Tag Archives: Canada

Canadian Engineering Iron Ring – Initiation Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: College Student/Engineering Intern
Residence: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Language: English

Text:

When engineers graduate from university in Canada, they go through a ritual where they recite a specific text/speech and then are given an iron (or stainless steel) ring. The speech is about responsibility and ethics as an engineer and the importance of professional commitment. This ritual is private and the only people who can witness it are ones who have already gone through it and have an iron ring.

Context:

The informant is from the United States but goes to the University of Toronto for engineering. Before telling me about this ritual, the informant laughed about how they were warned before going to Canada that engineering there is “kind of cult-y.” The informant told me that the iron rings are given to graduates because in the past, there was a bridge made of iron that collapsed and that the original rings were made of iron from the bridge. The rings and ceremony are meant to symbolize acceptance of responsibility and acts as a reminder of what happens when engineers are not mindful of safety and ethics. The informant told me that among the people they work with, the person who wears the ring the most often is the most recent graduate. They also told me that in general, some people where it all the time and some people only wear the ring as they sign important documents. The informant told me they were apprehensive about the iron ring ceremony at first because it felt a little weird and secretive. They are now excited to get the ring but they don’t tend to wear jewelry so they think they will only wear it for specific moments. They also told me that engineers now can choose between an iron or stainless steel ring (as iron degrades over time) and they will get the iron one because it the “right” one with historical significance. The informant also told me that their partner, who is from a family of Canadian engineers, is really excited to get their iron ring but they aren’t sure if he will wear it all the time or not.

Analysis:

This ritual acts as an initiation out of university and into the workplace. By speaking the ritualized words, it marks a transition in identity and the person is given an object to show their progress. Anyone else who sees this ring knows that this person has achieved a degree in engineering. The process is very secretive and no one else knows exactly what happens. This keeps the ritual sacred within the community as something that a person has to achieve and gain access to.

The story around the ring relating to the bridge is contested online. Some people believe that the original rings were from the bridge while other people say that is a myth and the original rings were made in a factory. The creation of the story fits into the narrative that surrounds the rings. They are objects that are meant to represent responsibility and creating them from the broken pieces of something that was made irresponsibly acts as an even stronger reminder. Even if the story is untrue, it deepens the connection between the ring and the meaning for the people in the community.

This ritual also creates a second ritual within it. Some people wear the ring only as the sign important documents in order to remind themselves of their responsibility as engineers. My informant said that they want the iron one specifically because it has more meaning than the stainless steel one. The material itself creates a deeper connection to history and the responsibility that it represents. It feels almost wrong to have a stainless steel one because it wouldn’t be accurate.

The informant was worried about the ceremony at first as someone from another country and outside the culture but as they lived in the culture for longer, they have gotten more excited for the ritual at the end. The ceremony might seem weird to outsiders, but to insiders, it is normalized and is something to look forward to. Even people, like the informant, who normally don’t wear jewelry would consider wearing this ring simply because of the tradition and meaning around it.

Canadian Engineering Frosh Week Purpling – Initiation Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: University Student/Engineering Intern
Residence: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Language: English

Text:

Freshman orientation (also called Frosh week) is a week at the beginning of the semester where new students at the University of Toronto are toured around campus/city, doing various team building activities and getting to know other new students. As an engineering student, the informant had some engineering specific activities but the main one is called “purpling.” During this ritual, freshman engineering students get sprayed with purple dye in whatever amount they feel comfortable (some limbs or the full body). After, the new students go wash the dye off in a specific fountain nearby campus.

Context:

The informant is from the United States but goes to college at U of T for engineering. They learned about this tradition as they did it when they came to the school as a freshman. As an American engaging in this, they were a little apprehensive about it because they didn’t grow up in the culture where this was normal. The informant told me that their partner is from a family of Canadian engineers and they was really excited about the ritual. The informant only got purple dye on their arms but their partner did their full body. Even though the informant was a little worried at the start, they see it as a good introduction to the community where everyone bonds over sharing in the history as well as the ritual. It also works to introduce people to Canadian engineering which the informant says has a very strong and tight community bond. The informant told me that the ritual harkens back to history as the reason it is done is to honor engineers of the past. They told me that engineers in the military would wear purple armbands and as they sweat, the purple dye would dye their skin. If engineers died during the war, the purple dye was the way they were identified.

