Tag Archives: tradition

Slide Hand Game

Background

Informant is a friend of mine from high school. She is now a junior at USC. She is a first-generation Vietnamese American, and is from Woodbridge, Virginia. She does not have any specific religious affiliations. We both attended The Madeira School, although she graduated two years before I did. Various alumnae were interviewed to compare versions of the same lore from the school. She is referred to as “AH”.

Context

I asked the informant about any playground games she liked as a child.

Content:

Interviewer: And can you explain a like playground game and the rules of it? Like that you just played as an elementary schooler or, or like your favorite one?

AH: Let me think. I am going to go with slide just because that was something my sister taught me. Um, so basically you start, you have a partner and you’re sitting face to face and you put your hands. Out in a parallel like form and you slide with the other person, you like alternate hands and slide, and then you clap and then it goes back and forth. So each round you increase by like one. So you start, you clap, you clap hands. One on each. I don’t know how to describe this verbally. Um, but yeah, you clap one hand, one hand and then you go front, back hands and then clap again. And then the next round starts and you do it twice. So two claps and then two front and back, and then it just goes on until someone messes up.

Analysis

As this explanation is fairly confusing without the attached video of what her hands were doing while she explained this game, I have attached a link to a YouTube video of girls doing the exact game that AH explained. This game is fairly ubiquitous among girls and nearly all of them know how to play it, or have a history of playing it, even if they don’t remember the specifics. AH wonderfully mentions that her sister taught her “slide”, showing how these games can be relevant not only to schoolmates, but sibling and family relationships as well.

Annotation

Video: Splash Games. “Hand Clapping Game “Slide””. Jun 10, 2009. https://youtu.be/QXJsX7T8fYM

Fresh Chalk Lines on a Baseball Field

Background information: MD is a 21-year-old student at University of California San Diego. From a young age, he played baseball and was very involved in the sport throughout his childhood and young adult life. According to MD, baseball is a very superstitious sport, and athletes in general can be very superstitious.

MD: Before a game, you have to make sure to jump over fresh lines of chalk on the field. I think everyone kind of knows this, like even if you aren’t playing, even people watching know it. If you step on one of the lines, you’re basically throwing away the game.

Me: Why do you think the tradition is so well-known? How did you find out about it?

MD: I know about it because I played baseball for 14 years! I learned it through playing and seeing other players do it. Especially when I would watch older players, they would always jump over fresh chalk lines. I think you catch on mostly through teammates, and baseball traditions tend to last forever. That’s probably why it’s so well-known too, it’s just becomes a rule at some point…um, I think baseball has a lot of traditions that are like that. There’s a lot of ways that you can give your team bad luck before the game, and there’s a lot of things you can do to get good luck too.

Me: Have you ever accidentally stepped on a line, or seen someone do it? Did it affect your game at all?

MD: I’m sure I’ve accidentally messed it up, um, sometime before a game but I don’t know if ever affected our games at all. I don’t think we even think about it once the game starts (laughs). I personally am not very superstitious, but I think it’s fun to get into the game and it’s fun because everyone knows what to do and what not to do. I would say some people are definitely more committed to it, um, than others.

I didn’t play any team sports as a child or teenager, so I know very little about these superstitions and unspoken rules that MD talked about. I think it was interesting that he brought up the fact that baseball traditions tend to last forever, as younger players observe the practices of older players and copy them. By watching older players “perform” these rite uals before a game, they become so commonplace, that even someone who is not superstitious will engage in them for the sake of the game, and for the sake of forming a camaraderie with teammates.

Hot and Cold Foods In Persian Culture

Background

Informant is a friend of mine from high school. She is a current student at UCLA and former student at The Madeira School (the high school we both attended). She is a first-generation American whose parents immigrated from Iran. She does not have any specific religious affiliations. I chose to interview several people from my high school to compare their versions of our school stories. She is referred to as “SF”.

Context

I asked the informant about any homeopathic medicines or remedies she has learned from her family/culture. She provided multiple examples – this example is of the concept of hot and cold foods.

Content

In Persian culture, there’s this really interesting concept. It’s foods that are used that is like kind of used for specific, like, things that you’re feeling. So basically the words are like there’s two different categories, like a food can be either “garm” or “sard” and garm and sard mean hot and cold. So like certain foods like fit into those categories and based on like this thing that you like, like if you have a headache or whatever, like either someone will tell you, oh, you have to eat foods that are in the hot category or like you have to eat foods that are in the cold category. And like, I don’t necessarily know, like what goes in each category cause there’s no, there’s kind of like an intuitive like thinking that you think so like ginger is like a hot food or whatever because like, you know, kind of warms you up. But like, there are certain ones that you can’t, I can’t really like distinguish. Like you have to know. Like, I feel like elders, like just know what are like hot and cold foods. And so like that’s a pretty interesting concept that I feel is very specific to like Persian culture is like if you say, Oh, I like feeling ill or whatever, it’s like this certain way, that way I tell you to eat also gets either like hot or cold.

