Tag Archives: Traditions

The University of Chicago “C Bench”

Nationality: American
Age: 83
Occupation: Businessman - retired
Residence: Glencoe, Illinois
Performance Date: 4/10/2013
Primary Language: English

At the University of Chicago, there is a concrete bench in the form of a C in front of the administration building.  According to my informant, who attended the University of Chicago in the 1940’s and early 1950’s, you were not to sit on the C bench “unless you were a letterman or had been kissed by a letterman.”  Essentially only athletes and the girlfriends of athletes could use the bench.  My informant says that if someone violated this rule, however, no one really did anything, it’s was just a funny rule.

After some research, it seems that there are two different traditions surrounding the C Bench from different eras.  In the early 1900’s, the C Bench was off-limits for Freshman, and any freshman who sat on it would most definitely be harassed by older students.  Back then, the C Bench was a big social center of campus and lots of people hung out there.  In later years, that tradition appears to have faded and been replaced by reserving the C Bench for athletes and their girlfriends.   At this point in time, however, the C Bench seems to have dwindled as a hot spot for social activity and the  tradition had lost almost all meaning, especially with the school’s shift from athletic focus to academic focus.

http://college.uchicago.edu/story/story-bench

Dyeing the Chicago River Green

Nationality: Caucasian, FIlipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chicago, IL (currently studying at USC)
Performance Date: 25 April 2012
Primary Language: English

My informant grew up in Chicago, IL and he says that every year on St. Patrick’s Day, they dye the Chicago River green. He explained that every year, he would be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with his family and “one second it’s blue, or grey…it’s nasty, and then 30 minutes later, it’s green.”

For 43 years now, a private company has been “dyeing” the Chicago river green. Supposedly, the tradition got started in 1961 when Stephen Bailey saw a plumber with a splendid emerald green color all over his white coveralls. Bailey asked the plumber how his coveralls got that color and he explained that the dye they used to detect leaks turned the water green. So, Bailey saw this as a start of a tradition and from then on without fail they turn the Chicago river an bright emerald green on St. Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day has always been an interesting holiday to me. It falls right around my birthday and I never liked getting pinched when elementary school boys were not able to tell the difference between blue and green.  The holiday derived in Ireland as commemoration of Saint Ireland who was associated with the start of Christianity in Ireland. Supposedly, Saint Patrick was originally associated with the color blue, but then later was set to green. There we have the addition of leprechauns, shamrocks and pots o’ gold. The holiday in Ireland set a day for church services, parades, and lifted the “Lenten restrictions” on eating and drinking alcohol. Holidays now have become less focused on its origins and more on the feasting and jovial activities.

Here is a video link: Dyeing the Chicago River

Source URLs: http://greenchicagoriver.com/story.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick’s_Day

Easter Traditions

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 8 April 2012
Primary Language: English

Every year on the eve of Easter, my informant’s mother and aunt would hide easter baskets around her backyard and throw green Easter grass in piles around the backyard as well. They would then make little tracks and make the Easter grass lead out the yard door to make it seem like the Easter bunny had left a trail. The first Easter that they had done this, the informant had woken up early and “prowled” around the apartment and backyard to look for Easter eggs. However, everyone else was still asleep and so she waited until her mother got up and told her aunt that she had already found all the baskets, but didn’t touch any of them. After everyone was awake, she went around to collect her Easter baskets and showed them how the Easter bunny had gotten in.

Easter originated as a pagan festival and then morphed through many other ways into the holiday it is today. The Easter bunny, though thought to be a random animal chosen to be associated with Easter, actually came from the original Easter Pagan Festival. The goddess Eastre’s earthly symbol was the rabbit and the Anglo-Saxons had worshipped her through the rabbit. In fact, Easter was not widely celebrated in America until after the Civil War, when it became popular with Christians. Eggs, on the other hand became associated with Easter because they represented fertility and rebirth.

Annotation/Additional Comments: More information about this folklore can be found at this source: http://www.phancypages.com/newsletter/ZNewsletter2599.htm. Easter has been a holiday that has been plagued by business as with many other widespread holidays. However, it is interesting to see that many of the traditions associated with Easter were actually traditions that originated with the holiday.