Title: Sweet Sixteen Candle
General Information:
- Folklore Form/Genre: North American Initiation Rituals
- Informant: Jennie Rhodes
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Place Collected: First Floor Berry
- Date: 11/10/18
Informant Data:
- Jennie Rhodes, 19, was born on March 3rd, 1999 in San Francisco, California. She’s lived in Santa Barbara, California all of her life. Although Jennie did not have a traditional sweet sixteen where many people were invited, she had a smaller gathering with her close family and friends. She is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context: Jennie attended Dos Pueblos High School, a large public high school with approximately 3,000 students. Her family is upper middle class, and she comes from a Caucasian background.
- Cultural Context: It was very uncommon for girls in Santa Barbara, California to have large sweet sixteen parties. Most of her friends also celebrated their sixteenth birthday with a smaller gathering rather than a large party.
Item: When Jennie was born, her mom was given a candle that had sixteen notches on it – each notch representing a year of her life until she was sixteen. Every year on her birthday, she would burn the candle down one notch. On her sixteenth birthday, she burned the candle completely until only the base was left.
Audio:
Transcript:
E: So Jennie, could you describe the tradition please?
J: So when I was born, my mom was given a candle that had a notch for every year of my birthday until I was sixteen, and then, sixteen was the base and it said “Happy Sweet Sixteen.” So every year you, on your birthday, you were supposed to burn one layer, one number of that birthday.
E: So there were sixteen notches total, I’m assuming?
J: There were fifteen and then the base said “Happy Sweet Sixteen”
E: Alright. And so how did this ceremony/tradition symbolize your transition into adulthood?
J: I think that when I turned sixteen and it was all burned and there was nothing left, it was kind of symbolizing how, like, my childhood was over and this tradition that I’ve had since I was one years old is over and now I’m closer to an adult and can make my own traditions and stuff like that.
E: Alright, thank you Jennie.
J: Okay, yeah!
Informant’s Comments:
- This was a really special moment for her since she had been doing it since birth. When she finally finished burning the candle, it was representative of the completion of her childhood and of the start of her adulthood.
Collector’s Comments:
- When Jennie was telling me about this story, I could only imagine how amazing it must’ve felt when she finally got to burn the last bit of the candle. I also imagined how bittersweet the moment must’ve been since the sixteen-year long ceremony had finally come to an end.
Collector’s Information:
Edward Lu, 18
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH
Russian 13, Fall 2018
Professor Mikhail Gronas
Professor Valentina Apresyan
Tags/Keywords:
- Candle
- Sweet Sixteen
- Adulthood
- Womanhood