Analysis

While my informant believed the concept of hot and cold foods to be specific to Persian culture, the concept is actually prevalent in a lot of cultures, especially those native to East Asia. In Korea and China, the concept of hot and cold foods is especially prevalent in postpartum care. The correlation of hot and cold is not necessarily the specific temperature of the food, but the effect the food has on the body – if it is warming or cooling. I especially appreciated SF’s comment “I feel like elders, like just know what are hot and cold foods.” It’s a perfect summarization of the mechanisms of folklore: that it is knowledge passed down through generations, so currently, the elder generations have the knowledge, and will pass it along to their descendants.

Translation: Garm and sard are Farsi words. Garm = hot, and sard = cold.

Annotation

For additional versions of hot and cold foods, see: Song, Yuanqing. “坐月子：Postpartum Confinement”. May 20, 2019. USC Folklore Archive. http://uscfolklorearc.wpenginepowered.com/%E5%9D%90%E6%9C%88%E5%AD%90%EF%BC%9Apostpartum-confinement/

Reindeer Food

Content: On Christmas Eve, when her kids were young, D mixed up glitter and oats and called it “reindeer food.” Her children would sprinkle the mixture on the front yard, and repeat the following: “Sprinkle on the lawn at night. The moon’s light will make it sparkle bright. As Santa’s sleigh flies and roams, this will guide the reindeer to your home.” 

Background: D was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1963. She moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1981. She raised three daughters in Atlanta in the 1990s and 2000s. 

Context: This story was told to me over a phone call. I found the variations online. 

Analysis: After I spoke to D, I found several different variations of the saying that goes with reindeer food. Below are a few examples.

  1. Make a wish and close your eyes tight. Then sprinkle it on your lawn tonight. As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam, this food will guide them to your home.
  2. Come December 24th as Santa flies here from the North, here’s what you do, it isn’t hard ~ just sprinkle this stuff in your yard…the sparkles draw old Santa near and oats attract his reindeer…then you just wait ~ they’re on their way.
  3. Sprinkle this reindeer food outside tonight. The moonlight will make it sparkle bright. As the reindeer fly and roam, this will guide them to your home.

I found it interesting that all the different poems that go along with the reindeer food use some of the same words: sprinkle, sparkle, flies. Additionally, I found that some websites called it “reindeer dust” instead of “reindeer food.” The recipe seemed to be about the same, although some substituted sprinkles for glitter.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something, blue

Nationality: American
Age: 51
Occupation: Admissions at a private school
Residence: Durham, NC
Performance Date: 4/29/21
Primary Language: English

Background: The informant is married herself, but also worked in a bridal store for years and knows a lot about wedding traditions. She specifies how this tradition ties in with wedding dresses and how the store incorporated them.

LR: I know the whole, something borrowed, something blue, something old, something new as being like good luck for brides, and, so, I think there are several things associated with weddings. I don’t know where the reference came from, um but i think it’s the idea that you have meaningful things with you, or that had been passed down when you get married that sort of, um, bring good luck, good feeling, good energy, or positive vibes. So I think for most people something new is sometimes the wedding dress, sometimes that’s something borrowed, sometimes that’s something old if you wear somebody else’s dress. Ya know, people borrow vails, but usually, and again, I don’t know where the original reference came from for the blue or why blue would be associated or connotate good energy, but, um, people used to wear garters that would have like a blue ribbon in them, that would be taken off. So just like the bouquet would be tossed to the girls, or the single women, the garter would be shot to the single men. So that was something that was more prevalent like when i got married, and we used to sell the garters at the bridal store I worked in. But, we changed it because I think, I don’t know, it sort of became like people didn’t really wear garters, they were at one time I think women wore garters right? To hold up their stockings, and then of course with, I don’t know, more modern times we wore pantyhose or whatever and then you’d put a garter which was an elastic band with lace and a ribbon and you’d wear that up and it was this big thing like that the husband was going up his wife’s leg to get htee garter off and then he would like shoot it like a rubber band. So I always thought that was funny. At least at the store I worked at, I think moree post-2000, fewer and fewer people wore garters or did that with the bride, and so they still did the bouquet toss to indicate, you know, who was likely gonna be the next person to get married, but what we did at the store was to tie the blue ribbon in the bride’s hem, or her wedding dress, as a symbol of good luck that was always there. And then they didn’t have to worry about trying to find a way to wear something blue so to speak?

Me: Why do you think the tradition of shooting garters has decreased?

LR: Honestly, I think most modern brides would be like what the hell is a garter. I don’t know how easy it is to find them anymore.

Me: Do you think garters have the same meaning as bouquets, like do you think it was the next guy to get married? Or what do you think shooting the garter into guys signified?

LR: I mean I think that was sort of supposed to be the equivalent, instead I think for them it was like oh you’re going to be the next lucky schmuck who’s gonna get tied down. You know, you used to have all the bridesmaids or all the single women clamoring for the bouquet, and yet, it was like the opposite for the guys, it was a sign of shame or something to actually come forward to get it. Nobody wanted to get it because it meant they’d be tied down. I don’t think as many guys embraced the idea of looking like they wanted to get married.

Context of performance: This was told to me over a Zoom call.

Thoughts: This is a super popular saying, although I don’t know firsthand how many people follow it. I like the sentimental quality it brings to a period of transition in someone’s life as getting married can be seen as a rite of passage and these are the items that push you through the threshold, or liminal space. It’s interesting that these things bring you good luck moving forward in your life, more so because to me it suggests that it’s its own period separated by the wedding and these items merge the two stages of life, especially with something old and something new.