DOC ritual

Title: Canadian Ground Fruit

Informant Info: Zohra Aslami was born in Loveland, Colorado on October 4, 1995. Her parents are from Afghanistan and migrated to the United States in 1990. After attending high school in Loveland, Colorado, she joined Dartmouth College in 2014 and is currently a sophomore.

Types of Lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social Context and cultural Context: The ritual was collected by personal memory. This ritual is part of DOC tradition and the participants are DOC leaders and members of their trip or “trippees”. It usually occurs at some point during the trip and is a method of fostering relationships between freshmen.

Associated File: Interview

Item:

While heading on trips my friend told her trippees that there was this rare fruit that was sometimes found on these trips called the Canadian Ground Fruit. My friend had bought a pineapple from the Co-op and her co-leader injected pink coloring dye into the fruit and after the trippees had fallen asleep they went ahead on the path that they would take the next day and buried the fruit with the top sticking out for the trippees to find the next day. The next day as the group approached the fruit, one of the members pointed out the fruit and unassumingly tried to take the fruit of the ground and started shouting, “I found one, I think it’s the Canadian Ground Fruit.” After eating the fruit a lot of them thought it tasted surprisingly like a pineapple. The trip leaders later told their trippees that it was in fact just a pineapple. The trippees went on to discuss the prank that was played on them with other members of their class at the Moosilauke Lodge.

 Informant’s Comments:

 Collector’s Comments:

 Key Words: DOC, Ground Fruit, Trips

Zohra Aslami, Age 20

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH