Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Happy New Year!

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/3/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese, Tagalog

Main Piece: SM: Do you do the thing on New Years, where your parents throw a bunch of money on the floor, like coins, near a door actually, and all the children kind of rush for it and try to collect as much money as you can, because it like symbolizes like good fortune, you’ll get rich, and it promises wealth. Also, when it strikes 12 you’re supposed to jump a lot, like try and touch the sky, and it promises you’ll grow taller. Both of these are LIES.  Still do it though, even though I don’t believe it, I still do it.

 

Context: These are two traditions, followed by Filipino cultures on New Year’s Eve.

 

Background: SM grew up in a fully Filipino household, and so these typical traditions surrounded her as she was growing up, and she still continues to practice them.

 

Analysis: Upon further research, New Year’s Eve traditions are huge in Filipino cultures. Her tradition of jumping to get taller is fairly unique, but the money one is pretty common. Most stories I found of this are the same, where the parents throw a bunch of coins and the children try to collect as much of it as they can to promise good fortune in the new year. I think SM’s tradition of jumping probably stemmed from the fact that she, and her whole family, are fairly short, and therefore to make her feel better about her height, her parents promised her that if she jumps right at midnight she’ll grow more!

 

Easter Eggs– only eggs!

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/7/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: KK: Every Easter, we eat this thing called “Eggs a la Goldenrod”… and it’s a made up name haha. And it’s basically… biscuits with, okay sorry, first, it’s a process, so first you boil the eggs and color them and hide them because its Easter, and once you find the eggs you crack them, take the shells off, and separate the yolks from the whites in two separate bowls and you make an egg gravy out of the whites, and then you mash up the… it’s a hard-boiled egg so you mash up the hard yolk so it’s kinda sprinkly kinda egg yolk. Then you have to put it together a certain way so you open a biscuit in half, on the bottom, you put in the egg gravy and then you put the yolks on top, and then you can either have sausage on it or on the side, and then hot sauce on it, and this is how we always use eggs in Easter. And it’s because my mom’s family was really really big, they had like five kids, so they had to do something with all the eggs! I don’t know where my grandma learned it, but my mom learned it from her that you basically make a brunch that is ONLY EGGS!

 

Context: This dish is made every single Easter with KK’s family.

 

Background: KK and her family love to cook, and have a whole slew of recipes they tend to cook with each  other, but this was the very first thing to come to her mind for something that was a traditional meal in their household.


Analysis: Upon further research, KK and I discovered that Eggs a la Goldenrod is a fairly common dish, and other people have made it too! KK thought it was just because her mom’s family was huge, and they had to use all the eggs that were made for Easter, but lots of people make this dish! Because KK’s version of this dish involves her family’s size, and using their colored Easter eggs for it, it is still a piece of folklore.

Corned Beef & Cabbage, oh my!

Nationality: American
Age: 51
Occupation: Restaurant Manager
Residence: Temecula
Performance Date: 4/8/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: My mom is part Irish and learned from her family to eat corned beef and cabbage on every St. Patrick’s Day. I eat it now every year because I like it, but I guess there’s some tradition to it. My wife isn’t Irish, but she adopted the tradition and kept it in our family, and so every year she cooks us corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Context: This tradition was done every year on St. Patrick’s Day while SR was growing up, and still continues now with SR’s family.

 

Background: SR’s mother is Irish, and grew up in a household that practiced many Irish traditions, and so she passed a lot of these onto her children. SR doesn’t feel particular ties to this tradition, but he likes the was the meal tastes, so he continues to practice it.

 

Analysis: This is particularly interesting because SR doesn’t practice this due to the Irish tradition: he eats corned beef and cabbage because he loves corned beef and cabbage! It is interesting to see how folklore and traditions can manifest, even when someone doesn’t think about carrying it on, or doesn’t have a reason for carrying it on. SR has passed this tradition to his wife, who never ate the meal before and who now cooks and eats it every year; even without meaning to, or without caring about the tradition, SR managed to keep it going.

 

Why do we have Christmas Lights?

Nationality: American
Age: 51
Occupation: Restaurant Manager
Residence: Temecula
Performance Date: 4/8/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: SR: So when I was growing up, we put Christmas lights on our house every year, and my dad told us the reason you do it is because Santa then knows that there’s kids in your house, and the houses without lights don’t have kids and so he doesn’t go to those houses!

 

Context: This tradition was practiced every Christmas.

 

Background: SR’s family was big on celebrating Christmas, as they were a big family with lots of kids and lots of grandkids, and so the amount of Christmas traditions, specifically Santa related, were abundant.

 

Analysis: I love this piece especially. Christmas lights are very common around the holiday season (and even a little too long afterwards sometimes!), but never before have I heard a reason given for Christmas lights. I love that Santa is brought into every aspect of SR’s Christmas– from the usual tree and presents and cookies to the less common Christmas lights! It also provides explanation for the houses that might make your kids sad with no lights– they’re not rude, they don’t hate Christmas, don’t worry! They just don’t have any kids so they need to make sure Santa knows not to come!

 

Rockin, Rollin, Ridin!

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/7/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: KK: My mom used to sing this song to us, when we were falling asleep and stuff, and for the life of me I can’t ever figure out where it came from. She went: “Tommy’s at the engine, someone rings the bell, Sarah holds the lantern, to show that all is well, rockin rollin ridin, all along the rails, heading for morning town, many miles away.” It’s about a train, if you couldn’t tell, but I have no idea where she got that song, but she used to sing it!

 

Context: This song was sung as a lullaby when KK and her sister were young.

 

Background: KK’s mother learned this from her grandmother, who probably heard the version sung by The Seekers and turned it into a lullaby, much akin to “A Bushel and a Peck”, which is often used as lullabies as well.

 

Analysis: Turns out, upon research, this song is by The Seekers, and is called Morningtown Ride! So many people I saw said that their mother used to sing this song to them as a lullaby, so somewhere along the way this song turned into a typical lullaby. It is interesting to think about this alongside the issue of Simon and Garfunkel and their “folk” music, because even though this song was authored and created by a band and publicized, the fact that culture has taken it and turned it into a lullaby has changed it into a piece of folklore.