Tag Archives: #festival

“St. Fratties Day” Celebration – Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

Age: 22

Date Collected 4/16/2026

Context:

My informant is a close friend of mine attending Cal Poly San Louis Obispo. She is a graduating senior and an active member in a sorority. She told me about Cal Poly SLO’s most recognizable holiday, “St. Fratties Day.” When I went to college in Santa Barbara, I knew all about St. Fratties day, but I never got the opportunity to go.

Text:

“Every year on March 17th, we wake up at 3:17, get dressed in our “greenest” outfits, take a green Jello shot, and hit the block parties.” That’s been the tradition long before my friend first enrolled at Cal Poly SLO, but it seems the traditions are changing.

To my informant, this is a uniquely SLO festival that’s shared with students all over California; students come from neighboring schools to attend, similar to UCSB’s Deltopia to celebrate. Typically, students indulge in “Irish like drinks – Guinness, Irish Whiskey, Baileys, Green colored mixed drinks and of course green Jello shots,” “anything that seems remotely Irish is there.” More recently, my informant explained that students come dressed in custom green t-shirts painted with white paint and patched. Like four leaf clovers or messages like “kiss me, I’m Irish” or “I love Irish goodbyes.” About two years ago, students made their own green “borgs” decorated with on- theme messages funny quotes or Irish themed puns.

The holiday has been largely student- run, consisting of massive block parties where certain streets of the town are packed full of students celebrating. House parties, local band performances and pre-games litter the surrounding neighborhoods as students prepare to gather on Hathaway street at 5am. Most students hear about the event through word of mouth, as it is quite popular; if not through friends, they see posts on social media discussing house parties or cover charges for bands. But it seems the tradition is about to change significantly.

Last year, the school started its own concert music festival on campus to divert attention from the neighborhood street parties. My informant told me that this is largely due to the resulting property damage, noise and underage drinking that occurs. In the 2025 celebration, roofs caved in and fences were toppled over by the mass of people.

My informant explained that while in the middle of the crowd she “literally thought I might die.” But, thats part of the fun. Regardless, she explained, the surrounding neighborhood, police, and other officials have placed pressure on the school to make St. Fratties less damaging for the community. So, as a result the school offered a music festival free of entry that has big names performing. My informant explained that the school and community’s goal is to make the block parties illegal and push students towards more “responsible and respectful” celebrations. Additionally, next year, the school is going to switch to semesters, so St. Fratties weekend will fall under their Spring break. My informant believes that “this is their [school and officials] path to totally killing it.”

This last March (2026) the streets were barricaded, with cops on horses preventing students from moving around. So, this exciting student tradition might not exist for much longer, which is sad for my informant and future generations of SLO students. This is a huge event for the students at SLO. They look forward to it, and it is a way for them to communicate their identity as SLO students and show off their campus and student life to friends from out of town. To them, this isn’t just a big party, its part of their life. The event takes a lot of energy from the students as well. Setting up, planning, coordinating their individual contributions and plans. It also takes place on “dead week,” or the week before their finals for the quarter. So, there is a significant cost for dedicated students to fully commit or even attend the event.


My informant explained that after the initial rush, around seven or eight in the morning, she and her friends go back to their house and sleep in the sun by the pool. They rest, get some work done then go out again later that night to the bars in town, which have green decorations, themed drinks and the bands performing. This is where the student population joins the rest of the community, because both students and adults are all out celebrating at the bars.

Analysis:

This event shows a lot about student identity and how events and festivals become a core part of students’ on-campus life. The community comes together to celebrate, meet one another, and enjoy being around one another. It’s an event where groups that otherwise might not interact can mingle and find common ground. It is a way to let go and be free of the difficulties of school for a moment. To release your tension before the push from finals. But also, in a way, a means to challenge the system. Students defy their obligations to study for finals to take part in this event. This is by definition the carnivalesque. An act that defies the “dominant” or regular system of the academic calendar by providing a day to suspend those roles as students. It is especially poignant because it takes place at the highest stakes moment of the quarter, right before finals week.

It also has ritualistic elements, like waking up at 3:17 am (3:17 = March 17th) and drinking Jello shots. This crates a shared “starting point” that all students can enter this event. Brutal as it may be in the moment, it is a fond memory of my informant and shows that students are committed to this event because there’s a “barrier to enter.” These are things that students wouldn’t normally do, waking up that early or drink the Jello shots. But under the context of the event, these things have meaning created by the culture and traditions passed on by older students.

It has been sad to hear about how the school and institutions are in effect “killing” the event. Switching to the semester system means everyone will likely be free from school and away on break. The holiday needs a place, that place and community are removed for the period of St. Fratties. There are risks for the event- students getting hurt, property damage, and noise, to name a few. But, I don’t think killing the event totally is a fair or beneficial solution. The event has become part of SLO’s identity, and students look forward to it every year. Even though they are offering a festival, my informant explained it was poorly run and wasn’t as fun or unique as the block parties. We learned this is called fakelore. An institutional ripoff trying to build on the authenticity of the people’s culture. My friend explained that it felt forced rather than natural. As an outsider, I’m upset by this. It’s like getting a YouTube video interrupted by a corny corporate ad that’s trying too hard to fit in. It also eliminated the house parties, random interactions, and smaller local student bands. When the day becomes just a performance, the students aren’t active participants; they become more like an audience. This institutional replica of the event highlights how the culture and specifics of the event are sanitized by larger corporations to create a mass-produced event. There are thousands of music festivals every year, but only one St. Fratties day.

Pujas

Context:

A, 19, is an Indian student at USC. He has lived in India for 12 years of his life. Both his mom’s and his dad’s sides of the family practice Hinduism. He then explained the traditions, rituals, and celebrations that are practiced in Pujas for certain Gods during their respective festivals.

Text:

Most Hindu households reserve a room or space in a room for a ritual that can be practiced daily or for special occasions. A puja involves placing idols or photos of gods that a Hindu family may specifically worship. These idols or pictures are decorated with garlands of flowers, and colored powders of red and yellow are dabbed onto the heads of these gods. A sweet dish is traditionally made that is emblematic of the festival or that the god enjoys. A lamp or ‘dia’ is placed on a special silver dish along with some rice and colored powders. This plate is then rotated near the idol, with the fire signifying our communication with God, while songs are sung in either regional languages or Sanskrit, and a small bell is rung. In the end, we pray to these gods, place our hands near the lamp for a second, and then place the warmth on our faces. We take a piece of the sweet dish with our right hand, as is customary, as the left hand is seen as dirty.

Analysis:

Puja, a ceremonial worshiping ritual, is usually performed by offering fruit or flowers to a Hindu deity that is represented by an idol or image. This ritual is practiced to reinforce a connection with a God and show appreciation for said deity. The word Puja derives from the Dravidian word for flower Pu, explaining the use of floral garlands in said celebration. In this celebration, flowers are meant to procure health, wealth, and prosperity. Pujas can be held throughout the year but are more prevalent during March and October/November; this is because of the cyclical calendar that is symbolic of the stages of life. The seasons of Spring and Fall (March and October/November) are very representative of the transitions between life and death. Many other cultures around the world celebrate similar dates, like easter and All Souls Day. Overall, puja is a ritual of offering to a God in Hindu mythology.

Chinese Lunar New Year

Context:

A, 18, is a student at USC. He is a French citizen of Chinese descent; he told me about how his family celebrated Lunar New Year when he visited China. He told me he grew up in France, so he seldom celebrated this tradition, only when he was in China back when he was young.  

Text:

Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice, so it’s usually around the end of January or the beginning of February. Every Lunar New Year is about a different zodiac animal, this is the year of the rabbit (2023). We usually wear red or red clothes and use traditional Chinese red paper lamps. We also put up fish posters to symbolize wealth in China, we put them on walls and doors to bring good fortune. We eat dumplings and blow-up firecrackers and fireworks.

Analysis:

Chinese Lunar New Year is a very common celebration among the Chinese diaspora throughout the world. It celebrates the New Year, and just like many other cultures, it lines up with the life cycle calendar beginning with spring (birth) and ending in winter (death). It is a liminal time between two cycles, so it is a magical time outside of the norm filled with superstitions, feasts, and celebrations. This festival is annually celebrated, as one might assume by its name; however, contrastively to the Solar year and Gregorian Calendar, this festival aligns with the Lunar Calendar, which is why it is on a different day every year. The rituals and superstitions that are celebrated during this festival often are practiced to bring good luck; similar to most cultures around the world that also have “good fortune” superstitions during their new year celebrations as well.

Mardi Gras

Text (festival)

“A week-long festival celebrating New Orlean’s culture and heritage.”

Context

My informant has lived in Louisiana for 4 years and attended the Mardi Gras festival two times.

Q: “What exactly is Mardi Gras?”

A: “The celebration originated in New Orleans and people travel from all across the country to celebrate Mardi Gras here in New Orleans. Basically, it’s a week-long festival/series of parades that happens at the beginning of January lasting until Fat Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday.”

Q: “What is the significance of the celebration?”

A: “It’s essentially a ‘last hoorah’ before lent so it’s the last time you indulge, drinking, eating sweets, especially king’s cake, before you give it up for lent.”

Analysis

Mardi Gras is a French phrase meaning “Fat Tuesday” translated into English. This comes from the custom of using up all of the fats in the home before lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence. Important families will create floats and dress up in extravagant glittery costumes driving the float around the city throwing out beads, coconuts, candy, etc. There is jazz music, performers, and people in costumes. New Orleans has a lot of French culture stemming from the Louisiana Purchase which gave the United States new land, including New Orleans. People typically dress up in the Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold, and green. People not coming from “important” New Orleans families will typically just wear comfortable clothes aligning with the Mardi Gras colors and walking shoes as they’ll be outside walking a lot. Different parades are happening throughout the week at different times and the streets are filled with people in celebration. The celebration marks the beginning of Lent, a yearly 40-day fasting period leading up to easter. This is exemplary of the connection between festivals and yearly cycles/the calendar as well as religious folklore. Festivals are often symbolic of cyclical time and the calendar year as Lent is a practice occurring yearly in Christian communities and the festival serves as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Christian practices and beliefs. Larry Danielson, a religious folklorist explores these themes of religious rituals and practices including communal groups participating in religious originating festivals representative of shared belief. Mardi Gras specifically has Catholic roots and people use festivals as a way to come together and provide a more deep appreciation and nuanced understanding of religious tradition.

Durgashtmi – Ghost Festival

Nationality: Indian
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing
Residence: France
Primary Language: English

There is a festival in India called Durgaashtmi, and what happens is that ghost enter the human body – ghosts like past spirits. They enter the body because maybe they haven’t gone to heaven or something like that. Like they haven’t found piece in their life or death. On the festival day these spirits want to show that they are still around and need peace, so their enter some women’s bodies, and these women become uncontrollable. So people say that they have supernatural powers or force or energy and totally become crazy. That happens in India – you can watch videos and stuff. Sometimes they chain these kind of people up. So all these Indian priests come and try to provide peace to the spirits by saying mantras in Sanskrit. And basically these mantras are supposed to get the ghost out of their body. Many priests believe the ghosts are a ghost of this goddess called Durga. She is considered to be a mother figure that’s super angry that won’t go out off your body. Some people also die from this process because they get so crazy and start to drink blood and stuff. It’s a very weird festival, at the end of the day they try to get the ghosts to quit the bodies of the people and the people aren’t dead yet.

Context: [informant] The main aim of the festival is to provide peace to the spirits and get them out of the world of the living. And this is of course scary also, because if Google Durgaashmi ghost you can find that girls are really.. I don’t know… like there are really ghosts coming in the bodies.

Thoughts: Seemingly possessed people are a phenomenon all over the world, and I think it can be looked at from many different lenses. Psychologists might call it psychosis, and religious people might call it possession. Regardless, it is very interesting that India has created a festival around