Tag Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Greek Egg-Breaking Easter Ritual

Text: “So every Easter, the day before we will dye hard boil eggs and everyone will have an egg and on Easter we will go around and one person will try to crack a side of your egg. and you’ve got two chances So you go in a circle until everyone has broken both sides and one person has at least one good side left. So yeah. And then they win.”

Context:
Informant is a freshman at the University of Southern California studying Psychology, originally from Palos Verdes, CA from Greek-Jewish descent. We speak in the dining hall, and she is very excited and happy to be recounting her experiences.

“It’s epic and it’s fun and you get to do something with your dyed eggs. I don’t know, you know. It was just something my parents, I guess we were doing. We do it on both sides of the family. But I believe it’s like a Greek thing, and I have heard of at least one other person who does this. Well, I never win, so you know, like I, I enjoy it because it’s something our family does every year. It’s a way to use the eggs. You know, it’s fun to color eggs and stuff. So like then you get to actually like play a game with it.”

Analysis: This tradition is an example of a ritual performed in celebration of a holiday. The term “Easter” comes from the name of a pagan goddess and symbolizes new life and fertility. The ritual furthers this symbolism with eggs also being reminiscent of reproduction and fertility. The bright colors which they were being dyed are representative of the season of spring and the blooming of colorful nature. Although Easter is now largely recognized as a Christian holiday, rituals such as these have little relation to the biblical story of Jesus Christ. This ritual could be argued to be an example of ritual license because of how the eggs are dyed and played with which are activities usually discouraged when they relate to food items.

Thanksgiving Ham

Text: “My family always buys pre-sliced ham from our local grocery shop on Thanksgiving, and it’s really good with the special glaze that it comes with. It’s like this honey pineapple type glaze that’s sweet and then you combine the sweet with the savory from the ham, and it’s just an amazing concoction.”

Context:

Informant is a freshman at the University of Southern California studying human biology, originally from St. Louis, Missouri from Nigerian descent. We speak alongside a few of her other friends, and she carries a somewhat sarcastic, comedic tone.

“It’s a classic Thanksgiving staple in our family. And I honestly prefer eating the ham over turkey any day anytime. We began doing it when we moved into my new house which is my current house back at home. So probably 2013, 2014 ish. I think we do it because it’s way easier to prepare than a Turkey, and it tastes better. I’ve heard of other people doing it, but not for Thanksgiving more for Christmas. This tradition makes me feel so excited to wake up on Thanksgiving morning. I can smell the sweet, savory aroma of the ham tickle my nostrils. Wow.”

Analysis: Having this specific dish on a certain holiday is an example of a ritual. It is a ritual which commemorates something, namely the early days of colonized America. It is performed within a certain group of people at a specific time of year. It is also an example of ritual inversion in how modern folk tradition places ham on the menu for Christmas and turkey on the menu for Thanksgiving, but the informant’s family reverses these traditions. They are able to invert the normal social rules because they have claimed their own celebration as their own time for traditions and rituals.

Rancho Bernardo 4th of July Celebration

Main Piece

“Every fourth of July, my hometown puts on a parade that goes through the same few streets, where people dress up and decorate their cars with red, white and blue – some local businesses, organizations and sponsors are always part of the parade, along with the mayor, local beauty pageant winners, people like that who someone decides are important to the city for one reason or another. I got to be in it with a few other girls once, before my junior year of high school, because I’d won a local singing contest a month before. People stand along the streets to watch, which I’m sure I did a few times with my family growing up as well.
There are some other events associated with the parade, but the one I remember going to with my family is the fireworks show at night, which has always been held on the field of our local high school for as long as I can remember.”

Interpretation

Informant Interpretation: Informant notes she only feels connected to this tradition because it’s something that occurs in her hometown, and not because of the 4th of July. It’s shared by a small suburb, and thus more identity-defining and important to her.

Personal Interpretation: I found it interesting that many of these traditions seem to be a form of showcasing American “exceptionalism” or something “worth being proud of”–cars (wealth), beauty, those with political power. That feels very in line with the individualist framework America tries to set up for itself, as well as celebrating things that society deems of greater importance. Within this context, it is of course contained to a much smaller suburb, but I still felt those themes coming through in the particular description of events and holiday context.

