Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Persian Superstition: Rue

Nationality: Persian American
Age: 20s
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, ca
Performance Date: April 16, 2018
Primary Language: English

Folklore:

This is a Persian superstition that involves rue also known as espada the spice. When people start staying too many positive things about one person they will burn rue to not jinx the person they are complimenting. Someone will burn the rue and circle it around the person’s head. An example my informant gave me of this folklore is herself at a family reunion. At the reunion her family talks about how well she is doing during college and to not jinx her they’ll circle burning rue around her head.

Background & Context:

My informant is Persian-American and she has grown in Southern California. She is currently a senior at USC. I collected this piece of folklore in a casual setting one evening. For her this tradition is not something she uses in her daily life as she does not keep rue in her apartment at USC and nor is it something she necessary believes in nor disbelieves in. However when she is with more traditional family members, like her grandparents they will use rue as they believe in this superstition.  

Final Thoughts:

My final thoughts on this piece of folklore is that it is interesting and similar to other traditions. The similarities it has to other traditions is burning herbs or spices to ward off evil spirits or bad vibes. I also believe it is interesting how the mixing of two cultures affected the informant’s belief on traditional cultures that others in her family strongly believe in.

 

Persian New Year

Nationality: Persian American
Age: 20s
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 16, 2018
Primary Language: English

Folklore:

Persian New Year is an important holiday in Persian culture. Unlike American New Years which happens always on January 1st Persian New Years takes place in mid March. A tradition during Persian New Years is jumping over a bonfire. Jumping over the bonfire is a symbolic ritual. By jumping over the bonfire you are giving away bad vibes from the previous year to the fire, while the fire is giving you good vibes to start off the New Year.

Background & Context:

My informant is Persian-American and she has grown in Southern California. She is currently a senior at USC. I collected this piece of folklore in a casual setting one evening. She takes part in Persian New Years occasionally, she says that while the ritual of jumping over the bonfire holds symbolic meaning many including herself do the ritual for fun and reminicines from their childhood.

Final Thoughts:

I have slightly more information on this tradition as I have taken part in it before with a different Persian-American friend although I am not Persian. When I took part in this ritual I did not hear about any of the symbolic meaning and only found out collecting this ritual from my informant. This New Years tradition is similar to other traditions as New Years in other cultures based on having a new start and leaving behind negative aspects of the past year. Fire is also something that is prominent in other cultures in getting rid of negative energy. Overall this ritual is similar to other traditions around the world.

 

May Day

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Do you have any school traditions?

“In elementary school we did May day. “

What did you do for it?

“For the girls, we had strings that were all attached to a pole and we would go, and a group of girls would be going in one way, and another group would be going the other way weaving in and out, we did it for basically the whole song, and when we finished, and there would be a pattern braided on the pole. “

Do you remember what the other people did?

“The boys would have sticks, like large popsicle sticks.  And there were groups of 5 people would be in circles and they would try to make a star out of the wood, and after they make it they would show everyone.

The kindergarten people did the chicken dance.”

 

Background:

It’s an annual tradition of Valentine Elementary school is to perform a mayday presentation to the parents of the students.  Every year during P.E. class in early spring, teachers would assign each grade a different exercise.  Kindergarteners would get a dance where they dress up as chickens.  Second would get a dance with a multicolored parachute.  The two differences were the dances done by the fifth-grade students.  The boys would be doing a dance with wooden “swords”, called the swords dance, and the girls would be doing a dance known as the maypole dance.  When asked, the subject had already forgotten about how she felt about the performance.  While the original May day holiday that is traditionally celebrated on May 1st but the school varies on the time when the performances take place.   The presences of the maypole dance most closely resemble the European celebration of May day rather than the traditions that formed in the United States.  Many European countries would also celebrate by having a pole attached with colorful ribbons, braided by participants dancing around the pole.

 

Analysis:

I recall participating in the May day performance.  It was always a time of excitement to become a 5th grader to be able to participate in the sword dance.  Hearing about being retold from my sister’s perspective was an interesting experience.

Spirit Day

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Do you have any other school traditions?

“We have spirit day at the middle school.”

And what is that?

“It is when every grade gets together into teams of homerooms and we face the other teams for different events such as, brain games, kickball, like many sports.  And it’s basically just a team bonding.  Since on the second to last day of school, its having fun with different people on the last days of school.  “

Background:

According to the informant, spirit day is a time for celebration.  According to her, finals were finally over, and there were no longer any responsibilities left.  It was a time for students to be able to bond with their fellow upperclassmen before they would be graduating and heading off to high school.    It is a custom that occurs every year at the Huntington Middle School on the second day after school. Countries like Japan, have similar events where classes are pitted against each other in an athletic day kind of event for bonding between classes among the school.

 

Analysis:

It was interesting hearing from the perspective of a student that enjoyed the spirit day festivities.  In my experience, this event was often seen as an annoyance.  Due to the nature of it being close to the end of the year, many students don’t see a point in the mandatory participation of the last few days of class.  It never occurred to me then that many of these people would change in high school and the status quo from the past would never be the same.  In the fast pace of life, these traditions allow students continue to be students, before being shuffled into the future.

Christmas

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Interview:

What type of holidays do you celebrate?

“We do Christian and Buddhist things at the same time, we go to church on Christmas, then do New Year Sri Lankan stuff.”

What do you usually do for Christmas?

“Stay for the service.  Then go home.”

Do you do anything else?

“We usually have dinner on Christmas.  Usually with family.

Sometimes we go for midnight mass.”

From whom did you get this tradition from?

“Found out from parents.  It’s a way of learning about my grandparents on my mom’s side of the family.  I think my mom isn’t really Christian either.  I think my mom is agnostic too, but she just takes the traditions as well.”

 

Background:

The informant himself being agnostic, still celebrates holidays as a means to get closer to his parents.   He also stated that he is most likely going to inherit the traditions similar to how his mom has from her parents.

 

Analysis:

While the particular practice of celebrating Christmas was not particularly different from most other families, what stood out to me was the common way in which traditions get passed down.  Rather than it being necessary because of the religion, it becomes a means is a means to have connections to parents and family members.  I found similarities in his story as what happens in my family, where my family goes to temples in Taiwan to pray for good luck to accompany relatives.