Folk Groups

The reading for Tuesday: Chapter 1 of the Introduction.

The question for Monday @ midnight:

What folk groups are you a member of? (Implied is an identification of why it constitutes a folk group, what are its distinct behaviours, performances, etc.)

Traditions

Here, in no particular order, are some of the answers I received. (BTW, I don't attach names to them, although class discussions may reveal identity. I also don't correct them, or change them in any way, save for getting rid of paragraph breaks so that they fit nicely.)

Perhaps not surprisingly, Christmas and New Year's feature prominently, in part because they have both been recently celebrated. But there are summer traditions (the mission to St. Anne at Barra Head), weekly traditions (baking banana bread on a Sunday morning, cadets), and daily traditions (prayer). Many have to do with direct familial connections (hiding the pickle in the Christmas tree), some are recognitions of ethnic traditions (Lebanese food on New Year's Day), some are participations in a larger, sacred community (again, the mission to St. Anne's), some are participations in larger, profane traditions (Star Wars fandom), and some are personal, individual traditions that nevertheless serve to organise and orient the practitioner in his/her week.

1. One tradition in my family is how we celebrate New Year's Day. Not once have we ever missed celebrating it together. We are a very close knit family and between school and occupations it is hard to get together throughout the year. We know that we are able to see everyone (mostly, I have an uncle that lives out West) on New Year's Day. The only thing about our tradition that changes every year is where we celebrate. We take turns holding the party at each other's houses. This is also the time that we exchange presents with our extended family. One thing I look forward to are my Uncle Brian's meatballs. They are so good and he has been making them for our party for as long as I can remember. The reason my family's New Year's Day celebrations are a tradition is because it happens every year at the same time... literally. It is always at 2:00 pm. Our family is so close but we can not always meet together so New Year's is the one day that we get off work and school to get together. It is also special because my grandmother loved seeing us together and since she has passed we keep the tradition alive.
2. An example of a tradition which I undertake, as to a greater extent do the older members of my family, is the wake. A "wake" is a funerary ceremony with its roots in ancient Ireland primarily, but with analogues in a great many other cultures. In the simplest form, it is a revel or party -intended- to begin when somebody dies. It is celebrated differently by many subsets of the local folk group, but most traditionally our family have done it absent the body. In the original ritual from which the modern wake we practice was derived, the body would be stretched out on a table for the two hours following death, with a nearby window held open. My Grandmother once informed me that it was always considered bad luck to cross through this space during the time with the open window. The window would be closed after that time, so the spirit didn't come rushing back into the body. Gotta love those Irish zombies. In the modern form, we traditionally have food and drink, and often a party, celebrating the life of the dearly departed in the form of a revel or general party. Alcohol tends to flow freely. The body is absent during this time. I was told also that it used to be otherwise, and that the body would be attended for a full day following death, and they'd stop the clocks and get rid of the mirrors. Now these traditions are celebrated piecemeal.As we discussed in class, what makes this traditional is that it is something celebrated by a folk group (two or more people who share a commonality which is meaningful to them and forms an organizing principle, in this case mostly those of some Irish or generalized Celtic heritage), which is done habitually and observed because it holds meaning for them. It is not just arbitrarily repeated, but is considered an important and meaningful ritual following the death of a friend or loved one. It is a way of marking the death with some significance, and generating good memories of food and revelry to counteract the overly dramatic urge to mourn. And it is more often than not likely that the deceased would like to be in attendance if they'd had the chance, which some might consider the most fitting of tributes.
3. Every Sunday morning, I make banana bread while I listen to Bluegrass/Gospel music and online sermons. This originated from my belief, as a Christian, to participate in church regularly on Sunday. Unable to find a church that I felt was right for me, I ended up listening to online sermons. To keep my hands busy while listening, I decided make banana bread. To motivate myself while I prepared the bread, I listened to Bluegrass/Gospel music. As the bread baked, I listened to the sermon; later I shared the banana bread with friends. I enjoyed this so much that I decided to do this every Sunday.
