Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Brick Wall Waterfall

Nationality: polish
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 20-year-old College Student. She has a predominantly Polish heritage.

My informant gave me a children’s song that she remembers very vividly from when she was very young. The song goes as follows:

“Brick wall waterfall (insert person’s name) thinks he/she knows it all,
but you don’t and I do, so poof with that attitude. No peace punch captain crunch I got something that you can’t touch, bing bang choo choo train wind me up and I’ll do my thang, no Reese’s Pieces seven up, mess with me and I will mess you up”

Informant: “Kids would chant this on the playground if someone was being mean or annoying to them. It’s what they would say as like a sassy remark. As someone who got made fun of a lot I would use this quite often because I was too scared to try to be clever so it was my go-to response”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because it shows how children in their youth deal with such instances like being made fun of. In order to combat these mean kids, my informant had learned this “defense song”. A few interesting things about this song are that the song reflects someone who is strong willed. They portray themselves as someone who will “mess you up” if they overstep their boundaries. At the same time there are multiple references to popular culture like seven up and Reese’s Pieces.

Roll Calls

Nationality: Italian, english, dutch, irish
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is an 18-year-old College student who is from San Francisco. His ethnicity is Dutch, Irish, and English, and Italian.

My informant played many sports when he was growing up so I asked him if he had any sort of initiation or rites of passage within any of these sports. He remembered performing what he called, “roll calls”, on buses for football games and this act was in a way a rite of passage for some people.

Informant: “A roll call is just a four line song that you make up on the spot. It always starts the same way. So someone would start by yelling, “break em off break em off 1-2-3”, then the rest of the bus would yell the team’s name who we were on our way to play, so lets just say we were playing the dolphins, they would say, “dolphins dolphins 1-2-3”. Then the person who has the roll call would stand up. The structure of the little songs, I guess they are songs, are all the same also. Ill try to make one up right now, so, “My name is Cole”, and then everyone else on the bus yells, “yeah” in between, so let me start over. “My name is Cole” (yeah), “I’m such a bore” (yeah), “I make my friends” (yeah), “give me folklore”. They are usually really clever and target one single person. They are fun though they aren’t meant to be mean, but sometimes they get a little crazy. I think this in a way can be a rite of passage cuz like, if you are not the most popular guy, but you make a really good roll call, everyone is going to think you’re funny and you kind of earn respect in that way. It is kind of weird I know”

Analysis: I thought this was a really good example of a rite of passage. It is a little different from maybe other rites of passage that are taken more seriously and are recognized as a rite of passage. This rite of passage is not directly referred to as a rite of passage and even my informant made a comment about this and how he did not really see it as a rite of passage as it was happening, but he had realized it much later after the fact. I think there are a lot of small ways that rites of passages are conducted and many of them are not as direct as we might think. Sometimes these rites of passage take some reflecting on in order to realize their effects.

Military weddings

Nationality: United States
Age: 32
Occupation: Marine Corps Staff Sergeant
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 23APR2015
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Informant Background:

This Informant is a staff sergeant in the United States Marine Corps with numerous tours under his belt. He’s currently a MECEP in the USC Naval battalion. He’s married with a kid on the way.

 

Informant’s Story:

“When me and my wife got married, we had a normal military wedding. Its like a normal wedding except I wear my Dress Uniform and  there’s a weapons arch at the end. Officers have a saber arch, and enlisted guys like me have a rifle arch. The guys doing the arch are generally your friends. So you wait there for them to do the arch, then you walk through, stop and take a picture. After that you keep going through but they stop you before you leave and giver your wife a swat on the butt and say ‘welcome the Marine Corps Ma’am,’ or whatever branch your in. After that its just like the rest of a normal wedding. Just pictures & sh**.”

Analyses:

This wedding ceremony is preformed by most, if not all, members of the military. The arch is incredibly symbolic. It symbolizes a liminal point in which the non-military spouse transfers over to becoming a military spouse after they walk through the arch. The arch also symbolizes military life. The weapons represent the protection and support of the U.S military and are held by the military members friends. The stop and subsequent swat symbolizes the many obstacles and hardships that the couple will have to endure as the military life is not for the faint of heart. The wedding is planned like any other wedding ceremony and doesnt not require any special permission to make it an “official” military marriage, as long as the military customs are followed.

‘guten Appetit’

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC, studying international relations. She is involved in many student organizations,

Informant: My dad’s side of the family is all German so whenever we would go to my grandmother’s house for dinner we would always have to say the normal dinner greeting things that are part of German culture. It’s basically saying thank you for the food and let’s eat. I haven’t said it in five years so I forgot the term.

Analysis: The informant later informed me that the term is “guten Appetit,” a relatively simple and self-explanatory phrase that means in English: enjoy your meal. To her however, this was folklore because she does not speak German and learned to say the phrase through a family, repeating it as a ritual before a dinner at her grandmother’s house. The most interesting part of this piece of folklore was that the informant forgot the substance of the folklore — what it is she actually said — but remembered the folklore and its purpose. Thus, the folklore for her was largely symbolic. It represents something and has meaning and value detached from the words that comprise it. Perhaps this is why folklore must be performed and is distinguished from authored literature. In essence, the informant remembered the performance but forgot the script. But that’s not what mattered for her. What mattered is what the folklore meant and what it represented, and she got it pretty much correct. “It’s basically saying thank you for the food and let’s eat” is not too far off from “enjoy your meal.”

Break On 2…

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 28
Primary Language: English

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC, studying international relations. She is involved in many student organizations, including Break On 2, a dance troupe.

Informant: At the end of every Break On 2 Practice or before a show, we’ll always do our cheer and count to three and do whatever. But since it’s on two, we’ll break on two. I don’t know how long we’ve been doing it but it’s definitely been a five or ten year thing. I think it started a long time ago. They teach it to you when they first join the team. The president of the org. teaches it to the new members when you are allowed onto the team.

Analysis: I found this folklore interesting because it serves as both a custom and a form of initiation. It’s how, this informant says, new members are brought into the group when they are “allowed onto the team.” At the same time, it is also something they do at the end of practice or before a show, presumably as good luck and to show community, that they are in it together, which is perhaps why it is important that the folklore is linked to initiation. The folklore, in this way, provides a space to express community and to belong in the group. It was also interesting that the informant did not know how it originated except that it had been going on for several years, suggesting that it is something passed down again and again.