Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

The Day of the Dead

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 19
Residence: Mexico City, Mexico
Performance Date: April 26, 2016
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Informant: Nicolas Williams who is 18 and from Mexico City, Mexico. He is a student at USC that I interviewed. This is his favorite holiday to celebrate in Mexico.

The Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos): ” It’s on November first and every year we make a table, called an ofrenda, with pictures of our relatives that have died. Then we make all the food that they liked and we add flowers in order to honor them. Then there is a big party and we light candles and celebrate their deaths. Our family throws a big party every year and after we go and walk in a huge parade to the cemetary where we put flowers, usually orange, and gifts on the graves of our relatives. Everyone dresses like skeletons and in bright colors, some look actually really scary. It is similar to halloween in America I guess but a lot more about celebrating and honoring those who have died. We spend a long time preparing, usually a month because it is such a big deal in our family. We also eat bread of the dead and its very sweet and delicious. My favorite part is the parades because even though we are honoring the dead, everyone is happy and upbeat and its a great time to remember and pray for everyone that I love who has died”

More information can be found here on the holiday:

“November 2nd – the Day of the Dead, All Soul’s Day.” The Day of the Dead. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.unm.edu/~htafoya/dayofthedead.html>.

Day of the Dead Alter

Day of the Dead, Nicolas’s picture

Australian Christmas

Nationality: American/Australian
Age: 19
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: April 27, 2016
Primary Language: English

 

Informant-Kendal Gee: 18, from Chicago. Her family is from Australia. Interview in person.

Holiday: Australian Christmas

            “In our family we celebrate Christmas slightly differently even though we live in America we have some Australian traditions. When we wake up instead of going to the tree we go to the end of our bed where there are Santa Sacks. Our parents leave Christmas parents for you under the tree but Santa put your presents in a sack at the end of your bed. It’s super traditional in Australia and my mother is from Australia so she wanted to keep the tradition with us. We also always have a lamb roast and brandy pudding because its an Australian tradition. Also, my grandfather used to invite us all over to his house and he would dress up as Santa and run around a pole in the yard and then come back to the house and he would end up in someone’s bedroom and give us each a present. That was something my mothers father did for her as a child growing up so they brought it to America with them but I am not sure if that’s traditional in Australia.”

Thoughts: Kendal is one of my best friends and often talks about her Australian traditions but I had never heard this one until I interviewed her. The traditions are all new to me but I think its awesome that even though her mother doesn’t live in Australia and Kendal never has, they maintain the traditions to teach them about their heritage.

New Years in Brazil

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 19
Residence: Brazil
Performance Date: April 24, 2016
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: Spanish

Informant-Beatriz Jacobs: My roommate, Beatriz Jacobs who is originally from Brazil and lives there with her family. New years is her favorite holiday and a huge tradition in Brazil.

Brazilian New Year. Interviewed in person.

New Years in Brazil: “It is tradition in Brazil that they wear white and I have never seen any other culture that does this but they always do it even if they’re not in Brazil. Everything we do is basically to bring luck for the next year. These things bring luck: white, only white clothing in malls before New Years, some times people paint their nails to signify different things, such as yellow signifying that you are going to find love. Also for New Years every Brazilian goes to the beach. I am from Sao Paulo so we don’t live by the beach but we still go to my beach house. It’s the biggest thing to go to the beach even if you don’t have money people tent on the beaches. “Pulando As Sete Ondinhas” is jumping the seven little waves and its very traditional. So basically what we do is we go to the very edge of the ocean where the waves crash and for each wave we jump it and we jump seven tiny waves. For each wave we make a wish for the next year, like a new years resolution. Seven is supposed to be a holy number and at the end we have this flower that we throw out to the ocean as an offering to the Sea God. She is supposed to help us grant our wishes for the new year. It is also traditional to eat turkey and lentils and grapes and they are also supposed to bring luck. We also eat “Rabanada” and it is like a really sweet French toast that I love. And that is our desert after the dinner on New Years. In Rio, New Years is huge and there is parades and fire works shows and I love going there to celebrate. At my beach, there are two beaches that are conjoined, one is bigger than the other but they are right next to each other separated by a river. Every year there is a sort of competition between the two beaches for who has the best firework show. And of course it always ends with a huge party and the party goes all night, it’s the best time.”

