Pre-Dinner Ritual

Text: 

The informant ate sit-down dinners with his immediate family every night growing up. Before they ate, they would always hold hands and say a few words, almost like a prayer.

Context:

While this dinnertime tradition is very common among religious households, the informant’s family is nonreligious, not subscribing to any organized religion. Instead of a typical prayer, the informant’s family’s “prayer” was said to no one in particular, and was often expressing gratitude. 

Analysis:

This tradition is a very common one, however, is usually affiliated with some level of religious background. Seeing it done without a religious background shows a lot about the shared values that both religious and non-religious people have in common. Although the informant’s family is not giving a prayer of gratitude to anyone in particular, it is still important for them to be grateful for their meal. In this sense, the tradition also seems to bring the family together and work as a bonding ritual with which to connect with each other every night through their gratitude. The informant’s lack of religious intent with his prayer shows that when a prayer of gratitude is not said to any particular deity or entity, its ability to bring a group, like the informant’s family, together seems to hold just as much weight as the ritual/prayer’s original purpose.

Hiccup Remedy

Folk Medicine/Remedy:

When someone has hiccups, they should drink water hunching over from the farthest side of the glass, and then the hiccups will go away. 

Context: 

The informant learned this folk remedy from her father when she was very young. She doesn’t have many home remedies within her family, so she always remembers this one very vividly whenever she has hiccups. She also remembers very vividly the times that her father helped her with this remedy growing up.

Analysis:

This, like many different folk remedies and medicines, is not easily proven to work through science. Regardless, the informant says that it has always worked for her. Whether this folk remedy is placebo or has truth to it, it tells us that the remedies that families and communities pass on to each other stick around not only because of their proven effectiveness as a cure or remedy, but also because of the memories that they create and how they bring people together. 

This folk remedy is an example of a ritual that carries just as much value in its effect of bringing groups together as it does in actually serving its original purpose. Further, remedies like this hiccup remedy continue to be passed on, again, not just because of their effectiveness in curing hiccups, but because of the sense of identity and community with which they provide their practitioners with the memories made in the act of sharing them.

May Day Dance Performance

Ritual Dance Performance:

At the informant’s elementary school in Hawaii, every May Day there is a celebration where the students perform traditional Hawaiian song and dance.

Context:

The informant went to elementary school in Hawaii and moved to California in the fourth grade. Within her four years of elementary school in Hawaii, this annual celebration was a very big deal, and she spent one day each week practicing Hula throughout the year in preparation for the May Day dance performances. 

Analysis: 

The performance of traditional Hawaiian song and dance on May Day in the informant’s elementary school, as well as the largeness of the May Day celebration, is a clear example of a folk group actively keeping their culture alive. Especially in places like Hawaii that have become part of larger countries like the United States, it is evidently very important to find ways to keep cultural practices thriving. It is clear that celebrations like these are done with the intention to pass culture along to the youth, as well as to celebrate said culture together. Performances of traditional song and dance provide community members with a sense of shared identity as well, likely aiding in making the informant’s school’s May Day celebration so excitedly anticipated throughout each year. Celebrations involving song and dance are very good ways of keeping culture alive and celebrated, because in music and dance performances, everyone involved can participate to some extent, whether they are the performers or audience members.

Driving Through Tunnel Ritual

Text: 

Whenever the informant drives through a tunnel, she holds her breath and honks her horn for the duration of the drive until exiting the tunnel.

Context:

The informant has known this ritual her entire life, growing up in Northern California, where there are many hills and mountains to drive through. Her family has always done it, and she has continued the tradition of this ritual to her friends all over California. The ritual feels like such second nature to the informant that she instinctively holds her breath and honks her horn in any tunnel. In different regions of California, some drivers alongside her do not honk their horns at all, and are alarmed at her doing it. However, where she is from, the tunnels are always filled with honking horns by default, and it is never questioned. 

Analysis:

Upon doing more research about this particular ritual, it is clear that this is just one variation of many similar rituals. To some in different regions of California, the honking of the car horn is never involved, and the ritual only involves holding one’s breath. To others, the ritual also includes saying the first fruit that you can think of as soon as you leave the tunnel. 

This variation in such a common ritual, whether it is regional or just specific to each person and unrelated to geographical location, shows how far folklore can spread when its practitioners all have a shared experience. In this example, the shared experience is driving in tunnels through hills or underground. Whatever the variation of the tunnel ritual is, its existence and popularity shows the discomfort that many drivers must have with driving through tunnels. After all, why else would such rituals be so popular? 

It is very common for rituals to arise out of fear and superstition, and the popularity of this tunnel ritual is a perfect example of our tendency to create rituals that make us feel like we have more control in situations where we feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

Rumors of a Mexican Village

In the small village from where my parents are from (in rural Zacatecas, Mexico), on the foot of the biggest hill in the area lies a secret, well hidden entrance to a tunnel leading deep inside where it is said to lead to a stolen treasure dating back to the Mexican Revolution. The inside of the hill is so dark not even a lamp helps navigate through it. A river also runs through the inside of the hill which supposedly leads to said treasure. Some people have allegedly ventured inside to try and retrieve it, tying ropes around their waist from the entrance so as to not get lost. No one has been able to find this mysterious treasure. 

This is a very popular tale told around amongst the community from where my parents come from and it tends to jumps back and forth between a simple tale of fiction and a probable rumor depending on who is telling the story.

The way I’ve heard this story be told sounds to me like things parents would tell their children similar to that of a legendary tale of lost treasure, a common theme in children’s stories that circulate around the families of this ranch including my own.