Tanabata celebrates the meeting of a husband and wife. They are Orihime (the star Vega) and Hikoboshi (the star Altair)… to meet they must cross the river Amanogawa (the Milky Way). They can only meet once a year on this night… it’s the one time they can cross the river. The story is that a flock of magpies help Orihime cross the river on this day only. If it’s a cloudy night, that means the river was too high and Orihame and Hikoboshi couldn’t meet. So in Japan everyone wishes for a clear night full of stars on July 7th.

Ayako Egawa in Japan wrote to me about one fun tradition on this day: “Children write their wishes on strips of fancy paper and put them on displays made of the branches of bamboo trees.”

Ayako sent me this photo below with the note, “This is the decoration at Star festival (Tanabata) on July 7th.”

Here’s a traditional Tanabata Song that’s sung for the festival. First you’ll find a Japanese transliteration, then the Japanese text, an English translation by me, followed by a YouTube video of a little girl singing it…

Sasa no ha sara-sara

In Japanese Romaji:

Sasa no ha sara-sara
Nokiba ni yureru
Ohoshi-sama kira-kira
Kingin sunago

In Japanese Text:

笹の葉　さらさら
軒端にゆれる
お星様　キラキラ
金銀砂子

English Translation:

Bamboo leaves are rustling, rustling,
Swaying close to the roof’s edge,
Oh, how the stars are twinkling, twinkling,
Gold and silver grains of sand.

If you’d like to share any photos, songs or memories of this festival, feel free to in the comments below or email me at lisa@mamalisa.com .

Many thanks to Ayako Egawa for letting us know about this festival and for sharing the wonderful photo!

Mama Lisa

Del took these photos below of scarecrows in the rice fields of Brufut, Gambia.  I thought it was interesting how they look different from those here in the US.  The scarecrows in Gambia are made out of plastic bags.

Del said, "They look really realistic from a distance."

Del wrote, "They were arranged in a group of three – for some reason I assumed that the Gambians would not use scarecrows."

Many thanks to Del for sharing these photos with us!  Be sure to visit Del’s YouTube Channel to watch her videos of Gambia featuring kids songs!

Mama Lisa

Ayako said (regarding the photo above): "This is my Miso soup bowl. Most Miso soup bowls have beautiful pictures and they have covers."

I said to Ayako:  "That’s interesting that you eat miso soup with chopsticks. Do you drink the broth at the end? Here, in restaurants, we use big, deep spoons to eat it."

Ayako replied: "We drink the broth at the end by putting our mouths on the bowl.  In Japan, it’s not against good manners to do that, especially when eating Japanese food such as Miso soup, Udon or Soba.  We drink western soup with spoons.  In some restaurants, Miso soup may taste better than ours at home.  But the important point is that each family has its own tastes.  Generally people in northern areas prefer red miso and ones in western areas, especially Kyoto areas prefer white miso. But it depends on each family. It’s interesting"

Thanks for sharing that with us Ayako!  Very interesting!

Mama Lisa

Hat tip:  Thanks also to Linda Austin of Cherry Blossom Memories for sharing her Miso traditions too.  Linda’s Mom is from Japan.  She wrote, "My mom insists on using red miso, someday I’ll try white."

Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!
(Norwegian)

Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!
Ja, deg vil vi gratulere!
Alle i ring omkring deg vi står,
og se, nå vil vi marsjere,
bukke, nikke, neie, snu oss omkring,
danse så for deg med hopp og sprett og spring,
ønske deg av hjertet alle gode ting
og si meg så, hva vil du mere? Gratulere!

Høyt våre flagg vi svinger. Hurra!
Ja, nå vil vi riktig feste!
Dagen er din, og dagen er bra,
men du er den aller beste!
Se deg om i ringen hvem du vil ta!
Dans en liten dans med den du helst vil ha!
Vi vil alle sammen svinge oss så gla’
og en av oss skal bli den neste – til å feste!

Here’s an English translation I came up with…

Hurray for You for Celebrating Your Birthday!

Hurray for you for celebrating your birthday!
Yes, we congratulate you!
We all stand around you in a ring,
And look, now we’ll march,
Bow, nod, curtsy, we turn around,
Dance for you and hop and skip and jump!
Wishing you from the heart all good things!
And tell me, what more could you want? Congratulations!

We wave our flags up high! Hurray!
Yes now we’ll really celebrate!
The day is yours, the day is great,
But you’re the best!
Look in the ring who you want to choose!
Dance a little dance with who you want to!
We’ll all turn around together so joyfully,
And one of us shall be the next – to celebrate!

Here you can hear the first verse (which is how it’s traditionally sung)…

Here’s a video with both verses mentioned above, plus extra verses after that, and it shows the actions you can do with the song.

If anyone could provide any info about the extra lyrics that would be great! But note that they don’t seem to be part of the original lyrics by Margrethe Aabel Munthe. Just the first two verses are. Most people know the first verse. Some know the two above. I don’t think many are familiar with more than that!

