Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Simbang Gabi – Filipino Holiday Festival

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 51
Occupation: IT Help Desk
Residence: Naperville, IL
Language: English

Text:

Simbang Gabi translates to “Night Mass” in Tagalog.

Context:

The performer grew up Filipino in a community of mainly Catholics, then immgrated to the Midwest in 2003 where they joined a “Simbang Gabi” program at their local Catholic church with other Filipino immigrants.

“Simbang Gabi a Filipino tradition that is actually nine days. Basically we go to mass for 9 days in a row before Christmas. It happens at Dawn.” […} “We choose to continue it so the other kids who grew up here would experience our culture and it at te same time our community, it would be a Filipino event that people would congregate to. ” […] “Our Simbang Gabi program would showcase the way we dance, the way we have food, the way we have Filipino games… My sole purpose to do it is for the kids, to continue the tradition, to continue the culture.”

In the Philippines, celebration happens since “the moment we are conscious” and is celebrated by all Catholics (80-90% of Filipinos are catholic). They were told that if they finished all 9 days of Simbang Gabi and they make a wish, it will come true. “It’s like you’re praying or petitioning for something.”

Analysis:

The performer’s version of Simbang Gabi is intriuging because it’s an example of how a Filipino tradition is Americanized and yet celebrates the culture in an “authentic” way despite not being an exact replica of the tradition. Simbang Gabi in the United States is a wonderful example of cross-cultural diaspora as Filipino immigrants “perform identity” and preserve the culture after physically moving and assimilating with American culture.

Simbang Gabi in the Philippines is reflective of Filipino traditions of faith, family, and folklore as it mixes the Catholic influences of Spanish colonizers with communal values of meeting in church daily as well as creating a lasting tradition that defies borders.

Pagpag – Filipino Funeral Custom

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 51
Occupation: IT Help Desk
Residence: Naperville, IL
Language: Tagalog

Text:

“Pagpag” in Tagalog translates to “Dust off”

“If you go to a wake/funeral, you shouldn’t go straight home. You have to go and stop by somewhere else – for example a coffee shop, mall, or restaurant.”

Context:

The performer didn’t experience this tradition until his Lolo died, and it he never really questioned it, because it was common for his Filipino relatives to eat after any gathering. It was something the people he grew up with just understood. He grew up in the Philippines (rural Luzon) until he was 8, then moved to America where his family still followed this tradition.

“That way you wouldn’t bring death to the household. If there is a ghost that latches on from the funeral home or just death in general, you don’t want it to follow you home. You don’t just go to a place and drive by, you have to stop and spend some time there.” “In the Philippines, there weren’t really places to go before going home. Now whenever we go to a funeral, we do Pag pag.”

Analysis:

Pagpag is rooted in spirital folk belief of liminality: the belief that events such as death and spiritally charged and potentially dangerous. By not going home right away, people seek to disrupt the path of wandering spirits and ensure their household won’t become haunted. This ties into Filipino animism and folk Catholicism which is a blend of indigenous spiritual beleifs and Catholic concepts of afterlife (brought over in the 1500s by Spanish colonizers).

Another great value of Filipinos is community. By avoiding going home right away, this practice also forces community through shared mourning and offers emotional decompression after an emotionally taxing event. Even if it’s not tied to superstition and the fear of vengeful spirits, societies tend to pact together after devastation just to cheer each other up as it’s human nature which has been passed down across generations.

Shabbat Tradition

Text: “I first did Shabbat with my family growing up every Friday. Then I went to a Jewish school from kindergarten to eighth grade. Every Friday there, we did Shabbat lunch where we mixed with all the grades. It was a more reformed school so it wasn’t super intense. When I started going to sleepaway camp, we did Shabbat on Friday there and it was just a really great community there. As my sister and I got older, things got busier so we couldn’t spend every Friday night doing Shabbat. We would always try to find a time once a month to do it. I grew up with my grandpa being a rabbi so we would go to St. Louis with my family and do a shabbat there. First you light the candle, then you do grape juice and wine, then you would do the Havdalah. This was a special part of camp for me because we always sang special songs. My parents, my dad especially, are very religious so this was always an important celebration for me.”

