Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Mid July

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.
Performance Date: March 15, 2017
Primary Language: English

This friend of mine [noted as T] shared a taboo her grandmother warned her about. 

Story:

”

T: My grandmother used to warn me, never answer anyone who’s calling your name or tapping on your shoulder on the mid day of July, no matter how much it sounds like someone you know, you have to make sure you actually see that person before you answer them or turn back.

Me: Why? What would happen if I answered as soon as I heard my name?

T: Well, the mid day of July in lunar calendar is actually a ghosts’ day. On this day, all the ghosts in the netherworld are given a “holiday” and are allowed to walk on earth. So when you hear someone’s calling your name, it might not be actually a real person but you know, a ghost. Once you answer the ghost, it will take you to the netherworld with it. That’s what my grandma told me. Since I could never keep track of the lunar calendar though, I would just become extra cautious around July and August.

Me: Are there other taboos on this day your grandma told you?

T: I can’t remember much, mostly are the things like “don’t go near the water body because the drowned spirit will drown you” kind of thing… Oh, there’s another. You should never stick your chopsticks in a bowl of rice when you’re eating or whatever. That would look a lot like offering libation, so the spirits will think you want to share food with them and they will come.

”

Thoughts:

Mid July sounds a lot like Halloween, except that now Halloween has become a holiday for entertainment, but Mid July still maintained it’s scary nature. China has several holidays for the dead, the most important one is Qingming festival. On this day, people would go to clean up the tombs of those who passed away, and offer libation. On Qingming Festival, it’s for people who are alive to cherish the memory of those who are dead; on Mid July, it’s more focused on those who are dead, and thus is scarier and there’re more taboos on this day.

Sumo Wrestling

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: gateway apartments
Performance Date: 4/25/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Informant CS is a student at USC who is currently studying physical therapy. He is Japanese, born and raised in Japan, and went to school at an international school in Japan.

What about sumo wrestling, tell me something about that since its a huge part of Japanese culture

CS: “Ok well, Japanese people have been doing sumo wrestling for forever. Probably for like… thousands of years. I learned in high school that a long time ago people would do sumo wrestling to pray for good crop and good weather. And then I think it became super popular and the Emperors loved it so they hosted tournaments and stuff. Since sumo wrestling became so popular, matches were created to raise money for temples and shrines and other government related things, and because of that a sumo wrestling league was created.”

Okay but whats the significance of it or is it just a sport?

CS: “Well, sumo wrestling matches happen on important days of the years, and there are always matches during festivals and stuff. I think sumo wrestling is just a way to show strength and people in Japan really love watching it.”

Thoughts: I always thought sumo wrestling was really interesting because it is a huge sport in Japan but is not seen anywhere else. Of course there are other forms of wrestling around the world, but none exactly like sumo wrestling, where the competitors are huge and wear only a towel. It’s really cool that something like sumo wrestling originated from farming, because neither one has anything to do with the other.

Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings)

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 58
Occupation: Art Teacher
Residence: Fullerton
Performance Date: 4/14/2017
Primary Language: Chinese

Informant KY is my aunt who was born and raised in Shanghai, and came to the states when she was in her late 20s.

KY: “a long time ago there was this dude, forgot his name, who was a war hero and a sick poet. He was loved by everyone and eventually became the emperor’s right hand man. The Emperor trusted him and listened to all of his advice. However, there began a rumor that this dude was a traitor and selling secrets to other nations, and the Emperor started believing this rumor. The guy was kicked outta nation and he just hung out on his own for a few years. Eventually he hears news that his nation has been invaded and defeated. The guy was so sad, because he really loved his country, he took a rock and drowned himself. People felt bad for him so they made these zongzi for his spirit and threw it in the river that he drowned himself in. One day as these people were throwing the zongzi the guy’s ghost floats up and was like ‘guys, the fish are eating all the food and I don’t get any’. So the people went home, put the zongzi in bamboo baskets and threw them into the river”

wait i thought they threw the rice because then the fish would eat the rice and not each the guy’s corpse

KY: “I don’t know man, thats what I remember…”

Thoughts: To me, this is a very familiar because zongzi is a large part of Chinese cuisine and culture, and I’ve heard of this story from my parents and my teachers too. Zongzi is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, which shows that it is a big part of Chinese culture. Anyways, this story just reminds me of when I was a kid and I would listen to my mandarin teacher tell us all these stories about why we eat different things during different Chinese festivals, and also reminds me of how much I miss home.