Happy Birthday Everyone!

Love, Mama Lisa

Click on the icon below to access the group. If you have a Facebook account already, you just need to click on “Join the Group” to join. If you’re not a member, you simply have to sign up for free to become a member and then you can join the Mama Lisa Group…

Looking forward to seeing you in Facebook!

Mama Lisa

FYI Temari balls are fancy balls with colorful, intricate patterns on them. They originally come from China, but are also found in Japan. They were traditionally made out of silk, often from old kimonos. Now they’re made with embroidery covering the balls.

They’re thought to bring good luck to whoever owns them. They’re given for births, birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. They’re also given by parents to kids on New Years Day.

Mama Lisa

I asked Ayako in Japan about the Temari balls. Here’s what she wrote:

“Hi Lisa,

Temari balls are beautiful. Their embroidery is fancy. We don’t play with them now. We just enjoy looking at them.

By the way, one of the traditional gifts is “Otoshidama”. It is special money given to children from their parents or relatives on New Year. It may sound dry to give money, but it is traditional heart-warming gift.

On Valentine’s day, women give chocolates to the men whom they love in Japan. It is called “true heart chocolate”. Sometimes working women give chocolates to their male coworkers. It is called “obligation chocolate”. Recently, it’s also common to give chocolate to one’s friend. That’s called “friendly chocolate”.

Usually men give gifts to the women in return on the 14th of March.

Ayako

Please join the discussion and let us know about any special gifts given for special events in your culture by commenting below…

Last week, Monique wrote about an Occitan Wedding Custom and Song from France. The custom revolves around a soup called Torrin, that’s given to the newlyweds. Here’s the recipe from Monique…

Recipe for Torrin Soup for Newlyweds
(Serves 4)

Ingredients

A large spoonful of goose or duck fat (or oil)
5 or 6 garlic cloves
A spoonful of flour
2 eggs
Salt & Pepper
Vinegar
(I usually use wine or balsamic vinegar but it’s just a dash of it so I suppose you can use any.)

1. Boil 4 to 6 cups of water in a pot.

2. Put the fat in a large frying pan and slowly fry the garlic, but don’t allow it to brown. Add the flour, stirring it quickly.

3. Pour in the boiling water. Add salt and pepper. Allow to boil for 15 min.

4. Separate the egg yolks and whites. Beat the yolks with a dribble of vinegar.

5. After 15 minutes, pour the egg whites into the garlic/flour mixture and stir quickly. Lower the flame. Add the yolks, stir and DO NOT allow to boil (or the yolks will coagulate and you’ll have yellow threads instead of a beautiful yellow broth).

Torrin Soup can be served with croutons or thin slices of bread.

In some areas they cook it with equal amounts of onions and garlic, then they sprinkle grated Swiss cheese on top and broil it in the oven.

My mother used to cook it. She’d use oil, not goose fat. She used peanut or sunflower oil, but you can use olive oil or any frying oil. The “genuine” recipe is with goose or duck fat. My mother also added vermicelli in step three, after the water started to boil again. Then came the egg whites and the yolks. But we didn’t serve it with bread, the vermicelli would be enough carbohydrates! We called it “Soupe à l’œuf” – “Soup with egg”.

“Torrin” is a word from the South-West.

-Monique

Recently, Peter emailed us asking about the lyrics of a Gascon Occitan song called “Lo torrin”. (Gascon is an Occitan Dialect.) Peter’s wife is learning how to play the “boha” (the Gascon bagpipe) and he wanted to sing along. He got the lyrics and forwarded them to us.

The song “Lo torrin” is a “wedding song” that the wedding party-goers would sing to the newlyweds. “Lo torrin” specifically refers to a garlic soup spiced with pepper. This soup was traditionally brought to newlyweds on the morning after their wedding night.

In this old tradition, the bride and the groom would ride around the village in a cart with their brand-new chamberpot, on their wedding day. It symbolized the start of their new life together and it also let people know about their wedding. Remember that at that time there were no bathrooms, only outhouses. Yet people wouldn’t go out at night to “go” in the outhouse (”la cabane au fond du jardin”*). During the evening meal and party the newlyweds would sneak out around midnight and they would go to sleep at some accomplice’s place (an aunt’s, a grandma’s…). Later in the night or early in the morning, the young people at the wedding (those in their late teens and their twenties) would search for them. When they found them, they’d get them out of bed so that they could eat the soup that had been cooked especially for them.

In some areas, they wouldn’t cook a soup, they would pour into a brand new chamberpot the leftovers of the drinks with chocolate and biscuits (nobody needs further description to guess what it was supposed to look like). This was supposed to help them recover from the wedding night.

When I was a child and in my neighborhood the bride and groom wouldn’t tour around the town with their brand-new chamberpot, but they’d still be gotten out of bed. Nowadays the tradition survives in some places. Since nobody now uses chamberpots, “pots de la mariée” (brides’ chamberpots) are still on sale for this event.