Context: The informant is Jewish-American, and originally from Chicago. She describes Shabbat as a significant celebration for her. Shabbat is a traditional Jewish celebration. It is the Jewish day of rest, from Friday to Saturday evening, and it is a time to rest from work and gather with loved ones. Specifically, as the informant describes, it is celebrated through a dinner. This is especially true because her grandfather is a Rabbi, so she grew up very tied to the Jewish religion. She says she is not as strictly religious as her father and grandfather, as they keep kosher and she does not, but she still feels that being Jewish is an important part of her identity. She says that Shabbat has been a part of her identity ever since she can remember, as she did it since her early childhood and continued this tradition throughout school and camp. Shabbat reminds her of her family and friends, which is why it remains so special for her, even if she is not able to celebrate it every Friday.

Analysis: 

Shabbat functions as a vernacular religious practice, as it is celebrated and adapted by individuals in different ways, and is often diverged from institutional expectations. The informant grew up in a religious household, but her Shabbat experience is shaped by other environments, including school and summer camp. Each experience has added a different layer and new meaning onto the ritual. The informant’s talks about both the loss and adaptation of the celebration over time. Throughout her life, she has had phases where she celebrates Shabbat weekly, and then other, busier times of her life when she is unable to. This shows how the ritual can act as identity performance. Even if she is unable to practice it weekly, the symbolic power still retains, and it is just as special and important to her.Also, the fact that she celebrates it in so many places (at home, camp, and school) shows that rituals can evolve contextually. Specifically, at her camp, she sings special songs, which is not something she does at other locations. This shows key features of folklore, including multiplicity and variation. Additionally, the ritual can create community, as she mentions. For her, camp becomes a site of ritual performance, creating a sense of communitas. This social unity is what makes the celebration so special for the informant.

The celebration of Shabbat becomes ritualized through the routine that takes place—the candle lighting, wine, and Havdalah. These acts are not only religious, but are also acts of folk performance.

Additionally, with her grandpa being a rabbi, this shows how heritage can play an important role in rituals. She is able to sustain this sense of family and heritage through celebrating the Shabbat tradition. This speaks to the purpose of folklore as a whole, she is learning the lore from her folk, in this case, her family. The relationship with her grandfather also reflects the combination of institutional and vernacular religion. He is an institutionally religious figure, but the way that they celebrate Shabbat is reflective of vernacular religion. This concept of heritage also shows how rituals can act as a method of cultural continuity. She is connecting to her Jewish heritage through ritualization.

Korean Doljabi Tradition

Text: “I’m Korean, and there is a tradition that we do on our first birthday called Doljabi. Basically, we are placed in front of various items that each represent something. For example, at my Doljabi, there was an orange to represent food, a dollar bill to represent wealth, a gavel to represent law, and a stethoscope to represent medicine. As a one-year-old child, we have to crawl towards an object and pick one, and whichever we pick, represents our future. I picked the dollar bill, of course, and growing up, my parents always reminded me that I will become wealthy just because I picked this. I’m not entirely sure if I believe that whatever you pick comes true, but I would not mind if it does.”

Context: The informant is ethnically Korean but lives in Canada. His grandparents moved from Korea to Canada, so he is a second-generation Canadian. He says he does not celebrate many Korean traditions now, especially being at college, but his mother has tried to engrain as much of Korean culture in him and his siblings as possible. He said he has no recollection of this celebration himself, since he was only one year old, but his parents often remind him of it. He has seen photos of himself in the hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing, and there is a video on his father’s old video camera of him crawling towards the money. He said it makes sense for him that he chose money, and his parents always joke that they knew he would become money-oriented because of this. He said this celebration still resonates with him, as he is a Business major and wants to go into investment banking. He said money is not the only factor that drives him, but it is important for him, and he hopes to become relatively wealthy in the future.

Analysis: The Doljabi ritual is a life cycle celebration celebrated at a pivotal point in one’s life, their first birthday. This ritual is symbolic, as the object that the baby chooses has the power to predict their future. In this sense, it is not only celebrating birth and the start of childhood, but rather, the start of selfhood, and choosing a future for yourself. The ritual shows the power of folkloric performance in terms of structuring and forming identity. The rest of the baby’s future, including their identity, can be solely based on an object that they choose. Many people put full faith into this tradition, meaning that they believe their trajectory is fixed by it.  

