Title: The Late Bride

General Information about Item:

• Family Lore, Late Bride
• Language: Vietnamese
• Country of Origin: Vietnam
• Informant: Alexis Le
• Date of Event: September 1, 2017

Informant Data:

• Alexis was born June 22, 2000 in Naperville, Illinois. She is a senior at Metea Valley High School. Alexis and her sister were raised Catholic, but her family is not strict when it comes to upholding Catholic traditions. She is Vietnamese. Alexis’s mother is from Saigon and her father is from Hanoi. The majority of Alexis’ immediate family now lives in the United States.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The women helped the bride get ready on her wedding day. This included Alexis, her aunts, cousins, mother, and grandmother. It is a wedding tradition within Alexis’ family for the bride and the rest of the women to show up to the wedding venue extremely late. That day they showed up one and a half hours late.

Item:

• The folklore collected here is Alexis’ family’s tradition of the bride and women showing up to the wedding venue extremely late. This started when Alexis’ great-great-great grandmother showed up to her wedding four hours late due to flooding. Since then, it’s become a joke in their family for the bride to be intentionally late. I interviewed Alexis over the phone and took notes on what she told me about the folklore. These data are not direct quotes from Alexis but are rewritten from my notes to create organized content.

Collector’s Name: Claire Burner

Tags/Keywords:

• The Late Bride
• Family lore

Title: Chest of Wine and Letters

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, Chest of Wine and Letters
• Language: Vietnamese
• Country of Origin: Vietnam
• Informant: Alexis Le
• Date of Event: September 1, 2017

Informant Data:

• Alexis was born June 22, 2000 in Naperville, Illinois. She is a senior at Metea Valley High School. Alexis and her sister were raised Catholic, but her family is not strict when it comes to upholding Catholic traditions. She is Vietnamese. Alexis’s mother is from Saigon and her father is from Hanoi. The majority of Alexis’ immediate family now lives in the United States.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: This Vietnamese wedding tradition of writing letters and placing them in a locked chest with wines represents the solidifying of the relationship. Reading the letters on their anniversary is supposed to remind them of how they felt about each other on their wedding day and symbolizes revitalized love.
• Social Context: During Alexis’s aunt’s wedding ceremony, instead of trading traditional vows the bride and groom write letters to each other and place them inside of a locked chest. The chest also contains two bottles of wine, one that they will drink on their five-year anniversary and the other on their ten-year anniversary. They will also read each other’s letters on their ten-year anniversary.
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Item:

• The folklore collected here is the Vietnamese wedding tradition of placing letters that the bride and groom wrote to each other in a locked chest with wines that they will drink on their five and ten-year anniversaries. I interviewed Alexis over the phone and took notes on what she told me about the folklore. These data are not direct quotes from Alexis but are rewritten from my notes to create organized content.

Collector’s Name: Claire Burner

Tags/Keywords:

• Chest of Wine and Letters
• Vietnamese lore
• Customary lore

Title: Intimate Moment

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, Intimate Moment
• Language: Vietnamese
• Country of Origin: Vietnam
• Informant: Alexis Le
• DDate of Event: September 1, 2017

Informant Data:

• Alexis was born June 22, 2000 in Naperville, Illinois. She is a senior at Metea Valley High School. Alexis and her sister were raised Catholic, but her family is not strict when it comes to upholding Catholic traditions. She is Vietnamese. Alexis’s mother is from Saigon and her father is from Hanoi. The majority of Alexis’ immediate family now lives in the United States.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: This is a Vietnamese wedding tradition that represents the bride’s mother’s blessing of the marriage and the giving away of her daughter.
• Social Context: Before the wedding ceremony begins, the bride’s mother has an intimate moment with all her present daughters. During this moment, the bride’s mother presents the bride with a diamond necklace that she wears as she walks down the aisle.

Item:

• The folklore collected here is the Vietnamese wedding tradition of the bride’s mother having an intimate moment with her daughters and giving the bride a diamond necklace before the wedding ceremony begins. I interviewed Alexis over the phone and took notes on what she told me about the folklore. These data are not direct quotes from Alexis but are rewritten from my notes to create organized content.

Collector’s Name: Claire Burner

Tags/Keywords:

• Intimate Moment
• Vietnamese lore
• Customary lore

Title: Offerings

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, Offerings
• Language: Vietnamese
• Country of Origin: Vietnam
• Informant: Alexis Le
• Date of Event: September 1, 2017

Informant Data:

• Alexis was born June 22, 2000 in Naperville, Illinois. She is a senior at Metea Valley High School. Alexis and her sister were raised Catholic, but her family is not strict when it comes to upholding Catholic traditions. She is Vietnamese. Alexis’s mother is from Saigon and her father is from Hanoi. The majority of Alexis’ immediate family now lives in the United States.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: It is a Vietnamese wedding tradition to give offerings to the men in the groom’s family and to the ancestors. By doing this, the families are seeking approval and acceptance of the marriage. A bountiful offering also represents a bountiful marriage.
• Social Context: Alexis attended the wedding of her Aunt Jennifer at a winery in Kenwood, California. The wedding had the structure of a traditional American wedding, with a ceremony and reception, but it contained many traditional Vietnamese wedding customs. After the rehearsal dinner, the women of the bride’s family give offerings of fruit or platters of food to the men in the groom’s family. There is also an altar for their ancestors that has fruit, water, pastries, and incense.

Item:

• The folklore collected here is the Vietnamese wedding tradition of giving offerings to the men in the groom’s family and placing offerings on an altar for their ancestors. I interviewed Alexis over the phone and took notes on what she told me about the folklore. These data are not direct quotes from Alexis but are rewritten from my notes to create organized content.

Collector’s Name: Claire Burner

Tags/Keywords:

• Offerings
• Vietnamese lore
• Customary lore

Title: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: England
• Informant: Leona Burner
• Date of Event: September 22, 1957

Informant Data:

• Leona was born December 7, 1931. She was raised as a Catholic and attended a Polish Catholic school until she was in fifth grade. Leona’s ancestry is entirely Polish, and her grandparents moved to the U.S. after they got married. Leona’s Polish and Catholic upbringing affected much of her life, including her wedding traditions, current religious beliefs, and her career as an elementary teacher at a Catholic school. Her family moved around a lot because her father was a corporal in the army, and she didn’t have her first permanent home, which was in Bellwood Illinois near Niles, until she was in high school.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: She decided to follow this tradition to honor her husband Jack’s English ancestry and to bring English traditions to the majorly Polish celebration. This tradition comes from an Old English rhyme Something Olde, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, A Sixpence in Your Shoe. These objects are good luck charms for the bride. The something old represents continuity in one’s life, something new represents a positive outlook on the future, something borrowed represents borrowing happiness from a loved one, and something blue means fidelity and love.
  Social Context: I collected this folklore by interviewing Leona over the phone. During her wedding day, Leona followed the English tradition of wearing something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Leona’s something old and borrowed was a pearl necklace from her best friend, the something new was her wedding dress, and her something blue was her lace garter which she still has.

Item:

• The folklore item collected is how Leona followed the English tradition of having something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue on her wedding day to honor Jack’s English ancestry. I took notes of what Leona told me during my interview with her via a phone call. These are not direct quotes from Leona but rewritten notes from our interview to provide organized content.

Collector’s Name: Claire Burner

Tags/Keywords:

• Something old
• Something new
• Something borrowed
• Something blue
• English lore
• Customary lore