Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

The Champions Chalice

Nationality: Malaysian

Occupation: Full time student

Residence: Baltimore, MD

Item: A silver vase called The Champion’s Chalice

Context: The informant played on a rugby team and told me about a tradition involving a silver vase nicknamed “The Champion’s Chalice” that a previous member of the team had stolen. After a win, the rugby team would gather and everyone would drink beer out of the vase to celebrate the victory. After every match the team would gather and drink, but the Chalice was only used following a victory.

Analysis: Both the vase itself and the use of it give insight into the brotherhood that forms within a rugby team. The origin of the vase was it being stolen; when it was first stolen, nobody on the team snitched about who stole it, showing a commitment to supporting teammates off the field. The ritual of drinking out of the vase following a win acts as a form of initiation into the team, and as an extension the brotherhood. For a new member of the team, they must prove their strength by contributing to a winning team, and once they have proven themselves they can share a drink alongside their teammates. For existing members of the team, the Chalice acted as a physical prop to commemorate a victory, and distinguish wins from losses.

Why can’t you trust an atom? Because they make everything up

Minor Genre: Jokes 

Text: Why can’t you trust an atom? Because they make everything up

Context: My informant has a strong relationship with this joke because it applies to the subject matter he is studying. He mentioned that he likes it when humor aligns with his daily life, and as an aerospace engineering major, he finds this joke entertaining. My informant first heard this joke from his ninth-grade physics teacher, who told it to the class. He said that it stuck with him since then and has made a reappearance in his academic career. Because of this, he feels like this joke has accomplished a full circle moment in his life and will continue to be relevant in his future employment. My informant mentioned that he uses this joke when talking to his fellow peers in a science setting. He said humor is a good way to make them laugh or cringe and create an initial friendship. However, when I asked him about it, he said he would use it outside of a science setting if it were around his friends. 

Analysis: In general, jokes fit into a specific cultural setting and make sense to those participating in that culture. For example, in the United States, most jokes like this tend to have a punch line at the end. This is typical of  American jokes, and for people growing up in this culture, it would not make sense to have a punch line at the start of a joke. Additionally, humor is key in social relationships, and as my informant mentioned, he uses this joke in science settings. This is because it is a science-related joke, and if he uses it in a science crowd, he is most likely to gain approval from them and be welcomed into their group. In this case, my informant is an active bearer by telling this joke to others in the engineering department. Still, he could also be a passive bearer by correcting someone if they say the joke incorrectly. 

Oro parece, plata no es, el que no lo adivine, muy bobo es

Minor Genre: Riddle

Text: 

  • Spanish: Oro parece, plata no es, el que no lo adivine, muy bobo es 
  • Transliteration: It looks like gold, it’s not silver; whoever doesn’t guess it is a fool 
  • Free Translation: It looks like gold, but it’s not silver; whoever doesn’t guess it isn’t very clever 

Context: For some context, the riddle’s answer is “plátano” (banana), which can be seen when it says “plata no es.” This riddle only makes sense in Spanish because of the wordplay. With that in mind, my informant mentioned that her relationship with the riddle is very personal. Growing up in Cuba, she ate a lot of bananas during dinner and once she had her children, this is a tradition she continued with them. Because of this, she would always use this riddle when at the dinner table with her children to see if they guessed it correctly. My informant first heard this in Cuba during her childhood. She said it is an extremely common riddle that everyone knows. However, she thinks she picked it up in school with her friends. My informant no longer uses this riddle because she considers riddles to be children’s entertainment, and since her children are grown up, she has nobody to tell them to anymore. She mentioned that when she read her children bedtime stories, this riddle would sometimes come up, reinforcing the idea that it was a children’s genre. 


Analysis: This riddle follows one of the typical characteristics of riddles: it is a play on language. In this case, it is a play on saying “plata no es,” as it’s not silver, and “plátano es” as it’s banana.  It’s also interesting that riddles are not common in the United States because Americans tend to think that language is set in stone, and coincidentally, this riddle is Hispanic. Another thing my informant mentioned that is a characteristic of riddles is the idea that they are a children’s genre, having to do with the idea that when you’re a child, you can still be imaginative with words. Something interesting about this riddle is that it has the word “bobo” at the end, which means dumb or foolish. In other versions of this riddle, they say “tonto” which, although translating to a very similar/almost exact thing, differs in its speakers. This riddle is a potential oicotype that may be more common in some Spanish-speaking countries as opposed to others.

