Initiation Ritual

“Bat Mitzvah”

General Information About Item:

• Genre: Customary Lore
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Deborah Feiffer
• Date Collected: 11/1/18

Informant Data: Deborah Feiffer is a 20 year old Sophomore studying at Dartmouth College. Feiffer grew grew up in New Jersey and Connecticut. She identifies as a reformed Jew. Both of her parents were raised Jewish. Her dad was raised reformative and her mom was raised conservative, but now the family belongs to a reformed synagogue, where she was bah mitzvah. Her family visits the synagogue about once a month and for all important holidays. Feiffer also grew up going to Jewish summer camp where it had a Jewish focus, but welcomed different types of Judaism so it wasn’t necessarily reformed or conservative.

Social Context: I collected this folklore from Deborah Feiffer in Novack cafe at Dartmouth College. Deborah and I are familiar with one another, as we shared dormitory floors our Freshman year and her old roommate is my roommate this year! As both her parents are Jews, Deborah grew up surrounded by the Jewish culture, regularly attending her synagogue.

Cultural Context: The Jewish culture revolves around a tight knit community. Jews have suffered discrimination and persecution for thousands of years, so inherently, they take enjoy the companionship in their community. Therefore, Bar Mitzvahs are a common celebration in the jewish culture as a way to unite the people while rejoicing in a child’s coming of age ceremony. This ritual is perhaps the quintessential ritual for the Jewish people, and this explains how it is so well preserved through time.

Item:    A bat mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish girls, like Deborah, who are twelve years old. For boys, this ceremony is called a bar mitzvah and is celebrated at thirteen years old.  During the bat mitzvah, the girl makes a speech accompanied by candles. Next, other family members and friends also speak.

Audio File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jAw928fHVBVmMTFbbhz1bdhlihm9UWS9/view?usp=sharing

Transcript for Bat Mitzvah:

“My bat mitzvah party, it was at a local country club, and all my family and friends were there from both sides. All the same people that attended services were at the party. And there was some dancing, some food, and a nice meal. And then at one point there was a candle lighting ceremony where I light twelve candles or thirteen depending on how old I am, and for each candle I dedicated it to a different person which is pretty standard for a lot of bar and bah mitzvahs. And you give a nice speech for each person inviting them up which is usually pretty corny and then some people spoke, like my parents about me. And overall, it was just a fun, middle school party.”

Informant’s Comments:

• It was a fun celebration
• I take my religion seriously!

Collector’s Comments:

• Deborah had a really nice time at her bat mitzvah. It doesn’t seem like it was incredibly important to her, but she still enjoyed it.

Collector’s Name and Information:

Khia Hollyer 18

Dartmouth College

Russian 13

Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords: Jewish, Bat Mitzvah, tradition, reformed

Initiation Ritual

“Bar Mitzvah”

General Information About Item:

• Genre: Customary Lore
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Michael Nachman
• Date Collected: 11/1/18

Informant Data: Michael Nachman is a 20 year old Sophomore at Dartmouth College. Nachman comes from a town close to Long Island called Port Washington, New York. He graduated as valedictorian of Paul D. Schreiber High School. Nachman has two younger brothers. One of Nachman’s brothers will be celebrating his bar mitzvah this coming June!

Contextual Data:

Social Context: I collected this folklore from Michael Nachman in Novack cafe at Dartmouth College. Michael and I are familiar with one another, as we shared dormitory floors throughout Freshman and Sophomore years. Nachman’s family are very steeped in the Jewish culture, and they regularly attend the community synagogue of Port Washington, where Nachman had his bar mitzvah!

Cultural Context: The Jewish culture revolves around a tight knit community. Jews have suffered discrimination and persecution for thousands of years, so inherently, they take comfort in the companionship of members of their community. Jews also like to keep their tradition and religion in a state of flourishing. Therefore, Bar Mitzvahs are a common celebration in the jewish culture as a way to unite the people while rejoicing in a child’s coming of age ceremony. This ritual is arguably  the quintessential ritual for the Jewish people, and this explains how it is so well preserved.

