them in your suitcase. Eventually, some family members began visiting us on the West Coast when they got older, and they’d pick their own lemons from our lemon tree. I have a lemon tree in my backyard as a present for my husband because he’s from the South, and you also can’t grow lemons there.”

Context

The informant was born and raised in California, while her extended family remained on the East Coast. Her parents were originally from the East Coast, and she made frequent visits throughout her life. As part of those visits, she carried a seemingly simple but meaningful gift — fresh California lemons. This act became ritualized within her family, rooted in the regional differences in agriculture and climate. Lemons, while technically possible to grow in parts of the East and South, are far more common and thriving in California’s mild climate. In colder or more humid regions, lemon trees are vulnerable to environmental damage and rarely flourish.

For her family, receiving these lemons symbolized a piece of California, a vibrant, fragrant token of the West Coast lifestyle. When family members later visited her in California, they cherished the opportunity to pick lemons from her tree themselves. The ritual became a two-way cultural exchange, a reflection of rootedness and connection to place. Later, she planted a lemon tree in her own backyard as a housewarming gift to her Southern-born husband, making the tree not only a familial tradition but also a personal and romantic gesture.

Analysis

This lemon-gifting ritual illustrates how everyday items can carry deep cultural and emotional meaning, especially across geographic boundaries. What begins as a practical act of bringing fresh produce to family transforms into a ritual that marks identity, nostalgia, and care. The lemon tree functions as a living symbol of California, and its fruit becomes a physical expression of home, warmth, and abundance.

The act of transporting lemons across coasts shows the significance of regional differences in agricultural production while also emphasizing how natural resources can become symbolic commodities in family relationships. The ritual communicates more than just gift-giving. It speaks to the longing for home, the pride in one’s origin, and the desire to share that with loved ones who live far away. Furthermore, the informant’s continuation of the tradition by planting her own tree and offering it as a gift to her husband reflects how rituals evolve to include new meanings. The lemon tree is now both a bridge to her past and a symbol of unity in her marriage, showing how folklore adapts to new contexts while preserving its emotional roots.

Folk Narrative: Folktale – The Mothers Heart

  1. Text: There is a Greek folk tale that centers around and explores the often contrived dynamic between a man, his wife and his mother. This three person dynamic, often subject to satire, melodrama or perhaps just general tension in everyday life, is metabolized and explored dramatically in the tale known as The Mother’s Heart, (Η Καρδιά της Μάνας). The tale is simple. It follows the story of a man who is living simultaneously with his mother and his wife. The man splits his time and attention between the two women, often to the dismay of the wife. The wife is infuriated that she must split her husband between herself and her mother-in-law. Finally enraged to the point of no return, the wife gives her husband an ultimatum. The wife not only demands that the man pick between herself and his mother, but she demands that in order to prove his love, the man must go to a new extreme; he must rip his mothers heart out, and deliver it to his wife. Now this man is wrought with love and manipulation – so he agrees to his wife’s terms. He kills his mother, steals her heart and puts it in a chest. With the heart in hand, the man journeys back to his wife. Along the way, he stumbles, falling over and dropping the box. The heart rolls out of the chest. To his complete shock, the heart speaks softly and says to him, “Είσαι καλά, παιδί μου?” – “Are you okay, my child?” This moment shatters the son, injecting him with a deep dread.
  2. Informants Context: Greeks mothers are extremely hands-on, they just want to try and stay as close as possible to their children. If anything, its one of the most famous stereotypes that follows so many Greek people around. They really struggle to let go of their children. I never wanted to be like that with my sons because I was cognizant of that issue in our culture. This stereotype surrounding Greek parents is especially true as it applies to Greek mothers and their sons though. It really is. So as a kid, my mother would tell me this story all the time. She was an immigrant from Greece, raised in the villages, so she was very old school. Very traditional, believed in keeping the family close and all that. She learned this story from her time in the villages, from where I couldn’t say, but it was known amongst her community. There were a lot of Greek immigrant families where I grew up in Canada, and my friends who also had immigrant mothers would sometimes tell them the same story. Whenever I did anything to make my mother unhappy, maybe disrespected her or spoke out of line, usually she would yell and scare the hell out of me. Sometimes though she would just sit me down and tell me this story, really guilting me. As soon as I got married she never told me the story again though (laughs). I think the story reflects a lot of the dynamics that are common in Greek culture, for better or for worse. The mother-son relationship is extremely valued in Greek culture. This story, hearing it as a child, inevitably brought me closer to my mother when I was young. Of course, a part of her was trying to guilt trip me into love. I know that. But I still believe the moral at the center of the story is authentic and beautiful. A mothers love for her son knows no bounds, even when he hurts her. It’s very touching.
  3. Collectors Interpretation: I believe the story of the Mothers Heart is a folk tale that indeed stems from stereotypes or even true cultural qualities about the close-knit relationship between Greek mothers and their sons. It reflects a deeper and broader code of familial loyalty that characterizes all Greek families – loving one another unconditionally, despite how often we hurt each other. Greeks, being known as soulful and emotional people, often say or do crazy things in the name of passion, as the son does for his wife. Despite this, or perhaps because these are acts of passion/love, Greeks often find it in themselves to love the family member who hurt them. More specifically, it is clearly a story about the purity, the unconditional quality of maternal love. The simplicity of the story and the extent to which it is clear is partly what makes it such a robust folk tale. While clearly supernatural and not to be interpreted as historical (also not sacred), the story feels like it exists for pedagogy. It has a clear, concise message while not needing to be true.

Fields

AGE: 55

Date_of_performance: April 15, 2025/May 9, 2025

Informant Name: (Confidential)

Language: English/Greek

Nationality: Canadian/Greek

Occupation: Lawyer/Entrepreneur

Primary Language: English

Residence: Canada

Halloween Costumes

Nationality: United States
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Text: “Ever since I was little, I have always dressed up for halloween. When I was a little kid, it was always something fun like Rapunzel or Dorothy. As I have gotten older, I have put more effort into more creative and funny costumes, often matching with my friends. Even now I still dress up, just this last Halloween my friends and I all dressed up as the Powerpuff Girls. Even though I’m not trick-or-treating and often going out with friends, I always have to be in costume for Halloween.”

Context: This ritual was shared by the informant, N, during a conversation about holiday traditions that continue into adulthood. N explained that regardless of her age she will always continue wearing a costume for Halloween. While wearing a costume may seem rather simple, it helps set Halloween apart from a regular day. N also noted that the process of planning a costume often involves friends, adding a social element to the tradition. To N, this ritual is less about trick or treating and more about the feeling of celebration and self expression.

Analysis: This is an example of a calendar-based ritual tied to seasonal celebration and self-expression. In the U.S., dressing up for Halloween is quite common and allows individuals to express their identity through costume. For children, it often represents imagination and fantasy, while for teens and adults it becomes more of a creative and social outlet. The continuation of this ritual into adulthood shows how folk traditions can evolve with age. As N grew, she didn’t abandon this ritual but instead adapted it to fit her changing identity.