Tag Archives: birthday

Birthday Soups

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/25/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Background: The informant (J) is the son of two Korean immigrants. He moved to a city on the west coast when he was two years old and grew up there, but he was born in Korea and spent many summers there with his family.

J: On new years you eat this soup called tteokguk. Basically the reason why is that you don’t age by your birthday, you age by the year. Which is why when you’re born you’re like already one year old technically. It’s just different in Korea, like you just age every new year instead of on your birthday. I don’t know exactly why you eat it but it just symbolizes how you’ve aged a year. So according to tradition if you didn’t eat tteokguk on new years then you wouldn’t age, like, as in you have to eat it so you can age.

Me: Do you guys celebrate the new year with the western calendar or lunar or something

J: Uh… I don’t really know but I think it’s the same as Chinese New Year.

Me: Oh that’s the lunar calendar then.

J: Oh also tteokguk is rice cake soup, it’s a pretty light soup. And there’s also another birthday food, it’s called seaweed soup. Or i mean it’s not called seaweed soup it just is seaweed soup

Me: Do you know what it’s called in Korean?

J: Miyuk guk.

Me: Why do you eat that for birthdays?

J: It’s supposed to symbolize all the hard work your mom goes through like, birthing you.

Me: Why does it symbolize that?

J: Cause like, it’s supposed to be like your mom ate the soup when she had you and was recovering, so you eating is supposed to be like you honoring that and remembering…if that makes sense

Me: Wait so do women always eat it while they’re recovering from giving birth? Is it like a healing type soup or something?

J: Uhhh I don’t know…I think they just eat it because it…goes down easy? Like you don’t really have to like…chew a lot cause it’s really light and it’s just seaweed and soup. It’s probably kind of…nutritious too I guess.

Me: Do you eat seaweed soup on your day of birth or also on the new year when you’re like…considered to have aged?

J: No, I eat it on my day of birth. Because we don’t age on our birthday but the soup symbolizes your actual birth and like..the…struggles…of your mom

Me: I assume that everyone eats the rice cake on new year since everyone ages at the same time but does everyone eat the seaweed soup or just the person whose birthday it is

J: No only the..birthday person. Like my mom would eat it on her birthday and my dad would eat it on his birthday.

Context: This was told to me and recorded during an in person interview.

No Early Birthday Wishes in Germany

Nationality: German/American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

The informant is the daughter of two German immigrants. She was born in Germany, spent time in France, and grew up in the US. She is a college student.

Informant: In Germany it’s a big no-no to say happy birthday to people early or celebrate early or anything. If you do that it’s supposed to like… give them a year of bad luck so we just…don’t do that. And if you do that to someone else they definitely won’t be happy.

Me: Ohh my god I definitely wished you a happy early birthday this year several times 

Informant: Haha it’s okay it doesn’t really matter. Oh also, for my birthday this year I wanted to come home the day before my birthday to see my parents and ‘cause they wanted to give me a gift too but they were like, “No that’s bad”. So I ended up driving home a few days after my birthday because they’d rather celebrate it late than early.

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.

MIYEOK GUK

Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, USA
Performance Date: April 21, 2021
Primary Language: English

MAIN PIECE:

Informant: So in Korea there’s this soup called Miyeok Guk. It is…  Essentially like a seaweed soup. And um… Seaweed has like iron in it, I believe. And in your blood… Your like hemoglobin has iron in it as well? So Korean reasoning is that, whenever a woman gives birth, she loses a lot of blood with that. So to make up for it, you should have food that can supply your body with iron, such as Miyeok Guk and seaweed. So on birthdays, in addition to like cake and just like normal birthday routines, the traditional side of it is eating Miyeok Guk and seaweed… For the iron that your mom lost. 

INFORMANT’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE PIECE: 

Informant: I do practice this. Cause I like Miyeok Guk.

Interviewer: So you’re really consuming it for the taste? 

Informant: Yeah… I mean… I also think that we all have a desire to keep our culture going. I think when we’re younger it was easy to forget about and not care. Like, “Who cares what they’ve done for a thousand years, Imma do me…” My dad was born in Korea but moved to Guam and later Hawaii and later Anaheim. So he’s very Americanized. My mom didn’t leave Korea until college, so she was always the more traditional Korean side of the family… But my dad and I are more Americanized. Um… But yeah, as time has gone on, I feel like it’s good to keep some things, even if it has zero significance or importance… Even if it’s just soup that reminds me of my mom, it’s nice to continue on with those little traditions. 

