Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Wu Shi (舞狮) & Nian (年), Chinese Lion Dance

Text:
Wu Shi is a traditional performance where dancers mimic a lion’s movements in a stylized costume, usually accompanied by loud drums, cymbals, and gongs. Commonly performed during Lunar New Year, store openings, weddings, and festivals.

Context:
The informant saw the Northern Lion Dance style when they are a child during New Year Festival on the streets. They remember being afraid of the lion dancer as a child because the colorfully painted mask and seemingly unpredictable movement look like monster. However, the lion is believed to scare away evil spirits, bad luck, and misfortune. Drums, firecrackers, and loud sounds are used in tandem to “cleanse” the space spiritually.
The origin of Wu Shi tracks back to a legend about a beast called Nian (年) who terrorized villages annually. People discovered it feared loud noises and red color, leading to the development of lion dances and firecrackers.

Analysis:
Wu Shi is a ritual drama performed at a liminal moment requiring protection and good luck, in this case, new year. The movements mentioned by the informant, like sniffing, blinking, jumping, are symbolic, mimicking the lion’s investigation of its surroundings; it is a metaphor for purification and control over chaos. Wu Shi is a performative folklore in which a ritual sends blessing with visual language.
The lion is actually not native to China, it was introduced through contact with Buddhism and Silk Road culture, yet it was mythologized into Chinese cosmology as a protector figure. It is a form of cultural syncretism where foreign symbols are absorbed and repurposed within local beliefs.

Miyeok-guk (미역국), Seaweed Soup

Text:
Miyeok-guk is a seaweed soup often with beef or mussels, simmered in sesame oil and broth. It is commonly eaten as postpartum recovery food for mothers or birthday soup.

Context:
The informant states that they ate this soup every year on their birthday back in Korea. The first time they ate it as a child, their parents did not explain anything but instead just told them it is a birthday thing. Despite seaweed being a very common food in Korean dishes, they know it is unique because their family usually don’t eat seaweed soup for breakfast.

Analysis:
For mothers, eating miyeok-guk is both a health practice and a rite of passage into motherhood. It is used at the threshold of life stages, particularly childbirth, which is a highly vulnerable and transformative period in many cultures.
As a commemorative food, it is not as a celebration of self, but as a gesture of gratitude to one’s mother. Miyeok-guk is a symbolic reenactment of birth—a sensory and emotional link to one’s origin.

Chuseok (추석) & Songpyeon (송편), Korean Harvest Festival

Text:

(The following is a cleaned-up transcript from a recorded interview.)

“Chuseok is pretty similar to Chinese and Japanese Harvest Festival, I think. It takes place around late September or early October. And I think historically, it was to celebrate the harvest of rice and other crops. Usually, you have a week off from school and work. During this time, my family visits the cemetery to pay respects to our ancestors. We set out food for them and eat it.
It is also a time when we have a big traditional family gathering. We have meat pancakes, vegetable pancakes, or seafood pancakes. And we also have a special kind of rice cake you only eat on that day called Songpyeon. It is a thick rice cake full of honey and nuts, and super sweet. When you bite into it, it fills your mouth-”

Context:
The informant grew up in Korea and their family has celebrated Chuseok as early as they can remember. They see the festival as a last gathering before winter sets in and “everything gets dark and sad.” The maternal side of the informant’s family is also very Christian, so aside from offering the food and eating it there, they also do prayers. They think people don’t celebrate the festival in a traditional way anymore because a lot of people have moved to the city and are no longer involved with agriculture, so Chuseok has transformed into a great time to gather with family members and enjoy good food. The informant has criticized Koran’s bad work-life balance and overworking culture, pointing out that there is not a lot of time for one to gather with loved ones anymore. To the informant, Chuseok is an opportunity to take a break from life and see family members. It is a time to step back from modern necessities and go back to a much simpler time.

