Making Daisy Chain

Text:

Context:

This text was collected from a close friend of mine, who shared a photo of a daisy chain she had made. Daisy chain making is a traditional craft in which flower stems are linked together to create a wearable object, typically worn as a crown or bracelet. I learned the technique from a YouTube tutorial and subsequently taught it to my friend in person, who then practiced independently and shared the result. The practice is typically associated with outdoor settings and leisure time, and carries a nostalgic aesthetic. My friend photographed only half of the finished chain, suggesting the image was shared casually and informally rather than as a deliberate documentation of the craft.

Analysis

This piece raises interesting questions about the boundaries of folklore in the digital age. The transmission chain here — YouTube to me to my friend — exemplifies the post-modern collapse between oral and digital culture, where informal skill-sharing that once happened exclusively face-to-face now moves fluidly between online and interpersonal contexts. The YouTuber functions as what Von Sydow would call an active tradition bearer, putting a personal spin on a widely shared traditional craft and broadcasting it to a mass audience, yet the craft itself remains folkloric because it exists in multiplicity and variation and is disseminated informally. The in-person transmission from collector to friend represents the more classical folk process, learning by demonstration and example rather than through any official instruction. This piece also connects to discussions of folklorism: daisy chain making is an ancient craft now circulating through commercial platforms like YouTube, raising questions about whether the folk process is preserved or subtly transformed when it moves through digital spaces. The craft’s persistence across these shifting transmission channels speaks to its deep roots as a form of vernacular, embodied knowledge.




Senior ditch day: rites of passage

Text:

Senior Ditch Day was something I experienced — or at least knew about — at both high schools I attended. For context, I transferred halfway through my junior year from one high school to another for personal reasons. The concept of Senior Ditch Day was that once a year, typically in spring, all the seniors would collectively skip a single day of school. What you did on that day was entirely up to you — some people just slept in, others went out with friends, like to Great America. As long as you weren’t doing anything illegal, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted. It was just meant to be a day to decompress.

It wasn’t officially sanctioned by the school, but it was something each senior class would organize among themselves. Some teachers would actually anticipate it, because they knew it was tradition. Seniors could also use their one permitted absence on that day if they hadn’t used it already.

Personally, I wasn’t able to participate in Senior Ditch Day, which is both funny and a little sad in hindsight. It landed during AP testing week, specifically on the day I had AP Music Theory. On top of that, I had a makeup test in my Psychology class the same day. So unfortunately, I missed out entirely.

Context:

This text was collected from a college student who attended two different high schools in California. She shared this piece conversationally, recounting Senior Ditch Day as a tradition she was aware of at both schools, suggesting it circulates widely across different institutions rather than being unique to one. Senior Ditch Day is an unofficial, student-led tradition in which the entire senior class collectively skips one school day, typically in spring, to spend time however they choose. Notably, the tradition exists without institutional sanction — and yet some teachers acknowledge and anticipate it, placing it in an interesting middle ground between school folklore and quietly tolerated custom.

Analysis:

Senior Ditch Day is an example of school lore, more specifically, the kind of horizontal, student-generated tradition that exists outside institutional control and sometimes in quiet tension with it. The fact that teachers anticipate it without officially banning it reflects the dynamic in school folklore, where institutions tolerate vernacular traditions they cannot fully suppress, and where the tradition derives much of its meaning precisely from being unofficial. The tradition maps cleanly onto Van Gennep’s rites of passage framework: it functions as a collective liminality ritual marking the threshold between being a high school student and transitioning into post-graduation life. The unstructured, do-whatever-you-want quality of the day mirrors the social freedom of the liminal phase: being temporarily outside normal rules and obligations. The spring timing reinforces this, as festivals and transition rituals across cultures center around seasonal change. The informant’s inability to participate makes her what Von Sydow would call a passive tradition bearer — someone who knows the tradition intimately without having fully performed it.




A joke about calling Shanghainese young masters

Text:
“We were at San Gabriel yesterday, and my friends joked to the coffee shop ‘Cotti Coffee’ that Shanghainese young masters like me won’t like it.”

Context:

This text was collected from a Chinese international student who is originally from Shanghai. The piece emerged during a casual outing at a San Gabriel shopping area, where the informant’s friends spontaneously used the term “Shanghainese young master” as a joke directed at her. “Cotti Coffee” is a budget-friendly Chinese chain, which also means that it is significantly cheaper than other premium brands like Starbucks, which is also the butt of the joke. The term “Shanghainese young master” originated on Chinese social media platforms, where increased information flow made regional economic differences newly visible and discussable. It is used mockingly to describe Shanghainese people who, having grown up in one of China’s wealthiest cities, carry unconscious class privilege. This privilege is demonstrated in this case around consumption habits and taste. The informant received the joke good-naturedly, suggesting she recognizes herself in the stereotype.

