Tag Archives: family

Ritual – Christmas Eve

Nationality: American
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

My informant is Catholic and his family makes a point to go to church every Christmas Eve and then have a family dinner

Pulled from a conversation I had with my informant:

“Every Christmas Eve we drive up to Pasadena to visit my grandma (grandpa is unfortunately not around anymore) and we all go to her church at 5pm. Then we have a family dinner at her house. We say grace and then everyone shares their favorite memory they had with someone in the room from the past year. Then we drive back home that night”

This Christmas Eve tradition is a great example of a family-based religious ritual that blends secular and sacred elements into a meaningful experience. This ritual is considered a “calendar custom” because of it’s tie to the holiday of Christmas. This ritual tradition reinforces shared values, communal identity, and connection across generations. Going to Mass on Christmas Eve is a formal religious ritual within Catholic tradition, serving as a reminder for the family of the sacred narrative of Christ’s birth. Folklorists would call this a “ritual performance” which is a symbolic act that makes this occasion distinct from the ordinary. After Mass, the family engages in a more domestic, intimate ritual centered around having dinner at Grandma’s house. Having a shared meal itself reflects the classic folklore structure of reinforcing social bonds and fostering kinship between family members. Saying grace is a continuation of the previous religious observance but now in the home space, adding a private ritual to the previous public one. A very meaningful part of this ritual then follows, with the sharing of favorite memories. This act is a personalized, reflective practice that serves to deepens the emotional bond between the people present at the dinner. Folklorists would call this a “narrative exchange”, an oral tradition that strengthens collective memory and honors individual experiences. The drive home is a shifting period, back into ordinary time, after a structured and meaningful experience. Overall, this tradition reinforces family bonds, religious identity, and storytelling across the generations.

Mardi Gras

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Full-Time College Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

I interviewed MW who is from New Orleans. Although born in Ohio, his family moved to New Orleans when he was 4 years old. This means that he was raised there.

M talked to me about his experience with Mardi Gras and growing up in New Orleans. Every year, his family makes a big deal about going to Mardi Gras. They plan weeks ahead by buying beads and decorations for themselves. He explains that his family primarily focuses on getting green and purple beads as that’s what his dad did for his first Mardi Gras. They don’t do elaborate costumes but do have a spot that they like to go to. This year he took his girlfriend, and his parents allowed him to go out by himself instead of staying with them.

His family seems to have a routine. They focus on the beads and not the costume portion of Mardi Gras. I think this is important to note as they have personalized Mardi Gras in a way that doesn’t prioritize what they wear. It’s also important to note that they seem to have a sacred spot where their family continuously goes. This is an example of tradition in their family. His girlfriend going also peeked my interest because when I asked him about being alone in previous years he said this is his first Mardi Gras without staying with his family. I think this symbolizes a coming of age, where now that he has a girlfriend and is more independent, his parents are allowing him to go out and explore on his own. This public ritual holds such a personalized meaning, and I’m sure it’s the same for all the families that participate in Mardi Gras.

Christmas Tree on Halloween

Nationality: Mexican/American
Age: 18
Occupation: Full-Time College Student
Residence: Berkeley, CA
Language: English

I interviewed SH and she told me about putting up the Christmas Tree on Halloween.

My family doesn’t celebrate halloween. It is seen as a pagan holiday, and coming from a Christian household, it is a taboo, but more specifically deemed satanic. This created a period of time where my classmates would be engrossed in the spirit of halloween, and I would be left out. In order to substitute this time period, on halloween every year, my family put up the Christmas tree. It was a time of bonding within my family and was very common amongst our Christian community. Our community would host events on this day since the kids of the community wouldn’t be allowed to go trick-or-treat. We would invite our friends and family to commemorate the coming of Christmas.

The taboo with halloween is a description of a folk belief. The switching of a dark holiday in this household inverses to the lightheartedness of putting up the Christmas tree. This change in ritual replaces the seemingly pagan holiday with a more Christian one. The church uses this time period for communal bonding and resistance to mainstream practices.

El Padre Sin Cabeza

Nationality: American/Salvadoran
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Language: English/Spanish

TEXT: “My mom was raised in Suchitoto, a municipality in El Salvador, and when we visited her side of the family, she pointed out a church, Iglesia Santa Lucia, and said, ‘That’s where they say El Padre Sin Cabeza walks at night.’ She told me the story of a priest who was punished for a sin long ago, and now he roams the town at night, headless, searching for peace. She said people hear church bells ring late at night, even when no one is making them ring. My cousins and I were always too scared to go near the church, even my older cousins didn’t want to explore the streets at night, since we were all scared of the legend. It seems like in our religious family, it wasn’t about seeing him but about what happens when you break your word or lose your way.”

CONTEXT: This memorate was shared by the informant, E, during a conversation about legends from his home country. E shared this story that his mother told him, rooted in the Salvadoran legend of El Padre Sin Cabeza, which is a very well-known legend that is passed down across generations, especially in smaller towns. Though the story did not involve a direct encounter with the legend, the legend shows how oral traditions and folklore are preserved and shared in different ways within families, especially in religious or culturally prevalent settings.

ANALYSIS: This is an example of how legends are passed down through family and tied to real places. While the intention of the story is kept the same, the interpretation changes as new people hear it and as it gets passed down through generations. In El Salvador, the tale of El Padre Sin Cabeza is well known, especially in smaller towns, but instead of telling it as a scary story, E’s mom shared it as part of their visits to her hometown, which gave the story a more meaningful interpretation. Even without seeing anything strange, the story shaped how E and his cousins behaved, avoiding the church and the streets and night, showing how legends can influence, not just through belief, but through family and memory.

A Cameroonian Union

Nationality: American/Cameroonian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Arlington, Virginia
Language: English

TEXT: “When my cousin proposed to his now-wife, he had to follow a tradition that’s been in my family for generations. He needed to buy his bride’s family gift as a sort of bride price, a sort of toll he needed to pay before marrying her. The tradition comes from my Cameroonian culture. I remember the room filling with laughter, negotiations, and happiness, which marked the beginning of a lifelong connection.”

CONTEXT: This ritual was shared by the informant, F, during a conversation about wedding customs in different cultures. F talked about a marriage tradition from his Cameroonian background, where the groom must give gifts to the bride’s family before the wedding. He described attending his cousin’s bride price ceremony, where everyone laughed, talked, and celebrated together. F emphasized how important this step was in connecting the two families and honoring long-standing customs.

ANALYSIS: This is a good example of a cultural tradition that happens during big life events like marriage. In Cameroonian culture, the groom gives gifts to the bride’s family, which shows respect and seriousness about the marriage. It’s not just about the couple but about bringing two families together. Even though times have changed, people like F’s cousin still follow this tradition, which helps keep their culture alive. For F, it was more than just a party—it was a special moment that showed how important family and tradition are.