Analysis:
Rituals from Chuseok reflect a continuity of lineage and honoring ancestors is a key way of affirming kinship networks and identity over time. It highlights Koreans’ household-centered cosmology. The informant’s religious background did not take away this traditional cultural value, but instead added to it and continued it.
Songpyeon, the half-moon-shaped rice cake, carries the symbolic meaning of fertility and prosperity to express how harvest is a gift of abundance from nature or spirits. The recipes and techniques are usually passed down through generations orally. Food is narrative in this sense, it tells a story about ancestry and collective memory.
The informant states their deep personal connection with Chuseok and reflects on the change in society. Chuseok is not just a holiday—it’s a ritualized enactment of cultural memory, social values, and spiritual belief.

Preshow Pump

Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Residence: Illinois
Language: English

WH is a part of stage crew as the lighting director at their high school. Before every show, they, along with the other members of the stage crew, perform a group stretch every time, to sync up the crew and make them get in the right mood for the production. After this however, WH and one of his friends always go one step further by doing a “preshow pump”, where they perform one pullup for each run of the show. For the opening show, they’ll do one pullup, and by the 5th show, they’ll have done 5 pullups.

This ritual came about beginning as an inside joke between WH and his friend, who brought it up as a whim on a random occasion. However, it quickly caught on as an inside joke between WH and his friend, as well as the rest of the crew. WH is adamant it is a requirement to make the musical go better and has started a tradition for the musical specifically. After with the pullups, WH and his friend do a tough guy chest bump and generally hype themselves and the crew up.

This performance is a connecting piece between WH and his friend tying them to this specific event. Because there are a very limited number of performances each year, creating meaning from each one and getting in the right headspace to perform your best is extremely important. As a senior in high school, WH is also on his last round of musicals and mentioned how these shows were part of the core of his high school experience. Looking back, when WH ever meets his friend, they are connected by this ritual, along with everyone else involved in the show. This tradition also plays upon subversion of norms and breaking taboo within the high school culture, as kids in the performing arts at this high school are known to be unathletic and averse to working out. By exploring this stereotype, the crew can also tap into the macho swagger and feel fully pumped up for the performance.

Pregame Ritual

Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bristol, Rhode Island
Language: English

Whenever TC plays soccer, they have a very specific pregame ritual that they have to perform every game, or else they will not play as well. He wears the exact same base layer of socks with his cleats every single game. While the top layer of longer socks are cut out to fit the shin guards, the base sock layer was the exact same pair for 2 years straight. After TC finishes warming up, the next time they step onto the field, whether it be walking out with the starting lineup or subbing in, he makes sure that his left foot is the foot stepping past the line onto the field every single time.

TC first mentioned the reason why he wore the same pair of socks was due to his trouble finding socks that fit in his cleats well, with them sliding in his boots too much for his liking. One game, he decided to try a cut pair of socks with a base pair of socks, which saw him play exceptionally that game. Ever since then, he wore those same socks for every game to replicate the success he saw there. Additionally, the left foot out first when stepping onto the field is a good luck charm he says helps him play better. If he notices that he’s stepped onto the field with the wrong foot, he’ll go back and redo his entrance to prevent bad luck.

This ritual is highly repetitive, requiring the exact same set of circumstances every single time he plays soccer. TC does not call himself a very superstitious person, but holds this ritual to be very important to his success on the field. By limiting the variance before he plays the game, it gives him the same exact mentality as every other day, letting him focus on the game at hand. The emphasis on putting the literal best foot forward, which can be interpreted as homeopathic magic while stepping onto the field creates a barrier between the game and the world outside of it. By putting his best foot forward, TC can also be confident of his footwork in the game. No matter what is going on outside the game, once TC has stepped onto the field game ready, he can switch to competition right away. The placebo effect is extremely important, because even i changing socks or the walk-on ritual doesn’t have any major effect on TC’s physical being, mentally the pressure that he’s cast bad luck on himself can create a downward spiral leading to a poor performance .