Analysis:

This piece shows the way folk speech born on the internet negotiates class identity within a folk group. The term “Shanghainese young master” exemplifies internet folklore’s characteristic of rapid diffusion and variation: the joke emerges from online discussions of regional inequality and is incorporated into in-person social interaction, demonstrating the collapse of boundaries between digital and oral communication in the post-modern era. Moreover, the jokes operate through Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, or the idea that class position is not just economic but embodied in unconscious tastes and preferences (in this case, coffee consumption). Choosing or refusing a budget coffee chain becomes an involuntary performance of class identity, revealing what the informant has internalized as “normal” without conscious awareness. The joke also shows the way material culture functions as a marker of group identity: the coffee brand is a folk symbol through which insiders negotiate belonging, difference, and hierarchy.





Chinese New Year Tradition of Making “Dern”

Text:

“On the 15th of the Chinese New Year, my grandma would make something called “dern.” “Dern” is like a bun shaped in the form of our Chinese Zodiac. She would make the “dern” for all family members. She would make seven of them, and they are all in our corresponding Chinese zodiac. So, if I’m born in the zodiac of the chicken, then she would make a chicken. This is practiced on the last day of the Chinese New Year. All of our animal characters would be on the same big bun; there are usually three big buns in total. She would also make two fish on one of the big buns, corresponding to the proverb “May you have abundance/surplus year after year.” After I got a boyfriend, my grandmother started making his “dern” as well. It is referred to as “dern” in the Shandong dialect. To be honest, sometimes it is hard for me to recognize which animal is which after she made them. Another thing is that we have to eat it. We have to bring this gigantic bun back to our own house and place it on our table for a day, and then you eat it. I’m not sure why we put it on the table for a day, but if you eat your zodiac, that just means that you are safe and good, and you have to eat the parts with the pieces of gold as well, which means that you can earn a lot of money in the upcoming year.”

Context:

This text was collected from a Chinese international student from Beijing, China. She learned this tradition through direct participation in her grandmother’s annual practice and shared it with me in a casual conversation as she spoke from personal memory. Her grandmother was from Shandong province, and dern is also a word describing decorated buns in the Shandong dialect. The tradition takes place on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year (the Lantern Festival), which marks the final day of the celebration period. The grandmother serves as the sole maker of the buns, crafting zodiac-shaped figures for every family member. A significant detail is that after the informant began dating her boyfriend, the grandmother started making a bun for him as well, suggesting the practice functions as an informal way of welcoming new members into the family. She interprets eating one’s zodiac as ensuring personal safety and prosperity in the coming year.

Analysis:

This piece exemplifies material culture, more specifically when it functions as a family lore, which shows how a broader regional tradition becomes personalized at the household level. This reminds me of Carl von Sydow’s concept of oicotypes: in this case, the family’s specific variation — seven individual buns, three large bases, fish for prosperity, a one-day display — represents a local adaptation of a wider Shandong practice. The variation is shaped by this family’s particular values and composition. Moreover, the ritual also aligns with Frazer’s theory of homeopathic magic: eating one’s zodiac animal and the golden pieces embedded in the bun not only symbolize safety and wealth, it also enact them. Corresponding folk beliefs like those exemplified through the shape of the “dern” collapse the boundary between representation and outcome. The grandmother’s decision to include the boyfriend’s bun is especially interesting, as it functions as a vernacular act of admitting family membership, which comes before any official social recognition of the relationship.





Chinese Birthday Tradition of Longevity Noodles

Text:

“For everybody’s birthday, we have to wear new clothes from top to down. And then we also need to eat noodles each morning, and your whole family also needs to eat noodles with you. And then you also need to like use a chopstick to drag the noodles as long as possible (like hold it as long as possible). And say something like “live forever” or something like that. So that can like represent that you are going to be healthy and have like a good life for a very long time. Everyone has to take pictures as they hold the noodles. Even when we are apart, my family still does it and sends it to me on my birthday.”

Context:

The informant describes a family birthday tradition centred on eating 长寿面 (longevity noodles). This is a common practice in many Chinese households. She grew up participating in this ritual with her family, where eating noodles on one’s birthday symbolises wishes for a long and healthy life. The informant explains that this is not only done in person but continues even when family members are physically apart, as they take photos and share them with each other. For her, this tradition is both a symbolic ritual and a way of maintaining family connection across distance.

Analysis:

This tradition can be understood through Mary Douglas’s idea that everyday practices carry symbolic meanings that reinforce cultural values. The emphasis on the length of the noodles reflects how physical actions are used to represent abstract ideas like longevity and health. The act of carefully holding and eating the noodles shows intentional participation to express these wishes. Other than carrying symbolic value, the shared participation (whether in person or through photos) reinforces family bonds and continuity.