Background

Informant is a 21 year old college student who was raised in Rancho Bernardo, CA. She is female-presenting, white, and of European descent.

Soulas Greek Festivals

Informant Information:

  • Nationality: Greek
  • Occupation: Professor
  • Primary language: Greek/  English 

Context & Text:

I.T spoke on village life in Rhodos, and going with family to the monastery of Soulas, where the yearly festivals were held. E.T said, “These festivals are lost in time, beyond recorded time in Greece, they have occurred continuously..” From the neothlithic period, Greece has had a religious component and a form of entertainment for people. The monastery has served as a temple for the god Dionysus, the god of wine and good luck. The monastery is located In the mounts, surrounded by pine trees. These festivals take place in July for the whole month, where the village people become united. These festivals also served as a time to establish friendships and relationships, especially since the whole island and other islands like Athens would go to compete in athletic games. I.T recalls his village making huts from the branches of the trees and staying there for a month, children playing in the stadium, and everyone would dance and sing. He described these festivals as a sort of business expo, where people would bring animals to sell, or ceramics, dry foods, etc. This location is a sight to marry because of the significance of the place to the whole island, I.T mentioned how his own daughter chose to marry there. At these festivals, traditional food was made and drinks were open to everyone, there was no age limit. However, drinks could only be offered by adults and the purpose of drinking alcohol was for appetite and good company. Wine wasn’t used to get drunk, if they got drunk they would not be allowed to drink again and they would lose respect for breaking a code of conduct. 

Analysis:

I, myself, have been to the monastery of Soulas on my first visit to the island of Rhodos, Greece. This is where I met I.T, and he was born and raised in Rhodos and knows all about its magnificent culture. Upon visiting this site, I was able to learn more about Greek culture, specifically in Rhodos. When researching this sight in particular, I found that inside the temple there is a sacred water source that is believed to hold healing properties. In the outside area surrounding the temple, there are various sports facilities in which the competitions occur for the athletic games. Additionally, I found that these annual festivals that take place in the summer are done in honor of Saint Soulas, and pilgrims travel there days in advance to prepare for the festival. I believe that the Greek people hold such a strong sense of national pride, and they love to honor their rich culture by opening their doors to everyone in events such as the festivals of Soulas. 

Danza Del Venado

Informant Info:

  • Nationality: Mexican 
  • Residence: Los Angeles
  • Primary language: Spanish

Text:

A.E chose to inform me of an ancient dance from la Mayos, he has known the dance for as long as he can remember in the region of Sonora. It’s the dance that represents the native indigenous Mayos de Navojoa, Sonora. He learned to dance “El Danza Del Venado,” in primary school(elementary). Indigenous Mayos came and taught him, he recalls them speaking their dialect. He competed with other schools and won medals for the dance. A.E heavily emphasized the importance of the dance costume. The costume consists of: a bandana on the head of the person, and above that a real, dried head of a deer. there was another bandana covering the mouth, and a “ropon de manta” covering the body. A belt made of leather that had multiple “pezunas de venado” which in English means the little hooves of the deer. From the big toe, to the ankles up to the calves, there are “tenabaris” that make noise. It is important to note that they dance barefoot. In the dance, they hold “Bullis” that come from a tree and have seeds inside that make noise. This dance is often performed in festivals, one of them being Sabado de Gloria and el Dia de San Juan. The dance is performed by only one person representing “El Venado” and is accompanied by four people playing drums and other instruments while singing the song “El Vendo Baila” in the Mayo dialect. 

Analysis:

After interviewing A.E, I conducted some research to find out more about the origins of this cultural dance. El danza del venado originated in Sonora, Mexico and contains pre-hispanic origins. The Yaqui people started this ritualistic dance, however; since the Mayo people were close neighbors to the Yaqui, they also adopted this dance into their culture. For context, the Mayo Indian people were located in southern Sonora, and northern Sinaloa. The Yaqui Indians were located in southern Sonora as well. This deer dance is performed as a way of honoring the deer that is being hunted for the purpose of feeding the folk group. It is a way of paying tribute to the sacrifice being made, which is the deer. This dance form is a deeply cultural and historical form of ritual and festival entertainment. While in modern times it is used predominantly as a source of entertainment, historically El Danza del Venado was used as a form of respecting nature, especially after taking something(such as hunting a deer).