Tag Archives: Community

The Power of Chowder

Age: 24

Story: “Every year, my family and I look forward to Chowderfest on Long Beach Island like it’s a holiday. Chowderfest is an annual festival in LBI, NJ every October, where the local businesses who sell clam chowder compete to see who has the best red, white, and recently lobster bisque on the Island. It’s one of our favorite traditions, and we’ve been going for as long as I can remember. We wake up early, bundle up in cozy (and sometimes matching) sweatshirts, and head to the festival ready to taste all the different chowders. My parents are always between the red and the white chowders, but honestly, I only like the white. It’s not just about the soup, though, the music, the local vendors, and the energy of the crowd is what makes Chowderfest so special to me. We run into the same families every year, and we always swap recommendations for the best booths, and stock up on sweatshirts with the new festival logo. For us, Chowderfest isn’t just an event, it’s a reminder of everything we love about being together, about the shore, and about making time for joy, even when life gets busy. It’s a little tradition with a big heart, and I couldn’t imagine the Fall without it.”

Analysis: This story captures the cultural and folkloric richness of Chowderfest as a regional tradition deeply ingrained in both family routine and community identity. Festivals like Chowderfest function as modern-day rituals, bringing people together through shared experiences and collective memory. This person’s vivid recollection of matching sweatshirts, friendly rivalries over chowder flavors, and encounters with other families illustrates how such events create a sense of community and belonging. Folklorically, the festival serves as a space for the performance of regional identity, celebrating local east coast foods (clam chowder and lobster bisque), supporting small businesses, and reinforcing communal bonds. These elements transform the event from a food competition into a site of cultural storytelling. The narrator’s attachment to the tradition also reveals the emotional ties to maintaining family rituals, which is a true testament to the power that rituals, festivals, and traditions may have. I think there is something so strong and special about regional communities and their ties to each other. I know myself, I have a huge tie to my hometown, and it’s due to festivals like Chowderfest, that I can feel so connected to the people that live around me. I equate this feeling to being a fan of a sports team who just won big, it’s a lot of love for people you barely know.

Free Hot Cocoa!

Age: 19

Story: “There’s this tradition my family and I started doing a couple of years ago during Christmas time, and it’s something that involves the entire neighborhood back home, so it’s super sweet. But essentially, there’s this one house that lives down the street and they have this little window on their front porch, and every night of the week before Christmas, they leave their window open and put up a sign that says “Free Hot Cocoa!” So, one day, my dad and I were walking our dog, we passed the sign, and we thought we oughta take advantage of this free hot chocolate situation. We ended up bringing our entire family back, and now every year, we go back to this house and we get some hot chocolate. We actually even started to create a relationship with the older man and woman that live there, and my dad mows their lawn in the summer.”

Analysis: This person’s experience reflects how everyday spaces, like a neighbor’s front porch, can be transformed into the most memorable and special of places. The tradition started just from a casual walk, but it grew into an annual outing that now holds a lot of value for this person’s family and reinforces a sense of belonging within their community. What I really love here is the evolving relationship between this person’s family and the couple who offers the cocoa. It’s so cool to see how a simple act of kindness, like giving out free hot chocolate around the holidays, can evolve into a beautiful relationship, where this person’s dad now mows their lawn. 

Vacaville Fiesta Days

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Context: The Fiesta Days parade was so fun as a kid. It was this stretch of about four days in Vacaville, CA, where I grew up, that the whole town would get involved with this cool parade that had floats and marching bands. Afterward, there would be a carnival, kids’ events, live music, and great food. It always took place in late May, so the weather was usually great. One of the reasons it’s such a huge memory for me is because I was part of the parade in my school’s marching band. I marched and played my trumpet in that parade about four years in a row, and it was so fun. We had these cool costumes on that made you feel like you were going to pass out by the end of it with how hot you were. And we would play some silly marching band songs all the way through the parade route. I played the trumpet, so my lips were so tired by the end. Our band always won for our age group in the parade awards. But what was really fun is that after we were all done, we got to partake in the festivities—riding rides in the carnival and going to the local band concerts. Looking back, it was a great way for the community to come together in a fun, memorable way.

Analysis: One thing that stands out to me about this festival is how strongly it’s tied to youth participation. It’s not just something for kids to watch, it’s something they can actively participate in and make special. Getting kids involved as active members in this way ensures that when they grow up, they’ll want to continue to be active members. These traditions help build a sense of belonging in a community. Everyone has a role to play, even if it’s just to enjoy the parade and eat funnel cake. These kinds of yearly events that bring the local area together in this time of changing seasons have the effect of marking time, you know when the weather starts to get nice and warm it’s time for the Fiesta Days. These are the types of events that make people feel good about where they come from. No matter where the children that participate live when they grow up, they’ll continue to hold the joy and pride that this made them feel about their hometown.

Algonquin Founders’ Day Festival

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Context: Founders’ Day has always been a big deal in my hometown, Algonquin. The festival itself officially started in 2004, but the parade’s been going on for way longer, like over 60 years. My dad’s been involved since before I was even born, especially with the parade board, and I kind of grew up helping out. I’ve done stuff like reaching out to businesses, schools, marching bands and other local groups to help get the parade together. The parade goes right down Main Street along the river, and it’s a big deal. There’s floats, marching bands, kids walking around, local politicians and even just people from the community who want to be part of it. It’s always packed. People from nearby towns come out too. It’s not just the parade, there’s a whole weekend of stuff afterwards. There’s a carnival, food, live music. One of my favorite things as a kid was the boat race. I think what’s really cool about the festival is how it brings people together. On top of having fun, it’s about being proud of where you live. Like, through helping out, I’ve gotten to know so many people. Like people in local government, police, even the mayor. And I think that’s part of why the festival exists in the first place. A lot of the people on the board are involved in community and philanthropy, and they really care about giving back.

Interpretation: I think the Founders’ Day festival is a great way to bring the community together in a way that blends tradition, fun, and community service. Not only is it about honring the town’s history, it’s also about building memories in the present. I love how popel of all ages come together to either be a part of or watch the parade, race cardboard boats, and have a good time at the carnival. It reminds me of the annual summer festival in my hometown, they become a sort of social glue. They give people a reason to be proud of where they are from and be part of something collective. The Founders’ Day Festival is a great example of how rituals don’t have to be ancient or formal to carry meaning. They can be recent and still just as deeply rooted in the values of community.

The Renaissance Fair

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: Vacaville, CA
Language: English

Text: The Renaissance Fair is a themed festival that recreates aspects of life during the Renaissance era. Held annually in places like Novato, California, the fair features costumed participants, staged jousting matches, medieval-style music and dancing, handcraft demonstrations, and food like roasted turkey legs. Visitors often dress up and speak in faux “Old English” dialects, fully immersing themselves in the historical fantasy. In the 1970s and 1980s, the fair in Novato was a major regional event that lasted for a month, attracting people from all over Northern California. While many attended only for a day, it offered an intense and theatrical experience of a different time period.

Context: Yeah, we used to go to the Renaissance Fair back in the ’70s and early ’80s—probably about four or five times when I was a kid, like from age seven to twelve. It was in Novato, and people came from all over Northern California for it. It ran for a month, but we’d just go one day each year with the family.

Everyone really went all in. People dressed in full costume—like knights, peasants, royalty—all of it. They talked in these funny fake Old English accents the whole time, like “Good morrow, my lord!” kind of stuff. There were beer-drinking competitions, workshops, handcrafts, singing, dancing, and this big jousting arena set up in the middle. It was dusty and hot—always in the summer—so I mostly remember the heat, the dirt, and how packed it would get.

The tents were set up in these big circles, kind of like a village. And everyone was walking around eating those giant cooked turkey legs. As a kid, it felt like stepping into another world. I remember the singing and dancing being really cool, and just seeing people so into it. It was like going to a regular fair, but with way more character.

Analysis: I find this recurring fair very fascinating as it claims to be centered around the time period of the Renaissance, yet is not very strict about historical accuracy. To me what it seems to be more focused on is imagination, performance, and community. It appears to be less of a history lesson and more of a form of storytelling, where everyone becomes a character in a large whimsical play. While there are technically performers and audience members, the involvement and integration of both makes the lines blur between the two. This type of immersion into a different world is not the type of memory a kid forgets easily. I think that’s why these type of event continue to be so popular. They offer families a way to create memories that will last a lifetime.

I think festivals also reflect a more modern desire for play and theatricality in adulthood. This type of festival demands buy in and participation, you must create the joy rather than just receive it.