Title: Storing Moonshine

General Information about Item:

• Customary Folklore Ritual
• Verbal folkore
• Superstitious saying
• Place of Origin: Upper Valley
• Informant (Anonymous) B
• Collected 2/22/18

Informant Data: Informant B was born in and raised in Vermont. She has spent the last three decades living in the Upper Valley with her husband. Her husband’s family has a long tradition of making moonshine. Informant B works as a babysitter for many families around Hanover, NH as well as other towns in the Upper Valley. She also works for local nurseries and has a garden of her own.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Informant B originally learned this piece of folklore the first time that she participated in making moonshine with her husband’s family. She had never had any experience with making moonshine before spending time with her husband’s family. The first time that she had joined the family for a day of distilling moonshine she was exposed to all sorts of different pieces of lore of the process. One thing that stuck with her the most was the final act before storing the moonshine. All of the people that participated in the process of producing the moonshine in any way come together before putting the bottles on the shelves in the barn. The coming together serves as a ritual of celebrating the work that everyone had put in to make the moonshine possible.
• Cultural Context: This ritual/superstition derives from the culture of moonshine. The process of moonshine is very difficult and involves a lot of work. This ritual celebrates the coming together of people as well as the work that went into the process. This process also is a way of ensuring that the moonshine will stay safe and not go sour while it is stored.

Item:

• After every batch of moonshine is completed, it is stored into empty vodka bottles and placed on the shelves of the Informant’s barn. All members that participated in the process of the moonshine all come together before the last of the bottles is put on the shelf. The members present stand in a circle and pass the bottle around and each member takes a sip. The last member then says, “Stay sweet” and places the last bottle on the shelf. This process is repeated as a superstitious ritual every time moonshine is produced. The passing of the bottle celebrates the hard work that each member put in as they enjoy the first sips together. Although, the moonshine would not go bad, the process of saying, “stay sweet” serves as a superstitious ritual to make sure that the batch does not go bad on the shelf before the next time they will enjoy it.

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

Transcript:

Informant’s Comments: It is an awesome way to bring everyone together at the end and try what we have made.

Collector’s Comments: This is an example of both a customary folklore ritual as well as a conversion superstition. It celebrates the members’ hard work, and it also ensures that the batch does not go bad sitting on the shelf.

Collector’s Name: Jack Korzelius

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary folklore ritual
• Conversion superstition
• Verbal Folklore
• Storing Moonshine