Analysis:

The apprehension that the informant felt about the ritual likely comes from the fact that they are a newcomer to this culture. As an American, they did not grow up with the culture of Canadian engineering, unlike their partner. After getting to Canada and getting this very sudden introduction into the culture, they were slow to embrace it but did still engage by getting the dye on their arms. In contrast, their partner, who grew up with the culture and most likely already knew about the tradition, fully embraced it and got the purple dye on their whole body. It is possible that their partner also felt a deeper connection to the historical aspect as their family has a lot of engineers so they might feel a responsibility to honor them by getting more purple dye. Additionally, they could have felt already part of the culture of engineers and therefore wanted to show their dedication to the community by getting fully covered in dye.

The ritual as an initiation is very effective as it immediately brings everyone together with a very unique experience that no other group has. It also ties new people to the history of the group as there is historical basis. It teaches newcomers to celebrate and honor the engineers before them. As the informant said, Canadian engineers have a very tight bond and this experience helps to bring them together by engaging in an activity together that commemorates the bond of engineers before them. It also acts as an introduction to anyone who is unaware of the community, like the informant. As this happens before classes even start, it tells anyone new that this is the type of thing to expect out of engineering culture in Canada so they are prepared for this level of connection and team building. For the informant, it worked well to introduce them to what to expect and they enjoyed their experience.

It is important that the dye is purple because of the armbands that the military engineers wore. By connecting new engineers to their past, the ritual tells the new generation what their past was. It connects people across generations as every engineer is marked by the fact that they got purple dye on their skin. Engineers in the past were given a purple armband as they began their careers in the military, engineers now are covered in purple as they begin their education. In both cases, the purple marks the beginning of an important step in an engineer’s path.

The Nova Scotia Spirit

Nationality: American 

Age: 60 

Occupation: Writer 

Residence: Sherman Oaks, CA 

Performance Date: November 28, 2024

Primary Language: English

STORY: “I was in Nova Scotia staying at my parents’ house on a cove on the water, and my grandmother was very sick, and she was dying nearby at the hospital. And I’d been like two or three times, and it’s grueling. Everytime you leave it’s like you’re saying goodbye to someone for the last time; it’s hard. And she was very very sick. And so, I believe my mother was at the hospital, and I was standing on the dock, overlooking the cove, watching, like, dolphins and whales swim by, and I saw coming down from the sky, this…entity, like, almost like, with like…gossamer, flowing fabric behind it. Came tight down right in front of me, down into the water, up, around me, and then went away. And I was like ‘what the actual?’ And then my mother called and said that her mother just died. So I’m guessing maybe she was…saying goodbye.”

ANALYSIS: Seeing as this happened before the individual knew of her grandmother’s passing, it is less likely that the entity she witnessed was merely a manifestation of her grief, or a way to cope with her grandmother passing away. While it could’ve been subconscious, it is still unlikely. It is interesting, however, that the spirit described in this story with “gossamer, flowing fabric” that came from the sky, is eerily similar to a lot of modern Western visual interpretations of ghosts. It was not a corporal entity, nor one that resembled an animal, but a very traditional “ghost” of sorts. Nonetheless, it could be plausible that it was the ghost or the spirit or the soul of the individual’s grandmother saying goodbye one last time.

Hanged Mom in the Basement

Nationality: White
Age: 51
Occupation: Reality Television Editor
Residence: Santa Clarita, CA
Performance Date: 04/04/2023
Primary Language: English

Text:

GJ: I was in fourth grade. That summer, we moved into a bungalow. The very first day when we were moving in, there was a ring at the doorbell. I opened up the door, and there was this little girl who asked “is there a little girl here?” She had seen my little sister. They went up to play, and I joined them… I was only a year apart from my sister, so we were pretty close. This neighbor from down the street, she proceeded to tell us how her best friend had lived in this house before us, but on the day of her birthday, after her birthday party, her mom committed suicide and hung herself in the basement. Of course, we were really freaked out by this, so we were like maybe she made this up. So we go downstairs, and there were all the streamers and birthday decorations still hanging downstairs. Needless to say, we were scared of the basement. It was an unfinished basement that was very dark, and there was a big part of the basement that you couldn’t see from the bottom of the stairs, and that happened to be where the laundry room was. The laundry room was in front of where the stairs let out, and the rest of the basement was just dark. We… of course, this might have been led by fear, but we were convinced we heard sounds in the darkness, maybe even bits of light, enough to make us race back upstairs. It was quite some time before we worked up the courage to turn the lights on and start playing in the basement. Gradually the fear went away, but that was what it was like when we first moved in for several months.

Context: GJ is a Canadian immigrant who moved to Los Angeles from Toronto, Ontario when he was in his thirties. He grew up in Alberta. Because of his parents’ divorce and his father’s work flipping houses, he frequently moved around. His family prides themselves on being logical, and as such, when I first asked for folklore, he said that he didn’t have any because all of the things he was told were either “religious or true.” It took some pressing before he told me the ghost story detailed here.

GJ: “There had been a teacher’s strike right before that, so I was at a different school. Months passed and it went into the summer so I never got the contact information from my previous friends that summer, so I didn’t have any friends.”

Analysis: This legend of a ghost became a memorate… the story GJ heard about the death in his basement became translated into his own personal experience when he began experiencing things that verged on paranormal, such as the blinking lights and darkness. His avoidance of the basement could be read as ostentation. The fact that GJ was isolated moving in might have contributed to the way that he interpreted the story. He went from being in a large social circle to having no one. The fact that the very first person he meets in a new, unfamiliar neighborhood tells him a frightening story about the very place he lives in might have made him even more scared of it. The girl telling him this story caught him at a vulnerable time in which he was scrambling for security and belief, similar to how college students find themselves questioning whether or not they believe in ghosts. It’s a moment of turmoil in which he had to reinvent himself and redefine his own beliefs. Later, he regarded the story with more of his self-defined rationality, but the evidence remains that he thoroughly believed it at that point in his life.

Windsor Caroussel of Nations

Background Information: 

The informant is a middle-aged person who grew up in Windsor, a city in Canada. They emigrated to Windsor from Turkey, at a young age. They are describing a festival that they remember from their childhood. 

Main Content: 

ME: Can you tell me about the Windsor Caroussel of Nations? 

ED: So there was this festival called the Caroussel of Nations when I was growing up, and you know Canada prides itself on being a multicultural society and they consider themselves a cultural mosaic, as opposed to a melting pot, like the US. They fund a lot of festivals that, you know, help people stay connected to their cultural backgrounds and stuff. So one of those things was the Caroussel of Nations and it was around Canada Day. It was a festival where all of the cultures that wanted to get involved sign up, and they get a little grant for their space, and people have arts and crafts that they sell or display, there’s some different venues that have people who do shows like cultural dancing and displays. There’s always food, of course, which is probably the biggest thing and my mom would always make Turkish shish kebabs and shish koftes and things like that. People from all the community go around and check out all of the different cultures and enjoy the food and the environment.

ME: Did you ever participate? 

ED: I used to do this Turkish dance as a kid, we used to dress up in old traditional Turkish outfits and do a traditional Turkish line dance called Halay, you know? We would do that as a display, we would be like performing monkeys for the visiting Canadians (laughs). It was a lot of fun, everyone was coming together and the whole Turkish community would come together to put this on, it was fun visiting the other communities too. I think it’s still going on today.

Context: 

This interview happened at my house.  

Thoughts: 

The informant is my father and it seems that he really enjoyed it growing up. It seems like the Turkish community in Windsor would rally together to put on a good event and it would bring the community closer together. I have attended this festival once, and it is really amazing to see dozens of different cultures on display. It is also interesting to analyze the approach that Canada takes as a “cultural mosaic” as opposed to the “melting pot” here in the United States. I think that festivals like these are great examples of the difference. This festival is not about assimilating to Canadian culture at all, but it is about celebrating the folk dancing and traditional food from the countries that people immigrated from.