TCHANTCHÈS

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 53

Occupation: Senior VP for a development company

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as MW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a father of 2 who grew up and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona. He lived in Belgium for a period of years, which is where he heard this story.

K: Ok! What’s the name of the story, where did you hear it, and what’s the uh…context of the performance?

MW: It’s titled “Tchantches” and I heard it from my friend Fish while I was uh staying in Belgium when I was like 19. I was just told it by Fish, but he said that he uh…was told it when he was like a child, like as an uh…campside or bedtime kinda story like to uh teach kids what they should be I guess. Kind of like a fable? Its hard to equate to an American story.

K: Ok, whenever you’re ready

MW: Ok so uh…this is a bit of a long one. So, the story goes that Tchantches was born way back in like…700 or something like that in Belgium between like 2 paving or uh cobblestones. His first words were demanding a Belgian drink called uh…God, I don’t remember (The informant pulled out his phone and googled it at this point) Peket! A drink called Peket

K: Is that like alcohol?

MW: Oh god yea, it’s the thing every Belgian drinks to get wasted *laughter*. Anyways, so he demanded Peket and his father, who adopted him, gave him like a cookie dipped in it. Then uh..later on at his baptism I think, the person dunking him in the water bumped his nose and it became all like messed up and disfigured and became like…it was used for carnival masks. Because of this, he became avoidant of going outside until a big crowd, because he had become beloved in this area, encouraged him to go outside during uh Saint-Måcrawe’s Day. He would come out smeared in like chimney soot on a chair escorted by a bunch of people, where everyone would get drunk *laughter*. There’s a moral in there somewhere, about how even ugly people can be loved which was kinda an odd thing. There’s a bunch of statues and stuff of him all over Belgium, and he’s famous for being a part of a puppet show! That’s where most kids hear the story for the first time.

K: Very ugly duckling meets Pinocchio

MW: Very. There’s also a part to the story where he meets I think Charlemagne’s nephew but that was added on later and is kinda dumb, I don’t even remember it. But he’s supposed to kinda represent the ideal Liégeois (Belgian). Rebellious, independent and could drink his body weight, but incredibly kind and willing to die for those he loves.

Interpretation:
I really liked this story! I think, and the informant also agreed with me later on, that there’s a large element of Pinocchio In this story or a lot of similarities. A boy who is born in odd circumstances faces some major hardships, and with the help of people he loves and who love him, gets over those hardships and becomes a hero in a sense. I also would like to note how Tchanctes is supposed to be an ideal Liegois. He’s famous for being drunk pretty much all the time, from his first words demanding alcohol to, as the informant would later mention after this story was told, his dying words being for Peket. That obviously speaks volumes about what people idolize as a perfect man. Alcohol is a large part of so many cultures, especially in places like Belgium. In a sense, it’s definitely humorous, but it’s also serious. From the way the story was told to me, it was almost as if Tchantes was kind and good normally and when drinking. He is a character that you’re supposed to aspire to be like, and this is only reinforced by the statues and puppet shows and festivals held every year. It’s interesting to note how young children are told the full story. In American culture at least, many parts deemed inappropriate for children, like alcohol, are left out until they are older. In this story, children are told about alcohol as soon as they can comprehend it. Again, it speaks volumes about the importance of alcohol in Belgian culture.

For another version of this story, see: Sherzer, D. E., & Sherzer, J. E. (1987). Humor and comedy in puppetry: Celebration in popular culture. Popular Press.

August 15th festival

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 53

Occupation: Senior VP for a development company

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as MW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a father of 2 who grew up and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona. He lived in Belgium for a period of years, which is where he saw and participated in this festival.

K: So, what’s the festival called and why is it performed? Just give me like background info

MW: I can never remember the official name of the festival, but a lot of people just call it the August 15th festival uh because the major date of it is on the 15th but it goes from the 14th to the 16th. It’s performed for normal festival reasons, celebration and such but mainly for Tchantes and other uh folk heroes, I guess.

