Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

There’s No Seder Like our Seder

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Nationality: American
Age: 76
Residence: FL
Performance Date: April 11
Primary Language: English
Language: Yiddish

Informant is grandmother, currently living in Florida having lived most of her life in New Jersey. The following is printed on a series of old, twice-photocopied documents which she stores in a closet in a large bin. These are a familiar sight for the family during Passover, in which the entirety of the song is sung together before beginning with the dinner service.

 

There’s No Seder Like our Seder

(sung to the tune of “There’s no Business like Show business”)

There’s no seder like our seder,

There’s no seder I know.

Everything about it is Halachic

nothing that the Torah won’t allow.

Listen how we read the whole Haggadah

It’s all in Hebrew

‘Cause we know how.

There’s no Seder like our seder,

We tell a tale that is swell:

Moses took the people out into the heat

They baked the matzoh

While on their feet

Now isn’t that a story

That just can’t be beat?

Let’s go on with the show!

 

Of course this song is not traditional jewish canon, as it’s inspired by the song “There’s no Business like Show business.” Somewhere down the line, at a time she does not remember, these papers were copied and it was decided to sing it before opening the Hagaddah (Passover prayerbook read at dinner). I think this song, to her, is a fun family activity which gets all ages singing together and warmed up for the night.

Wearing white after labor day

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: NJ
Performance Date: April 2 2017
Primary Language: English

Informant is a student at the Penn State University who grew up in upper NJ.

She told me about a certain rule in the fashion world which requires people to refrain from wearing white after Labor Day:

 

“So the rule is, you can’t wear white after Labor Day… until Memorial Day when you can again.” she says.

“Why not?” I ask.

“Because… that’s just the rule.” she tells me. “That’s what my mom told me and we do it,  and everybody else I know does it too.”

 

She couldn’t tell me why, other than that it’s just something people do. I’m not really sure I have a great guess either.

After some research I learned that in the early 1900s, wealthy socialites would create secret “fashion rules” to tell new and old money apart. Eventually it just trickled down to the masses in 1950.

Interesting that despite the information widely available, these traditions continue.

 

Curse of Dudleytown

Nationality: Canada
Age: 35
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: LA
Performance Date: 2/20/17
Primary Language: English

Informant is a teacher living in LA.

The story is one from a  summer camp in CT where he and I met originally. The subject of the story is a town called “Dudleytown” which suffers a horrible curse: every 7 years, somebody nearby dies.

“So Dudleytown as you know, is haunted. Every seven years, somebody nearby dies. That’s because Edward Dudley was cursed by King Henry for treason, and the curse followed him across the Atlantic Ocean and caused all their crops to die. Now, nobody’s growing crops there anymore. But the curse still comes up once every seven years……. some things just stick with the location geographically, you know?”

He says he heard the story from other people at the camp when he first got there, as the location was relatively close by. He swears it is real and true but he does so with an air of silliness, indicating to me that this belief is faux-sincerity. I think this choosing-to-believe makes sense: people like the strong narrative of a 7-year-curse more than they want to “ruin the fun” in applying logic. It’s a fun belief and brings people together over a common fear, even if it is just pretend.

 

Third Half

Nationality: Italian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/26/17
Primary Language: Italian
Language: English

Subject: Ritual

Informant: Guido was born in Rome, Italy in a traditional Italian family. He currently studies business in California and plays rugby for his college team.

Original Script: Terzo tempo / Third Half. When the host team cooks a meal for the visiting team and both teams enjoy a meal together. It creates positive relationships between enemy teams. Although there is an innate rivalry in the sport, the players all come together and get to know each other through this celebration.

Background information by informant: Rugby games have two halves. In Italy, there is a celebration called “Terzo tempo” which means Third Half.
Context of performance: The tradition of the third half is that the hosting team will provide food and beer for both teams and they all come together to share a meal.

Thoughts: A ritual such as this one creates powerful relationships between people that would otherwise dislike each other simply because of a sport. This celebration allows traditional enemies to come together and bond as individual human beings.

Hitori Kakurenbo (Hide and Seek By Yourself)

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Screenwriter
Residence: Koreatown
Performance Date: April 23rd, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Sign Language

Background: My informant is a young screenwriter born and raised in California. She is a USC graduate in the screenwriting program. Currently she works on contract as a writer for several projects such as comics, television and podcasts.

Main Piece: My informant described a strange sequence of rituals that is played by presumably young people who enact a “Bloody Mary”-style ritual to play hide and seek with a demon. You must complete a series of ritualistic actions in order to play with the demon through the medium of a doll. You must play this game alone, at night, and with all lights and electronics off. First, you take a doll and name it. You fill up the bathtub with water. You say “for the first game, I’m going to be it”, drop it into the water, and then you run away. When you come back, you say “I won” and then you stab the doll three times and leave it in the bathroom.  After that you put the doll down in the bathroom, you hide and you wait. After that the urban legend has a few differences depending on the account. In one, you seek out the doll. Basically, after some time, you get up and you look for the doll. If done correctly, when you seek out the doll it will no longer be in the bathroom. When you find it, you must say “I win” three times in a row.  If you do not do the ritual correctly, supposedly the doll will find you instead and stab you three times, killing you. Another version has you instead of finding the doll, waiting in your hiding spot until sunrise, upon which then you chant “I win” three times in a row. Either way, to end it all, you are recommended to burn the doll. Many people recount that they still feel strange or feel that their home is haunted even after the ritual. There also varying accounts of use of salt in the story. The informant said that she has heard a few different usages, but the one she learned about was when you are hiding, you are supposed to put salt in your mouth. Others talk about putting salt in the tub and such other usages.

My informant thinks that it all is super creepy because they are strange in their own act because “why would someone do something like that”?

Performance Context: According to my informant, she learned the story while translating the manga version of Occultic;Nine, a Japanese manga. During the manga, they make reference to several supernatural events come to life. Wanting to know more and understand the context, she explored the story herself and has been recounting it to her friends since.

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting because it shows a certain commonality in storytelling to teach children respect and also to ward them from staying out or straying too far into the unknown through the use of mythical creatures. I think that their “curse” is quite severe, and really would be something that would scare children. I wonder if it is somehow derived from some medical fact or otherwise medical incident long ago that was explained through spirits.