folklore.things.we.say

The transcription discusses the practice of celebrating pets' birthdays in the author's family. By celebrating their pets' birthdays, they establish a sense of identity within their family's folk group, form a community, and create a sense of belonging. The author explains the roles each family member plays in the celebration, emphasizing the importance of everyone feeling included. Celebrating pets' birthdays also brings the family closer together and creates meaningful moments. It is seen as a form of culture and folklore, providing a sense of community and belonging. The author concludes by stating that celebrating pets' birthdays fulfills their role as a folklore participant and brings joy to their family. For many people, it's common to celebrate one another's birthday. In my case, like many families with pets, my family too likes to celebrate when our pets also reach a new year of age. And although our pets age much faster than us, that is more the reason to make sure to make them feel special for whatever time they have left on this planet called Earth. Through my family's ritual of celebrating my pets' birthdays, we establish a sense of identity within our family's folk group, form community, and create a sense of belonging. Through celebrating your pet's birthday, you can help find your identity within your folk group. Birthdays are one of those things where, for the most part, we come together to celebrate one another. In my family, we always let others know how much we love our pets all the time. A ritual I hold with my pets to show them my love is through celebrating their birthdays. I first got them when they were 3 months old on May 6, 2020. Originally, they were my birthday gift because for a long time I had begged my parents for a cat. So every year since then, I've made sure to make their birthday special. And that's when my family and I started to throw little birthday celebrations for my cats. We do this because the action of celebrating my cats is what brings my family and I closer on my cats' special day. Birthdays are a very important time of the year for my family, and even though birthdays are repeated once a year, we always enjoy the time we spend with one another when it comes to celebrating each other. Martha Sims and Stephens Martin, two folklore study publishers, wrote, Repetition is important in establishing a continuity. Tradition repeats something because it matters to a group. If it isn't meaningful, it won't be repeated. And if it isn't repeated, it won't become a tradition. Usually, birthdays are more of an intimate type of thing that only certain people are invited to share with you. Every year, everyone in my family plays a role in celebrating my pet's birthday. The roles go as follows. My father is a designated guitar player. He usually plays Feliz Cumpleaños. My mother usually is in charge of setting up the special table for her. Eventually, we will set up the table to take pictures and sing. I am in charge of buying anything that needs to be bought. And lastly, my brother is there to hold my cats down in a kind manner for when they start taking pictures so that they don't run away. By having this structure of everyone having a role in celebrating my cat's birthday, everyone who needs to be included doesn't feel left out. It's important that everyone can contribute some pieces and stuff to celebrating my cat's birthday, because only then does everyone feel included. Realistically, I think the act of celebrating my cat's birthday is more of a chance for my family and I to help build and establish a community by coming together to celebrate. I have two cats of my own, and I have chosen to celebrate their birthdays since the first year that I've had them. I've never had pets before, so everything was new to me, but I found that ever since I've had them, I have not only gotten closer with them, but also with the members of my family. It takes a community to take care of them, just like it takes a community to celebrate them, and as a pet owner, I can say neither is an easy task. Still, the members of my family exclusively choose to engage in what others would think is silly activities. Not everyone understands why we celebrate our pets, but because we've made the effort to go out of our way to make a fun cat birthday, we are left off with meaningful moments for my family to look back at. In a scholarly article called Western Folklore by Gary Allen, they pointed out the idea that the fact that performances are remembered and then referred to by those who constitute a community indicates that this is a form of culture that can be labeled as folklore. Yes, the physical process of celebrating your pet's birthday is important, but what is more important is the meaning behind the actions you put forward. When I was interviewing my friend Danielle on why she celebrates her pet's birthday, she concluded that she feels that a sense of community Belonging? I guess, yes, because, you know, it creates a sense of community, and, you know, I don't feel like that when it comes to celebrating my cats, which is weird if I feel like that on my own birthday. We see through Daniela's comments how even she too feels a sense of community when celebrating her own pets, a feeling that not even her own birthday can give her. Instead, she feels she has a community when she makes time to celebrate her cat's birthday. In American culture, we tend to live a very day-to-day life, but often we only share our time with those that are important to us. In the case of the members of my family, this tends to also be true. My father works seven days a week while having two jobs. My mother also works seven days a week. And for a freshman in high school, my brother is always busy with sports and his academics all the time. That is why it means a lot when we all take time out of our busy schedules to make time not only for one another, but also our cats. This is also why only certain people are invited to celebrate my cat's birthday alongside me. Life is one of those things that is not promised the next day, so having a group of people who are willing to sacrifice some of their own personal time to celebrate your loved ones is crucial in this particular ritual. Lastly, while celebrating pets' birthday, it helps bring out a sense of belonging within the whole group. As mentioned previously, birthdays are one of those things that not everyone is invited to. When I would celebrate the human birthdays of my life, often only people who I cared about or who I was related to were invited to celebrate with me. The same goes for when I choose to celebrate my pet's birthday. I want my pets, like my guests, to feel like they belong in my inner circle. I want to make the people I invite over feel like they belong and not just like I invited them out of pity. There is no point in having a good time myself when I sense the people around me feel uncomfortable. Especially since my cats mean a lot to me, I want to make sure to focus on them and their special birthday celebration. In this writing, Alan says, There is not much that I can do to make sure that my pets feel comfortable in their own home. However, by providing them with a group of people that feel like they belong together to celebrate them, I can give my cats the experience of a good time. If the people I choose to invite to celebrate my cats with me are in a good mood, only then can I conclude that celebrating my cat's birthday was a success. Cats cannot read the emotions of their humans, but I can read the emotions of those in the room. And if I can tell that everyone is having a good time, it shows me that celebrating my cats is a practice that I wish to continue. That is because I wish to continue making people feel like they belong, even when they join in the silly practice of celebrating my cats. Otherwise, they wouldn't come to begin with. In conclusion, celebrating my pets' birthdays is a ritual that provides the folklore group of my family with a sense of identity, community, and belonging. Again, my cats likely cannot feel these emotions or ideas themselves, but it's because of them that my family and I feel this way. A folklore group's purpose is to have people come together and have a fun time and hopefully pass on those practices to other generations to come. So by celebrating my pets' birthdays, I hope that I can continue to fulfill my duties as a 21st century folklore partaker.