REFLECTION:

Korean birthday tradition honors the mother by including food that recognizes the hardship of childbirth. The informant, while also consuming Miyeok Guk for taste, has grown to appreciate this food as a symbol of his mother. This is multifaceted, as Miyeok Guk is both a Korean symbol of the mother in general, but also a reminder of the informant’s mother specifically, who passed this tradition onto him. This demonstrates how food can have a “broad” cultural significance, but also a more intimate, immediate, familial significance. Thus, there are several reasons that food traditions might be upheld. This tradition also seems to hint at an appreciation for the mother within Korean culture. 

Practical Joke: Putting Butter on Your Nose

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Medical Writer
Residence: Staunton, VA
Performance Date: April 18, 2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: 

“So, the other thing that is family folklore that my dad probably did to you was- he said it was a French-Canadian custom to try and catch the birthday person… if it’s your birthday, he’s going to try and catch you and put butter on your nose. Which is really disgusting. And sometimes it would be- we got smarter, and so we would hide the butter -and so he would do peanut butter. Which in some ways is worse, because it’s really hard to get peanut butter off of anything. You smell like peanut butter all day. So, thanks Dad. ”

Background:

My informant said that this practical joke was a tradition on her father’s side of the family. Her father apparently went through the same thing, as did all the kids in his family. On their birthdays, someone would catch them and put butter on their nose. My informant casts some doubt on whether or not this was actually a French-Canadian custom rather than something someone on her father’s side made up for fun, but that was what she was told. 

Thoughts:

My informant suggests that this practical joke could be fakelore- something that someone on her father’s side came up that they said was a French-Canadian custom with that has since been proliferated. However, I did find another source that mentions this as a Canadian custom: a children’s book on birthday customs. See Powell, Jillian. “A Birthday.” United States: Smart Apple Media, 2007. 1-30. Though a less serious occasion, this seems similar in some ways to Irish practical jokes at wakes or family practical jokes at weddings- the focus is on the fun of the joke, not the feelings of the person for whom the event is for. All of these are times of liminality, and the practical jokes can serve as a way to cope with that.

Celebration of Survival- Infant Edition

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 67
Residence: Chicago, Illinois
Performance Date: 05/01/2021
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Main Performance:

The Dol (돌) is the celebration of an infant’s first birthday in South Korea. Childbirth and its complications in an impoverished country without advances in medicine and temperamental weather patterns meant that many children did not survive long past birth. Many children were kept in-doors as a means of protection and as a necessity for survival. Milestones for a child’s survival are celebrated on the 100th Day (백일) and then a large celebration is held on the first birthday where the wider family gathers for the occasion as the belief goes that once a child survives until its first year, the next hundred will be guaranteed. The Dol is characterized by a feast of traditional foods and also the an activity at the end called Dol-jabi (돌잡이) where a child is placed in front of multiple items. Bills of money, golf-balls, pieces of string, microphones, all sorts of objects are placed in front of the child and whichever object the child reaches for first will determine their success in that field. Reaching out to the string guarantees their long life, the microphone meaning that they will become a talented entertainer, a golf-ball for a pro golfer, money for being good with money, and etc.

Background:

The informant is my father who remembers me and my brother’s 1st Birthdays, 100th Day, and many other occasions involving the extended family. As Korea was still a developing country during his childhood and farther back, the reasons for celebrating a child’s survival is by no means a small matter. While the 100 Day celebrations have been phased out because of the advances in medicine, the first birthday is still widely celebrated. Of course, more modern items have been added to the myriad of objects placed in front of the child in the dol-jabi activity as the years go on.

Context:

My nephew had just celebrated his 1st Birthday on the 1st of May and I asked on the specifics of what the event pertained to and both of my parents explained what they did for me and my brother’s, which I have seen pictures of but have no recollection of.

My Thoughts:

It’s been stated multiple times that many Korean traditions stem from its impoverishment and I think no other element reflects that fact better than the celebration of a child’s survival past birth. The homeopathic magic comes into play to determine what the child’s preferences will be in the future as well, a determinant little “game” that I’ve also seen in other country’s. I find this story a lot more relevant these days because of the Covid pandemic and the world’s inability to contain the situation during 2020 that makes these life celebrations relevant again, especially when I hear about so many people trying to not have kids as their outlook on the world’s future becomes dimmer and dimmer. Korea in particular has had an issue about declining birth rates and my cousin and her son gave me some first had examples of the Korean government stepping in to promote childbirth and giving her family a large amount of federal money because she had given birth, giving credence to “government sponsored culture vs. tradition” going on. While I have heard some humorous conspiracy theories about Japan promoting marriage and procreation through positive portrayals of romance in their multi-media, I have not heard the same in the Korean context.

For a Chinese equivalent, see the Zhuazhou celebration:

The Tradition of Zhuazhou, 15 Feb. 2011, www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-02/15/content_12016991.htm.