4. My example is the Christmas Eve dinner that we do at my mother's house. This tradition has only been going on a few years now, because my parents only split up fairly recently. Every year we pick out a dinner to do, it usually consists of some soup, salad, meat of some sort and a dessert. The four of us (my two sisters, one brother and I)pitch in together to create this dinner. Also part of this tradition is the huge argument/fight that occurs sometime around four. This usually results in all of us yelling at each other and then storming off in opposite directions (which is possible in my mother's kitchen)and then coming back together to work on dinner again about 20 minutes later. This is a meaningful tradition because it is one of the few times of the year that all five of us are around at the same time, because during the year I am here at CBU and my one sister lives at my dad's house. It is one chance where there is nothing else going on and all of us can sit down and have an evening together as a family.
5. Every February on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday my mom makes my sister and I pancakes for breakfast. It's a tradition that we don't even know the origins of, but it's done every year in my family. This includes when my mom was little my grandmother made pancakes every year for all her children. The tradition has even undergone some changes though the years. My grandmother always put a dime wrapped in tinfoil in the pancakes. My mom did that when i was young but I didn't like the idea of tinfoil or money in my pancakes so taht part of the tradition didn't continue in our house.
6. Something traditional I do is make and cook cabbage rolls each and every christmas. I suppose it could be described as customary lore because it is something I do every christmas. Our family has never forgotten to do it,it is sort of done without thinking about the reasons anymore,it has become so integral to who we are as a family.I believe it is traditional because up until my mother was injured in a car accident she did it, and my grandmother did it before her,her mother before her,and now myself.I suppose once they are created and sitting in the pan,we could call them material lore. The look and taste may have deviated slightly over generations,but the act itself remains imortant to me,as it was my grandmother who showed me how to do it and it helps me feel close to her and part of something.Making cabbage rolls may not be that interesting or meaningful to outsiders,but it doesnt have to be-it means something to us.
7. An example of something that is a tradition in my life would be the celebration of birthday’s with my friends. My friends consist of 6 friends, people who have been together for nearly a decade, a decade in which many memories and life long lessons have occurred during. Every year what I and my friends do is, the night before someone’s birthday we go out to out favourite restaurant, Jack Astor’s, and celebrate there. We all order our meals, and then give our gifts. Then when we are about to leave, the waiters come out with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, while the person is on top of a chair. This happens every year, so the whole cake bit is kind of predictable, but we all react though it was not. Many memories have come from these gatherings, and I’m sure many more will come with out ages reaching the age of majority! This gathering among friends is a tradition because it is something we do for everyone’s birthday, every year, and it is something we all enjoy doing. This gathering is really a time to escape from our busy lives, between work and school, we see each other, but not as much as we would like. We have a laughs, out cries, our fights but among all these things, we have each other, and that’s what matters. This may seem cliché, but it truly means the world to use to have each other. This year has been epically rough because we have been going our separate ways, most going to university in different cities, provinces, and even countries. But we all keep in contact, and continue to make new traditions when we are away form each other, we are friends with a bond that is glued with the strongest glue in the world, it’s a bond that will never break, and a tradition that will not soon end.
8. An important tradition in my family is the celebration of Old Christmas. We celebrate it every year on the sixth of January with very little changes throughout the years. This tradition has become very important to my family throughout the years and remains an important part of our Christmas celebrations. My great grandmother came from Czech and my great grandfather is of Celtic decent and Old Christmas was one of the traditions my family had that kept their heritage and traditions alive. The tradition was passed down to my grandmother, then to my mother and now to me; who will pass it down to my children. It is important and meaningful to myself and my family because it allows us to keep our heritage and our culture alive and it also signals to us the end of our family’s Christmas celebration.
9. I am, by nature, a very solitary person, and so cannot lay claim to being a part of many groups. Those that I am a part of, however, can be seen as very important to the identification of myself. One such group is that of "Star Wars" fandom, whose members range from the fans of the movies to those people who dress up, go into parks and fight with one another using plastic lightsabers. I am in the middle here, having a venerable library of book and memoribilia, and yet do not go and partake in aforementioned events. Oddly enough, I have been unable to find another who shares the same interests in this franchise. Regardless if I am the only one who participates in the celebration of a ground breaking movie saga, it is a group that I can call friends, and if I stretch it, maybe even Family.
