Dedy said: "They do a dance of traditional java that’s called Jaranan or Jatilan (Horse dance)."

I asked if it was performed for any specific event and Dedy wrote: "Yes it is, usually in a traditional ceremony or to celebrate a birthday and big events such us weddings, independents day of my country (soon)."

He wrote: "I don’t know exactly the name of the crowns, but in my language we call them bando and they’re made of Jasmine.

Indonesia has a lot of traditional dances from our archipelago. We have more than a hundred dances. There are no specific songs its just dance, and there are many songs that go with these dances."

I found the YouTube video below that said: The Traditional Dance call is"Jaranan Kediri":

Here’s a second video that shows people dancing to a song that Dedy said is "the dance song of jaranan. It is the famous jaranan dance in some cities in Java Island."…

Thanks for sharing this with us Dedy!

My husband and I gave our children middle names in memory of our grandparents.

Lin Fadelan told me an interesting custom in Indonesia: "In Indonesia, it is common for a woman to be called by her daughter or son’s name. For instance, my mother was called Mama Lin. Actually until now our old neighbors still call her Mama Lin. :D It seems that a woman’s identity ‘disappears’ in her own neighborhood as she’s getting married. But actually we simply see it as a recognition of her motherhood achievement."

Feel free to share any customs for naming children – or customs related to children – in your country, in the comments below.

Thanks for sharing that custom with us Lin!

-Mama Lisa

Thanks for this – so easy to take it all for granted! It also reminded me of an African tradition that my dad adopted when we lived in South Africa. In Africa it is traditional to hold ancestors in high regard. So at meal time, you never completely empty the pot, empty your plate or even empty your cup, and whatever is remaining, as you leave it, you say, ‘for the ancestors’. When I was a little girl, I remember always finishing my dad’s tea or coke, and now that I have a little girl, I’ve realised that I automatically never finish the last sip of my drinks, that she finishes it for me – although I don’t commit it to the ancestors!

I was curious to learn more, so I wrote back to Frances:

I wonder if there was any significance in the children finishing the drink or if it’s just because it was there? It makes me think of the Day of the Dead where people put out food for relations who have passed on.

Frances responded:

Fascinating parallels! Interesting comment about children finishing drinks – although the practical reason for me and my little one finishing drinks was that the last drops of the tea were cold enough for a child to drink. Not sure if I mentioned originally, but traditionally, the remainder of the drink is thrown to the ground – not something my dad did as the floors would have been a mess!

Thanks for sharing this tradition Frances! If anyone would like to share any other ancestral traditions, feel free to in the comments below.

Mama Lisa

Having a chimney sweep at your wedding is good luck i.e. to bless it I think, is supposed to bring good luck for the newly married couple.

I read more about this tradition (in Folklore and The Journal of American Folklore) and found that chimney sweeps would hang around outside churches to bless weddings and make a little extra money.

By chance, I happened to watch Mary Poppins last night after learning about this tradition. The movie starts with a song about a Chimney Sweep called “Chim Chim Cheree” by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Here’s the part I found interesting…

Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be…
…Good luck will rub off when
I shake ‘ands with you
Or blow me a kiss
And that’s lucky too.

I looked into the custom further and found that people believe(d) that kissing a chimney sweep was good luck and even that seeing one during the day (any day) was a good sign.

Even in modern day England, there’s a remnant of this custom of the lucky chimney sweep. I asked Frances Turnbull if they currently follow the tradition of having a chimney sweep at weddings. She said:

Actually, my mother-in-law gave me a little plastic chimney sweep, which I didn’t understand at the time – I remember the wedding photographer kept trying to get me to get rid of it because it made my dress look like there was a hole in it!

If anyone would like to share their stories about chimney sweeps, we’d love to learn more about this custom in the UK and elsewhere. Feel free to comment below.

Many thanks to Frances Turnbull, from Musicaliti, for sharing her story about chimney sweeps and to Nicola Holdsworth for explaining British traditions so wonderfully!

Don’t forget to blow a kiss at your chimney sweep for good luck!

Mama Lisa

We give horseshoes for marriage, oranges form part of the Christingle celebration, usually with candles and ribbon. 21st birthdays are sometimes symbolized with the giving of a decorative key.

I asked Nicola about Christingle, because we don’t celebrate it here in the States. She wrote:

It’s part of the pre-Christmas celebrations. It’s mainly for school children, it’s usually an orange with a ribbon wrapped round the circumference, a candle stuck in the top and cinnamon seeds stuck into the orange round the outsides.

Here is a photo I found of a Christingle:

Nicole wrote about Easter traditions in the UK:

We also give Easter eggs. The Easter eggs are usually chocolate and vary in size, incidentally my boyfriend works at Nestle which is one of the companies that make them. We also do Easter egg hunts with mini eggs usually for younger children.

