Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Colombian Nursery Rhyme

Nationality: Colombian
Age: 22
Residence: Los Angeles, Mexico, Colombia
Primary Language: Spanish

Type: Folk Nursery Rhyme

  1. “Sana que sana, colita de rana si no sanas hoy sanarás mañana.” Translation from Spanish to English: “Heal, heal, little frog’s bottom, if you don’t heal today, you’ll heal tomorrow.”
  2. I obtained this piece of folklore from my friend Daniela. Daniela was born and partially raised (only for a couple years) in the country of Columbia, in the city of Bogota. Since she spent a significant part of her childhood in Columbia, she remembers fondly this nursey rhyme. She was told this by her parents, friends of her parents, teachers, and other adults in her life. When appropriate and applicable, Daniela still sings the rhyme in her head, even if the listener is not Columbian or speaks Spanish. The translation from Spanish to English was provided by Daniela, who is multilingual.
  3. This rhyme has a specific role in Columbian life and culture. It is said whenever a child or young falls down and/or hurt themselves in the process. According to Daniela, this rhyme is one of the first thing you learn as a child. It is normal for adults to say this to children anywhere and jokingly to teens or adults under the age of 50. This is not just something said on the playground or at school, it is said anywhere, but only when children fall to the ground. It would also be rude to say this when older people (over the age of 50) fall.
  4. I really enjoy this short little rhyme. In American society we have similar sayings, such as “kaboom!” Clearly the Columbian version is longer, but what is interesting about this is that, according to Daniela, the saying is widely known by Columbians, especially since it is something learned during childhood. The rhyme is apart of the Columbian identity which is very special.

Japanese Bean Tradition

Nationality: American
Age: 57
Occupation: High School Teacher
Residence: San Francisco/Bay Area
Primary Language: English

Type: Folk Tradition/Superstition

  1. “When we lived in Japan, we learned about this tradition. On the last day before spring, you get a can of beans and throw them out the window, or just anywhere outside. Everyone did it and we were VERY confused at first, but after we asked around, by the second year we were living there we picked up on it. The idea is that you are throwing out the bad spirits. This tradition goes back hundreds of years. If you throw beans out your window at home for instance, that would signify removing the bad spirits you’re your home specifically.”
  2. I obtained this piece of folklore from my mother, who spend two years living in Japan as a child. Her father, my grandfather, was a psychiatrist in the air force and they were stationed in Japan, in the city of Tachi Kawa. They lived on an army base but they made many Japanese friends that living in the area. My mother obtained this folklore by first observing it and then eventually, her parents asked around. She remembers being incredibly confused about it as a child—seeing beans all over the street outside the base.
  3. No one in my family knows or remembers why beans, or the context behind the tradition. All they knew was that many Japanese people did that, and so many people believed that it worked. My grandparents have been back many times since the 1960’s when they left, but they have never been back in the spring and so they essentially forgot about it.
  4. I love this tradition. I think it has a lot of character and it is unique. I have never really heard of anything else like it. I am also drawn to the idea of purifying places from bad spirits which are believed to bring back luck and bad health. It might be a placebo effect but it would still make me feel better about my life and those around me.

How to Name Scottish Royalty

Nationality: Scottish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Milton, MA
Performance Date: 3/25/17
Primary Language: English

Context: Gathered from one of my roommates once he found out about my collection project.

Background: My roommate comes from “a long lineage of Scottish kings and clan leaders of a certain group of isles.”

The Tradition: In Scotland, the ritual for naming a child in a family line, particularly if they’re royalty, is to simply add the prefix “Mc” or “Mac” to the name of the father and make that the child’s surname.

Example: My roommate has an ancestor with the full title Angus McRonald McDonald Sworely, King of the Isles. Thus, he is alternatively know as King Angus, Son of Ronald McDonald Sworely, who was himself at one point King Ronald, Son of Donald Sworely.

(Note: The proper spelling of the surname “Sworely” is unknown.)

Analysis: I found this Scottish process of naming is most comparable to the Vikings’ method of creating the “____son” surname (Ex: Lief Erikson, or Lief, Son of Erik). I put a little research into the claims my roommate made, and the only thing I found off about the whole thing was that the names mentioned above are in fact “MacDonald” rather than “McDonald” (I kept the piece above as is for the sake of putting down what I was told by my roommate).

The Unitarian Universalist Church

Nationality: Scottish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Milton, MA
Performance Date: 3/25/17
Primary Language: English

Context: Gathered from one of my roommates once he found out about my collection project.

Background: My roommate has never had a set religious background, and was always in something of a melting pot of faiths when he went to churches like the one described here.

Dialogue: So, I don’t know exactly how Unitarianism, like, started, but… At some point it was just this sort of culmination of, like, various Christian sects, like Episcopalian or Protestant or whatever was around Massachusetts going on. Just a bunch of them sort of, like, coalesced into one group that’s like… “You know what, Trinity or Unity, doesn’t matter! We all have spirit!”

Analysis: The intereseting thing about this piece of folklore to me is how much is blended together in a church like this. It’s not only a mixing of various religious sects, either: at one point, my roommate sang a song he was taught as a kid, about the “Seven Guiding Principles of Kindness.” He remembers only these lines:

One, each person is important
Two, be kind in all you do

The song, interestingly enough, is set to the tune of “Do-Re-Mi” fromthe mucial The Sound of Music. So we have a mashup of popular culture, religion, and folk belief, all in this single church.

The Mendyke Open

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Portland, OR
Performance Date: 3/13/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese (Mandarin)

Context: I collected this from a friend on a trip over Spring Break, after he’d heard me talking about folklore with another friend I was collecting from.

Background: This is an annual gathering that my friend’s family holds. Below is a story illustrating the type of events that happens at these gatherings.

Dialogue: My great-grandfather, before he died… Uh, eventually he was one of the oldest people at these gatherings, and… and um, as I mentioned there were these golf courses and so, they’d basically all get together and play golf, um… So, at one point, my great grandfather decided to— that he’d go play a round. Now, at this point he was, like, in his 90s, he was pretty much blind, pretty much deaf, um… So he gets up to the golf course, he takes the golf, uh, the, the golf club, and he starts aiming the golf ball, but… it seems to be in the complete opposite direction, or like a completely different direction than where the hole is, and so everyone is just, they start yelling, “No, not that way, the other way! That way!” And he just shoos them off, and, uh, everyone’s like, “Okay, I guess he’s crazy, just let him be.” So, he swings, er, he holds it up, he swings, and hits… and a hole in one!

Analysis: The story above isn’t something that my friend himself witness, but something he’d been told by other family members. Because of this, the story feels more like an example of the family’s camaraderie, and how them coming together brings about exciting events. It’s more about the experience of being together as a family than any actually miraculous golf swing that could happen.