Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Text:

On recounting familial traditions, my brother illuminated a practice our grandfather adheres to during Diwali, the quintessential festival of lights in Northern India. Amidst the festivities, a peculiar custom is observed: the search for lizards on the exterior walls of the home. These creatures, typically mundane and unnoticed, are sought after on Diwali night as harbingers of good fortune and wealth.

Context:

This ritual, as my brother narrates, unfolds each year without fail, where our grandfather would lead us on an expedition to discover lizards clambering on the walls. The belief holds that spotting these reptiles during the luminous celebration signifies impending prosperity. Intriguingly, this auspicious omen is exclusively tied to Diwali night — it is as though the lizards emerge from their concealment solely for this event, or perhaps our perception of their presence is heightened by the belief’s gravity. On all other nights, these lizards retreat into obscurity, going unnoticed by my brother and the rest of the family.

Analysis:

The practice of seeking lizards on Diwali night can be classified as a folk belief, deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric of the celebration. It’s a manifestation of the principle of sympathetic magic, particularly homeopathic, wherein the appearance of a creature is symbolically linked to prosperity. Just as Frazer discussed the symbolic use of objects in rituals to influence outcomes, the spotting of lizards is a physical representation of welcoming abundance. In Larry Danielson’s exploration of religious folklore, he notes that such traditions often emerge within communities, not through institutional decree but via the organic spread among individuals — a sentiment that resonates with our grandfather’s personal endorsement of this custom. The lizards’ nocturnal visibility on Diwali may be seen as a confluence of belief and tradition, where the collective spirit and heightened energies of the festival could cast everyday occurrences in a mystical light. The specificity of the timing underscores the contextual significance of the belief — it is not the lizards themselves but their association with the festival that carries weight. This belief, ephemeral as the festival itself, is a reflection of hope and the human tendency to seek signs of future prosperity in the world around us, an embodiment of collective optimism that momentarily transforms the mundane into the auspicious.

Jewish Tradition for Passover

Text: During Passover, which lasts for eight days, there are a couple dietary restrictions observed by Jews. Foods containing leavened grain products such as wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt are prohibited, as these items could become chametz if they come into contact with water for longer than 18 minutes. Ashkenazi Jews also abstain from eating kitniyot—foods like rice, beans, legumes, and corn—during this period. Traditional Passover meals include matzah, which is unleavened bread made simply from wheat flour and water and is prepared so that it does not rest for more than 18 minutes to prevent leavening. Other staples of the Passover diet include matzah ball soup, various meat dishes, and fruits. The origin of these practices dates back thousands of years to the biblical Exodus from Egypt. According to the story, after God inflicted the tenth plague on the Egyptians, killing the firstborn sons, the Israelites had to leave in haste. This urgency meant they did not have time to let their bread dough rise, resulting in the creation of matzah. The dietary laws observed during Passover serve to commemorate this pivotal event in Jewish history and the haste with which the Israelites fled their enslavement.

Context: The informant is half Jewish and has been doing this ever since he is a kid. He doesn’t keep up with some Jewish traditions but he does do this one since, in his words, “it is only once a year”. He believes in god but does not believe traditions like this holds relevance in gods eyes and he does it just to maintain his culture.

Analysis: The Jewish people are a small group of people throughout history but they have also maintained much of their culture over a great many centuries. The informant participating in the tradition and seeing the importance of carrying it shows the cultural value in judaism of preservation and survival. The jewish people have undergone suffering throughout much of their history and it is very important to remember these time periods and honoring it like in the story of exodus. this can also be seen in Hanukkah which was persecution under the greek Seleucid empire.

Jewish Tradition for Rosh Hashanah

Text: Every Rosh Hashanah, the informant throws a piece of bread into a body of water, which Symbolizes getting rid of their sins. When the informant does this ritual, which he has always performed with his immediate family, you talk about what you did wrong last year and what you’re going to try and do better next year. Rosh Hashanah is the new year and when Jews are supposed to be cleansed. He said it is their way of communicating our sins and regret for them to god. This usually falls in late fall or winter. 

Context: He’s been doing it ever since he can remember, he doesn’t feel that it does anything of significance in terms of good standing with God but He likes to be with his family at this time and feels that it helps him grow and be a better person

Analysis: The practice of casting bread into water as a symbol of casting away sins embodies a communal approach to repentance. While the informant expresses skepticism about the ritual’s direct impact on divine judgment, their continued participation highlights a personal and cultural commitment to the values of family unity and personal growth. The secular shift towards these traditions could be a reflection of the more secular shift which happened to many jews after the holocaust. This suggests that, within this cultural framework, traditions serve not only religious purposes but also support social cohesion and individual self-improvement.

Italian American Christmas tradition

Text:Every christmas eve the informant goes to this italian restaurant called Maggianos and then goes to look at christmas lights. Every christmas morning before they would open presents they would eat breakfast, caramel pull apart rolls, biscuits and gravy, fruit salad, and orange juice. Then they all go to Olympia (He lives in Seattle) and sees his step dad’s family.

Context: The informant is religiously Jewish but his mom is Christian so they celebrate Christmas as a family with his moms side of the family, since his parents are divorced. It holds no religious significance to him though he said he loosely knows the story of Jesus. He enjoys gift giving and it’s very important to his mom who is religious. His mom is 100% Italian American but she briefly converted to Judaism while his parents were married and has since returned to Catholicism. This tradition started a couple years after the divorce happened when he was around 10. 

Analysis: These practices highlight the adaptability of holiday customs to accommodate personal beliefs and family histories. Although Christmas holds no religious significance for the informant, the holiday is embraced as a valuable time for family bonding and gift-giving, which are significant to his mother’s Christian beliefs. This blend of traditions: Italian American, Jewish, and Christian illustrates the complex ways in which individuals and families negotiate their identities and cultural legacies through shared celebrations. The food made by the mother, which isn’t Italian cuisine, shows the cultural assimilation that has happened in the family, adopting things they like form the environment around them. He still feels very strongly about celebrating it even though there is no religious meaning to him. It shows how holidays do a lot more for cultures than honoring a religion, they help meet vital psychological effects for those that participate in these cultural practices by providing a sense of belonging and community.

Angel Signs (Folk belief)

“My mom does this really sweet thing where when she goes on walks she’ll pick up things that catch her eye and puts them on this shelf in her room and she calls them her angel signs. She’s picked up feathers, rocks, pinecones, stuff like that – but not just regular ones, ones that are special looking, like if they have an interesting color to them or shape or something. They make her feel like angels are watching over her. She thinks this about a lot of things, like signs from nature mean someone or something that’s passed is looking out for us – like when our pet rabbit died, she starting saying every rabbit that came into our yard was an angel sign that the rabbit was still with us. She likes to take the objects with her to bring us more protection by those angels I guess.”

My informant spoke very affectionately about her mother as she recalled this folk belief/ritual that she often partakes in. While I find complete validity in her assumption that her mother brings home these objects as a way to bring protection to the household, I wonder if she does this knowingly. My informant was quite specific about how her mother felt about these items, that they were signs from angels, but she wasn’t certain about her mother’s intentions upon bringing them home. I wonder if it is partially due to a fascination with the objects in general, mementos so that she will never forget a moment when she felt seen, protected, and closer to something spiritual.