Tag Archives: celebration

New York Ticker Tape Parade

Nationality: Irish

Occupation: Financial Engineering

Residence: New York, NY

Text: 

“After the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2008, they did the traditional victory parade through New York. The parade goes along a narrow section of Broadway in lower Manhattan called the ‘Canyon of Heroes’, where all of the employees of the banks watch the parade from their office windows. When I worked at BGC my office was along this section of Broadway, and that morning someone had left out boxes full of thin strips of paper. As the parade went by everyone threw the paper out of the window like it was confetti. Workers used to throw ticker tape, hence the name, but ticker tape was obsolete by 2008 so we just used paper.”

Context:

New York City has been doing ticker tape parades since long before my father moved to America in the early 90s. Historically the parades were done to honor anyone considered worthy, including returning soldiers, astronauts, and politicians. However in the time my dad has lived in New York, they have only been done for championship winning sports teams, and he only worked in an office on Broadway for one of them. Historically, these parades featured employees at financial firms throwing ticker tape; ticker tape is a thin strip of paper which was used to receive live stock market updates through telegraphs. The employees would throw the tape out of the window in celebration, and it would fall down like confetti. After the internet rendered ticker tape obsolete, employees began throwing slits of paper out of the window instead.

Analysis:

Both the use of ticker tape (and the paper that replaced it) and the parade going down the “Canyon of Heroes” are ways that New York differentiates itself from other cities when conducting championship parades. First, there is the deliberate choice to use paper that replicates ticker tape instead of using normal confetti (like any other city would). Ticker tape symbolizes Wall Street and the stock market, which are major parts of the fabric of New York City. Additionally, the parade route going through the financial district to have employees watch from windows is very different from other parades. Most parades go through areas with areas for spectators, but in New York the parade is meant to be watched from an office window. This is a reflection of the work culture of New York, especially in the financial industry. At businesses where employees often work 60+ hours a week, nobody would have time to leave the office to watch a parade, so instead the parade follows a route allowing it to be watched from the office. Ticker tape parades turn generic championship parades into unique celebrations that reflect New York City.

Samhain and Spiritual Perseverance

“Samhain is the Celtic new year. There are essentially 8 big observational holidays/festivals in the Celtic wheel of the year. Those observe the solstices and equinoxes, as well as the halfway points between them. Samhain is the start of the year, which starts going into the dark months instead of out of them. This is because the Celts were so focused on the harvest. For them, the day started when the sun set, not when it rose.

It’s one of the bigger [Celtic festivals]. It overlaps significantly with All Hallow’s Eve, which inspired Halloween. It’s a 2-3 day celebration. Traditionally people would dress up during this time. Because it was going into the colder months, people believed that the veil between our world and the next was especially thin, so they would dress as spirits to ward off interference from other spirits. Turnip carving, which was also meant to ward off spirits, eventually evolved into pumpkin carving. All Hallow’s Eve has definitely transitioned into more of a Catholic thing though.

That’s when they would do the wicker man burning. [The details] depends on which clan you’d ask, but they would build a massive… man out of straw and kind of put a sacrifice in there. Obviously, the informant doesn’t do that. It’s about the new year, honoring the dead, and the final harvest. It would end with the Dumb Supper. This might overlap more with witch stuff, but it’s celebrating the final harvest with your family, and members who have passed have come to join in the feast and celebrate with you. That’s October 31st to November 1st.”

Context

The informant tends to celebrate it with a bonfire and feast since it’s the biggest of the fire festivals. The informant also liked spirituality as something that existed in harmony or in connection with nature. They found something meaningful in the solstices and equinoxes, more so than Christmas or other holidays. The changing of nature has a lot of concrete meaning. It’s an energy that they can see and feel as opposed to something more abstract.

Being in harmony with nature is important to the informant. She started learning about the druids first (she’s not a formal member of the religion) when she was working on a project. She felt a “vibe,” the festivals made a lot of sense to her, and they honored harmony with nature while maintaining a certain whimsy. They referenced the circle of life, its ebb and flow, the constant motion rather than static holidays.

Analysis

The informant felt an emotional connection and spiritual resonance to festivals like Samhain. Despite not being an official member of the Druidic faith, these seasonal celebrations aligned far more with their perception of reality far more than static, arbitrary holidays like Christmas or New Year’s. It’s well documented how festivals and rituals are markers of great change, and I think it’s interesting to note how these festivals form around perceived changes in our environments. Furthermore, how similar observations hundreds of years later can compel a person to find affinity with celebrations of old. Beliefs shared across the diaspora of time connect our past and present in profound ways, and it’s fascinating to comprehend why Druidic beliefs can still resonate so strongly with people outside of the faith and beyond its heyday.

Festival: Salu Salo

Date of Performance: 05/01/2025

Nationality: Filipino

Primary Language: English

Residence: Manila, Philippines

My informant recalls a fond memory from his school days. He grew up in the Philippines, and when my informant was a child, he attended an annual festival called “Salu Salo”, which means welcome, or something similar, in Tagalog. It was a school event, wherein he and his classmates would experience Filipino culture, and play at various stalls and events related to the festival. His whole middle school would have haunted houses, small rides, and bounce houses set up, and it was the preeminent celebration of their school year. Normally, his school, which was Catholic, had a uniform, but on this day, children were allowed to wear whatever they want. It’s a spin on the classic Filipino “Fiesta”, or celebration, and to start it, the class would all be together, and have a party, involving dance, food, and other games. Parents were invited to attend, and teachers would man the stalls and join in celebrations with their students. Overall, it was a fun event that encouraged the students of my informant’s school to be proud of their Filipino heritage and be rewarded for their work across the school year. 