Nicole wrote about the anniversary traditions in the UK:

Each annual wedding anniversary has a different meaning and item attached to it i.e. 1st is paper etc.

Our anniversaries over here, they all have “names” and for each, a gift is given which relates to the “name”:

1 paper
2 cotton
3 leather
4 linen
5 wood
6 iron
7 copper
8 bronze
9 pottery
10 aluminum
11 steel
12 silk
13 lace
14 ivory
15 crystal
20 china
25 silver
30 pearl
35 coral
40 ruby
45 sapphire
50 gold
55 emerald
60 diamond

Nicola wrote:

A few other traditions for you, there’s some English superstitions in there too, so your going to have to sift through cos I’ve included quite a lot!

Maypole Dancing- usually done in spring, it’s quite an old one which involves a tall pole and lots of long ribbons in various bright colours.

Scarecrow Festivals- done in autumn local groups i.e. schools and scouts build and decorate a scarecrow, they are then collected and arranged in fields round a path, people then pay for a map and walk round answering questions about each scarecrow i.e. what colour hat are they wearing or which road are they on, the money is then given to charity.

Bonfire Night – fire works and sparklers and hotdogs etc, also called Guy Fawkes night after he tried to blow up the houses of Parliament in London.

British Saints all have their own day:

St. David – Wales – March 1
St. Patrick – Ireland – March 17
St. George – England – April 23
St. Andrew – Scotland – November 30

I asked about St. George’s Day, and Nicola wrote:

St George’s Day is all based around St. George slaying a dragon, from what I can remember it’s a tale that said a village was living in fear of a dragon and young girls were being sacrificed to stop the dragon from eating the livestock. Then a prince came along, slayed the dragon and rescued the latest sacrifice who was the village leader’s daughter. So now around the time there is a parade usually organized by the scout movement, sometimes with floats and brass bands.

Nicola continued telling me about British traditions:

Remembrance Day – November 11th – in remembrance of soldiers killed in World War 1

Queens Birthday – London parade

Queen’s speech – Xmas day

Pantomimes around Xmas, all during November and December – local theatres put on pantomimes, usually with a man dressed as a comedy madam, a pretty damsel in distress and a dashing prince, lots of audience involvement and slapstick comedy. Aladin is one of the main panto’s that’s done along with Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and Peter Pan. Here’s the link to the wikipedia page on Xmas Pantomime.

Here’s an old poster for a Christmas Pantomime:

I asked Nicola if she goes to the pantomimes or if it’s for kids and she said, “I go to at least one every year, I’m a cub scout leader so I take the kids to the local one.”

Here are more traditions Nicola wrote about:

Pancake Day – Shrove Tuesday – around Jesus’ resurrection (people eat pancakes before fasting for Lent).

1st Footing in Scotland – Putting coal on your house threshold on New Years Day – to do with good luck and to welcome in the new year, they put the coal on the outside doorstep.

Having a chimney sweep at your wedding is good luck i.e. to bless it I think, is supposed to bring good luck for the newly married couple.

[UPDATE: I talk more about the Chimney Sweep Tradition here.]

Weddings – bride should wear something old, new, borrowed, and blue – it should be one of each, but two or more can be combined.

Picking up a penny is said to bring good luck.

Giving a wooden spoon for baking for a bride.

Don’t walk under a ladder, brings bad luck.

Bride throws bouquet at a wedding, the person who catches it is supposed to get married next.

Breaking a mirror is supposed to bring you 7 years bad luck unless you throw a pinch of salt over your shoulder.

Walking on cracks on the pavement brings bad luck.

Black cat crosses path good luck. (Note by Mama Lisa: in the US, crossing the path of a black cat is considered bad luck!)

Magpies: 1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for a girl, 4 for a boy, 5 for silver, 6 for gold, 7 for a secret never to be told.

“Magpies” is an old superstition that school children learn, its supposed to be linked to how many you see is what you’ll get and if you only see one your supposed to cross yourself (finger tracing the shape of a cross on your face cheek to cheek then forehead to chin) to get rid of the bad luck.

Here’s a photo of a magpie:

Opening a umbrella inside is supposed to bring bad luck.

Shoes on a table brings bad luck.

Nicola said, “I didn’t think of all of these, I rang my mum and grandma for some more!”

I asked Nicola if most of these are still followed or not? She said, “A lot of them are known but not really followed, it’s mostly the older generations that still follow them.” I believe she meant that British people still follow many of the traditions (like Guy Fawkes Day and Christingle), but not the superstitions as much.

I would like to thank Nicola Holdsworth, and her Mum and Grandma, Susan Holdsworth and Gillian Hamer, for sharing these British traditions with us!

Thanks so much!

If you would like to share your traditions with us, please feel free to comment below or email me at lisa@mamalisa.com .

