Title: Birthdays

General Information about Item:

• Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition

• English

• USA

• Informant Data:
  • Tiffany Park ’18
  • Age: 21
  • Birthplace: Findlay, Ohio
    • Grew up in Maryland
  • Major/Minors: Geography major and Education and Public Policy minor
  • Dance Experience prior to Dartmouth: None
  • Joined Street Soul last fall
    • Before joining Street Soul, Tiffany was a part of Sheba

Contextual Data:

• Social Context

The entire group participates and this has been a ritual for the past 3 or 4 years.

• Cultural Context

Street Soul uses these birthday celebrations to celebrate each individual member and show that each member is an integral part of the group. By using “Birth” instead of “Birthday”, the celebration offers a unique touch on birthdays. It makes it a street soul celebration rather than a normal birthday party. This tradition reflects the culture of the group which is very inclusive.

Item:

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Birthday

Transcript of Associated File:

“One of the rituals that Street Soul has is like for every members birthday we do a special celebration, which like is a lot , but um, usually we get a big poster everyone signs it and it says happy birth on it instead of happy birthday. And we like go to their room on their birthday and surprise them and it’s like really cute.”

Informant’s Comments:

Informant believes that this is a way to include every individual on the team and show that the group loves having them.

Collector’s Comments:

For a large and inclusive group like Street Soul, hearing that they celebrate every member’s birthday is really cool. I think it’s really great that they do this because since there are a lot of members it makes sure that nobody feels left out compared to the rest of the group.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Alex Chan/Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

• Dance
• Team
• Tradition
• Ritual
• Birthdays