This festival sounds to me like a combination of a more typical end of the year party and a more traditional celebration of Filipino culture. I’d imagine that events like these help to connect feelings of relief and happiness with national pride, bolstering morale while also reminding children of their background.

Festival: Christmas

Date of Performance: 04/30/2025

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, California

My informant describes the importance of his family’s Christmas celebration every year growing up. He notes that it isn’t necessarily unique, but that his parents made it a point of emphasis in his childhood, and that to this day he fondly remembers the effort they put into making it special for him and his brother. He also notes that while was raised culturally Catholic, he is not particularly religious, and regards the holiday as having more of a personal than spiritual significance in his eyes. His family tradition went as such: every year, they would decorate the tree together on the first of December. His father took care to always buy a real, fresh, pine tree, because he enjoyed the smell of it throughout their house. The biggest day of the Christmas holiday, he describes, was the night before Christmas, when his cousins, who only visited about once a year, would come over with his uncle and aunt, and his parents would cook a large dinner. This was followed by a screening of A Charlie Brown Christmas, after which they were all allowed to open one present before going to bed. The next morning, they would find the milk and cookies they’d left out eaten, and their stockings stuffed with one or two items from their Christmas list. After this, they’d eat the leftovers of the night before, and watch Christmas movies with their parents and family. 

My informant describes this practice with much enthusiasm – I could tell he really enjoyed reminiscing about his childhood. He notes that his parents’ treatment of the Christmas holiday was likely due to his father, who grew up as the child of immigrants, always envying the “classic” Christmas experience he peers had. 

On another note, my informants’ perception of Christmas as less of a religious event and more of a family celebration  is pretty similar to the experience of my other friends. Regardless of if they were raised religious or not, many describe the winter holidays with similar fondness, likely because of globalization and the cultural prominence of the “classic” Christmas holiday. Interestingly, this practice is less community based as it is familial, perhaps reflecting the dominance of the nuclear-family model amongst Western countries and cultures.

Shabbat Tradition

Text: “I first did Shabbat with my family growing up every Friday. Then I went to a Jewish school from kindergarten to eighth grade. Every Friday there, we did Shabbat lunch where we mixed with all the grades. It was a more reformed school so it wasn’t super intense. When I started going to sleepaway camp, we did Shabbat on Friday there and it was just a really great community there. As my sister and I got older, things got busier so we couldn’t spend every Friday night doing Shabbat. We would always try to find a time once a month to do it. I grew up with my grandpa being a rabbi so we would go to St. Louis with my family and do a shabbat there. First you light the candle, then you do grape juice and wine, then you would do the Havdalah. This was a special part of camp for me because we always sang special songs. My parents, my dad especially, are very religious so this was always an important celebration for me.”

Context: The informant is Jewish-American, and originally from Chicago. She describes Shabbat as a significant celebration for her. Shabbat is a traditional Jewish celebration. It is the Jewish day of rest, from Friday to Saturday evening, and it is a time to rest from work and gather with loved ones. Specifically, as the informant describes, it is celebrated through a dinner. This is especially true because her grandfather is a Rabbi, so she grew up very tied to the Jewish religion. She says she is not as strictly religious as her father and grandfather, as they keep kosher and she does not, but she still feels that being Jewish is an important part of her identity. She says that Shabbat has been a part of her identity ever since she can remember, as she did it since her early childhood and continued this tradition throughout school and camp. Shabbat reminds her of her family and friends, which is why it remains so special for her, even if she is not able to celebrate it every Friday.

Analysis: 

Shabbat functions as a vernacular religious practice, as it is celebrated and adapted by individuals in different ways, and is often diverged from institutional expectations. The informant grew up in a religious household, but her Shabbat experience is shaped by other environments, including school and summer camp. Each experience has added a different layer and new meaning onto the ritual. The informant’s talks about both the loss and adaptation of the celebration over time. Throughout her life, she has had phases where she celebrates Shabbat weekly, and then other, busier times of her life when she is unable to. This shows how the ritual can act as identity performance. Even if she is unable to practice it weekly, the symbolic power still retains, and it is just as special and important to her.Also, the fact that she celebrates it in so many places (at home, camp, and school) shows that rituals can evolve contextually. Specifically, at her camp, she sings special songs, which is not something she does at other locations. This shows key features of folklore, including multiplicity and variation. Additionally, the ritual can create community, as she mentions. For her, camp becomes a site of ritual performance, creating a sense of communitas. This social unity is what makes the celebration so special for the informant.

The celebration of Shabbat becomes ritualized through the routine that takes place—the candle lighting, wine, and Havdalah. These acts are not only religious, but are also acts of folk performance.

Additionally, with her grandpa being a rabbi, this shows how heritage can play an important role in rituals. She is able to sustain this sense of family and heritage through celebrating the Shabbat tradition. This speaks to the purpose of folklore as a whole, she is learning the lore from her folk, in this case, her family. The relationship with her grandfather also reflects the combination of institutional and vernacular religion. He is an institutionally religious figure, but the way that they celebrate Shabbat is reflective of vernacular religion. This concept of heritage also shows how rituals can act as a method of cultural continuity. She is connecting to her Jewish heritage through ritualization.