Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Fur Rondy

Text:

PH: Anchorage, Alaska has this huge festival in late-February to early March called Fur Rondy. It’s a big winter festival with outhouse races, which are like buildings of massive outhouses and then they make a toilet seat and someone has to sit in it and then the team needs to carry them across snow. When I worked in Alaska, the dispensary I worked for won the award for the most realistic outhouse. There are also other attractions, like massive snow sculptures and a race where people wear costumes and start running down a field then after a little while they release reindeer to run through the crowd. There is also a tradition every year where they sell yearly “Fur Rondy” pins and if you go downtown to the parade without wearing a pin (from any year) you are sent to “jail”, a little cage they carry along in the parade. 

Context:

This is an Anchorage staple, it happens every year since before the state gained statehood in the United States. PH lived in Alaska for 18 years, and participated in Fur Rondy every year. If you go to Alaska during this time it’s like the event of the year. 

Analysis:

While seemingly random and wild, Fur Rondy represents ritualistic traditions that are truly by and for the common people. It is proof that anything can be considered a festival or celebration with significance, though an outhouse race isn’t what most people may think of when they imagine a celebration. Fur Rondy is a unique example of a known individual, Vern Johnson, purposely starting a festival to foster a sense of community. The original event was founded in 1936, and was a 3-day sports tournament. Today, the festival is 12 days long, and since the 1950s has included Alaskan Native celebrations and tribal dances, for which the participants need to be flown into Anchorage from other parts of the massive state. 

Iditarod

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PH: The Iditarod sled-dog races started in Alaska in 1973 and annually celebrates sled-dog teams that made it through blizzards to bring life-saving medicine to Nome in 1925. So the sled-dog races have happened every year since they started in 1973 to celebrate. It’s definitely one of the most prominent rituals in Alaska, everyone shows up for it. Kids are commonly told the story of Balto, a half wolf half husky dog that led the original dog sled in 1925. There’s like movies and events surrounding it, it’s a huge part of modern Alaskan culture. 

Context:

PH: I have been going to the Fur Rondy festivities and Iditarod since I was a child and into adulthood. As times have changed, downtown Anchorage now holds the Ceremonial Start for the Iditarod but the official start has moved to Big Lake, roughly two hours north, where there is more snow and less people.

Analysis:

The Iditarod is a nationally famous celebration, children throughout the country are told about the story of Balto and the dog-sledding in Alaska. This event is similar to the Dragon Boat Festival, in that it honors a historical event with an annual ritual designed to recreate a difficult situation that was overcome in some manner.

Memorial Day Jump

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TT: Every year since 2003 the arctic airborne 2nd battalion 377th parachute field artillery regiment has a Memorial Day jump honoring 7 men who died in combat from the unit. On this day 7 lucky service members of the unit are selected to wear that fallen paratrooper’s name tape instead of their own and jump from the standard C-130. 

Context:

TT: On Memorial Day 2021, I was given the honor of jumping with a PFC’s name tape in honor of his sacrifice to his country. Afterwards, family members of the fallen would talk with us and share stories and it’s just a really beautiful way to honor them and keep their legacy alive – especially since in the airborne community a big saying is “Paratroopers never die, they simply Slip away” (we call the limited steering capability of our parachute a “slip”)

TT served in the military in the Airborne 2nd battalion for five years before retiring in 2024. 

Analysis:

Some rituals have deeply personal significance, TT offers a Memorial Day story used to honor the fallen. This ritual was specific to their battalion, but funeral rituals or celebrations for the dead are common in many cultures for many different events. The United States has created an annual festival commemorating veterans through Memorial Day, but the parade is still an example of a funeral or “death day” celebration. Other examples of the celebration of loved ones who have passed are El Dia de los Muertos in Latin America and the Qing Ming Festival in China. Both events are culturally significant festivals designed to honor passed family members.

Southern-Irish Oyster Dressing

Text: 

“One family ritual we had growing up for Thanksgiving was that rather than having cornbread-based dressings [for Thanksgiving], we always had oyster dressing… Oyster dressing would have been a standard addition to our Southern-Irish Thanksgiving dinner growing up.”

Minor Genre: 

Holiday Ritual; Traditional Foods

Context: 

The informant explained in the interview, “My understanding is that [oyster dressing] has roots in my family’s Irish heritage rather than in Southern culture.” The informant grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, in a deep Southern setting, but her family immigrated from Ireland in the 1800s and maintained a strong connection with their Irish roots.

Analysis:

Although the informant believed the oyster dressing was connected to Irish culture, my research indicates that it actually became deeply embedded in Southern cuisine. The recipe was brought to New England from Britain in the 18th century, where it then migrated down the East Coast and took root in the deep South.

I think the most interesting part of this interview from a folkloric perspective is the informant’s belief that their traditional oyster dressing dish originated from Ireland. Although my research indicates the recipe was brought to America from Britain, it is entirely possible that the recipe was brought to the informant’s family from Ireland. The part of the family from Ireland lived in the coastal town of Dungarvan, which is located in one of the counties in Ireland that accounts for the highest production of oysters. Therefore, the informant is not necessarily incorrect in her belief that the recipe originated from Ireland –– though it is also possible that her family adapted the recipe from their Southern environment.

An additional note on oyster dressing is that the informant was specific in saying dressing rather than stuffing. Stuffing and dressing are terms used for the same traditional Thanksgiving dish, but “dressing” is specific to the South, and is the term the informant used before moving to California, where her husband’s family used the term “stuffing.”

Antelope Valley Fair

Text: 

The Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster, CA

Minor Genre: 

Festival; Celebration

Context: 

“One of the festivals we had growing up was the Antelope Valley Fair. I think these [fairs] go back to where every year, you grow a crop and all the farmers bring in their best livestock and crops and whatever and show off what they made. It’s a huge community coming together to have a celebration.

“In Lancaster, [the fair] was basically all of the kids who did FFA and 4H and would bring their show animals. Steers, pigs, and sheep were the main livestock. One year, I had a grand champion lamb that I showed. But [in addition to the livestock], you still had all the other arts and crafts and stuff and everything else. It always happened the last week of summer before school started.

“I was there every year, but probably when I was seven or eight was when I started 4H, and that was when we got really into it. But we probably went there just for fun my whole life. My dad’s older brothers did the haybaling competition; before everything was automated, guys would go out on trucks and have to lift these hay bales with pulleys and hay forks. They had tractor races, too –– basically anything associated with a farm. My uncles were haybaling champions for many years in the 1950s.”

Analysis:

Antelope Valley’s first main industry was agriculture, with farmers crowing crops such as alfalfa, various fruit, carrots, onions, lettuce, and potatoes. The city of Lancaster emerged as a bustling city with successful farming at the end of the 19th century, and in the 1980s, had a large increase in population due to the development of new housing tracts. The informant was born in 1974 and would have experienced the Antelope Valley Fair during the period of this population boom, which may have corresponded with a popularity increase in the county fair.

The informant’s memories of the Antelope Valley Fair suggests a heavy agricultural influence in both their personal life and in the city of Lancaster. He had a history of farmers in his family –– the informant’s father raised animals, and his uncles had experience baling hay –– which likely skewed his perception of the fair to lean more heavily on its agricultural experiences, particularly because the informant himself participated in 4H. Additionally, the farm-oriented activities such as competitive hay-baling suggest that success as a farmer was a highly valued trait in Antelope Valley during the time period.