Tag Archives: Religion

A Christian Christmas

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General Information 

Informant: Ethan Davis 

Place: Hanover, NH 

Date: October 28, 2021 

Genre/Form of Folklore: Customary/Material 

Title: “A Christain Christmas” 

Informant Data: Ethan Davis is a 29-year-old former U.S. Marine and current student of Dartmouth College where he is pursuing a medical degree. As a member of the Class of 2022, Ethan is avidly involved in outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting and serves as a member on the board of a wildlife conservation club here in Hanover. Ethan was born in Boston, Massachusetts but lived much of his life in Andover. Ethan Davis is a registered EMT and leads a Sunday service group at his local church, while also engaging in community service events and helping non-profit organizations with their various goals. 

Contextual Data: At its roots, Christmas is a religious holiday, with its purpose being to observe and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ of the Christain religion. During this holiday, folk of the Christain religion use this time to express their gratitude to God and memorialize his exceptionality. Many rituals and decorations are utilized to express this, and members of the folk have found differing cultural methodologies for doing so.  

Social Data: When the Christmas season comes around every year, members of a Christain religion come closer together to celebrate what they all share, their faith. As a holiday that stems from this religion, this time of year brings commonality amongst family and friends, regardless of external factors. Christmas is a time of happiness and celebration and allows families to recognize the reasons they believe they are able to enjoy their lives. This item of folklore was collected through a face-to-face interview of the informant just before the beginning of the Christmas season. 

Item: Christmas, a Christian holiday honoring the birth of Jesus, has evolved into a worldwide religious and secular celebration, incorporating many pre-Christian and pagan traditions into the festivities – observed primarily on December 25th. Different types of decorations developed across the Christian world, dependent on local tradition and available resources, and can vary from simple representations of the crib to far more elaborate sets. 

Transcript: 

Collector: “How does you and/or your family go about decorating your house during the Christmas season? What sorts of decorations do you put up every year and what factors do you think influence this decorative style?” 

Informant: “My family has always kind of looked at Christmas as a fairly religious holiday. Rather than your typical green and white decorations, my mom usually decorates the house with a lot of white décors. Things like pillows with Christmas carols on them, signs with “joy”, “hope”, and “peace” on them, and small nativity sets and figurines. In our front yard is usually an inflatable nativity set with a cross and even the lights around the house would be little angles rather than Christmas-colored bulbs. I think one of the biggest things I have noticed about our decoration is the angel on top of our Christmas tree, rather than a star or other symbol.” 

Informant Comment:  

Christmas has always seemed controversial in my opinion. It feels like it’s meant to be celebrated religiously, but it feels so culturally separated that it’s sort of ambiguous now. 

Collector Comment:  

Hearing about Ethan’s Christmas decorating customs and formalities was intriguing and somewhat relatable. Ethan and his family celebrate Christmas in a way so many others do, but even more are unfamiliar with. His family follows a strict narrative in recognizing the holiday and using a unique decorative style to express this. The holiday is recognized by Ethan and his family at its roots, rather than its cultural alternatives, which I believe emphasizes the aspect of folklore in this collection. 

Collected by: 

Joshua Betts, 21 

Bradenton, FL 

Hanover, NH 

Dartmouth College 

RUSS 013 

Fall 2021

Our Father (Emma Macaione)

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General information about item: 

  • Verbal Folklore
  • A prayer sung as a lullaby 
  • Language: English
  • MA, USA
  • Informant: Nina Nesselbush 
  • Date Collected: 10-30-21

Informant Data:  Nina Nesselbush is a female student at Dartmouth in the class of 2023. She is the youngest of five sisters and grew up in Massachusetts. Nina is a Junior on the Dartmouth women’s field hockey team and is an engineering major. She shared this lullaby with me that was sung to her and her sisters before bedtime.  

Contextual Data

  • Social Context: Nina grew up in a very religious household. From as young as she can remember, this lullaby was a prayer that her mother transformed into her own tune. She was shocked to learn in church as she grew older that the prayer was not in fact a lullaby. 
  • Cultural context: This lullaby is the “Lord’s Prayer,” but Nina refers to it as “Our Father.” It is a Catholic prayer taught by Jesus to his disciples. Nina’s mother grew up in the church choir and was very familiar with hymns. Given the religious nature of her family, it was very important that Nina was involved with her religious roots at an early age.  

Item:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins, as we forgive them that sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Informants Comments:

  • This lullaby is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about my childhood. My sister’s and I loved our mother’s voice, and found it soothing to listen to before bed. 

Collectors Comments

  • I found this prayer, turned into a lullaby, to be unique. Nina’s mother was able to incorporate religion into her daughter’s lives at a very young age. It was interesting to see the impact it had on Nina’s upbringing through her mother’s creativity 

Collector’s Name: Emma Macaione

Football Commitment Cards

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Informant Data:

Michael Gabriel Flores is a twenty-year-old male from Arlington, Texas. He currently attends Dartmouth College, where he plays as an Offensive Lineman on the varsity football team. Prior to his entrance into collegiate sports, he captained his football team at All Saints Episcopal School in Fort Worth, TX.

Contextual Data:

Mr. Flores plays football for the Dartmouth Big Green, a program which has a storied legacy in and of itself. However, even before his induction into a Division I program, Michael was exposed to traditions within his own high school football program at All Saints Episcopal. As an Episcopal educational institution, All Saints promotes the Anglican-Christian tradition of worship and seeks to foster holistic student-athletes with an emphasis on religion.

Item:

In the locker room, every individual on Michael’s football team would have to create a “commitment card” and speak in front of everyone else about their commitment to the game and each other. This commitment card would then be passed to another player on the team, whose job it was to keep the originator accountable for their actions, both on and off the field. These cards embodied the school’s values of righteous action and positive reinforcement, and were intended to guide players in becoming great athletes and pillars of their respective communities.

Jonathan Hu

204 Winesap Rd

Stamford, Connecticut 06903

Dartmouth College

Russian 13 Fall 2021