*”La cabane au fond du jardin” refers to the little wooden cabin used as toilets at the other end of the garden and it’s also the title of a spoof song imitating the style of the French singer Francis Cabrel.

Below, you can hear Jane Thomasson playing the “boha” and Peter Horton singing the first verse of the song. After that you’ll find the lyrics in Occitan, and then an English translation…

Click to Hear the first verse of Lo Torrin

Lo torrin
(Gascon Occitan)

Obritz la pòrta, obritz (x2)
La novèla maridada luron lonla (x2)

Vos portèm lo torrin (x2)
E la sopa ben pebrada luron lon la (x2)

Coma obrirei jo (x2)
Que soi dens mon lheit cochada luron lon la (x2)

Au pròche de mon marit (x2)
Que me ten tota embraçada luron lon la (x2)

Que me ten e me tendrà (x2)
Tota la nèit empenada luron lon la (x2)

Se perdèvi mas amors (x2)
Ont las anguerei o quèrre luron lon la (x2)

Seren per debat París (x2)
A dus cent cinquanta legas luron lon la (x2)

Dabans la pòrta i a (x2)
Un grand pè de heuguèra luron lon la (x2)

Dens ‘quera heuguèra (x2)
Un beròi nid de tortèla luron lon la (x2)

La tortèla i a cohat (x2)
E apèi s’es envolada luron lon la (x2)

En partint a feit rocó (x2)
E la bèra n’es plus bèra luron lon la (x2)

Obritz la pòrta, obritz (x2)
La novèla maridada luron lon la (x2)

Se no l’obrissètz pas (x2)
En ‘questa ora vos l’enfoncèm luron lon la (x2)

The “Torrin”
(English Translation)

Open the door, open it, (2 x’s)
You, bride (newlywed) luron lon la…

We bring you the tourrin*
And the soup spiced with pepper.

How would I open it
If I’m lying in my bed?

Close to my husband,
Who holds me in his arms**.

Who holds me and will hold me
Saddened, all night long.

If I lost my love
Where would I go for him?

He’d be, northwards, near Paris,
250 leagues from here.

In front of the door is
A big fern.

In this fern is
A pretty turtle dove nest.

The turtle dove hatched there
Then she flew away.

When she left, she went “coo”,
And the pretty one isn’t pretty any more.

Open the door, open, (twice)
You, bride.

If you don’t open it
Now we’ll break it open.

Click here for the Lo torrin Song Page – where you can access the Sheet Music, midi tune and French and Spanish translations.

Note: There are some other songs about getting married in Occitan and French, most of which are addressed to girls. They’re along the lines of Joan Baez’s song The Wagoner’s Lad: “Oh hard is the fortune of all womankind, she’s always controlled, she’s always confined, controlled by her parents until she is wife, a slave to her husband the rest of her life!”

Many thanks to Peter Horton for contributing the lyrics to “Lo torrin”and the sheet music (which came from the “Bohaires de Gasconha”), and for singing the first verse for us, accompanied by Jane Thomasson playing the “boha” (local bagpipe).

-Monique Palomares

UPDATE: Here’s a Recipe for Lo Torrin Soup!

I discovered the tradition of the lucky red underpants when Vita wrote to me. Here’s what she said:

…my grandmother in Naples, Italy used to tell us that wearing red underpants on New Years Eve brought good luck – I don’t know if she told us this because it was funny to little kids or because it is actually a custom.

I’ve been reading about it and have discovered that wearing red underwear for New Year’s Eve does indeed seem to be the tradition in Italy. It’s better if they’re given to you as a gift, and if they’re brand-new this year.

They also eat lentils in Italy for good monetary fortune in the upcoming year. Lentils with zampone o cotechino (sausages) is the most popular dish that’s served. Pork is an auspicious sign for the New Year and it’s part of the meal.

If you’re interested in learning about other New Year’s traditions, you can read about Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years. Feel free to share your traditions with us in the comments below.

Buon anno! Happy New Year!

Mama Lisa

Hi, I remember a song sung to me by my mother and I just want to make sure I have the words correct and have all the verses. It’s a lullaby and she used to rock us while singing it:

Bella che dormi
sul letto di fiori
mentre dormendo
un bacio d’amor
un bacio in fretta
la povera bambina
o poverina
dove sei andata
dalla nonnina
e cosa ta datto
un bacio un bacio la povera bambina!

Beautiful girl sleeping
on a bed of flowers
while sleeping
a loving kiss
a quick kiss
the beautiful girl
o little one (literally poor one)
where did you go?
to grandmother’s
and what did she give you?
a kiss, a kiss
the little one (literally poor one)!

Does anyone know any “fingerplays” in Italian – songs with accompanying actions?

Also, my grandmother in Naples, Italy used to tell us that wearing red underpants on New Years Eve brought good luck – I don’t know if she told us this because it was funny to little kids or because it is actually a custom.

Thank you!
Vita

If anyone can help Vita with the song or if you know about the New Year’s custom of wearing red underwear on New Years Eve for good luck, please let us know about it in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa