Tag Archives: Scavenger Hunt

Delta Sigma Fraternity tradition

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At Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), the Delta Sigma fraternity has a big-little tradition as part of their initiation process for pledges. Big-little is a mentorship program where a pledge (new member) is paired with a brother (active member), and the big (brother) helps the little (pledge) get adjusted to the new frat. As part of their initiation to becoming an official brother, the pledges are required to complete a scavenger hunt in one night, where they are tasked with various tedious tasks, such as taking a picture with a statue on one end of campus, and then having to look for an item on the other side of campus. The pledges are not allowed to return to the frat house until they complete their scavenger hunt, and once they are finished, they need to guess who their big was based on the type of tasks they were given, as each task is often representative of a specific brother. The pledges are given a punishment for wrong guesses, and are only given an official big once they complete the scavenger hunt and correctly guess their big.

Context

The informant is a 22 year old man living in Cleveland, Ohio, and a former CWRU student. He was a part of the delta sigma fraternity during his time in college, and this topic came up when I asked about if he had any interesting folklore to share about his university. The informant’s first encounter with this tradition was during his freshman year of college when he was pledging, and he remembers that it took him until 2 AM to complete this process. When asked to reflect upon this experience, he believed it was tedious at the time, but looks back at the memory as something that honors a unique tradition of his frat. Ultimately, he told me that he was glad he had this experience, as his frat was where he made some of his best memories in college and found his closest friends.

Analysis

This initiation ritual, which blends a fun activity like a scavenger hunt with real consequences, uses this contrast to function as a rite of passage for new members and a building block for brotherhood. The long and tedious tasks becomes a way to see the commitment the pledges are willing to put in, and this ritual being something every member had to go through allows it to hold its place as a significant tradition that characterizes this frat. This ritual is also a reflection of Victor Turner’s concept of communitas, as it creates a tight bond among the pledges from a shared struggle, and the scavenger items being personalized to the pledge’s big becomes a fun way for new members to learn about their new peers in this folk group.

To me, as someone who never took part in Greek life, it’s easy for an outsider to see frats as unneccesary – from the yearly dues and the weeks of doing pointless tasks as a pledge, it may seem like one is paying to get hazed and make friends. Listening to the informant’s experience, however, and through the lens of folkloric significance, I can see the camaraderie this ritual would build and its importance towards becoming an official member of a particular group where you can find lifelong connections.

Afikoman: Jewish Holiday Folk Game

Nationality: Jewish American
Age: 50
Occupation: Mother
Residence: Hollywood, Florida
Performance Date: 4/20/19
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Context: AW sits with her daughter preparing for the second night of her Passover Seder, the room is bustling with activity as people get food prepared for AW’s many relatives. AW’s Daughter chimes in every so often to ask questions
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Performance:
MW: So what do you know about the Afikoman?
AW: The Matzah, the bread we eat during Passover, because it represents the fact that when the jews had to flee Egypt and slavery. They left in such haste that the bread did not have a chance to rise, that’s why we have matzah.
AW: So, we eat the matzah all week so that we remember what happened to us, and during the seder…the person that leads the seder
[AW flips through her Passover Haggadah]
AW: explains to everyone…REMINDS not explains, what the bread means to us as a people
AW: they break it in half, one half to be eaten, and the other to be set aside for later. Traditionally that half is hidden by the oldest person at the seder for the children to find after the festival meal.

MW: Do you have any, like, special house rules?
AW: So we make rules, first the Afikoman has to be hidden in the house. Depending on the age of the children, if they’re very young it has to be in one specific room in the house to make it easier for them to find it. If they’re older it’s anywhere downstairs. It’s usually hidden by the person who led the seder.

MW: Ok
AW: Someone says “on your mark get set, go” and the kids race to find it, if there are young kids we hide it again so all the kids get a chance to find it.

Meaning
MW: So what does the Afikoman mean to you?
AW: It’s just part of the festival, it’s nice, you know what it’s nice because I remember the nights where we were all to grown up to do it. So it’s comforting to see the next generation carrying on our traditions.
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Analysis:
The Afikoman is wrapped which serves the practical purpose of keeping it, a dessert item, separated from the rest of the food. But the wrapping also serves a symbolic role as mimicking the way Ancient Jews would have wrapped their matzah as they fled Egypt. This mimicking is key to the overarching theme of Passover, that all Jews see themselves as having been liberated from Egypt, not just their ancestors. So in repeating the wrapping behavior modern Jews inhabit the role of their ancestors. The Talmud, a commentary on the Torah states that “We snatch matzahs on the night of Passover in order that the children should not fall asleep.” Thus, Afikomen hunting becomes a way to engage children with short attention spans during what is a fairly long religious event.
Likewise, the matzah is split in half during the seder. This might represent the delayed nature of Jewish salvation, the matzah eaten during the Seder representing the exodus itself, while the Afikomen matzah, hidden away and eaten only after the Seder ends, represents either the Mosciach, or Messiah’s final redemption of the Jewish people, or perhaps their eventual return to their homeland Israel after 40 years in the desert. For alternate uses of the Afikoman in Jewish households as a pendant for blessing see What Makes a Jewish Home Jewish

Ochs, Vennessa. “What Makes A Jewish Home Jewish?” What Makes a Jewish Home Jewish?, an Article by Vanessa Ochs, in Cross Currents, the Quarterly Journal of Opinion Covering Religion and the World., www.crosscurrents.org/ochsv.htm.

MacGyver scavenger hunt tradition

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 74
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/23/18
Primary Language: Swedish
Language: English

Background information:

My grandmother was born in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, and has three sisters who are roughly the same age as her. Together, they have always been best friends and have supported each other through everything. My grandmother and her sisters all have grandchildren, and us grandchildren go out to our collectively shared summerhouse in the Swedish archipelago every summer. This summerhouse was built by my grandmother’s parents and has been in the family for a while, giving it immense sentimental value. The shared summerhouse is located roughly two hours outside of Stockholm, Sweden by a boat ride and is very peaceful as it is located on an island called Södra Träskö that is completely without cars or internet connection.

 

Main piece:

Among other fantasies and games that my grandmother and her sisters created for the children visiting the summerhouse in the archipelago every summer, I vividly remember my grandmother’s creation of the MacGyver annual scavenger hunt. My grandmother and her sisters are amazing with children and therefore try to do everything to get their grandchildren to enjoy themselves when they are at the summerhouse. The MacGyver annual scavenger hunt around the summerhouse property was created by my grandmother as a way for the grandchildren to follow a scavenger hunt to ultimately attain a small toy prize in the end. She organized this scavenger hunt by placing various notes in different locations throughout the summerhouse property on the island of Södra Träskö with each note leading to the next. The final note therefore led to the small toy prize for the grandchildren, with my grandmother saying that MacGyver had created this scavenger hunt for the children which we all believed until we became older and realized that it was my grandmother all along.

 

Personal thoughts:

Ever since I was young, I looked forward to the MacGyver scavenger hunt which was held at our shared summerhouse every summer. This is a very informal event, with my grandmother organizing this for her grandchildren as well as her sister’s grandchildren. It is a very simple event but has a tremendously happy impact on the children and their feeling about the summerhouse.