Thoughts: I love hearing more about my roommate’s culture and it is so interesting. The Brazilian traditions are very different from America and I think they are really beautiful. I especially like how their new year’s resolutions are in the form of jumping waves.

Breaking of the Glass and the Huppah in Jewish Wedding Tradition

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 67
Occupation: Reverend
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: April 10, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant is a 67-year-old Mexican-American woman who is a reverend. She is known for tailoring wedding receptions to couples from different cultural backgrounds, and in her words “taking old traditions and giving them new meaning.” Many consider her to be the “guru of new wedding traditions.”

While out to breakfast while the informant was visiting me in Los Angeles, I asked her to describe any wedding ritual or tradition that has stood out to her throughout her time as a reverend. Her response was as follows,

“Well, there are many traditions drawn from each culture, and the couple always gets to choose which they would most like to incorporate. One in particular that is almost always a part of weddings where the bride or groom is Jewish is the breaking of the glass. I’d say 99% of the time if either of the two is Jewish, they’ll do this. Basically, I bless a wine glass, wrap it up in a linen cloth, and place it at the groom’s feet. He then stomps on it. This represents how fragile life is and dates back to the suffering of the Jews. In some weddings, the breaking of the glass is done under a huppah, a cloth that is held up to create a canopy over the bride and groom. The four ends of the cloth represent the four directions, and the couple standing underneath it means that they will build a life and home together.”

On the surface, the breaking of the glass is a lighthearted wedding ritual that is fun for both the groom and all who watch him perform it. Under normal circumstances it is taboo to purposefully shatter a glass, and the ridiculousness of the groom doing so on purpose serves as a source of laughter for the wedding attendees. The significance of the ritual is actually very heavy, representing the ease at which our lives can be taken and the history of persecution that the Jewish people have endured. It is most likely important for the fragility of life to be highlighted at such an important transition in one’s life as a wedding to serve as a reminder to the bride and groom, along with the audience, not to take one another for granted and to make each day special. I asked the informant the significance of the huppah representing the four cardinal directions, and she responded that she was not entirely sure. Since the couple standing underneath the canopy during the ceremony is symbolic of their future life together, it is possible that the four directions provide a physical representation of the permanent connection forged between the newlyweds—no matter where in the world they may be, they are connected to one another beneath their commitment to marriage.

The Lazo and Arras in Mexican Wedding Tradition

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 67
Occupation: Reverend
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: April 10, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant is a 67-year-old Mexican-American woman who is a reverend. She is known for tailoring wedding receptions to couples from different cultural backgrounds, and in her words “taking old traditions and giving them new meaning.” Many consider her to be the “guru of new wedding traditions.”

When out to breakfast with the informant while she was visiting me in Los Angeles, I asked her if there were any Mexican rituals or traditions that she often incorporated in her weddings. She responded,

“Oh yes. The lazo and arras ceremony. Before the couple takes their vows, the maid of honor and the best man take a lazo (a rope) and wrap it around the bride and groom. This symbolizes to the community that the bride and groom are now one. The arras is 13 coins representing Jesus and the 12 apostles. I bless the coins and pour them into the groom’s hands. He then pours these into the bride’s hands. This symbolizes to the community that he will take care of her. Nowadays, because women want to be viewed as equals, often times the groom will pour las arras into the bride’s hands, and the bride will then pour them back into the groom’s hands, showing that she will take care of him, just as he will her, spiritually, emotionally, and financially.”

This ritual, which the informant often performs when marrying an individual with a Mexican cultural background to someone without this background, is symbolic of the spiritual, emotional, and physical commitments that come with marriage. It is typically performed at weddings where one or both partners practice the Christian faith, because of the parallel between the thirteen coins and Jesus and the 12 apostles. However, the informant stated that the ceremony is still sometimes conducted during secular weddings due to family tradition. It is interesting to examine how this form of folklore has evolved over time to reflect the cultural norms in which it is performed, as it was once held that the man is entirely responsible for taking care of his bride, but with the recent push for gender equality across all spectra of life it is now also important for the woman to show she will take care of her groom. The lazo is a public display of a couple’s commitment to one another, and highlights the permanent merging of two individual’s lives as a result of their marriage.