Item:    A bar mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish people who are thirteen years old if they are a boy and twelve years old if they are girls. For girls, this event is called a “bat mitzvah”. During this ceremony, the boy or girl reads from the torah and it takes roughly an hour.  The reading is a difficult task, the boy must learn on his own and read his passage on his own. Next, he must pass a hebrew test. If he fails these tasks he will not pass his bar mitzvah.

Audio File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/110gxf7xdKZLu_4PGaJUHpm-2u8ciEaT-/view?usp=sharing

Transcript for Bar Mitzvah:

“So my bar mitzvah happened when I was thirteen years old. I remember being very nervous about it, um because when you’re twelve/thirteen big parties are scary and you have to learn an entire portion and my torah portion was the ten commandments which is pretty special, pretty interesting for me to be able to talk about that in the context of me and my bar mitzvah and um yeah, to be honest, I  don’t have too much of a memory of my bar mitzvah, its all kind of a flashbulb of a memory.”

Informant’s Comments:

• I love the Jewish culture!
• It is a very serious ceremony with a lot of importance to the Jewish community.

Collector’s Comments:

• Michael doesn’t seem to recall much about his own bar mitzvah, but he knows a lot about the culture and seems to be very involved in judaism.

Collector’s Name and Information:

Khia Hollyer 18

Dartmouth College

Russian 13

Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords: Jewish, Bar Mitzvah, Party, tradition

Initiation Ritual

“Bar Mitzvah”

Alex

General Information About Item:

• Genre: Customary Lore
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Alex
• Date Collected: 11/1/18

Informant Data: Alex is a 21 year old student at Dartmouth College. He is from Ohio. During his spare time at Dartmouth, he is actively involved in clubs across campus.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: I collected this folklore from Alex, a 21 year old student at Dartmouth College. Alex is a close friend of mine. I asked him to tell me about his Jewish heritage, and the bar mitzvah is his only true traditional experience he has had in the Jewish Culture. At Alex’s bar mitzvah, he invited his classmates and family members. He really enjoyed the party, and he describes it as very  fun.To Alex, it did not feel so much as a right of passage into becoming an adult, but rather an opportunity to have fun in the most educational way.

Cultural Context: The Jewish culture revolves around a tight knit community. Jews have suffered discrimination and persecution for thousands of years, so inherently, they take comfort in the companionship of members of their community. Therefore, Bar Mitzvahs are a common celebration in the jewish culture as a way to unite the people while rejoicing in a child’s coming of age ceremony. This ritual is arguably  the quintessential ritual for the Jewish people, and this explains how it is so well preserved.

Item:    A bar mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish people who are thirteen years old if they are a boy and twelve years old if they are girls. For girls, this event is called a “bat mitzvah”. During this ceremony, the boy or girl reads from the torah and it takes roughly an hour. The reading is usually followed by an awesome party with lots of the child’s friends.

Audio File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18c3S7GK3oy8Adra0m_BrRNpd0r3xRRrW/view?usp=sharing

Transcript for Bar Mitzvah:

“A bar mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish people who are thirteen years old if they are a boy and twelve years old if they are girls, which would be called a “bat mitzvah”, which is a ceremony where they read from the torah which is the old testament or the Jewish holy book in a synagogue and it takes about an hour and it’s usually followed by an awesome party with lots of their friends. That’s what I did.”

Informant’s Comments:

• I had a lot of fun at my Bar Mitzvah!

Collector’s Comments:

• Alex really enjoyed his Bar Mitzvah
• It’s unfortunate how the significance of the Bar Mitzvah seems to elude Alex

Collector’s Name and Information:

Tags/Keywords: Jewish, Bar Mitzvah, Party, tradition

Title: Serbian Wedding Rituals – Serbian Baptism

General Information about Item:

• Slavic initiation ritual (wedding)
• Language: Serbo-Croatian
• Country of Origin: Serbia
• Informant: Katarina Nesic
• Date Collected: 11-12-18

Informant Data:

• Katarina Nesic was born and raised in Serbia. Katarina is currently 20 years old. She left Serbia at 16 for Swiss boarding school. Katarina is currently a student at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. She was baptized at the young age of one and was integrated into Serbian culture. She has personally been in attendance to many weddings. She was involved with the Serbian Orthodox Church and celebrates many religious holidays.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: While Serbia may be in a politically and economically challenged region, religion is a part of Serbia’s culture that has always stood the test against time. The Serbian Orthodox Church has a large influence over many rituals and traditions. Many Serbians are affiliated with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and are baptized at the age of one (or very young). The Serbian Orthodox Church very similary catholicism with several differences (for example they cross differently). The Serbian Church also has icons, an older Slavic language, and its own unique holidays, signifying their strong sense of uniqueness.
• Social Context: Katarina is a friend and classmate of mine at Dartmouth. Katarina grew up as a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church herself. She told me she was baptized at one, herself. Her family also grew up with strong Christian values and celebrated religious holidays. Katarina grew up in the social environment of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Item:

Everyone gathers at the church in the morning. This shows the central importance of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s community. At the start of the baptism, the priest says prayers quickly in an old Slavic language. Katarina was unable to remember or recall the prayers likely due it being recited in an older Serbian language. The child/baby is sent to the priest (separation/preliminal). The priest sprinkles water on the child in the shape of a cross and uses parts of a tree to conduct the religious baptism (liminal). This serves as initiation into the Serbian Orthodox Church and integration with Christ. Afterwards, the child is given back to his/her parents.

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

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

It was interesting to have a religious intitiation ritual. This initiation ritual showed how religion played a large role in Serbian society. The initiation shows that the Christian Orthodox Church is an important value of Serbian communities. In a way, many other initiation rituals also are vaguely tied to religious influences (Christian/Serbian weddings).

Collector: Andrew Yang, 19 years old
773 Hinman, Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
RUSS 013
Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords:

• Initiation Ritual
• Slavic
• Serbian
• Baptism

Title: Serbian Wedding Rituals – Wedding Celebration

General Information about Item:

• Slavic initiation ritual (wedding)
• Language: Serbo-Croatian
• Country of Origin: Serbia
• Informant: Katarina Nesic
• Date Collected: 11-12-18

Informant Data:

• Katarina Nesic was born and raised in Serbia. Katarina is currently 20 years old. She left Serbia at 16 for Swiss boarding school. Katarina is currently a student at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. She was baptized at the young age of one and was integrated into Serbian culture. She has personally been in attendance to many weddings. She was involved with the Serbian Orthodox Church and celebrates many religious holidays.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Southern Slavic nations, like Croatia and Serbia, enjoy preserving their traditions, especially the ones that are entertaining for bigger groups. Thus, these wedding rituals seem to be indispensable, and many Serbs of all ages know about them. In addition, the Serbian Orthodox Church has a large influence over many rituals and traditions. Many weddings are officiated by The Church, and its history is a vehicle for traditions. Politically, Serbia’s poor political and economic situation create a sense of unity.
• Social Context: Katarina is a friend and classmate of mine at Dartmouth. She told me about how Serbian weddings are often a large event, and that she has attended many herself. Many of these weddings, that she attended, took place and ended in a church. Katarina grew up as a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church herself.

Item:

The groom and the groomsmen go to the bride’s house with gifts. The bride, groom, and groomsmen leave in the same car and the family follow (pre liminal, separation) . They will honk their horns so the entire village/town knows and will participate. They drive to the church (if the wedding is religious, Katarina said 95% of weddings are). At the church, a priest officiates the wedding (liminal, journey). They play traditional folk music and everyone dances together. This is the way the community welcomes the couple (reincorporation). Compared to a Western wedding, everyone gets into a circle and dances. Katarina said there was less focus on the individual and more focus on the group.

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

Informant’s Comments:
Katarina has also heard from her parents/grandparents that they used to fire shotguns/AK47 after the wedding.

Collector’s Comments:

There were some similariteis (such as the groom and groomsmen going to the bride’s house with gifts) between Katarina’s initiation ritual and the initiation ritual of our other Serbian informants. Our other informants are significantly older, so this may be an indication that Serbian initiation rituals are changing over time.

Collector: Andrew Yang, 19 years old
773 Hinman, Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
RUSS 013
Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords:

• Initiation Ritual
• Slavic
• Serbian
• Wedding