Tag Archives: indian

Onam- Indian Festival

Age: 22

Text:
Informant: “Onam is a festival about King Mahabali returning to visit his people once every year. One thing people do is make pookalam, which are flower carpets placed at the entrance of the house to welcome Mahabali. My grandma makes them and that’s where I first saw them. People usually get together to make one and it can take two to three hours. There’s also a big meal called Onasadya which we eat for lunch. People sit in rows with a banana leaf in front of them and volunteers serve the food. Someone will bring a big bucket of rice and scoop it onto everyone’s leaf, then another person comes and gives things like bananas. Everything is vegetarian and there is 25 different dishes, the number of dishes is important and you eat with your hands. There’s also boat races called Vallamkali with 100-foot snake boats. I’ve watched them on TV before.”

Interviewer: “How long have you been celebrating Onam?”
Informant: “Pretty much since I was a kid, maybe when I was six or eight. My family celebrates it and that’s how I learned about it. I don’t celebrate it as much anymore, but my parents still celebrate it.”

Context:
The informant grew up in India and learned about and participated in Onam through family celebrations during childhood. Their first encounter with the traditions was watching their grandmother prepare pookalam flower designs at home. The informant explained that their family regularly celebrated the festival when they were around age six or eight. Although the informant does not celebrate Onam as frequently now that they have moved to America, their parents still celebrate in India.

Analysis:
Onam is an example of festival folklore, which combines storytelling, ritual practices, food traditions, and communal gatherings. The festival is centered around the legend of King Mahabali and his annual return, showing how narratives help explain and structure cultural celebrations. The traditions practiced during Onam also express important Indian cultural values such as hospitality, cooperation, and community. Activities like making pookalam or sharing the Onasadya meal require many people working in tandem, which turns the festival into a collective experience rather than an individual one. The large vegetarian meal served on banana leaves and eaten in rows reinforces a sense of equality, since everyone receives the meal in the same way.

Royal Family Legend

Text: The excerpt captured below is a folk performance of a student’s legend about their family being of royal lineage.

Interviewer: Do you have any family legends?

Interviewee: Yeah, I think, it’s more, like, of a thing if we believe it or not, but essentially my dad tells us we are actually descendants from, like, a royal family, and I think it is true because I think my dad’s mom’s dad’s mom was a princess of, like, this area and they were really well off, and, yeah, it’s just a legend that we are like kinda descendants from, like, a pre-royal family. We, as kids, can’t really confirm.

Context:

This interview arose from conversation with a fellow Forms of Folklore student, when discussing family legends and folk beliefs. I asked him if there were any family stories he recalled and he responded with the excerpt above. When asked about the details of this royal family lineage, the conversation went as written below:

Interviewer: Do you have any idea where this family is from and what they did?

Interviewee: Yeah, it’s in India. These are like my, kind of ancestors, and they’re located South of India. It’s like a city, that they ruled, used to rule— not like a city, like a town. They used to have like a huge house, kind of palace, type of stuff. Yeah, there were kind of just royalty. It’s like a legend though, because I don’t know if it’s true. I wasn’t there.

Analysis:

This story showcases the shifting power structure prevalent throughout India over the last century, under British rule. Under these chaotic conditions, it is plausible that the interviewee’s family was in power over a town or small district, but changing political currents displaced them from their position, and resulted in an emigration to America. This narrative also follows the format of old family legends, describing the family either coming from rags to riches or riches to rags. The story also showcases the exaggeration that can take place as legends spread over time. The legend of being from a royal Indian family is very different from the possibility of being a ruler of a small Indian town.

Angayapudi Powder

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Engineering Major
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Language: English

Informant: “Whenever I’m sick, my mom will mix this powder with rice, and it’s supposed to make your stomach stop hurting. It’s a black powder that doesn’t taste all that good. I’m trying to think of why it helps, but I’m pretty sure that when I asked, she would say to just trust her. It’s a bunch of herbs that are dried and ground with hot rice. It has turmeric, dried ginger, dried cilantro, dried cumin, and dried pepper. They are all Ayurvedic medicines, which is something from my moms culture. I would mainly have it when I was little, and it’s been a long time since she gave me any.”

Me: “Did it actually help?”

