Sophie Ragg

Dartmouth College

May 15th, 2019

Customary Lore

Christmas Dog Walk with Village

Informant Data: Sophie Ragg is a Dartmouth College ’22 from Wilsborough Green, England. Sophie spends Christmas with her family and friends of her village each year and she explained that Christmas is her “favorite day of the year” because of all the great memories she has made on this day.

Contextual Date: I collected this folklore from Sophie in the library at Dartmouth College through a voice recording. Her entire village in England has a tradition where they all go for a dog walk on Christmas afternoon and end at the pub. Her family has been doing this ever since she can remember. This ritual has vastly impacted Sophie’s life as she explains it to be her “favorite day of the year.” Sophie lives in an extremely small village in England where everyone knows and looks out for one another and it is a staple in her village to have animals. For example, Sophie has over 15 different kinds of animals other than dogs so this shows the importance and regularity of having animals in her village.

Item: This is a verbatim description of the item of folklore told by Sophie. I used a voice recorder to collect this folklore and I think the way she describes the ritual of going on a dog walk each year and what it means to her was one-of-a-kind, “One thing we always do is that we go for a long dog walk on Christmas with all of our friend’s dogs and our friends and it is really nice. There will be like fifty of us, literally everyone in the village. And we always end in the pub. Usually a diff family hosts every year so we will turn up to their house and then we all go on the dog walk and it’s probably about 10-15 families. All the kids bring their favorite present so they can play with it. Then we get to the pub and the pub always serves hot food like soup or something. There was one year where there was a huge power cut so nobody could cook any food or use any electricity so that year everyone went to the pub and it was so cute they had like a big generator and they were serving soup for everybody and we all just sat huddled around in the pub with candles. It was an amazing Christmas although it wasn’t too different from the other Christmases because we always end at the pub anyway. But this year was all the more special because we brought our dogs to the pub and we were able to focus on the dogs and family, just the way it should be.”

Lilly Durbin

20-years-old

27189 Pumpkin Street

Dartmouth College

Russian 13

Spring Term 2019

Abby Schill

Dartmouth College

May 16^th, 2019

Material Lore

Nativity Scenes

Informant Data: The informant’s name is Abby Schill who is an 18-year-old from Wisconsin and is a Dartmouth College ‘22. Her family celebrates Christmas together each year with her grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Abby described Christmas as “the most important holiday of the year” for her family.

Contextual Data: I interviewed Abby after rugby practice at Dartmouth College as we ate dinner together. This form of folklore has been part of Abby’s life since she was a baby because her mother has collected these scenes since she herself was a young girl so Abby used to play with them as a baby. Abby’s family celebrates Christmas each year and it is an important holiday to them. They have several traditions they follow each year which includes the objects they put around the house, especially nativity scenes. A nativity scene is a special exhibition of art objects usually displayed during the Christmas holiday that represent the birth of Jesus. Abby’s mother sets them up on December First every year to kick start the start of the month of Christmas. These scenes impact Abby’s life as she described, “They make me feel at home and like I belong to something important because they are so important to my mom and they make her happy, so that makes me happy.”

Item: This folklore was voice recorded while Abby and I ate dinner together. Abby’s mother puts up eight nativity scenes around the house because she enjoys collecting them as she has travelled around the world to buy them and received some of them as gifts. They have one from Germany, one from Israel, some are children’s toys that she played with as a child (and her mom still puts them up to this day), and some of them were her mom’s grandmothers who passed them down to her. Her mom puts them above the mantel, one on the piano, one in the dining room, and then the rest are randomly placed on tables throughout the house. Many of them were gifts to her mother so she likes to show them to family when they come for Christmas. Each scene is unique and are made out of cool materials. For example, one was made of bread dough and then hardened and painted.

Lilly Durbin

20-years-old

27189 Pumpkin Street

Dartmouth College

Russian 13

Spring Term 2019

Rocco Di Leo

Dartmouth College

May 17^th, 2019

Customary Lore

Title: Pickle in the Christmas Tree

Informant Data: The informant’s name is Rocco Di Leo who is a 23-year-old from Elmhurst, Illinois and is a recent Dartmouth College graduate. He has a large family who celebrates Christmas together every year and he described that his family “takes Christmas very seriously.”

Contextual Data: This folklore was collected by voice recording while we sat and ate lunch at Dartmouth College. Rocco originally learned about this folklore when he was 5-years-old from his mother who used to practice this tradition when she was a child as well. This folklore was always performed after Rocco’s family ate dinner together and everyone would gather around the dinner table and would count down from 10 to signal that the hunt for the pickle may begin. Rocco’s immediate family celebrates Christmas every year together and by immediate he means around 40 individuals (big family!) They either spend Christmas at their house or their cousin’s house each year and his mom insists on having several Christmas trees around the house and wreaths that line the entire outside of the house─ Christmas is important to their family.

Item: Each year after the whole family eats dinner, Rocco’s family has a tradition where they hide a pickle in the Christmas tree and the first person to find it gets $50. He said that this is mainly a Midwest tradition but that it’s also a German tradition. He explained, “Some also say that it’s Italian, some say it’s straight up an American thing. But my family interpreted it as an Italian thing and so we have done it every year since I was 5-years-old.” When he was younger, the first one to find the pickle would able to open their presents first, and now that they are older, the first one to find the pickle gets $50. Rocco explained that this performance impacts the whole family because it has been passed down from generation to generation and this tradition is held near and dear to their hearts. He also said that this tradition always evokes happiness within everyone in the family, so it is a great way to keep a jolly mood around the holidays.

Lilly Durbin

20-years-old

27189 Pumpkin Street

Dartmouth College

Russian 13

Spring Term 2019