Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Lunar New Year

My informant usually does not do as much as some other people may do on Lunar New Year because her parents are immigrants and the culture is not as strong here, but they typically have a large spread of different foods that are typically eaten during New Years and they eat together while watching the official Chinese broadcast of the Lunar New Year celebrations. They usually wear something red, as it is a lucky color and in old Chinese legends, it was one of the things that scared away a monster. Depending on the year, they might also have family friends over for a potluck.

My informant would celebrate on the lunar New Year’s Eve, the day of Lunar New Year, and the celebration lasts for 15 days after the first day. The 15th day is the lantern festival and she eat tangyuan for good fortune. In China, this celebration is a holiday so most people go home to celebrate. However, my friend lives in the United States, so they usually celebrate on their own, have friends come over and video call their extended family. They perform this because they believe it will bring their family good fortune over the next year. Each food item has special symbols, like fish being a homophone for a surplus or wealth, for good fortune as well as other things to “beckon” good fortune, health and general wishes for wellbeing in.

Such things include red outside the house. Firecrackers are also used because of an old myth that a monster kept attacking a village and the village realized they could use the color red and firecrackers to scare the monster away.

It appears that this tradition is widely practiced and based heavily on old myths and is adaptable even outside of the region that the tradition originated from. While the ritual may have changed as the United States does not have a holiday everywhere for Lunar New Year and they are further from their extended family, they found a way to celebrate and continue to complete this good fortune ritual and celebrate.

Candle Dancing

Whenever my informant’s Indonesian family members would visit, her mom would watch candle dancing with them. When asked about what a candle dance is, she replied that it is a graceful Indonesian dance where they would hold candles and it is a ritual they would do together whenever they met up.

She says that she herself had never seen a candle dance, but her mom would talk about it and how she thought it was the most beautiful thing growing up, and that her mom always looked forward to watching the dances.

This ritual appears to be something nostalgic and done more to remember and connect with an identity rather than something religious.

A Long Neck Means Good Fortune

My informant told me about how her grandmother said that if you have a very long neck, it is a sign that you will be successful. Her grandmother would tell this to her sister, who had a long neck. My informant does not believe in it however. Her grandmother had a lot of random proverbs, so even though she Is open to it, she doesn’t think of it as a law. My informant also told me that she did not have a long neck, and thus she was more inclined not to believe in the fortune her grandmother gave her sister.

It seems as if this proverb is the conclusion of a ritual of fortune telling her grandmother does. Whether it is believed or not seems irrelevant as the simple words boost the confidence of the individual with a long neck.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American Christmas Eve celebration. J’s family has been celebrating with this feast just for the past few years, and he says it allows them to connect with their culture and ethnic community. In accordance with online descriptions of the grand meal, the “essentially have a dinner party with 7 different fish cooked into the dishes.”

According to Eataly, the tradition was started by Italian immigrants in the U.S. in the early 1900s and while the exact origins/meanings are difficult to trace, “the ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, including Christmas. The number seven is rooted back in ancient times and it can be connected to multiple Catholic symbols…” Therefore, like for J’s family, one can presume that both the meals and symbolism present were reminiscent of “home” for early participants in the Feast.

He believes it to be a celebration of abundance and the “being better off” that comes with immigrating to the U.S. as well as a ritualistic acknowledgement by Italian Americans of their cultural history and the sacrifices and hard work of their ancestors.

Two Weddings

It is apparently common for Nigerian immigrants to the U.S. to have two weddings when they get married: one here in the States, either in American traditional style or in hybridized cultural fashion, and one back in Nigeria, following (often pre-colonial) traditions of their tribes. 

For example, the Nigerian (Igbo) immigrant parents of Chika, a Bay Area native, had a typical “white wedding” in the U.S., and another in Nigeria during which his mom and dad “walked through his [dad’s] neighborhood with everyone playing music and dancing on the way to the ceremony.”

This practice makes complete sense in the context of ceremonial rites of passage like weddings being ritualized and performed publicly in order for transitions and new identities to be communicated to and recognized by community members. Being that Nigerian immigrants often have at least two international communities, each with their own cultural norms and social categories, it can be affirming of new relationships developing on the intersection of both to have two weddings.