10. One tradition that my family follows is every Christmas Eve we go to church and then go to my mothers parents house for a late supper and we open the presents from my grandparents. All of my mothers brothers and sisters come with their families as well. As a child, we would then go home, leave cookies and milk for santa, and go to bed. My sister and I would wake up, a little bit later each year, and open our presents from Santa. My uncle cooks breakfast every Christmas morning for his family and mine so we would get ready and go down there after all our presents were open. I would look at all my cousins presents and play with them for a little bit. My parents are seperated so once we were done there we had to go to my dads. We'd spend a bit of time there and then go to my dads mothers house where we would have turkey with her and my dads sister's family. This was the same thing for me and my sister for 15 years. When my sister turned 19 she moved in with her boyfriend in Sydney. This made things a little different because for the first two years I'd have to wait for her to get up and get ready and drive to my house in Glace Bay before I could open anything. Then after 2 years she didnt want to have to get up and get ready in a rush so we started opening our presents from "Santa" after we got home from my grandmothers on Christmas Eve. I didn't mind that one bit because then I could sleep in until breakfast at my uncles was ready. This is a tradition every year for me because I do the same thing. It means a lot to me and my family to get to see everyone on Christmas. Things changed a little over the years for me, I use to live with my grandparents so I didn't really have to go to their house because I was already there and when I lived there it was right next to My aunt and uncles so I could just run through the feild on Christmas morning to see my cousins and eat breakfest. Its still pretty much the same thing to me every year. Ill probably still go with my mothers side of the family on Christmas Eve and my dads on Christmas Day when im 30, its what im acustomed to and I don't want it to change.
11. A tradition that my family does that i thought of when we were disscussing them in class, is that everychristmas eve we will go to church and then after the church we will come home all in our jammies and open one gift, we have done this for as long as i can remeber and are still doing it to thisday. my family has had alot of loss for example my dad died when i was 16 and i remember that christmas eve my mom and brother didnt want to go to church but i had put a huge fight to go to church and everything was normal, i often think about what christmas eve would have been like if we hadn't gone to church that evening, it might have started a new tradition.. but in my opinion i like the old one. no matter who is present or not i still feel like we need to do it to keep it alive, this year my brother and i had invited our significant others.. and it was still the same thing we do every year but with new people.now ths gift that we open seems to be from the same person everyyear, our aunt, i don't know how or why we started to open her gift christmas eve. it had just happened maybe when i was younger it could have been the biggest brightest gift under the tree .who knows but i kept that with me and still open her gift to me.
12. A tradition is a belief, story, or custom which is passed down from generation to generation. A tradition which I practice is praying every night before I go to bed. I was taught to do this by my mother, who was taught by her mother and so on. I believe that this is a tradition due to several reasons. Such as it has to do with my beliefs, it’s a custom which I practice on a regular base, and it was passed down to me. Praying is a part of my religion, which deals hand in hand with what I believe in; religion was passed down ever since civilization began. In my religion we practice praying as away to talk to god, and to those who have passed. I pray to ensure/ ask for the safety, well being, and protection for myself and those around me. It’s something that I strongly believe in. Praying doesn’t have the ability to over power everything, such as death and harm to those you love, but we all need some sort of faith in our lives. It’s also said in my religion that praying for someone’s soul after they have passed can insure their way into gods kingdom/ heaven. Praying for someone when they are hurt can help heal them emotionally. Customs are actions which occur over and over. Praying is a custom which I practice as well as my mik’maq culture. An example of this would be how every year on Indian day, mik’maq people travel to either Chapel Island, or Saint. Ann Debaupre. We travel to one of these two places to pray to the grandmother of Jesus. This is a custom carried out year after year. Praying every night is another sort of custom, due to the fact it’s done over and over. Praying every night was passed down for a very long time, it’s a tradition which is shared though many different religions/ cultures. Many other things are passed down through people, pretty much anything can be passed down. Everything from praying when you’re going to bed, to having turkey on thanks giving. I believe that these points which I have stated prove that praying before I go to sleep is a tradition. It has all the bases of which traditions are based on. I gave an example of how each is a tradition, I believe I stated and proven that this is a tradition.