A Long Lost Friend

Nationality: American

Age: 81

Occupation: Retired

Residence: Mill Valley, CA

Performance Date: December 1st, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION: 

“All right, a few years ago, normal morning I just woke up. I was gonna get up and go to to the bathroom. when I felt like I couldn’t get out of the bed. 
I felt like something was like sitting on me right I mean, I could still breathe and all, but I just felt like I couldn’t get up and I was thinking, is this a heart attack or something? And then finally I did get up and I went to the bathroom. I came back, got in bed and there, I felt it again. 
It was just like somebody sitting on me and and when I started with maybe I picked up my phone and looked at the date and it was July 2 and I suddenly remembered that that was the birthday of my best friend Leonore, who had died of breast cancer years before, and I think it was the first time I ever forgot her birthday and I think she was pissed that I forgot it. So after that, I mean after that everything went away and it was just that weird experience of having this presence there who didn’t hurt me, but was making herself known.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION:

JS: What do you think this appearance means spiritually?

MB: “I felt it related to our friendship, which started in sixth grade and we were she was my closest friend through high school and then once I started going with my husband uh and she she she developed an interest in Spanish culture. And she ended up um taking a job in Mexico and marrying a Mexican person there, had children with him and then later divorced him and she got tired of him and Mexico. 
And she came back and met a really wonderful guy who she married and they lived right in the East Bay until she developed breast cancer. She was she died at 49. It was terrible, so anyway, I felt it was just her maybe disappointment and a little annoyance that I had that remembered her birthday. 
But I didn’t feel it was evil. I mean, she wasn’t trying to kill me. Yeah like, “hey, it’s my birthday.””

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

Who can say for sure what our human connections to the afterlife or spiritual realm might be? There have been so many examples of people having near death experiences and describing similar sensations of light and hovering. It’s not hard to believe that Lenore paid a visit to MB, if not to just say hello, maybe to nudge MB to not forget her existence or her presence, even if only in spiritual form when she “sat on” her chest on her birthday. 

College Ghosts

Age: 19

Date: 12/3/24

Language: English

Collector’s Name: Lia

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

Subject: I haven’t personally experienced any ghost stories myself, but there is a story in my dorm about some freshmen with spirits. Would that work?

Interviewer: Definitely. Could you tell me a little about it?

Subject: Sure. Okay, in August of the 90s, three freshman guys were roommates. Two of the guys were trying to join a fraternity, and the last roommate was a little bit different from the other two. Let’s call him Jake. Jake spent a lot of time in his room alone, was not that conversational, and secluded himself from the other roommates. One night, Jake randomly invited the other two roommates to partake in a haunted ritual to connect with spirits. The roommates were excited that Jake might finally begin to open up, so they agreed. 

Interviewer: Wait, so there wasn’t any sort of hesitation from either of the roommates about a haunted ritual they are only just hearing about? 

Subject: No, not at all, really. They are teenage boys who likely felt invincible and thought the whole thing wasn’t real. Jake started telling them about how to perform the ritual, which needed to take place in the haunted dorm room of the college. The three roommates walked over to this room that nobody stays in anymore, and messed with the lock to get in. Jake instructed them on how to begin the ritual, where each person would stand in one corner of the room with their eyes closed, leaving one corner of the room vacant. In increments, all of the boys would switch corners. They repeated this process on Jake’s command until being told to abruptly stop. Jake told them all to slowly open their eyes and shift their heads to the vacant corner. They all did as he instructed, and in the corner was a boy, one that looked just about their age. He was a little bit translucent, and his eyes had been scratched out from their sockets. There was dried blood all over his hands. The most notable thing about him, they say, is just how silent he was. His presence could take noise away from anything around him and leave this empty silence. Until he began to scream. He screamed the loudest any of the boys had ever heard, and all of the roommates covered their ears with their hands. He continued to scream with his piercing, angry voice and then started to walk towards the roommates. Immediately they all ran out of the room, closing it behind them. They returned to their dorm, trying to find somewhere that felt safer. They locked themselves inside of their room and sat down trying to catch their breath. Slowly, one another looked at each other, noticing that each of their eyes had scratches around it, and were slowly starting to swell. 

Interviewer: Did anyone else in the dorm building hear any of this?

Subject: It is a very well-known story, but that night nobody but the three roommates heard anything. Now, people who have a dorm room near the haunted one claim that every once and a while they will hear screams through their wall, but only one room can hear it at a time. Nobody really knows who that boy is, or what his story is.