Vietnamese Wedding Gifts

Nationality: United States
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Northern California. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as DD. I am marked as DG.

 

DD: “So it’s a little bit of folklore about this necklace, which is actually a folk object of mine. And, um, so in Vietnamese families there is a tradition of the…groom’s parents giving a gift to the bride, um, right before the wedding… And so this necklace is what my dad’s mom gave to my mom to commemorate their, um, wedding, and …. I, my mom never really wore it and it was kind of just put away because my mom just kind of has a lot of old jewelry she never wore. And I was looking through some of our old stuff because we were moving out my senior year after my grandma passed away, and my mom found it and asked if I wanted to keep it to, you know, remember my grandmother. And I remember–you know I haven’t taken it off, except maybe when im competing, or when I’m, like, going anywhere I might lose it. It…feels…well, like, similar to when you wear something and you don’t take it off, it feels weird. So, um, whenever I’m not wearing the necklace I feel myself reaching for my neck to go touch it. It does feel…it’s a nice reminder that, um, well in my family we have this belief that our ancestors never…it’s not that they really leave us, there is an afterlife and my grandmother is kind of watching us and if I ask for help she’ll be there for us.”

 

The piece is a small blue rectangular jade necklace, wrapped in silver.

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in the sun on a bench on a university campus. The giving of the gift was to be given before a marriage between two families, and the interviewee was given the necklace after the death of her grandmother.

 

Background:

 

The student was born and raised in Northern California. She is a sophomore at the University of Southern California. Although she was born in Northern California, her entire family is from Vietnam, and she is one of the first generation to be born in the United States.

 

Analysis:

 

What I like about this piece of folklore is that the giving of it was a folklore act, with the groom’s parents giving the bride a gift being a tradition. However, then the interviewee was later given the necklace to remember her grandmother. What I like then is that the necklace picks up a new form of folklore belief–the belief that her grandmother is able to watch over her, and then when she touches the necklace she knows that her grandmother is there. This then pulls upon two folklore categories: myths, with the afterlife, and superstition, with the belief that the touching of the item will speak to her grandmother, in a way. It’s a touching and warm folklore item.

MY DEVIL HUSBAND

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 45
Occupation: Endoscopy technician
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 04/05/18
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: english

STORY

I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason and I went to the kitchen and I saw my husband staring at me. He was smoking and I don’t like that he smokes inside of the house so I told him what are you doing turn that off and he just looked at me and you wouldn’t stop looking at me. He had such a scary look in his eyes and I started to get a scared and then he started to laugh. I then turn to the living room and I see my husband lying down on the couch sleeping and I run to him and I jump on top of him and I scream and I tell him wake up wake up and I told him what I saw and then that figure was gone.

Background: The informant experienced this encounter firsthand and she feels really strongly about this.  she believes that her husband at the time was allowing bad spirits and energy to get inside of him and manipulate him because of his regular drug use back then. She believes that bad spirits and energies come inside of you when you are doing drugs and sinning.  she says what she saw was a bad spirit doing the thing she hated him doing the most. it is very meaningful to her because she will never forget the face that looked back at her and looking at her actual husband sleeping on the couch. The house they were living in had bad spirits in it as well.  you would hear things at night and it was said when the land was bought out, they had found unborn babies buried in the dirt. It was said to be an abortion clinic when abortions were illegal.

Analysis

This story  reveals a lot  of both haunting of houses and demons mixed together. The idea that the spirits of the babies and the oldness of the house haunted the informant made the idea of a demon entering more real. many demon stories do occur when something bad is traveling into  the house. This marriage was already bad and the alcohol and drug use would not stop. This can create tension and stress leading up to events that are difficult to explain

Botellita de jerez Todo lo que digas sera al revez

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: San diego
Performance Date: 04/18/18
Primary Language: Spanish

Folk Metaphor

This saying was told by my grandmother  to me which has helped me throughout my life especially when people were being mean to me in school. In English it just means that everything that you say will be backwards so it will go back to you This meaning really helps you fight off those mean words that people tell you in school. You say this and everything that they say is basically going back to them and it really means that what they’re telling you is them telling themselves that.

Background

The significance of this metaphor to the informant was that no matter what people said , with this saying you can turn all the bad things on to them. it was like a magic Karma spell. It has a lot of meaning because it takes way the pain of being called names or being picked on.  The informant like sit because it rhymes and its unique .

Analysis

This is from Mexico and this saying is very  popularly and  this expression refers to everything you want for someone is going to return, or you’re going to return everything you said; or everything you say will be used against ..With this in mind, it is better not to wish anyone badly, or to say things that can be used against you.

HELLO DEVIL

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles CA
Performance Date: 04/24/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Story

There’s a story that I have heard about Hello Kitty and the reason why she doesn’t have a mouth. The story starts off with a mother trying to save her daughter from mouth cancer and so she sells her soul to the devil and the devil explains that if she makes a figure that has no mouth she will earn enough money to cure her daughter from cancer so she created Hello Kitty Hello Kitty means hello devil or yeah something like hi devil and it’s supposed to represent the devil so Hello Kitty is actually the devil. This was around the 1980s then the daughter was saved and the mother became very rich because of the creation of this character but it can affect us in the future which is really scary because now everybody has Hello Kitty plastered everywhere and Hello Kitty was such a huge brand and still is a very huge brand that they have stores and restaurants just based on that doll or character from Japan.

 

Analysis

I have heard about this theory before and it shocks me on how real it gets. It is said to be a legend of a 70 year old chines woman  whose daughter was dying of cancer. she prayed and went to many churches which did nothing. That made her turn to the devil for instant gratification. she had made a pact with the devil. according to an online site “The mother was asked to create a character that would be famous all around the world. Satan wanted to attract as many people as possible and win new followers who would do everything for him. Buying this “doll” would be an involuntary offer for the devil. Some say that possessing this toy makes the demon stronger”  The evidence presented for this theory is that 1.) the kitty doesn’t have a mouth like the girl with mouth cancer, 2. The pointed ears are like the horns of satan, and 3.) kitty means demon in Chinese. The belief and legend behind this story is the fear of the devil regaining his power and being stronger than god.

the beamer

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/23/18
Primary Language: English

Tradition

My school called High-Tech high is one of the very new charter schools that opened up in North County of San Diego and I had been there since 6 grade in 2011 when they were still in the mobile classrooms sort of thing before they built the new Middle School. I was in the mobile classrooms for  2 years Before they had built the new Middle School. The mobile classrooms meant a lot to my childhood especially my first years in middle school and a lot of things happened. There was a lot of exhibitions and projects and memories of going into the office and the nurse and when they built the new Middle School we were the very first graduating promoting 8th grade class of High-Tech middle school. In the new middle school they had a huge bar like a huge Beamer not a bar but a beamer That was supposed to be built into the building but before they had built in the Beamer into the building they had us all sign our names and it is visible in the building for everyone to see and for my class to come back in 30 years and be able to see the Beamer with my name on it which is I wouldn’t say a tradition but just day kind of like a tradition that will live there until my kids hopefully see it one day.

Meaning

The meaning behind the beamer  is basically tradition and generation. It meant a lot to the informant because of longevity. They were the first graduating class of that fresh middle school, and that means after thirty years, there name will still be up there