13. Every Christmas Eve we have a family dinner which includes my mother's side of the family. My sister and I now that we are older help out by decorating, cooking, serving, cleaning up etc. Then we all gather in the living room where we open the gifts we got for each other, not all of them just the ones from that particular family ( my mothers 4 sisters and my cousin). This goes on every Christmas Even since i can remember. It's traditional because my mother did the same activity when she was a child, its important to her family and now is important to her children, my sister, brother, myself. It changed over the years, some people died, some are too old to help and now my sister and I , and brother help out with most of the evening. It will change as the years go on because her sisters are getting older so the event will hold and gain people as the years go by.
14. One tradition that my family has is having a big turkey dinner on New Years Day. My mom cooks the turkey and I usually get forced into helping. It is a tradition because my grandmother did it and so did my great grandmother. Now my mother does it too. My great grandmother’s logic was to start the new year with a good hearty meal. We all sit around the table and recap the year that has gone by and talk about things to look forward to in the new year while enjoying good food. It is just something we do every year and I will probably continue this tradition.
15. A tradition in my family is on Thanksgiving Day every year. My family and extended family gather at our summer home in Iona, which was also wheregreat, great, great Grandfather settled and we have a huge dinner. We listen to our parents tell stories about the people who lived there. Family isimportant to us and so is a sense of history and tradition.
16. A tradition that I have in my family is a dinner every January 1st, where we eat Lebanese food and say the phrase frutie-a-lakie which means “give me money” in Lebanese. My grandparents have passed this tradition on to my mother and to me and my cousins. This is known as a tradition in my family because it is done every year with the same members.
17. When it comes to birthdays in our house it is a huge celebration and a great time for family to get together. One thing that is always garanteed to be there is a Homemade cake baked by my father. My sister is 26 years old, I am 18 and my brother is 15 and we've never had a Birthday supper without one of his homemade cakes. My dad might not have always had the money to get us extravagent gifts but he always found the time to bake us a cake on our birthday and this is something that has become very important and a special part of our birthdays. It became such a tradition that my friends looks forward to my brithdays becuase they didnt just get another store bought cake.
18. I got a good one for you. I have been celebrating this tradition since the first summer I was born. This tradition began for me in the Summer (July) of 1985, but has been long since celebrated by my ancestors. I am a Mi'kmaq, and the Mi'kmaq annually celebrate the St. Ann's Mission in Barra Head (near St. Peters). The Mission itself is a tradition but the celebrations are very sacred to me. It lasts for 5 days on the last weekend of July every year and this is where we celebrate and renew our faith to the Mi'kmaq patron saint (St. Anne), and where our own government (Sante' Mawiomi) meet once a year for delegations. A quick brief of the history of going off on an Island once a year. It started before the European contact, where our government met (wasn't always on this Island), but has been celebrated annually for the past 400 years. In 1610 my ancestor Cheif Memebertou was baptized, and the Mi'kmaw adopted Catholosism. They later adopted St. Anne as our patron saint. And since then we've been going there to celebrate our faith and traditions. What is really intresting about this tradition is that it has rarely evolved. Minor changed have been made throughout the years, and it is sacred, and I don't think they will change. My great-grandmother introduced this tradition to me and she has went all her life before I was born. She was 80 when she died, and taught me that this tradition holds value to me as a Mi'kmaw and wanted me to pass this tradition down to my own. (I know this sounds like alot but I think you'd be intrested) The Island is not far off the reservation of Chapel Island, on the island there is a church, the third church since the beginning. The first two were struck by lightening and burned. The ceremonies are the same, we camp in cabins, with no electricity, plumbing, water, nothing. But besides the fact, I enjoy the 2 weeks I'm there every summer. The abundant resources are more cherished I find when I'm there and I think that teaches me at home. And I think it kind of grew on my these past 23 years. Last but not least, I have passed this tradition down. My first daughter went to her first mission when she was only 3 weeks old, and my second daughter has been to her first mission when she was only 3 months old. Rarely anybody I know does not celebrate the mission, some do not camp but my husband and I have been celebrating it all our lives, and will continue to do the same thing for years to come.
