Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Predicting Future Children

Nationality: Hong Kong
Age: 48
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

When I was little, somebody had told me about this thing… that you can do, uh… supposedly, it’s supposed to help you predict how many kids you’re going to have when you’re older. Um… so what you do is, you make a fist, a tight fist, with your thumb over your other fingers and your hand… like, your palm is facing up, but you’re in a fist… and then you… with your other hand, squeeze the part of your palm that’s open, under your pinkie, and then there’s supposed to be these little balls or bulges or something that appear on your wrist… uh, and that’s the number of kids you’re going to have. And I think… I think the left hand is how many boys you’re going to have, and the right hand is girls. And I… I think it worked for me. I don’t remember if it was exactly right from when I was little, but I think it was pretty close to… to what I ended up having.

 

Thoughts:

The fact that this is something taught to girls at a young age reveals that there is a societal/cultural pressure on females to have children, and to start thinking about having children and fulfilling this social role from an early age. The desire to “predict” the number and gender of children a girl will have is perhaps a way for her to start preparing to have these children, as she enters her pubescent years.

Las Mañanitas

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 48
Occupation: Financial advisor
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Lyrics:

Estas son las mañanitas

Que cantaba el rey David

A las muchachas/los muchachos bonitos

Se las cantamos así

Despierta (nombre), despierta

Mira que ya amaneció

Ya los pajaritos cantan

La luna ya se metió

Translation:

This is the song of the morning

That King David sang

To the good-looking girls/boys

We sing it like this

Wake up (name), wake up

See that it has dawned

Now the little birds are singing

The moon has already set

 

Context: 

(In informant’s words:) “Las Mañanitas” is a Spanish song that we sing in Mexico on birthdays… I don’t know if they also sing it in other, uh… Latin American countries, but… we do it on everybody’s birthday in our family, and our friends in Mexico. And sometimes if we’re with close family, uh, like my parents or cousins or siblings, or in Mexico, there’s another verse that we sometimes… uh, add, which goes:

“Que linda está la mañana

En que vengo a saludarte

Venimos todos con gusto

Y placer a felicitarte

El día en que tú naciste

Nacieron todas las flores

En la pila del bautismo

Cantaron los ruiseñores

Ya viene amaneciendo

Ya la luz del día nos dio

Levántate de mañana

Mira que ya amaneció”

Translation:

“How lovely is the morning

On which I come to greet you

We’re all coming with relish

And pleasure to congratulate you

The day on which you were born

All the flowers were born

On the altar of baptism

Sang the nightingales

Now daybreak is coming

Now the light of day has reached us

Get up in the morning

See that it has dawned”

 

Thoughts:

It is interesting that this traditional birthday song revolves around the motif of morning and dawn to symbolize a new year of life for the birthday person, as well as other symbols of “new life” such as flowers and birds, which are also often used to represent springtime. It also contains images central to Christianity (King David, baptism), which is unsurprising for a song sung in a culture that is (traditionally) steeped in religion. This is, to my knowledge, the most common Spanish birthday song (perhaps now rivaled by a Spanish translation of the common English “Happy Birthday” song), and one that has, without fail, been sung at every single Mexican birthday I have attended, including my own.

 

Annotations:

For another version of the song (as well as videos of various performances) see:

“Las Mananitas.” Mexican Birthday Song, Explore Hispanic Culture, www.explore-hispanic-culture.com/las-mananitas.html.

Mordida

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 48
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

A tradition is… what we call… “la mordida,” or “the bite” in Mexico. And basically, it’s when somebody has a birthday, and they get their birthday cake, and after singing “Happy Birthday” to the person, everybody shouts, “Mordida! Mordida!” which means “the bite.” Or, “Take a bite! Take a bite!” And so the person has to take a bite out of the cake without using his hands, just directly with his mouth, and when he takes a bite, usually people will push… their whole… will push their head into the cake so their whole face ends up with cake.

 

Context:

It’s just a funny, festive… it’s good-natured humor… you know, let people know that they are being celebrated and that they’re special somehow and they get, uh, cake on their face. Uh… and it’s just funny because everybody has a different reaction, and everybody ends up with a different face after they take the bite and get the cake in the face. And… I enjoy it, it’s fun for me, and I enjoy it because I think it makes a lot of people laugh… it makes the kids laugh… it makes everybody kind of enjoy, have a good time… uh… be good-natured, be relaxed, and… just kind of go with, uh, go along with the joke and… kind of, uh… just have fun while they’re celebrating the birthday.

