Tag Archives: festival

Holi, India

Nationality: Indian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/24/18
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

This story was collected from a friend, who was born and raised in New Delhi, India and is 20 years old. She told me about a family tradition surrounding Holi, the festival of colors celebrated in India.

 

The festival is usually celebrated it in the beginning of march. The night before the big day of Holi, there is a smaller festival called Holika Dahan. There was a kind in Hindu mythology character, Hiranyakashyap, who was so arrogant and self-centered that he wanted to be the only one worshiped by his kingdom, but his son, Prahlad, continued to worship lord Vishnu (one of the 3 gods in Hindu triumvirate) who is believed to be responsible for the upkeep of the universe. To teach the son a lesson, the king’s sister, Holika, tricks him into sitting on a pyre with her. Holika wore a fire resistant dress and hoped that Prahlad would die while she survived but as fate had it, the opposite happened. So for this festival, all the neighbors go to the common temple and they have and get a piece of the bonfire to put in their temples at home to commemorate the victory of evil over good no matter what the odds are.

 

She always looked forward to this because her mother, grandmother, grandfather, little brother and her would always go to the temple together to bring this piece of burning wood and she would get to pick it out of the fire. As a kid, that was really a rush, and it became one of her favorite family traditions.

 

I had heard about Holi before, and even been to Holi-themed events, but I had never heard about the story behind it or the temple ritual my friend described. I think it is a very nice way to bring families together and remind them of their religious backgrounds.

Winchester Rubber Duckie Festival

Nationality: Venezuelan American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: usc
Performance Date: april 17, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

What is being performed?
TA: I’m from Winchester, Massachusetts which is like 30 minutes from Boston and every year
we have a Rubber Duckie Festival that the whole town comes to.
AA: What’s the rubber duckie festival?
TA: I don’t even really know. But I’ve been going my whole life. Basically, though, it happens
every summer and every kid brings a rubber duckie and a crane drops all the rubber duckies
into the river and they race. The duckie that makes it to the end gets a cash prize but it’s really
hard and completely dependent on luck.
AA: What are you celebrating?
TA: It’s about summer. I’m not exactly sure if other places do this but the rubber duckies are
supposed to just be symbols of happiness.

Why do they know or like this piece? where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to
them?
AA: When did you first discover this festival?
TA: When I was a little kid my parents took me. And then I kept coming back because my dance
class would always perform.
AA: Do you like the festival?
TA: When I was a kid it was super fun because I would want my duck to win but now it’s just a
time for me to catch up with my friends and do something for Winchester. For my incredibly
small town, it means the world.
Context of the performance- where do you perform it? History?
The Winchester Rubber Duckie Festival happens annually in June. It brings the entire
community out, features youth performers, and has live music. It is a way for Winchester to be
united for a day.

Reflection
I have never heard of this festival before but think it’s cool and wish my town did something like
that. Having the racing of the rubber duckies is a fun way to get even the littlest children
involved. I think this is something that only works super well in small towns like Winchester but
is a good idea in theory for all towns.

The Governors Ball Music Festival

Nationality: Polish American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: NYC, USA
Performance Date: 4/6/18
Primary Language: English

‘My friend Rachel first told me about this music festival. She told me about how her sister had been to several festivals and told her to go experience a music festival. Music festivals our way to bond with friends and having experience of listening to so many musicians over the course of 1 to 5 days and even longer. These festivals in food live music of all sorts, however their specialties amongst different festivals. Every festival has food and beverage lineups, musical lineup, special festival vendors such as flower crowns and sponsored booths by big companies. I have found it so fun To experience festivals with my friends because we all enjoy the same music and get to experience it live with thousands of other people. There are so many different elements to a festival including learning music before (if you want to). Our first music festival was the Governor’s Ball music festival in New York City, our hometown. We wanted to go to a festival that was close to home in case anything were to happen and also because we love the musicians playing. We realized upon arriving that it was a festival where pictures were being taken left and right, and we got to experience the festival life. Festival life usually entails consuming illegal substances and reminiscing about the Woodstock days. While there are many more regulations at festivals nowadays, it still was done by most festival goers. There festivals all over the world that pertain to many different events, such as Oktoberfest in Germany and the flying lantern Festival is in Asia. In America there is a huge interest in music festival is because of the experience link to it. While the Governors Ball is one of the most popular festivals to attend, There are so many other festivals to experience in the future.

Bibliography

Jewish Festival/Ritual: Non-Traditional Passover/Seder

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/10/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece: Jewish Festival/Ritual

“My family hosts Passover dinner every year, but our celebration of the holiday is nontraditional in that we perform only a 10 minute seder. When we begin the seder, we always start with a reading of the Haggadah, which recounts the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and helps us to remember the suffering the Jews experienced as slaves and their happiness and celebration upon being freed. The leader of the seder, my mother, starts of the reading of the Haggadah and then each person around the table reads the paragraph following the previous. The Hebrew prayers we recite together, and upon reciting the prayer for wine, we drink our cup of wine or grape juice. To remember our ancestors tears, we take bitter greens, which are parsley, and dip them in salt water. To remember our ancestors’ hard labor and the bricks Pharaoh forced them to build, we break the matzah and create small matzah sandwiches by adding charoset, a chunky mixture of apples, matzah, and nuts, and horseradish. Before we finish reading the Haggadah, we stop to eat dinner which always starts with matzah ball soup and then we move onto the main courses. In my family, we make some of the same dishes every year, including my aunt’s arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette and pine nuts, beef brisket, and kugel, a sweet-tasting baked noodle casserole. After everyone finishes eating, we finish reading the Haggadah and then prepare dessert. It is during this time too that one of the men in the household, usually my dad, would hide the afikomen, a wrapped-up piece of broken matzah that is to be hidden and searched for by the children of the house those younger than 13 years old, but we don’t do this anymore since there are no more children in our family. Our Passover ends with dessert. Because we are forbidden on Passover to eat foods containing grains like wheat, oat, barley, spelt, etc., we have flourless desserts, including spongecake, fresh fruit, macaroons, chocolate, and flourless cookies.”

Background Information:

-Why does informant know this piece?

The informant is Jewish, and the Seder festival has been celebrated in her family for generations.

– Where did they learn this piece?

She learned about these traditions because she participates in this festival every year

– What does it mean to them?

This event is a way for her distant family to meet up each year.

Context:

– Where? The Seder happens at the dinner table in the informant’s home.

– When? The Seder tradition happens on Passover, which often falls near Christian Easter.

– Why? The Seder serves as a reminder of the Jewish people being freed from Egyptian slavery.

Personal Thoughts:

This year, my friend invited me to attend the Seder at her house. It was a very warm and pleasant experience. According to her, the Seder that happens at her house is very relaxed compared to a traditional Seder which can last up to four hours or more depending on how religious the family celebrating it is. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I think this tradition of bringing the family together and eating a ritualized meal is very important for the preservation of Jewish culture.

Clicking Sticks: A Folk Dance

Nationality: Indian American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 3/27/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Telugu, Hindi, Spanish (kinda)

This is like a dance slash game -um- it’s from like Indian Hindu culture actually like it used to be Hindu, but it’s kind of becoming more of like an Indian thing now -um- and basically you have these sticks. Each person has like two sticks; They’re called Raas (pronounced “Ross”) R-A-A-S -um- and like you, you just go around like hitting your sticks with other people’s sticks and it’s like you, you just like dance around all night like hitting sticks with other sticks and like you’ll make like patterns with your friends and like different complex like dances.

 So like if I have these two sticks and you have yours we could be like 1, 2, 3, turn (gesturing to alternating sides with each count and then spinning around with sticks touching your partners) and then there’s like two lines and they go like opposite ways and like so like I’ll go like… so we both move to our, our left so like after we, I hit your stick three times and turn or whatever then I’ll go to like the person next to you and we’ll do the same thing and we’ll keep going. It’s kinda like a circuit kind of.

Yeah and it’s like it’s around the time so that this whole um dance party thing is called garba -um-… G-A-R-B-A. Um- so -um- yeah and it’s usually in like October November it’s like uhh fall harvest type of thing. Yeah. 

The Informant, one of my classmates, shared the dance of Raas after discussion section. The dance is commonly performed during the Navratri festival alongside a similar and simpler folk dance called Garba. The festival is celebrated to pay respect to the Mother Goddess of the Hindu religion, Shakti. The performance of the dance celebrates the nine incarnations of the goddess.

The Informant told me that she doesn’t remember a time where she didn’t take part in the festivities of Navratri, including the folk dances of Raas and Garba. They’re a part of her life. She doesn’t know who taught them to her or when she first danced. One of the Informant’s favorite parts of the dance is the color. She said it reminds her of Holi, the famous Indian “festival of colors” in which people smear each other with color. By the end, everyone is a vibrant hue. In Navratri, the people begin the festival wearing colorful and vibrant Garba garbs. The dance is rather simple. There are no official steps, but performers click sticks to keep rhythm.

Raas was a traditionally male dominated dance, but has become more inclusive over the years. The two things prominent in Raas are vigor and force, however, a one of passion instead of violence. Raas and Garba are both fast-paced energy-filled dances comprised of two circles, one rotating clockwise and the other counterclockwise.

I loved this account of some of the folk dances cherished in India, but I loved the backstory even more. The fact that these dances have been a part of her life so long that she can’t remember a time that they weren’t present is, in my belief, a true marker of a folk dance that is massively culturally important.  This act is a merging of three areas of folklore. The dance itself, the festival at which it’s performed, and the mythology it celebrates.

For more information on Raas, Garba, and the Navratri festival, see here.