For another version of this story see: https://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2014/03/the-legend-behind-zongzi/ by Xiao Fan

The 12 Zodiac Signs

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 58
Occupation: Art teacher
Residence: Fullerton
Performance Date: 4/14/2017
Primary Language: Chinese

Informant KY is my aunt who was born and raised in Shanghai, and came to the states when she was in her late 20s.

KY: “I kind of don’t remember why they animals race. I think its because God wanted 12 guards or something, so the animals raced. The rat and the ox were the earliest to wake up so they raced. Eventually they came across a river that the rat couldn’t cross, so he jumped on the ox’s back. Once on the other side, the rat ran and got first place while the ox got second. Next came the tiger and rabbit cuz they were the fastest and most athletic. Following them in 5th place was the dragon. God saw dragon and was like damn you’re good looking your son can get 6th place. However, dragon’s son didn’t come and just then the snake shows up and says ‘I’m the dragon’s son’, making snake 6th place. Then came the horse and the goat, who were both really kind, so God ranked them 7th and 8th respectively. Eventually, the others, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig, came.”

The 12 zodiacs is a story that I had learned growing up and is present in my life a lot. Since one animal is represented each year in a cycle, your spirit animal is the animal of the year; mine is the ox. Often times my parents would ask people they just meet what their zodiac sign is to get a feel of the person. If they have the same zodiac sign people often bond over it. Zodiac sign also represents personality traits and love connections in Chinese culture. Zodiac signs are a really important part of Chinese culture and many other Asian cultures which is why it is very important to know where they came from.

 

“The Room”

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Case Clerk
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 2, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Spanish,

“It is just a, you know, one screen theater, one screen thing, and so the entire theater is totally packed, mostly with young people, you know, people in their twenties and thirties. And it’s just like packed. And we sit behind this group of college kids who explain to us that there is certain things that you have to do when certain scenes come up or when certain things come on screen and that one of the most important things is that you throw spoons when there is this picture of a spoon like sitting on the mantle of one of the things in the apartment and so they actually gave us some spoons so that we could do that. So we all four were sitting there going like ‘okay. What have we gotten ourselves into?’ And the movie starts and it is just ridiculous. And we suddenly … it is kinda like Rocky Horror Picture Show, where everybody has their certain things that they say so like when there is water shown, you know the ocean or something like that, everybody in the room screams water. Or, there is a bunch of parts where two of the main characters are throwing a football around so they throw a football. There’s all sorts of stuff like that throughout the entire movie, which is ridiculous in and of itself, so by the end of the night, we realized that this is some sort of like phenomenon that we’ve happened upon that none of us really knew what we were getting into.”

The informant was explaining the first time she went to see “The Room,” but has since been ten or more times since.

Before her first time going to see it though, she had known nothing about it, except that it was a film that something called “Rifftrax” had done (it is a website that has three guys watching a movie and making fun of it on a track you can play alongside the film at home). When she was a sophomore at USC, she saw an ad for a screening of the “The Room” in Westwood Village and asked her roommate if she would go with her. However, the movie screening started at 12am, so they decided it would be better to get a bigger group and asked the two guys that lived across the hall from them.

When the four of them got to the screening, they immediately saw people dressed up as characters from the film and reanacting scenes from the film, making them realize that this screening was a much bigger thing than they had believed. They also learned it was screened there every first Saturday of the month. The theater was filled with people between in their thirties, but also a lot of college students because of it being near two huge universities. It became clear to the informant that a lot of the audience members had been going to this for some time. On top of everything, a Scandinavian news program was there interviewing people as to how they came to find it. The four of them realized this wasn’t even just local, but was also known internationally.

After their first experience, the group started taking anyone they could convince to go. The group continued to grow and soon became a regular thing, with their own traditions building along with it of getting desert at Diddy Reese in Westwood Village, then getting tickets and waiting in line.

In regards to the actual screening, the informant explained that what is being yelled or acted out is usually led by a few people who are the loudest, with the rest of the audience following along with them. There are certain things that are always said, but there is also a ton of room for variation. People are always yelling out something entirely of their own, which sometimes will build into the “routine” of sayings.

The informant feels as if she has been accepted into this sort of cult surreptitiously. She felt even more exclusively in the group when the star, director, producer of the movie, Tommy Wiseau, came to a screening to sign autographs and she got her “Room” t-shirt signed by him.

The informant relayed this story to me while driving us back to Los Angeles. This informant is a relative. The informant has also taken me to see “The Room.”

Having personally experienced “The Room,” I can say I also am part of “The Room” group. This is solidified after you go the first time because you definitely feel like an outsider not knowing what or when to say the specific things. I found it to be an extremely fun experience, but I believe that it is made fun because of the group that you create. Inside jokes and memories are made there others will never understand until experiencing it for themselves.