Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

A Lucky Welcome

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Georgia
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The interview will be depicted by initials. The Interviewer is QB and the interview is CH.

QB: Are there any everyday superstitions that your family follows?

CH: Ok…so, you see this a lot on Chinese New Year but it can be done everyday. But many people hang a…um…a red piece of paper diagonal that has the Chinese word “fu” that means fortune or good luck. But the word is usually hung upside down because the Chinese words upside sounds very similar to the Chinese word “arrive”. So if you hang it upside down it is similar to saying “good luck” or “good fortune arrives”. And those hang on doorways all the time.

Analysis: It is interesting that the student noted that the superstition can take place on either Chinese New Year or everyday. It is understood that just because a person decides to do this everyday, they are not considered more “superstitious” than another person. In fact it is very welcomed within the country.

New Year, New Underwear

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The interview will be depicted by initials. The Interviewer is QB and the interview is VS.

QB: That is great! Are there any special traditions you and your family do?

VS: For New Years you have to wear new underwear. There’s yellow, red, green, and white but they all have to be new. Yellow is for luck, Green is for money, Red is for love, and white is for health or fertility. You can just choose one color or wear one with all types of colors.

Analysis: Again we see that the underwear is a major factor with the New Year. While the colors stand for the common universal symbolism, it is interesting to note that the underwear MUST be new. One may assume that it is to bring in the new luck and fortune along with the year.

Out with the Old

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The interview will be depicted by initials. The Interviewer is QB and the interview is VS.

It should be noted that this is a continuation of a prior interview.

VS: If you want to travel then you take an empty suitcase that you carry around the house or the block. And then we take 12 coins and throw them out of the house to get rid of debt or old stuff.

Analysis: These are quite literal things for the family to do on New Years. Following the idea of “out with the old and in with the new”, the student and their family seem to literally remove old belongings from their home in hopes that a new fortune can help them in the upcoming year.

Bloody Mary

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Gilbert, AZ
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English

The interview will be depicted by initials. The Interviewer is QB and the interview is AS.

QB: And what stories did you have as a child?
AS: When I was a kid I played Bloody Mary. The way it worked was you went into the bathroom with the lights off. You would say her name and spin around three times, and she was supposed to appear. The other way that you would check to make sure she was there was to turn on the sink and see if blood ran out of the spout.

Analysis: This follows the steps that many Bloody Mary rituals take place. However, it seems to be darker as the student and their friends looked to see if “blood” would run out of the spout. The student of course laughed about the ritual, but said that they attempted it many times just to see if they would ever be “lucky” enough to see Bloody Mary.

Şeker Bayramı

Nationality: Arab American
Age: 22
Occupation: Law student
Residence: Silver Spring, MD
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic, Turkish

Turkish: Şeker Bayramı (literally, Sugar Holiday, a.k.a. Eid Al-Fitr, following Ramadan)

“Turks deem Eid Al-Fitr as a holiday meant for the distribution of sweets and delights (so do Arabs, but Turks generally take it to larger extents). I’ve experienced 2 days of Şeker Bayramı in İstanbul following a month of fasting for Ramazan/Ramadan. What I remember the most about it was the sheer amount of cotton candy everywhere on Cevdet Paşa street nearby the bosphorus in Istanbul’s Bebek neighborhood. It was a good time to indulge in sweets following the best Ramadan I have ever experienced (so far!).”

Context: The informant told me this in a conversation about folklore.

Thoughts: I have been to many (Arab) Eid celebrations, but the only type of sweets they generally had were dates, chocolate, and Jordan almonds (pastel color coated almonds). It is interesting to see that cotton candy is a big part of the celebration in Turkey, as it is not exactly something I would expect to be a part of Eid, considering that it is not Middle Eastern/Muslim in origin. It is intriguing to see the different desserts of the world they take in to complement the event – a part of globalization, perhaps?