Description: After a funeral, people would put salt on themselves in order to keep spirits out of their home. Background: The informant observed the ritual from his mother. Transcript: ML: My mom puts salt on herself before entering the house after a funeral. Me: Is there a reason that your mom does that? ML: I… Continue Reading »
Description: After a family member is cremated, the family would pass the remains across the family chopstick to chopstick. Background: The informant observed this in his family during funerals. Transcript: ML: Another thing I’ve noticed more is that we can’t pass food from chopstick to chopstick. Ao whenever we’re eating, and we share, she puts… Continue Reading »
Description: During New Years, people would cook and eat long noodles believing it to mean having a long life. Background: This tradition is something that the informant’s family engage in every year. Transcript: ML: My mom would cook a certain soba noodle dish on new years to signify a long life. Toshikoshi Soba I think. … Continue Reading »
Main piece: EG: So my dad’s from Japan, and there’s this story about how the island of Japan was made with the gods izanagi and izanami, and there was something about how izanagi was stirring the sea to create the island of Japan. And then there was something about izanami hiding a cave, so the… Continue Reading »
R: Well, we gave him a cat for luck. C: Why? And why is it waving R: I’ve actually heard two stories for that. One, was a long time ago, there was an emperor who was a good man. He would always greet everyone he saw as he went about his walks. One day, he… Continue Reading »