Tradition-al Folklore

When most people here the word tradition, they automatically think of the song from “Fiddler on the Roof”. As the chapter suggests, traditions do link us to our families, other people around us, and help us define who we are. Traditions mean many different things to many different people. Each club, group of friends, family has traditions that are unique to them. The chapter discusses the importance of keeping traditions, their roles, and how they disapear. Until this assignment, I had never thought of traditions really disappearing. After thinking for a couple minutes I realized that one of the most important traditions in my life for so long, has been fading right before my eyes.

One of my favorite Jewish holidays is Passover. It is celebrated in the Spring and is right around my birthday. The first two days of the Holiday are the major part where the story of Passover is read two nights in a row. For as long as I can remember, Passover has always been a sort of family reunion to my family. My grandma ( who also lives in Indianapolis) would reconnect with all of our family and invite them to Indy for the first two days. Everyone would have their own job to get ready for the holiday. My job, which became my tradition, was to make a special dessert involving bananas, nuts, and lemon juice. Everyone always looked forward to Adina’s bananas. When I was younger, it was very easy to make this dessert because I always got the day off of school right before the holiday started as I went to a Jewish Day school. As the years went by and I started public school, the tradition began to disappear. College allowed me to come home early and make the dessert as I had done in the past. Last year, I studied abroad in Israel and was not able to come home for Passover. The bananas were not made, and I have been informed that we will be going to someone else’s home for the holiday and will not be needing me to do my tradition. This makes me very sad because its almost like the end of an era for me.

Once I went to college, I obviously saw my parents with less frequency than I did when I was living at home. Because of this, my mom and I started a new tradition that has grown in importance over the last couple of years. My mom will take off work for a day in October and will drive down to Bloomington to pick me up at school. Then we will drive to Nashville for a day of walking around the shops and just reconnecting with eachother. I really appreciate this new tradition because it gives me something to look forward to and lets me have some much needed time with my mom.

Both of these traditions are ones that I have started. They are both important to me whehter in memory or actually still participating in it. I know that when I start a family, I will begin even more traditions of my own. Traditions start and end all the time. They are as important as one makes them.

This is in response to question 3.

Friendly Folk Groups

Folk groups are groups of people that have a special language, behavior and rules, and each member has knowledge of these things. An example of a folk group would be a family but also just being a student at a university or being a club can also be a folk group. Many clubs have secret languages and code words that only members of the club know about. This is one of the characterisitics of a folk group, so therefore, any one in a club, is also in another folk group. It is possible to be in many different folk groups at one time. Many people feel most closely related to their family folk group because it is the one they are automatically in from the beginning. Eventually we move away from our family folk group and begin our own groups with friends.

One folk group that I feel especially close to are the friends I’ve made at the camp I went to for most of my childhood. We all still keep in touch and still use the languages and behaviors we’ve had since we were children. When we are not with our camp friends, we revert back to being normal adults, but for a moment in time, we become children again.

Folk groups can form out of nowhere and also disintegrate just as fast. Hopefully my folk group that I’ve created here at IU will not disintegrate once I graduate in May. It is up to all of the members of any folk group to make sure it stays alive for many years to come.

This is in response to question number 2.

Can Folklore be fun?

Many people have a skewed perception as to what folklore really is. Several of my peers have put on very confused looks when I tell them I am taking a folklore class. They have asked what it is, and have given their own responses. Many answers have included that they think folklore is very boring and is just about the past, or that folklore is just about specific cultural traditions. I hope to tear down these perceptions with further exploration during the class as well as letting them know that something they love going to, the Indiana State Fair, is exactly what folklore is.

A couple weeks ago, I had the oppurtunity to go to the Indiana State Fair. I have gone every year since I can remember. Before this class, I never would have considered the State Fair a part of folklore. There is a tremendous amount of culture and history behind the fair that most people would not even notice. The Fair gets down to the core of Indiana culture. Nothing says Indiana more than the Indiana State Fair. Some things are more cultural than others such at the Pioneer Village or the 4-H exhibits, but everything combined makes up one large Folklore event. There are exhibits about the animals of Indiana, Indiana history, Indiana music, and just about everything else about Indiana.

The Fair is important to me because it helps me understand who I am better. I have lived in Indiana for all of my life, but do not know that much about others outside of Indianapolis. The fair lets me see what others are doing and why Indiana is important to them. To me, the Indiana State Fair is a quintissential exampe of what folklore is. The Fair is not only educational but also very fun and can get a lot of people interested who would not usually be interested in folklore.

This blog entry is my response to the Chapter One Reflection Question.