K: Ok cool uh…ok go ahead and just describe the festival. Like what is performed and eaten and who is celebrated and stuff like that

MW: Ok so like I said the festival is for folk heroes, especially Tchantes and characters like that. There’s actually a huge flea market the weekend before I forgot to mention, its giant and lasts the whole weekend. Anyways the uh festival the first day is just drinking a lot of Peket (an alcoholic drink in Belgium) and celebrating everyone coming together before this huge concert really late in the night. Kids are there as well, normally having super watered-down peket *laughter*. The big day is the uh 15th where it starts with a big sermon and mass, and then in the middle of the day these huge uh…they’re called the Giants of Outremeuse are paraded down the street so everyone can see all the folk heroes, and then throughout the entire day there’s uh a bunch of concerts and smaller parades. The festival ends on the uh 16th in the evening with the burial of Matî l’Ohê, which is another folk hero I think *laughter*, I was too drunk to really remember! Anyways, these uh mourners follow that and throw celery onto the crowd to represent his bone.

Interpretation:
I really enjoyed hearing about this festival! I was told about Tchantes earlier in the day when interviewing the informant, so being able to hear about the effects of Tchantes in daily/yearly culture was really interesting. I also thought it was interesting how much of a role alcohol played in the festival, as even children have a very watered-down version of peket. It seems that you drink until you can’t drink anymore, and then go to concerts and watch the parades and participate while everyone is drunk and having fun. It seems like a safe, fun occasion rather than a drunken frenzy.

Ghost of highway 1

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 56

Occupation: Housewife

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as HW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a mother of 2 who grew up in Pacific Grove, northern California, and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona.

K: Ok so what’s the title and where did you hear it? And what’s the uh…context for the performance? Like what circumstances was it told

HW: It doesn’t really have a title, just the ghost of highway 1 because uh…whenever you drive past highway 1 someone would tell the story, mainly on the school bus. That’s where I always heard it from, like kids telling other kids to scare them.

K: Ok, go ahead! It’s fine if its only like 2 sentences

HW: Yeah, I mean, it goes that uh a woman got hit by a car and died on this little outstretch of Highway 1 that’s not even really used anymore cuz a new uh…exit was built that had better access to Monterey (a major town in this area). So the only people that used it were locals, but sometimes a non-local would get lost and see her standing on the edge of the road and uh pick her up. There were 2 major uh…versions I guess to what she would do after. She would either like take control of the car and crash it or if you were a woman driving alone she would uh like…bless you in a sense? Like your car would drive better and you wouldn’t hit traffic and narrowly avoid getting hit kind of a thing.

K: Wow, that’s really interesting, so she was kind to women?

HW: In one version yea, but only if you were alone or with another woman. If it was a straight uh couple the car would crash. Her hatred for men was stronger than her love for women *laughter*

Interpretation:
This is actually really interesting because of how traditional this story is. I know I’ve heard the same type of story, about a woman dying by getting hit by a car and becoming a ghost hitchhiker. It’s a very popular story in common lore around the world I think. This just reinforces my belief that every kid seems to have their own version of the story. It is interesting how the informant noted that this part of the road isn’t a major part anymore, and is only really used by locals and that non-locals were really the only ones to stop and pick her up. Its as if this is a very well-known, and believed story rather than a story told on the bus to scare other kids.

Reynard the fox

–Informant Info–

Nationality: French

Age: 39

Occupation: Housewife

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): French

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as TS and the interviewer as K)

Background info: TS is a mother of 3 who grew up in Nice, France, and moved to Los Angeles when she was in her 20s. She noted that this story was told to her only by her older family members while laughing, never by her mother or other children.

K: Ok, so can you tell me the name of the story, where you heard it, and the context of the performance? Like under what circumstances was it told.

TS: Yes, yes. It is called Reynard the fox, and it is a very very old story. I only ever heard it from my grandparents after they had too much wine *laughter* because it was a dirty story and didn’t teach any uh lessons like so many of uh…I don’t know the word in English…Legende? Uh, fable?

K: Yea, a fable, like a story that teaches you a lesson?

TS: Exactly! It was only really told in the uh house because it was dirty *laughter* it’s not something you tell your child at a dinner.

K: Ok, go ahead, and make sure you even tell the dirty parts *laughter*

TS: Ok ok, it goes that uh Reynard was a fox who had done many many horrible crimes, like robbing and rape and murder, and had done so many that the king lion himself wanted to punish Reynard. But Reynard was tricky. The king sent out his best hunters to bring Reynard in but Reynard had managed to uh…trick all of them and getaway.

