Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Mud Night

Folklore:
Holding a Mud Night where a desert, called mud, is served and enjoyed by the family.

Context:
Informant described a tradition from her grandma who held Mud Nights. The night would be delineated through the desert served, mud. Informant described Mud as a chocolate pudding like desert with oreo cookies crushed on top. Also, she noted that looking up mud on the internet to describe the desert, but found they didn’t look similar with the photos found online. The night was special to the informant’s mother who experienced it throughout her childhood and even into adult years, mentioning she returned home during college for some of these events. Informant experienced a few as a young child. The informant noted even though they didn’t particularly like the desert the thing that was special about the Mud Nights were the gathering of the family. Talking with the informant they noted there wasn’t a clear knowledge on who started the tradition.

Analysis:
The celebration seems to be used as a experience from elder to child to help create a shared experience for the family. With the history and variation, it is a special celebration to bring connection between the elders and the youth. Informant noted it was specifically a tradition her grandmother stewarded and continued. It emphasized the importance of family and communicated values of care and joy with its members and participants.

Meal Train

Folklore: A meal train is a tradition where following a member of the community having a baby or another significant event, the community organizes a group of people to help make and provide meals immediately following the event.

Context:
The informant encountered the practice through her local church and after moving to Los Angeles. The informant noted they were exposed to the practice a bit as a child, but not in such a large and traditional scale. It is to help provide meals to a member of the community and help them in times where the extra care is helpful.

Analysis:
The folklore is used to help bring together community and emphasize care for its members especially those in tiring, difficult, or wonderful situations. The experience brings people together and helps the member receiving the care feel appreciated.

Chinese New Year’s Red Envelope

Folklore:
Giving red envelopes of money to members of the family until they get married at Chinese New Years.

Context:
The informant is a Chinese American student at USC. She described the practice and noted how the rule of marriage being the end marker of the tradition was a variation she noticed through her experience. The extra money helped with people still not married or able to comfortably give out the red envelopes by themselves. The informant noted how it tied into a larger normal of giving money as a gift on all occasions and presents were rarely specific items. Finding money is able to better support them and prevent negative outcomes such as embarrassment of not liking the gift and returning it.

Analysis:
The folklore reflects a larger value of caring and supporting the members of their greater family. The money allows for the most function to the receiver and prevent emotionally negative outcomes from lack of knowledge. The tradition of money also allows for the support of each members needs and not just the wants that giving a particular gift might not be able to address.

The Motel Wife Ghost of Santo Domingo

1. Informant name- M P
2. Date of Performance- April 4,2026
3. Age- 59
4. Ethnicity- Dominican
5. Career/Occupation- Retired
6. Hometown- Santo Domingo
7. Informant’s language- Spanish

Story –

In Santo Domingo on the 27th of February a woman and her boyfriend died after a few days of getting married to each other by a car. After everything that happened in that area in the morning around 4 or 3 in the morning she would come out to people. What the people would do when they saw her was they would get into a big car accident. In addition, a friend of my sister was going to get married. It was a Monday and they were gonna get married on Tuesday. He went on a car drive on the 27th of February and died right there , right where she died. She always came out and a lot of people would die there.

Context-

This story was told to me by my grandma over a motel corner in the Dominican Republic.

Their thoughts-

My grandma is someone who is really connected with spirits so ah bee lives this story heavily. She told me that she was always warned of this corner and would never drive it. She also said when she ever walked past this corner that she could feel a heavy pretense. Over all she believed that there was actually a spirit there.

My thoughts-

Although I do in some form believe that there are entities beyond us I think that all the car crashes here could have been accidents. The ghost of this woman was said to come out really early in the morning so perhaps the people who encountered her were just really tied. For all the crashes that can possibly be chalked up to it being a dangerous corner because many of the streets in the Dominican Republic are behind on upkeep and overall dangerous. With that being said I’m not the most convinced of this story but I also do not believe the story.

The Discipline Devil

Age: 37

1. Informant name- A. M.
2. Date of Performance- April 24, 2026
3. Age- 37
4. Ethnicity- Dominican and Puerto Rican
5. Career/Occupation- Caregiver
6. Hometown- New York City
7. Informant’s language- English

Story –

Growing up with a Dominican mother they have this thing that if you disrespect our parents the devil comes out . So when I was younger I was very slick out of the mouth. I’ve always been slick at the mouth so one night my mom, your grandmother, was telling me to go to sleep but I was just being spiteful and doing stupid shit. So that whole day, that whole night, I placed a figurine that your grandma used to have on a table in the middle. It was like a flower glass and I placed it on the floor.Your aunt was chasing me when I was terrorizing her and she stepped on it. So I got my ass whopped then I was sent to bed. Mommy kept telling me to go to sleep but I didn’t want to go to sleep. So I pretended I was sleeping and then they turned off all the lights. When I looked to the side all I saw was a shadow. It looked like a demon dancing, really tall, about like 8 feet tall, long nails, a long tail, just like dancing. I just saw the shadow so I closed my eyes and covered myself from head to top and I went to sleep. After that I ain’t seen nothing else.

Context-

My mother was telling me a story about her childhood where she was scared of the devil because of stories she was told by her immigrant mother.

Their thoughts-

At that moment she really believed it and was really scared. Now she doesn’t know if it was real or not and just regards it as a moment in her childhood. The moment itself was real for her but they explain the action behind it is up in the air.