Stocking Up On Coffee

Text:
Every Christmas, the informant’s mom will fill his stocking up with snacks and food, and always some canned coldbrew coffee that she left in the fridge overnight, then put in his stocking early that morning.

Context:
The informant and his mom are both foodies, so this is something they can bond over. He specifically really likes coffee, especially cold brew, but it can take some time to make, and is usually harder to find or get. Having it in his stocking that morning is also a practical convenience because if he wants coffee, they don’t need to spend a lot of time making it or finding a cafe that is open and has it.

Analysis:
This is something that I would consider more to be the start of folklore if it continues than full fledged folklore at the moment, but I felt it was too cool and sweet of a thing not to include in my posts. It’s a cool way to celebrate your loved ones by giving them a gift that fits their interests, and doing anything consistently makes it even more special, as it becomes something that can be relied on, which is comforting.

Feast of the 7 Fishes

Text:
Around Christmastime, his family will have a dinner party they invite family and friends to called the Feast of 7 Fishes. They will play Italian music and, among other celebratory little decorations, make a menu of the dishes that will be had at dinner. These dishes will have a total of 7 types of fish/seafood spread throughout them.

Context:
The informant’s Grandmother on his mother’s side passed away a few years ago. She was a first generation Italian immigrant who was very proud of being Italian. His mother has recently been looking to connect with her Italian side more. One of the ways she is doing this is by celebrating the feast of 7 fishes, which is a tradition of early italian immigrants to the Americas. They were celebrating how much more fortunate/wealthy they were in America than they had been in Italy, and found that they could afford to eat seven fish at christmastime, not just one like they had been limited to back in Italy.

Analysis:
I think the informant’s analysis of the original festival- the feast of the 7 fishes- is accurate, mainly celebrating newfound wealth and good fortune. It also is a celebration at Christmastime which, for Christians (and many Italians were Christian), is a time of being grateful for what God has given them. This gratitude centers on him sending his son, Jesus, to earth, but definitely is a time to be grateful to him in general, which would include good fortune and newfound wealth. I think there is another layer to why his mother has recently found this desire to deepen her connection to her Italian side, however, and that is to feel a deeper connection to her own recently deceased mother, as well as to respect her by starting to cherish something she cherished.

Scaring Sante’s Sedan Screwers

Text:
The informant and his friend group would often camp out in a specific friend’s back yard. Whenever they did, they would wait until it’s past midnight, then drive up a mountain in the area called Cap Sante, where they would find cars that are parked and shaking a bit. They would sneak up to these cars, which would be populated with other teenagers or people in their early 20s doing the deed, and flash their flashlights into the windows, then run away and do it to another car after a while.

Context:
The friend whose back yard they would camp in was Mormon, and his father was very strict with him about many things. One thing he wasn’t too strict about, however, was camping/outdoor activities. This is why they would camp out at that friend’s house a lot, as it was what they were allowed to do with that friend. The trips to Cap Sante began when they were in middle school, and only one of them could drive, and he only had a driver’s permit, not a license. When they went for a drive, they wanted to go far away so they wouldn’t be caught by the strict father, and they wanted to go away from the town, so they wouldn’t be caught by the police. This narrowed their possible destinations down to just Cap Sante. Once they got there, they noticed the cars that were shaking. They started shining in their flashlights to scare the people away so they wouldn’t use the mountain as their midnight sex spot again. They started doing this regularly, later going to the mountain to find those cars, as opposed to finding those cars when looking for the mountain.

Analysis:
I think a lot of this ritual stems from children enjoying the thrill of rebellion and disobeying rules. The initial drive at night when it wasn’t allowed did this, and shining their flashlights into cars gives a similar thrill to ding-dong ditching, both of which are things that are rebellious because kids are taught to be kind and mind their own business, and these things are neither of those. An extra thrill for middle-school boys is the chance of seeing people having sex, or naked, which they likely hadn’t yet in person at that point.

Ekelavya and Guru Dronacharaya

Text:

This is a side story in the Mahabharatha. There was a young boy named Ekelavya who couldn’t be trained in the bow and arrow while growing up because his parents were too poor to hire a teacher for him. However, he found the 5 main brothers being trained by a great teacher, Guru Dronacharaya. Day after day, Ekelavya watched from some nearby woods as Guru Dronacharaya trained the five, one of them, by the name of Arjuna, growing to be known as the best archer ever. Arjuna was Guru Dronacharaya’s pride and joy as his best pupil ever. 

