Tag Archives: paper

Japanese New Year’s Eve Traditions

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 8th, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Informant Background: This individual was born and grew up in Hawaii. His family is of Japanese and Chinese descent. He speaks Japanese and English. His family still practice many Japanese traditions, also many Chinese traditions. They celebrate some of the Japanese holidays. Many of the folk-beliefs and superstitious are still practiced. His relatives who are Japanese lives in Hawaii as well. He currently lives in Los Angeles to attend college.

 

At New Year’s Eve, it is a Japanese tradition that you eat long strand of noodles which signifies a long and healthy life. Next, you have to eat the sticky rice, mochi, which represent how your family will stick together. Then, you go to the temple where you can make a wish and pick up different kinds of blessed paper which represents different things in your life such as: safe travel, good study, etc. You do these things with your family, relative, and close friends.

Though the informant’s family migrated to Hawaii two generations ago they still practice Japanese rituals and traditions during important holidays. It is not only important that these rituals have to be performed, but also importance that they are performed correctly to bring the individual a good coming next year.

 

 

I believe that almost everybody have some kind of New Year’s Even traditions depending on the culture. New Year’s Eve is also one of the main periods of liminality since it is the transition period of one of the longest life cycle measurement. The New Year also signifies the end of something as well as the beginning. This tradition shows how food and everyday activity is made special during the liminal period as a way to create foreshadow of events or even a positive self-fulfillment prophecy(making a wish at midnight, drinking champagne, etc).

According to the informant the food consumed during this time of year is made slightly different but from the same ingredients as the food eaten every day. The form of the food becomes metaphor to many valued aspect in that culture: long life and family ties. Similar to other culture holiday traditions, certain foods are exclusive to those events and those events only.

The blessed paper is to foresee and start the New Year with good luck and goals for the coming year. I’ve observed on my trip to Japan once that there are many type of these paper that one can purchased: good luck, good grades, good relationship, pass an exam, get into university, etc. This reflects the idea of a “life fulfillment prophecy” where the beliefs that you will get good luck can help bring you good luck.

In this Japanese tradition to do all the traditions is not only to foreshadow a good year but also foreshadow a good year with your family. The idea that these rituals are done with people close to you shows how the transition period is not only important to the individual, but the collective as well.

The performance of these traditions also shows how some individual is reinforcing his cultural identity from his geographical origin without being there.

Paper Shredder Mascot

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Camas, Washington
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

Paper Shredder Mascot and Toilet  Paper Throwing

Tradition

 

When talking about silly mascots, my informant said his school’s nickname was the Papermarkers, since the town was built around a Georgia Pacific Paper mill in the 1930s. He claimed that their mascot was a ”big-ass shredder” and that students “throw toilet paper on the court/field/etc in order to celebrate rather than throwing confetti (since the mill makes paper, which is close enough to toilet paper). It is kind of odd, but definitely cool how a mill that is probably going to shut down in a few years defines our high school’s culture and pride as the ’Papermakers’. “

 

 

Thus, the mascot commemorates the town’s history. Moreover, the tradition of throwing toilet paper does the same in a way that students can get involved and revel in their towns past glory. Also, throwing toilet paper—which is often associated with fecal matter—when beating an opponent suggests that the school is cleaning up the opponents, comparing the other team to poop. Thus, the tradition of throwing toilet paper reinforces their history/their identity  as a community while celebrating their dominance over the opposing team.

Photo courtesy of: http://coachesaid.com/Content/ContentImages/Camas-mascot-25.jpg

Paper Stretcher

Nationality: Caucasion
Age: 40s
Occupation: Handyman (Formerly Printer)
Residence: Altadena, CA
Performance Date: Apr 14
Primary Language: English

The informant worked as a professional printer for over twenty years at several different shops in the Los Angeles area.

The Story:

Well, used to be, when I was printing, they, ya know, we’d get the new guys, and obviously, you know, we’d need to, to go get something or, ya know, we’d send them on errands here and there. And, uh, every once and a while, we’d we’d tell a guy to go get a paper stretcher. Ya know, and uh we’d tell ’em “Oh, ya know, go check the sheet-fed department for a paper stretcher.” And they’d take off and twenty minutes later, they come back. “Ah I can’t find it. I’m looking for it ya know, all over the place.” And ya know, sometimes the other department would send them to another department to go get it and, usually we’d see how long they would go with it. But uh, obviously, ya know, he got the clue after a while, after he, ya know, couldn’t find it that uh, there was no such thing. [chuckles] And uh, paper does a lot of stuff but it doesn’t stretch.

The prank was fairly common at all of the shops the informant worked at.
They pulled the prank on new workers because “The older guys, they knew what was up.”

This is a perfect example of occupational folklore, and a liminal phase prank. It is assumed that once you can’t be fooled by the prank, you know what paper is capable of, therefore making you an experienced printer.