K: Can you elaborate on that? Tricking the other characters?

TS: I’d love to! Bruin the bear is tricked because Reynard says there is honey inside a tree and he gets stuck. Tybalt (sometimes goes by a different name) the cat is tricked because Reynard sends him to a chicken coop owned by a priest, and gets locked inside by Reynard. Reynard alerts the priest, who beats Tybalt but Tybalt retaliates by biting one of the priest’s testicles off *laughter*. Eventually, Grimbert, a badger who is also Reynard’s cousin, manages to trap him. But when Reynard is brought before the king, he uh…throws everyone under the bus I think is the phrase?

K: Like sabatoges them?

TS: Yes! So Reynard does that to everyone that tried to capture him by saying they hid a treasure from the kind and only Reynard knows where to find it so the king frees him! But reynard flees. Later, he is found by Cuwart the hare, and Belyn the ram. He murders Cuwart, puts his head in a bag and gives it to Belyn, and tells him to uh bring the bag to the kind.

K: Good god

TS: Told you it was dirty *laughter*. So when Belyn does, she is executed by the king. By the time everyone uh understands they have been tricked again by Reynard, he has already fled and was never caught.

Interpretation:
This was a very interesting story to hear. I think most notably is how the informant said specifically it’s not like a traditional fable, as it doesn’t teach a lesson, but people still regarded it as such. It’s a very satirical story, and it’s meant to be a sort of social commentary mocking the aristocratic people of the time. There are so many different versions of the story, due mainly to its old age, that nearly everyone comments on a different thing in society. Many on the aristocratic people, some on food, some on the crime itself. It’s interesting how many variations there can be of the same story.

For another version of this story, see: Anonymous. (1982). Le Roman de Renart. Champion.

The bee and the orange tree

–Informant Info–

Nationality: French

Age: 47

Occupation: Teacher

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): French

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as DK and the interviewer as K)

Background info: DK is a mother of 1 who was born in the United States and moved to France when she was young, moving back to the US in 2017. She notes that she was told this story all the time but has not heard of it once in the US, and when she has brought it up to other people, they have never heard of it.

K: Ok so, what’s the name of the folklore, how do you know of it, and what’s the context of the performance? Like when is it told, under what circumstances?

DK: It’s called uh..The translation would be The bee and the orange tree. It was always told to me when I was little, in like school, or my parents and people like that. It’s kinda like Cinderella, you know? It was told like that.

K: Yeah that makes sense! Uh whenever…whenever you’re read you can tell the story.

DK: Ok. The story goes that there was this princess called uh Aimée who was lost after a ship wreck. She drifted to a little island in her crib, where a lot of uh…ogre’s lived. They only took her in because they wanted her to marry their son when she got older, normally they eat people who come ashore. When she was uh 15 I believe, she was told she would marry that ogre but the thought of that disgusted her. She went for a walk along the beach and found a man, who was actually her cousin, but neither of them knew that or could uh…say that. After a little while, the man, a prince, discovered who she was because she had a locket with her name on it. The little ogre said it was time for them to marry, and she fled but hurt herself on a thorn so she couldn’t walk. The prince went to find her when she didn’t show up and got captured. I don’t really remember the details here so I’m sorry

K: Thats alright! Just whatever you do remember tell me, even if its confusing

DK: Alright, uh so Aimee managed to trick some of the ogres into eating each other and found an uh magic wand somehow. Using it, she made herself speak the prince’s language and he told her everything. She used the wand again to distract the ogres and flee, but one of them followed them using his…magic boots. She would use the wand to disguise herself and the prince each time the ogre came close. She turned herself into a bee and the prince into an orange tree and stung the ogre, and in the chaos, the wand was stolen so they were stuck like that. Later, another princess fell in love with the orange tree, who was the prince. Aimee stung her out of jealousy, and the other princess ribbed a branch off the tree to defend herself, causing blood to flow out of the wound. Aimee left to fetch balm for the wound. A fairy came by while she was gone and detected the enchantment on the prince, turning him back. The prince explained the situation, and when Aimme returned the fairy uh turned her back also. They returned home to her parents and got married. The end *laughter*.