 

Background:

I learned it when I was a kid. Actually, I got surprised by… I learned it because they did it to me, and I wasn’t expecting it, that’s how I learned it. And they did it to me at a restaurant, and I just didn’t expect it… the first time that I did it, so… uh… I was a little surprised, but I, uh, laughed, and it was funny, and… all my family laughed as well, and then, uh, of course, I couldn’t wait until it was the next person’s birthday so then I could it to them. So… that’s how I learned it, and then I… we kept on that tradition… um… with our family and with all our cousins and all our friends, and, uh… I haven’t stopped doing it since I was a kid.

 

Thoughts:

This tradition points to an emphasis on humor and lightheartedly poking fun at the birthday person– sort of a way of bringing them back down on their special day, but not in a malicious way. It’s a way for everyone to be in accordance about what must happen and come together to, in a way, gang up on the birthday person, while including that person in the joke.

Boy Who Warmed His Parents’ Bed

Nationality: Hong Kong
Age: 48
Occupation: Quality Coordinator
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

There’s one I remember with… uh… this kid used to… in the wintertime, he used to warm up his parents’ bed by… you know, right before bedtime, he’d crawl in it and just sleep there or just lie there for, like… for a little while until it gets warm, so that when his parents go to bed, then the bed will be warm enough for them, you know?

 

Background:

You know, respecting the elders is a very big thing in China, so… so that’s one I remember hearing about a lot. Uh… my parents used to tell it to us a lot, and my older siblings also…. uh, told it, to… to… keep us entertained, I guess, since, you know, there were seven of us kids and not… not a lot of, um, space. And, and also, you know, to teach us to respect our parents and our elders, because, you know, I… we grew up in a very traditional… Chinese… Hong Kong family, so, so that was a very important value to my parents.

 

Thoughts:

It is a very important value in China (and in Confucianism) to respect one’s elders, so it makes sense that the story of a child making the effort to make his parents’ beds more comfortable would be a popular one in China, and that my informant’s parents and older siblings would often tell it to her and her siblings. It is meant to teach children to follow the example of this boy and try to help their parents and elders feel more comfortable in their old age.

 

Annotations:

For the full version of this story, see #19 in:

“The Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Respect: Their Stories & Verses In Praise.” The Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Respect, Kenyon College, www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/24-filial2.htm.

The Christmas Pickle

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: None
Residence: Scottsdale, AZ
Performance Date: 4/4/17
Primary Language: English

“We have a pickle Christmas ornament. This has been part of a tradition in our family since I was a little girl, and now I do it for my daughters. On Christmas Eve, after the kids go to sleep, I hide the ornament on a Christmas tree. We usually have a few trees set up around the house besides the main one in the living room and you can hang the pickle on any Christmas tree in your house. On Christmas morning, the rule is that no one mentions the pickle or prompts the kids to look for it, they just have to remember. Often everyone gets so caught up in opening presents that they completely forget about the pickle until later in the day. Anyways, the first person to find the pickle gets another little Christmas gift. For me though, I just end up getting the same little gifts for all my daughters no matter who finds it, but the one who did find it first gets bragging rights for the rest of the year.”

The informant is originally from the East Coast and has been carrying on this tradition from when her parents did it for her. She doesn’t know where it originally came from, but says she didn’t know of many other people who practiced it. She has also passed on the tradition to her family friends and now they partake it it as well.

This is a tradition that I assume is only followed by various Christians since it involves a Christmas tree ornament. It is a yearly tradition that occurs on Christmas within the home and among friends and/or family.

My family also partakes in this tradition and it has been in my family since I was a little girl. It was always fun on Christmas morning to wake up and see who could find the pickle first. There were many times were Christmas Day would go by and my sisters and I would forget all about it until our mom had to say, “Are you forgetting something?” Then of course we would all scramble over to the Christmas tree. I have to say I have been the pickle finding champion for about 3 years in a row now I think.

Here’s a possible reason for the Christmas Pickle becoming a popular tradition: https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/christmaspickle.shtml