Meanwhile, in the woods, Ekelavya had a great respect for Guru Dronacharaya. He built a statue of Guru Dronacharaya and began training in the woods in front of it, pretending that he was being trained by the guru himself. Ekelavya grew very skillful at archery this way. One day, Guru Dronacharaya was passing through the woods when he came upon the statue in his likeness, along with Ekelavya. After observing Ekelavya’s archery for a bit, he realized that this boy was leagues better at archery than Arjuna. Guru Dronacharaya approached Ekelavya and asked how he had become so good at archery. The boy told him that he had watched the Guru training the five brothers and practiced on his own in the woods. 

Guru Dronacharaya wanted to protect his pupil Arjuna’s status as the best archer ever, so he asked for Ekelavya’s right thumb as his gurudakshina. This way, Ekelavya would be unable to draw back a bow. Because of his great devotion to his teacher, Ekelavya complied and cut off his right thumb to give to Guru Dronacharaya. 

Context: 

This story is from the Mahabharatha, and is a plot point in the main storyline. An extremely simplified synopsis of the Mahabharatha is that it’s about the war between 5 brothers and 100 of their other brothers (Note that brother and cousin are essentially synonymous in this context). The “good guys” are the 5 brothers, and they eventually end up winning the war. 

During these times, archery was seen as the most stylish and elegant form of combat, and thus was highly respected. All nobles were trained in it. 

A gurudakshina was paid to a teacher after your time training with him comes to a close, and the guru could ask you for pretty much anything and you had to pay it. In this specific case, however, Ekelavya only really pays the gurudakshina out of respect for and devotion to Guru Dronacharaya, as there was no formal training or contract of any sort between them. 

The interviewee feels that this story resonates especially deeply with him because it shows that sometimes the world isn’t fair and people can just get in your way despite you doing everything correctly. Ekelavya works the hardest of any character described, and yet gets pushed to the side merely because he wasn’t born into nobility. It’s about realism. 

This story isn’t one that is told to younger children, as it kills their hope by teaching them that they can do everything but still not reach their goal because others get in their way, or things don’t go in their favor. Some families don’t tell their children this story at all because of the cynical way that it describes this world. 

Analysis: 

In addition to the life lesson my interviewee notices, I think this story promotes respecting authority and tradition, seen by Ekelavya’s decision to pay the requested gurudakshina, despite it costing him greatly. The authority that is placed inherently in that culture’s nobility is also respected, as Ekelavya doesn’t question his place as separate from the other boys, opting to train from afar instead of asking to join their sessions or something of that nature. It puts an interesting emphasis on hard work. The hard work still pays off, as Ekelavya becomes better than the best archer ever, but he gives up his reward/possible reputation after all the hard work out of devotion. There is also a selfless element to this story, as he is thinking more about what’s good for Guru Dronocharaya than what is good for himself.

The Undressing of Draupadi

Text:

Draupadi wanted to marry one of the 5 main brothers from the Mahabharatha, but another man, Duryodhana wants her to marry him instead. He proposes to her, but is refused. Upon this refusal, one of his brothers begins trying to rip Draupadi’s clothes off. Krishna sees this, and decides to save Draupadi by maker her clothing infinite. No matter how much cloth Duryodhana’s brother rips off of her, there is always more that she is still wearing. 

Context: 

This story is from the Mahabharatha, and is a plot point in the main storyline. An extremely simplified synopsis of the Mahabharatha is that it’s about the war between 5 brothers and 100 of their other brothers (Note that brother and cousin are essentially synonymous in this context). The “good guys” are the 5 brothers, and they eventually end up winning the war. 

This story is a simple lesson that one should respect women, and that to undress them is not okay.

Analysis:

In Indian culture, arranged marriages are a common practice, and the final decision on whether a marriage happens is given to the family as a whole, not the woman getting married. This story encourages respecting a woman’s desires for her marriage, even if the cultural norm or law doesn’t fully require it, and backs that up with a god taking the side of Draupadi. This makes even more sense to me that this story is found somewhat in opposition of the cultural norm when I remember that many tales come from being told by women as they do busywork. They used what ways they could to better how they were treated, and instilling good habits and respect in their children is a very powerful way to do so.