91: Winter Traditions

Speaker 0 00:03 Welcome to brain junk. I'm Amy Barton and I'm Tracy Kerr and winter, you know, usually associated with holidays. We're in the United States so often that's Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, but it's not just about those holidays. So about vitamin D deficiency, it's about being in the dark and crying. No, uh, but there are numerous traditions celebrated here and around the globe and today we're going to talk about a few of those. So it's everything you never knew you wanted to know about winter traditions. We have a lot, Speaker 1 00:32 a lot to talk about today, but let's start with the, let's start with that one. I would like to talk with you about the Chinese celebration of winter solstice, which is called dong G and it means winter arrives like those. We kind of gloss over winter solstice. My family does right into Christmas in my, like we've been at Christmas since the two weeks ago at my house for my kids especially. So I love these. The returning of longer days is celebrated. And in China it's an increase in positive energy in the year to come is what they're also celebrating. Oh, it's about six weeks before the Chinese new year is also the day that they celebrate everyone getting older. That's the day they believe everyone transitions up a year. Oh, that's right. If we talked about that, like the change of the birthday. I didn't associate it with a winter festival, so that's excellent. Speaker 1 01:24 It may have begun as a harvest festival when farmers and fishermen took the time off to celebrate with families. Kind of the end of that season. Today, it's not an official holiday, but it's still, it's an occasion that families still get together and they celebrate that year pass on their good wishes for the year to come. Traditional foods and so like in, if you are in, let's see, Southern China, they have the gluteny rice ball. Sticky sticky rice. Yeah. I am going to try to pronounce this as Tang yen. They might be brightly colored rice balls, which is super fun. Ooh, might be sweet. Might be savory. Hopefully you know what you're getting into before they serve them. I dunno. That could be fun. Northern China, they eat plain or meat stuffed dumplings and a warming and nourishing winter food, so it's also one of their, one of those cozy kind of things. Speaker 1 02:12 Wow. The short fly over for that one. I like that. I, Oh, I like that though. I do. It does seem like that kind of is a common theme. Yes, definitely. We need to have a party because it's been cold and dark. See, we're back to that seasonal depression. Yes. See this episode is all about vitamin D. we're going to provide a link so you can order one of those lamps on Amazon after you're through listening to this. Oh, excellent. Yes. All right, and then I want to share with you, we're going to talk about something we're going to take. We're going to take the winter tradition to someplace a little creepy. Okay. I'm going to set the scene. All right, so imagine it's getting towards winter solstice and Christmas. The nights are long and dark and then out of the mist comes a monster with the legs of a person. They're wearing a long white sheet and high them poking out Speaker 0 03:00 of the sheet is the skull of a horse. Oh yes, I've seen pictures. Yep. Moves like a horse. It's main is made of ribbons. It's staring at you with Christmas ornaments for eyes or it might have empty sockets. That is the Mary Lloyd. Now I'm going to tell you right now, it's spelled M a R E like Mayer and L. w. Y. D. I am getting as close as I possibly can to pronouncing this right. I'm going to keep calling it the Mari Lloyd and if you're Welsh and I'm killing you inside, I'm sorry, write me an email and tell me how to do it right. Send an audio file. So this person in this horse thing, and we're going to put up links and pictures and there's this great video. It's led from door to door through the village near winter solstice. The people leading the Mar Lloyd sing a song to request to come into the house and people inside sing a song back. Speaker 0 03:56 They do kind of a battle of wits, of trying to top different people's lyrics and things like that until they eventually welcome the Mara Lloyd into the house for food and drink. I have questions. Um, I've read a book called the ghost of Greenglass house and it, this is part of that story and so when you started talking about, Oh I know about this in the book there was a tradition like you had to start your foot on the right, right foot on the step first and they had a lot of detail and like the horse's head was stored, but I'm not sure how much was part of the fiction of this book and the richness of the story versus what is the historical, like they would store the horse head buried under the porch for the year. Some of that could have been, it's a great ghosty story. Speaker 0 04:42 I will say that I watched this cool documentary again, I will have a link to it and it's a group that is promoting culture because a lot of the Mary Lloyd has faded out. They're making what they were calling his flat pack sets of paper that they could take to school. So they were going to schools and they were showing kids how to put them together and talking about the history. And it's probably morphed regionally too because this book was set in Canada and there's other characters that go along with the story in this particular book that I read. So yeah. And even the lady who was doing the presentation was talking about how, where they've gone to different places and different towns have different songs that they sing when they do it. It's all to bring good luck over the new year. But there seems to be a resurgence of interest in it. So I think it was not very ghostly and creepy cause if you're walking through the desk with a sheet in a horses' skull, I don't think it's going to look silly like it would in daylight. Oh no. And it does not look silly. And they had real skulls with drawings on the sides and they're very intricate. And also part of the whole thing is that the mouth open, Speaker 1 05:59 the mouth opens. And then