Title: The Lord Bless You – Wake Up Ritual
General Information about Item:
- Customary folklore: rituals, traditions
- Language: English
- Country where Item is from: USA
Informant Data:
- Trevor Davis is an ’18 that joined X.ado his freshman year and sang in his high school choir for three years. He is 21 years old. He was born in Wheaton, Illinois. He grew up and still lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is majoring in computer science, and minoring in math and anthropology.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context
All members of X.ado participate in this ritual. New members participate as they are woken up and surprised in their rooms. This tradition has been going on for as long as the informant can remember and he cannot pinpoint its origin. This ritual occurs towards the beginning of fall term right after new members for the team have been selected.
- Cultural Context
New member groups generally have initiation rites that involve some sort of arbitrary hardship or something notable so that everyone remembers the ritual and it signifies their entrance into the group. X.Ado wakes up their members by singing at their door very early in the morning, and this is an initiation rite that’s common to many acapella groups. Going to a diner afterwards to get to know the new members and introduce them to the group reflects X.ado’s inclusive culture.
Item:
After the new members of X.ado have been selected, they are woken up very early in the morning. X.ado sings the new members a song called ‘The Lord Bless You’ , and then all of the new and returning members go to a diner for breakfast. It is also a tradition to include ‘The Lord Bless You’ in the group’s performance every year.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Associated File:
“There are some things that we always do with our new members. One is right off the bat, we like to wake them up to welcome them into the group with a song that we sing every year in X.ado called ‘The Lord Bless You’. We come to their door, early in the morning after we’ve decided to take them into the group. We wake them up and sing to them, and then we go out to a diner and have our first breakfast with them. Everyone’s tired, but you know, you’re bonding and really exicted that you have these new members. We also have a freshman retreat, and we do things like ‘get to you know’, and ‘hot seat’, and get stories from the new members like they always tell us their history and love stories and stuff like that. It’s always really entertaining and just funny ways to get to know the new members, and kind of break the ice, off the bat.”
Informant’s Comments:
- See transcript
Collector’s Comments:
This is a very standard practice for an acapella group. Many groups, especially student groups, have some sort of initiation rite. The army even has it with the boot camp. It provides some sort of common experience/hardship that helps the group bond and establish an identity because they share that experience.
Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid
Compiled/Analyzed by: Afnan Enayet/Sruthi Pasupuleti
Tags/Keywords:
- Acapella
- Singing
- Team
- Wake Ups