Category Archives: Life cycle

Altar

Name: Georgia

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I created an altar and painted all of the matriarchs in my family line. In the middle I painted myself wearing a Bulgarian head covering. The women are painted as the different waxing and waning moons. I added some nature ~ leaves, sticks, whatever wonders I find on the ground. There are some other objects that hold an ancestral significance to me. I pray at this altar. By praying at this altar, I commune with my ancestors. I sometimes leave food offerings, I create paintings of them and I talk to them when I pray. Sometimes I cry a lot at the altar and I feel comforted, it’s like crying in your grandmother’s lap. It’s always warm. This is a space where my ancestors can land & where I can share things with them. My brother is awaiting his first child & so I blessed the baby’s gift by leaving it a few weeks on the altar. 

Context

Altars have been used in all sorts of cultures. Praying or praying at an altar wasn’t practiced much in my family and it’s something I’ve rekindled on my own. 

Analysis

This friend is a very spiritual person. I believe she is taking on a traditional practice of altars and re-contextualizing it into her own ritual. They both have a different perspective, or rather have started a new trend in their life because of their spirituality. The idea of altars could reach her through diffusion since it wasn’t taught from her family. This knowledge could be from online, books, or others as I know she is active in spiritual communities online. I believe this is a form of the law of similarity. She altered the tangible world to connect to a bigger thing in the intangible world by depicting something of similarity to that bigger thing. In this case, she has painted her matriarchs in each cycle of the moon to facilitate this. In addition, Georgia is using fetish objects (spiritually loaded or magically significant) to place on her altar to increase the connection to the divine/her ancestors. This is an example of a mashup resulting from the exposure of new cultures from around the world and taking what resonates to create one’s own charged ritual.

A Spoon Under A Pillow

Text: “As a kid, me and all my classmates believed in this superstition where if we put a spoon under our pillow before we went to bed, it would mean that school was canceled for a snow day. It was pretty common in Colorado when snow was forecast; everyone would sleep with a spoon facing upwards so that it would essentially “catch” enough snow so that school administrators would call for a snow day in the morning.”

Context: My informant – a 22-year-old man from Monument, Colorado – told me about this superstition that he recalled being very prominent among school children in the place where he grew up. He explained to me that this was something young kids began to believe in from the moment they began their education, and it became a habit for children to sleep with a spoon under their pillow when it was forecast to snow because they wanted to somehow manifest a heavy snowfall so that school would be canceled the following day. I asked him if this was a superstition people continued to believe in, and he said that the majority of people stopped placing spoons under their pillows around the time they moved into high school, but it was and is still talked about among older age groups. He said that he learned this superstition from his older siblings and he began to copy their action of sleeping with a spoon under their heads; however, he explained that it was a superstition that somehow was just ingrained in every child’s mind where he grew up. 

Analysis: The superstition of placing a spoon under the pillow to bring about a snow day reveals interesting insights into the values and beliefs prevalent among school children in Colorado. This tradition reflects a desire for unexpected freedom and a break from the routine of school. By engaging in this ritual, children sought to exert a sense of control over external circumstances, hoping to influence the weather and prompt school administrators to cancel classes. At a deeper level, this superstition highlights the significance of community and shared beliefs among children. My informant’s recollection of this practice being widespread among classmates underscores the social aspect of folklore, where beliefs and rituals are passed down and collectively embraced within peer groups. This shared experience fosters a sense of unity among children, reinforcing their connection to each other and their environment.

Additionally, the eventual decline in the belief of this superstition as children transitioned into high school reflects the evolving nature of folklore and belief systems over time. As individuals mature and gain new perspectives, certain childhood rituals may fade away, yet the memory and discussion of such superstitions continue to resonate among older age groups, illustrating the enduring impact of childhood folklore on personal and collective memory. The superstition also reflects the anticipation and enjoyment associated with snow days in regions like Colorado, where heavy snowfall can disrupt daily routines. The superstition serves as a playful manifestation of the shared desire for spontaneous joy and temporary relief from academic responsibilities, embodying the cultural value of embracing the unexpected and finding delight in communal traditions.

Changing Teeth

Pronouns: She/Her

Age: 23

Nationality: Chinese

Primary Language(s): Mandarin/Cantonese

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“So mine is when changing teeth as a child in Chinese families. This happened sometime around when I was in lower school (grade 1-3??). So basically when one of the upper teeth fell down, my family buried it underground for me to grow properly downward; vice versa, when one of the lower teeth fell down, my family threw it over the top of a building or ceiling for it to grow properly upward. It’s kind of a ritual of wishing a child to change teeth successfully and wishing nice-looking teeth after changing.”

Context

This informant is a classmate. She is from China but has been studying in the United States since High School.

Analysis

This ritual is practiced in the presence of change with the purpose of eliciting a positive outcome for the child’s future. It is a ‘coming of age’ ritual and a ‘transition rite’ (as defined by Arnold van Gennep) because it ritually marks the transition from childhood to adulthood (or rather, childhood to older childhood). This ritual also follows James George Frazer’s homeopathic Principle of Sympathetic Magic – the informant’s family buries teeth underground to promote downward growth and throws the teeth overtop structures to promote upward growth.

Funeral Parties

Pronouns: She/Her

Age: 21

Nationality: American

Primary Language(s): English

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“So for ‘funerals’ we do celebrations of life where we get drunk and party to our loved ones’ lives. We normally don’t have a funeral service. Instead, we make powerpoints, speak on our favorite memories, and take shots in their honor. That’s the funeral.”

Context

This informant is one of my close friends. She is fairly close with her family and visits her parents often.

Analysis

This ritual is practiced in the presence of death with the purpose of celebrating the deceased family member’s life. It is a ‘separation rite’ (as defined by Arnold van Gennep) because it ritually marks the separation of a loved one from his or her family, friends, and life. By choosing to celebrate the family member’s life rather than mourn the family member’s death (in other words, seeing death as an opportunity for positivity and connection), the informant’s family is more easily able to cope with the passing of their loved ones. In other words, partying in the face of death is another form of mourning/coping.

Conversations with Spirits during Dreams (Memorate)

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Collector: “Have you ever been contacted by a spirit?” 

Informant: “With loved ones that I have lost, I have had experiences with them partially in the physical world and a lot in the metaphysical slash dream world. When our Nana died, I started having dreams about her and they felt immensely real. I’ll still have some every now and again. I’ve had experiences with my father’s grandfather who passed away. Immediately after he passed away, he came to me in a dream and told me things about myself, gifts that I had, and I felt like he was very at peace with his death. I only experienced him once, same with my great-grandmother. Two days prior to her physical death.” 

Collector: “What made this experience feel different than other dreams, your normal dreams?” 

Informant: “In these dreams, I felt paralyzed like another force was holding on to me. Almost like my soul was in a different place and then needed time to get back to my body. I found myself lying in bed. I heard the sound of static like a television channel. It grew louder. I grew more uneasy. My body felt celestial is the best way to put it.” 

Context

The Informant is a 26-year-old man. He’s had several spiritual interactions through intense dreams and episodes of sleep paralysis. Each interaction was with a deceased family member after or nearly before their time of passing. The Informant expressed he could have full-length conversations with the dead through this medium. 

Analysis

I found it interesting that the Informant’s spiritual interactions took place during vivid dreams. This reminded me of the article, “Ghostly Possession and Real Estate: The Dead in Contemporary Estonian Folklore” when the author Ülo Valk explains that, “visual and auditory experiences with spirits can also occur in dreamlike states.” (Valk 34) In this dream space, both parties could say their peace. These encounters also happened near the Spirit’s time of death. This could be interpreted as the Spirit “finishing business” with loved ones before moving on to the afterlife. Valk also notes that spiritual interactions commonly occur in transition periods where there are feelings of, “disorientation, uncertainty, discontinuity, [and] unrootedness.” (Valk 35) Those emotions are common during grief. For the Informant, these spiritual conversations helped both parties to emotionally move forward and find peace in their respective realms.