they click it back together so it makes this kind of spooky bone clacking together. And most of the people who were wearing the costume went out of their way to toss their head like horses do. I thought it was great and, and like I said, I'm sorry if I've been saying it wrong this whole time. I try, I mean, I listened. We try our best. Okay, well let's leave some spooky solstice behind and we're going to go to Peru. We are, I hadn't thought about the winter festival being in June, but it is for those in the Southern hemisphere. So Peru celebrates in ti, Ramy, and this is another one where it has a deep historical, um, and then there's the modern celebration of that. So I'm talking more about the historical, uh, so winter solstice, June 21st give or take and the Peruvians celebrate in ti Ramy, which is <inaudible> for the sun festival. Speaker 1 06:53 It's dedicated to honoring into this sun God. This is largely from before the Spanish conquest of the Incas. They would fast for three days before the solstice and then before the Dawn of the fourth day, they went to a ceremonial Plaza and waited for sunrise. So they've been fasting three days and then they stay up all night waiting for the sun. And when it would appear, they crouched down offering golden cups of Cheecha, which is sacred beer made from fermented corn. I'm imagining if they partook of that, it would it be extremely festive after three days of fasting. Oh, you would be so dry, so much. Just so dry. So festive. They probably have great memories of this festival brief, but wonderful. There was animal sacrifice in the ancient tradition, including llamas that is no longer a part of the modern day celebration. But the Incas used mirrors also to focus the sun's rays and Kindle the fire. Speaker 1 07:47 So it's very Indiana Jones. I just think that's such a cool skill to begin with is cool. So in the 20th century, they do mock sacrifices. I hope that there's still some beer involved and I'd hope they don't have to stay up all night anymore. Maybe that's voluntary. Well, but see that's part of the fun. I mean that's a, it's a tradition, right? And so, and it only comes once a year, you know, and wow. Although the three days of fasting, Oh, any, that's all these religions and cultures. Like I think of Ramadan where you're doing a month of fasting every, I mean, that is some next level, uh, commitment. And I have been in proximity to folks fasting for Ramadan and they have not been jerks at all. High five to you fosters that can be super chill during that because I have been very impressed with their level of composure throughout that long path. Wow. Well, you know, now that we're talking about food, let's talk about Kentucky fried chicken in Japan. I saw this headline and I was super curious. Tell me more. All right. In 1974, a Harvard graduate named Takeshi Oak Hawara opened the first KFC in Japan. There's a couple Speaker 0 08:56 of different origin stories, but one, like some people say there was an expat customer who was wanted Turkey. They couldn't find Turkey. They were like, well, fried chicken is close enough. The one I loved most, and it's from a newspaper interview with to Kashi Oak Hawara <inaudible> he said that he had a kindergartner come into the store and said the entire school would order KFC for their Christmas party or holiday party if Oak Hawara would bring the food and dress up as Santa. Now he is not the dress up as Santa dance around kind of type, but he wanted the business. So he did it and then word spread and more schools started ordering, you know, KFC fried chicken in the hopes that he would come and visit dressed up as Santa. And it became such a sensation that he was interviewed on TV and this is my favorite part. Speaker 0 09:47 So when the interviewer asked him, do you Americans eat fried chicken for Christmas? Straight face? He's like, yes, of course I love him very much. So now there's this whole tradition of Christmas family party buckets with chicken. You get sides, there's wine, they come with cake. It's about $38 for this whole thing or up more money. You know, if you get a more elaborate meal, but people will sign up up to two months in advance to reserve their KFC chicken meal. That makes sense because the fires can only work so fast and people <inaudible> supplies. Right. Wow. Well, and then then you might be thinking, okay, yeah, so a few people are doing this. No, no, no, no, no, no. So in 2017 KFC, Japan earned $540 million. That's the whole year. What they earned off of sales between December 23rd and December 25th the company had $53 million in sales. Speaker 0 10:48 10% was in those two days. Wow. Yeah. So approximately 3.6 million Japanese eat KFC during the holidays. Wow. That is huge. Isn't that crazy? So you have, you have your, your Colonel Sanders, who, you know, we usually see with a white jacket and a white hat. All of them are dressed up in Santa's clothes. Like they have a statue outside and there are these super fancy Christmas catalogs that you can get to preorder your chicken stuff. And then it's, it's become a part of the culture. Do they have a Santa at each location? Yes. This is a big, big deal. I love that. It makes sense to me in ex-pat communities of people who don't celebrate the Christian or the American holiday here in the U S they have the run of 80 restaurant on Christmas day that happens to be open. Right. But, uh, I don't know that they're ordering KFC here in the U S Oh no, I just love that. This is well nodded. Yeah, no, it's a huge thing. And you know, they talk about how Japanese culture has grabbed a lot of Western culture things. So they have trees, Santas, and Speaker 1 11:54 they do giving of presence and things like that. But also they are doing buckets of chicken. I enjoy that. This is completely a whimsical delightful. This is just completely for fun and like chicken's great. Yeah. I mean it doesn't like fried chicken. Well, vegetarians and vegans, but I mean, the rest of us like fried cake. There's cake. I know there's cake, there's a mashed potato side that you can have. Yeah. Yeah. So chicken and holidays. Yeah. We have