This ritual is also a form of homeopathic magic. This object can represent something larger. For example, in this case, choosing money means that they will become wealthy. In this case, like produces like, and grabbing an object that represents money, will imitate a result of wealth for the future. Even though the baby is too young to understand what their actions mean, the adults take it very seriously, and believe that their choice in object is a form of prophecy. It is not just about the child, but the projection of values. In Korean culture, they value success, shown through the objects (wealth, medicine, law). This shows what professions or attributes are desirable in a person. This also highlights the pedagogical aspect of folklore, especially related to culture. In this sense, Korean culture is trying to teach children, at such a young age, what traits and professions are valued in a person. This becomes a way for the child to understand their role in their cultural identity. 

Even though the informant shows that they are skeptic of the tradition, the significance of the memory, which is lived on through their family continuing to joke about it, shows the lasting power of performative tradition. Even though Doljabi may be viewed as superstitious and dramatic, its emotional resonance is what allows it to persist throughout generations. Even when these traditions may be detached from institutional belief, they still hold power. Despite people not believing in the actual “magic” of the tradition, they want to perform it because it is still fun, meaningful, and feels important, since it is a tradition.

Lastly, Doljabi also functions as a way to maintain heritage. This is especially the case because the informant grew up outside of Korea, in Canada. It is a way for people to maintain ties to their ancestry and culture. Doljabi is often performed with grandparents and accompanied with Korean food and a hanbok, which is traditional Korean clothing. This shows how folk objects can work together to serve a greater purpose of maintaining cultural heritage.

Indonesian Wedding Ritual

Text: “You know how at American weddings, the bride throws a bouquet? And whoever catches it is going to get married next. In my family, I think this originates from Indonesia, we buy a holy chicken, like a live chicken. They buy this chicken, it’s expensive, and they keep it at the house. The parents of the groom throw it and all the moms of those unmarried try to catch it. And whoever catches it, their kid is going to get married next. When I went to my cousin’s wedding back in New York, her mom insisted that she do this tradition, even though she found it very strange in Western context. I still have the video of the chicken being thrown, because we all thought it was ridiculous. But my mom told me that it is really sacred in Indonesian culture, and everyone in our family must participate in it.”

Context: The informant, KP, is half-Indonesian and has a very strong connection to her culture. She visits Indonesia with her family every summer and has become familiar with many Indonesian traditions. She describes this celebration as one that she learned when she was younger, at the first Indonesian wedding she went to. However, she has a lot of family in the United States, since her grandparents moved here, and they do this celebration at weddings here too. She said it sounds like a silly tradition to people on the outside, but in Indonesian culture, and her family specifically, it is a sacred ritual that they must do.

Analysis: 

This wedding ritual illustrates a life cycle celebration, specifically, marriage. It manifests this life cycle celebration as folk performance. The wedding is no longer about only the union of two people, but rather about showcasing cultural values, specifically surrounding family and social continuity. It is also about creating community in a sacred way, as ritualizing the act makes it much more significant. The ritual is passed down through generations, through repeated performance. 

This act is also rooted in homeopathic magic. The chicken is a representation of marriage, and catching the chicken transfers that marriage. In many cultures, animals can represent folk beliefs and hold symbolic power. The fact that the mothers are the ones catching the chicken also shows how marriage is not just about the bride and groom, but a communal affair, shaped by family and friends.

It also reaffirms the cultural belief in fate and the social pressure surrounding marriage and fertility, specifically for women. This is especially clear because the mothers are the ones catching the chicken, which reflects the cultural pressure placed on women to find their husband and start the next generation. Women are often both the agents and subjects of marriage rituals. In many cultures, women are the ones who have to perform the ritual, but they are also the most affected by the outcome. This highlights gender expectations about marriage and status in certain cultures. In this sense, the ritual is a reinforcement of patriarchal values, where women’s roles are tied to marriage, reproduction, and continuing a family.

This is also an example of an oicotype, as there are many regional variations of this wedding tradition. It is similar to the American tradition of throwing a bouquet, but it has a variation based on local beliefs. Specifically, in Indonesia, animals often hold sacred significance, which is why they have to use a “special” chicken.