19. In my family, we have a special tradition that takes place during Christmas time. My mother hides a little pickle ornament within the branches of our Christmas tree. On Christmas morning after opening gifts, my brother and I both search throughout the tree to find it. The lucky person who finds it is the reciever of an extra gift. It is a tradition because it's been passed down since my great grandfather was a boy, and maybe even further.
20. The first thing that came to mind about a tradition that I do every year has to of course do with Christmas. When I think Christmas I think coming home from midnight mass and grabbing an oriental party pack for the freezer and sitting around the tree while every one gets their gifts ready. My mom always buys us way too many things and my three brothers always buy stupid presents for each other. This year in fact of brother got three Where's Waldo book and one of the others got the Strip Tease box set. I try to get everyone sensible presents but they never become the main focus, but I enjoy watching everyone opening their gifts that I spent months looking for. I call this a family tradition because we all stay up until three or four in the morning and just sit around and talk about everything that we miss about having my Dad being there watching us open presents that he thought would be just right. My family has done this tradition of opening the gifts after midnight mass every year for six years, and I plan on doing it the same way for a very long time.
21. Every Wednesday I attend Cadets as an Officer. I have done so every week since I was a Cadet at the age of 12. What makes it traditional is the fact that we have customs and ceremony's that I was taught by my Senior Cadets and Officers when i was young. It is now my turn to give back and teach those traditions such as Morning Colors and Ceremony of the Flags to the Cadets.
22. A tradition in my family that is practiced every year is held during Christmas time. Every Christmas Eve my family and I attend midnight mass. When we return from mass we always go home and each one of us get to open one present each. Also on Christmas day we have turkey dinner at my Nanny & Poppy’s house. Our whole family gathers for this, which doesn’t happen very often. Also on Christmas day is my grandfather’s birthday, so that is always celebrated as well. My grandfather passed away last February so that was our last Christmas with the whole family together. Although my grandfather isn’t around we still celebrate Christmas as a family. It’s just not the same without celebrating his birthday as well.
23. Since I was a young child, my family has always gone to church on christmas eve. My Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, and Nannie would always go to church at 8 and then all come back to my house to open one gift each. Also, the gift was always christmas pj's, which we would wear to bed that night. Alot have changed since then. My Nannie has passed away, and my Brother lives in Halifax. My Sister lives in Greenwood and is married with a 5 year old girl (Emily), and is expecting another child. This haven't said, the tradition of christmas eve still lives on. Every Christmas my Brother, Sister, Brother-in-law, and niece come down and we all go to church, the same as we always have done, just with a few additions and one loss. But none the less, we still all go back to my house and open our one gift each. Although it isnt that amazing, nor is it actually fun, I still look forward to going to church and coming back to sit around the fire and open our gifts. I believe when I have a family of my own i will continue this tradition. Maybe ill have a few minor changes but id say it will be pretty similar. Hopefully my children will look upon this tradition with the same appreciation as i do.
24. My family has enough traditions to make any normal family run for the hills, but for us it is just a normality. One of the more memorable traditions we practise is the New Years Eve party. The whole Butler clan usually meets up at a family member's house and just parties the night away. The family is usually divided, however, into 3 groups: anyone under 19 having an old-school Mario Cart Tournament; the older guys watching T.V. (generally, a comedian, or even better Saturday Night Live), and the women sipping tea in the kitchen/dining room. Sometimes these groups mingle, but often keep to themselves until about 11:30 when everyone gets together and watches the countdown. This has been going on for time unmemorable, long before I was born at least, and will undoubtably go on long afterwards.
25. One of the traditions in my family happens on Christmas Eve. My family would always go down to my grandparents house to visit. We would always have something to eat and my grandfather would put on some Christmas music. My parents would always sneak out and go back to our house and put a gift under the tree. When we would come back home it was always there. My mom always told us that it was a gift from Santa. It always had a Christmas teddy bear and PJ’s in it, to wear to bed. Then the next morning we would get the rest of our gifts. It is crazy to think of what we believe when we are kids. However my grandparents are not around anymore, but my mom still gives me a gift on Christmas eve and it is always PJ’s. This is also a tradition that I plan to pass down when I have a family.

So there you have it. Stay tuned for more exciting folkloric adventures.