Mama Lisa

UPDATE: Check out info about some traditions and superstitions in the US and France in the comments below…

Monique of Mama Lisa’s World in France sent me this photo of a dish many French people eat every year in honor of the New Year.  It’s sausages and lentils  – "saucisse et lentilles".  The lentils are symbolic of money and prosperity because they’re round like coins.  The pork in the soup is also symbolic of prosperity (traditionally of having food on the table all year long).

You can learn more about Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for the New Year on a previous blog post.

Would love to hear about the foods you eat for the New Year where you live in the comments below!

Note: Monique later sent me the Recipe for the French New Year Sausage and Lentil Dish!

My daughter’s class had a multicultural festival today.  All the kids brought in food from their culture…

There were samosas from India…

Pierogies from Russia…

Jumu "Haitian" Soup…

That’s only naming a few of the delicious dishes! 

Some kids brought in crafts and activities from their culture…

Swedish Paper Heart Ornaments are made in Sweden (and Denmark).  They hang them on the tree.

The ornaments are made by weaving two pieces of thick paper together.

Double happiness signs that are popular in China for weddings were made at the festival today.  Below you can see the double happiness sign. 

Half of the pattern was made on folded red paper.  The paper was folded to have four sides.  The kids cut out the pattern…

Orange sachets from China were made out of orange peels… The peels are usually broken into small pieces and baked in a low oven first to dry them out.  After they cool off, put them in a bowl…

Then let the kids scoop a spoonful of peels into a piece of organza fabric and tie it closed with a piece of ribbon.  It smells great!

It’s fun for adults and kids alike to learn about new dishes and crafts from around the world!

If you’d like to share any multicultural activities that you enjoy, feel free to in the comments below or by emailing me at lisa@mamalisa.com.

Cheers!

Mama Lisa

Eid’l Fitr is the closing of Ramadhan, celebrating the winning of ‘fighting’ ourselves during Ramadhan month. During Ramadhan month, we don’t eat, drink, smoking etc. We also don’t do anything bad, instead we need to worship and be good to God and other people (not just to other Muslims), as many as possible. We introspect during that month. We recharge ourselves every year so we hope that then we’ll be a better and better person.

There are also some ‘magical’ events in Ramadhan, such as the first, second and third one third period of the month and ‘thousand-month night’.

Explanation from IslamOnline.net: “The first third of the month of Ramadan is the time for rahmah (mercy), the second third is for forgiveness, the third is for the release from Hell-fire…”

Explanation from Wikipedia: ‘Thousand-month night’… “is the anniversary of the night Muslims believe the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.”

Lin continued…

I know many simple and happy/sweet songs related to Ramadhan and Eid’l Fitr. I attach the links for few of them…

Lebaran sebentar lagi (Eid’l Fitr is coming)

Lyrics: Lebaran sebentar lagi

Arti Puasa (The meaning of fasting)

Ada anak bertanya pada bapaknya (There’s a son asking his dad some questions.)

I hope you find them entertaining, Lisa.

P.S. Indonesia also has many different traditions of welcoming Ramadhan and Eid’l Fitr events in every region. Even in Java Island we have many traditions, not to mention other islands ;) And, I am so interested to know much about what people do during Ramadhan and Eid’l Fitr in other countries, like India, Africa, China or other regions :D

Feel free to share your Ramadhan and Eid’l Fitr traditions in the comments below. I’d also be happy to post photos.

Happy Holidays!

Mama Lisa

When I was a kid, about one third of my neighbors were Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Advent etc). Before Christmas, we kids ‘helped’ them prepare their houses for Christmas (by tasting their cookies, cakes, and their traditional cuisines/meals, decorating their houses and Christmas trees etc.). What fun!

We would also accompany our friends when they practiced singing for choirs. Beautiful Christmas songs and carols reverberated… warming our hearts. When finally Christmas came, our parents brought us to pay a visit to them and greet their families.

They would also visit our house to greet us when it was Eid’l Fitr (the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan). Usually the night before Eid’l Fitr they would also cook some ‘ketupat’ (sticky rice wrapped with young coconut leaves) and we (Muslim families) also sent them our special cuisine/meals to their houses, so every house in our neighborhood that night, had a lot lot of side dishes to choose from. And usually the meals didn’t match each other… it was funny, odd, but sweet and full of love.

Lisa, in my life, I found the truth is that most differences just make us learn and understand each other, and make us closer, and even happier. When sharing, the kinder the giver, the better the gifts are… no matter whatever the gifts are. Even just a simple note, or a smile :) Isn’t that one of the Christmas spirits?

Love, Lin.

I asked Lin if this is a common tradition in Indonesia, or if it was just her neighborhood, and she replied…

Yes, it’s very common here, in some places. Especially if we live in a very close neighborhood. But it’s a bit different if we live in a very established residential area, since every house has big yard and high fences.

Thank you so much for sharing your childhood traditions with us Lin! It fills me with the best spirit of the season!

Mama Lisa

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