Informant: “Definitely! I guess it might’ve just been a placebo effect, but a lot of people believe in this stuff, so there’s probably some truth to it.”

Context: The informant recalls a form of folk medicine that her mom would give her when she was sick as a kid. She seems to believe in its effectiveness, although not wholeheartedly, and connected the medicine to Ayurvedic medicines, which are traditional, holistic indian medicines that have been around for centuries. Although the informant no longer uses the powder, they seemed to remember it positively.

Analysis: This seems to be the informant’s mother’s recipe for an age-old traditional medicinal system that focuses on natural solutions. Ayurvedic medicines are common in India, so much so that they operate similarly to our mainstream medical system, with Ayurvedic professionals having to undergo training and certification just like a doctor would in the states. It is supposedly one of the oldest medicinal systems around, which made it surprising that I couldn’t find anything about this specific powder online, but I suppose that may speak to the originality of the medicine that my Informant’s mother was making.

Indian Proverb

AGE: 20

Date_of_performance: February 15, 2025

Language: English

Nationality: Indian

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: New York

Context: “During floods, large trees that stand erect are often washed away, while short grass remains in its place because of its flexibility. Similarly, in the floods of life, the inflexible and egotistical are swept away, while the flexible and humble endure.” A came across this proverb at a temple, and his family has taught him similar things about adapting and being humble. He interprets it as you have to have the flexibility and kindness to be able to handle what life throws at you.

I: Do you have a favorite proverb or saying?

A: Yeah, one that really stuck with me is: “During floods, large trees that stand erect are often washed away, while short grass remains in its place because of its flexibility. Similarly, in the floods of life, the inflexible and egotistical are swept away, while the flexible and humble endure.”

I: That’s interesting, where did you first see it and what does it mean?

A: I first saw it when I visited a Hindu Temple in New Jersey. It means having resiliency and humility. You need to always have an open mind and be able to adapt to what life throws your way. Never be so rigid and go with the flow.

I: Have you ever seen an example of this in real life?

A: Yeah, when searching for finance internships, usually those who are cocky or arrogant end up being the ones who can’t find one or have problems in their careers later on. 

Analysis:

I really like this proverb, and it makes sense to me. I’ve always wanted to be a humble and kind person and this proverb shows a practical reason for doing so. Not to say that I want to have these qualities just because of what I can get in return, but it shows me there are real-life benefits to being humble and quick to adapt. This ties into another phrase I’ve heard, which is “Being kind is free”. I want to remain and adaptable and humble person in the future because of the positive outlying effects it brings me and those around me.

Hindi Proverb

Nationality: Kashmiri, Indian
Age: 62
Occupation: Physician
Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada
Language: Hindi

Text: बंदर क्या जाने अदरक का स्वाद

English Phonetic: Bandar kya jaane adrak ka swaad.

Translation: What does a monkey know of the taste of ginger.

Context: Informant first recalls hearing this proverb while in primary education(elementary school) when living in Jammu and Kashmir. Informant, however, details that they have heard it numerous times throughout their life in India, prior to moving to the United States. Informant would return home from school and inform their mother about their Muslim classmates’ inability to acknowledge or understand the informant’s religion, Hinduism. Upon hearing this, the mother would relay this proverb to get the informant to see that, sometimes, you cannot explain something to someone who upbringing does not allow them to understand it. Informant now understands the logic behind this proverb, however they failed to acknowledge it during their youth because of the trauma’s associated with the Kashmir conflict. This was a conflict over national rights to Kashmir that had religious and cultural roots between Hindus and Muslims. Informant know relays this proverb to their children to display that some things can not be explained to all people based on their upbringing. Informant makes it clear, thought, that this lack of understanding should never lead to conflict.

Analysis: When doing research on this proverb and seeing if other oicotypes or renditions existed in the world, I found that it is a commonly expressed idiom in South America. There, it holds the same traditional meaning that the informant believes it does. The nuance of the informants detailing of the proverb comes from the idea that a lack of ability to understand should never lead to conflict. This stems directly from the informants experiences in the Kashmir conflict, an event they would never want to bear witness to again. This highlights a slight semantic shift in the wisdom provided by this proverb. It no longer only serves as a means of understanding why people cannot come to understand certain things, but also a manner of preventing unnecessary conflict rooted in this inability.