one more. Oh, I have more. Yes, yes, we're going to go to Antarctica. This surprised me and was quite delightful. Antarctica, how somersaults solstice on our winter solstice. So they're celebrating their winter, June 21st give or take, you have this cycle in Antarctica where you can get in and get deliveries for a certain amount of time and then that closes that window stopped because it's not safe or possible to get there to bring a plane in. Speaker 1 12:47 So there's no visitors. It's cold work has dialed back to maintenance in a lot of places depending on the nature of their work. So it's just a long cold haul with the same 20 or 40 people with the same foods and things. And so there has been a culture that developed. You spend one or two years there, normally one or two winter over. So a lot of people now the article said it's just one winter but it's a long one. Oh man. Cause it goes, it goes dark there. Yes. There at the complete dark stage, like one day where the sun sets and it doesn't come up again for a long time. Oh yeah. They're not getting morning, they're just getting a little glimmer of light on the horizon, hopefully, or it's just less dark for awhile there. So it's a big deal. They've been alone, they're just with each other for quite a long time. Speaker 1 13:39 And so a culture has developed lots of special things and experiences are saved for that day. So all the best food and alcohol is saved for that day. They get greetings from out the outside world, including like national leaders will send notes to them and correspondence home from families. So that's a special part because now communication is different. I think there's probably more consistent all the time. 1898 was the first group of people that were stuck there through the whole long. They did it in mid winter celebration all the way to Dover and had a formal. So one of the fun things that they will do is unexpected gifts from home. And now the internet has articles about this, so they're probably not as unexpected. Um, but one of the things about going to Antarctica now is you tell somebody in the U S or wherever your origin company who your people are back home and so they will, somebody within the state side will contact and say, would you like to send something down for winter? Speaker 1 14:35 It's not Christmas, it's mid-winter. They'll send notes and they'll send presence. And so on Midwinter you wake up and you get a little gifts from your family and your loved ones. So it's, it's a little bit of home when you probably really need it. And that's probably been stored away in a right, cause you had to take that with you cause that's not coming in on the 21st of June. No. So somebody when you sign on is organized enough to get this done and sends it down before they close up. Before flights are done for the season. It's like, it's like when you send your kid off to camp and you send them with cards. They kind of love that and it's sort of, there's a still pretending that they're Santa kind of sense about this. One of my other favorite things about this is that each base, there's a base commander, the boss or a similar title and the base commander takes breakfast orders and makes you order scrambled eggs. Speaker 1 15:27 But I order steel cut oats with Brown sugar and blah blah. That's what you get. The base commander gets up really early, makes everybody breakfast and delivers their breakfast to them. Oh, that is super nice. I like that. It's that little bit of caring. It's nice. Um, I really want to imagine them all. Okay. So, so it's, it's dark and we know it's heading back. So maybe we're going to have this blip of sun over the horizon and you know, okay. It's coming back. I want to imagine the mall running out there naked. You can see it probably because that happens. Does it? Yes. That was one of my next things. They do a polar plunge and the article or put a link because the author of this article was terrific and gave lots of detail and lots of historical pictures and it's a wonderful article. Speaker 1 16:14 So go check it out. Um, but he has done the polar plunge on Antarctica and like any Murdo station or any of those that are on the coast will, you'll probably find people doing this. And so it could be anywhere from negative two to negative 13 degrees outside and it's probably around negative two in the ocean. And so you're going to lose some junk. How long are you in the water? They run apparently like in and out and back in. And I don't think it's particularly warm inside the stations either a climate. Yeah, but you know what? If it was 50 degrees and you were just in minus something water, it would feel tropical. Be like, I need a bikini. They have a secret Santa kind of tradition. It's not, it's mid-winter presence. And so you have a secret person or depending on the station or you make a present and you put it in and everybody gets a special homemade gift. Speaker 1 17:05 And apparently at one of the stations, at least the author station, there was a lot of old Whalebone sitting around still from the years of whaling in the area. So you'd get these beautiful handmade items from the Whalebone that was still around. Wow. What a cool tradition to keep you from going completely bonkers. Yeah. That's Midwinter at Antarctica. If you go, it's going to be good. I kind of want to do like mid winter Spokane. I feel like we can all get together and like I have a fish pond. We could just run out and take a little dip in the fish town and uh, have a nice feast and cause that's what it's about. It's about, I mean really, what are all these come down to? It's about being with friends and family and celebrating the fact that we've made it around the sun more time. And here Speaker 0 17:50 we go again. I like it. Well, however you celebrate your holiday, happy holidays to you from me and me. We're on Facebook and Instagram as brain junk podcast and you can find us on Twitter as at my brain junk. We have one more episode in 2019 and then next year you will find us in 2020 where we share more of everything. You never knew you wanted to know. And I guarantee you will not be bored.