June 29, 2025 • 24 mins
We’re in the middle of the summer celebration season. Whether it is Juneteenth, the 4th of July, or your family’s annual reunion, there are some elements of celebrating that never change. We pulled an oldie but a goodie - Lab 035: The Science of Celebration. This episode is a rerun, but the science is still fresh. Make sure to tag us in your photos @dopelabspodcast to show us how you celebrate!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all. Before today's new lab kicks off, we've got
a little treat, an oldie, but a total goodie on
the art and sociology of celebration. Whether you're gearing up
for the Fourth of July fireworks, a backyard family reunion,
or even just celebrating the miracle of being alive this summer,
(00:20):
this one's for you. Stick around, because sometimes the best
sparks come from labs. We've already lit I'm Tt and
I'm Zachiah, and this is Dope Labs. Welcome to Dope Labs,
a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science with pop culture
(00:40):
and a healthy dose of friendship. In this Lab, we're
dipping into a classic episode on why we as humans
throw confetti, light fireworks, and you know my favorite, gather
around the grill to celebrate. It's a timeless deep dive
into how celebrate shapes our brains, our bonds, and our
(01:02):
sense of belonging. If we promise, it'll make you think
a little differently about the next kickback, you go too.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
We love celebrating.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
We like celebrating everything from big things to small things. Yes,
in this episode, we are talking all about celebration and
the sociology behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I think it's important to really acknowledge celebrations exist across cultures.
They may look different, but almost every culture has some
type of celebratory time or season or event. And there
are some cultural universals, so behaviors that or values that
show up in different cultures. They might not necessarily be
(01:43):
the same, but we see them all the time. So
dancing or food, or rituals or different religious practices, those
are cultural universals, and they're all often elements of various
types of celebrations. So it can feel like celebration itself
is a hallmark of human behavior.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So with that being said, let's jump into the recitation.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
What do we know?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
TT, Well, we know right now there are a lot
of people that are celebrating, including us.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yes, and we also know there seems to be this
gravitational pool to celebration being outside, loud and with snacks
and drinks.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yes, we need libations.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And I think, you know, I just want to understand
what's driving us to celebrate. I think I want to
know why it's food always something that folks want to
bring out when.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It's time to celebrate. Is that something that's just like
is it a cultural thing?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Is it all cultures and even beyond just us celebrating?
This feels like some spontaneous celebration in the fall. There's
that season of celebration right after spooky season where if
people celebrate Thanksgiving around that time, heading into all of
the winter high holidays, I feel like I can almost
smell it in.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
The air, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But if I didn't grow up celebrating these holidays, would
I still feel that same way?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Maybe it's a part of our subconscious mind to feel
like we're supposed to be celebrating right now.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And then I want to know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Friendsgiving is a new thing, but I don't know whose idea. Yeah,
this was, it's a genius idea, but I want to
know whose idea it was and when it got started.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I think friendsgiving is the perfect example as we start
to think about celebration on a whole right because you
don't have to believe any one certain thing to participate
in friendsgiving. It also feels like it's a little more
low stakes than some of the other holidays, so you
don't have to jump in and sprinkle cinnamon all over
your house.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
If you want to participate in friendsgiving.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Friendsgiving feels more like a come as you are celebration
rather than you got to get dressed up with your
auntie and uncle and answer all their annoying questions.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I don't want to wear a sequin top. So I
think we're ready to move into the dissection and understand
more about celebration. So this dissection is a little bit different.
The guest expert today, Well, it's us welcome.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
I think we're.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Professional celebrators and I think it's a great time for
us to just hold that mirror up and explore some
of our own behavior around holidays.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
We're talking all about celebrations, and I think a great
place to start would be talking about a celebration kind
of like Friendsgiving, where it is a new form of
celebration and I think a lot of people are starting
to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So let's start with the history of Friendsgiving. It's basically
a spin on Thanksgiving. And when we look back at
Thanksgiving is basically a big feast. And so your want
for a meat lover's pizza, my want for mimosa. That's
gathering around food, and that's not new. Almost all cultures
are considered kind of cultures of celebration. And Thanksgiving was
(04:56):
centered on the fall harvest, similar to how we talked
about cuffing season and having been with the spring harvest,
it's kind of this cyclical or seasonal celebration.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
M okay.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And so it's best to have a feast, which is
like a large meal, and it's usually outrageous amounts of
food compared to what you would normally have day to day.
It's gonna be pretty hard to do that if you
don't have a season of harvest, if you don't have
a lot of stuff to choose from.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
And you know what I like is that when you
look up the definition of feast, it's a verb and
it means to eat and drink sumptuously.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I like that word sumptuously. I'm just started using that.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So when we start to think about friends Giving, this
is kind of new. Like you said, it's been on
the rise. If you look at Google trends and they
show you know, that little graph of how often different
terms are searched, it doesn't make its first kind of
big blip until like twenty ten, and then you just
see every year around November it just peaks up. And
so it's been on the rise since like the twenty ten.
(05:52):
If you think about two thousand and seven to twenty ten,
the economy trying to make a comeback. Millennials were one
of the first generations to move really far away from home,
So can you even afford to get back home?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So I remember being an undergrad and before we would
go home for Thanksgiving break, me and my friends one
year got together and had like a little Thanksgiving because
we were like, oh, you know, we're thankful for each other.
We should all get together and do something. So I
think it also was something where folks wanted to celebrate
Thanksgiving with their friends before having to go home and
(06:25):
celebrate with their families.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
And that makes me think also there is something that
we kind of borrow from LGBTQ culture, which is your
chosen family. Yeah, these people you choose and who have
chosen you in return. So even if you don't have
great relationships with your blood relatives, right, you have this
family who you are super grateful for and you want
to celebrate with them, so you create this occasion to
(06:49):
do that. I love that, z And so I think
we're almost talking about friends Giving, and when we think
about the evolution of it, some of it may be
out of necessity. So if you can't afford to travel home,
or if you have to do a pot luck style
dinner because do you know how much.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
A turkey costs?
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Turkeys are expensive. I will never purchase a turkey. Write
that in Stone. I will never purchase a turkey.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So when you consider those things and then these other
kind of emotional pools where you want to acknowledge these
people who have supported you year round and who have
helped you grow m you kind of have these converging
factors that drive this new holiday.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We're redefining family.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
We are, and we're also dignifying friendship.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
We talked about that in the What About Your Friend's episode,
like we need to be giving our friendships way more
weight than we give them, Like, our friends are so
important to our lives, and.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think if you understand that, then you got to
have a celebration. Yet, this is the bet Awards of friendship. Okay,
the Emmys of friendship, the Grammys of friendship, that's.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
What friends giving it is.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I need to find a dress, roll.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Out the red carpet for the people you love. So,
as we mentioned before, we're looking at celebration through the
life of sociology.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Sociology is the study of society, and that's the big umbrella.
So that can be the development the structure of a
society or how it functions, and you can also talk
about like social relationships and institutions.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So when we're talking.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
About the sociology of celebration, we're talking about how we
behave cross culturally when a celebration occurs, whether it's planned
or spontaneous.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
When we try to figure out some clues to help
us characterize why we behave like this, why we enjoy celebration,
and sometimes while we celebrate too much. We came across
the Journal of Comparative Research and Anthropology and Sociology. They
had a whole issue on celebration and these two authors,
Rusu and Cantola laid out this great kind of way
(08:50):
to navigate through celebration. If you think about celebration as
a map. On most maps, you have a north, south, east,
and west.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Those are four coordinates. They give us three.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Coordinates temporality, spatiality, and sociality.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Okay, so let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
So let's talk about temporality. And this is all about time.
So when we think about time as it relates to
celebration celebrations are these disruptions in our day to day.
I can remember as a kid somebody's birthday party happening
on a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That was an anomaly, right, Yeah, we were gonna eat cake,
we were gonna do all these things that we did
not normally do on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Chuckie Cheese had the best pizza.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Pizza is your celebration food.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It really is, and it probably started with chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But you almost find that when we think about these
celebrations that are rooted in time, so religious holidays, they
almost pattern our day to day. So if you think
about our year going along in a circle, every time
we hit March or April, there are some spring celebrations.
Every time around the summer, there's Juneteenth or fourth of July,
(09:55):
whatever you celebrate. Right, there's these things in every year
when you come around, they almost pattern what our cycle
of time looks like because they're a disruption every time,
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Every year at the same time.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Right, And so it's interesting we can think of these
celebrations that's helping us shift from the monotony of this
day to day kind of punch in, punch out clock
in clock out. They add some excitement to our day
to day lives.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And it gives us something to look forward to.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Right, Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
And it feels a little crazy, right because you're saying, oh,
we pattern time with these celebrations and they disrupt time.
So if they disrupt time at the same time all
the time, aren't they a pattern too.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
It's too much for my brain. It's like if we're
going into exception.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I saw something else that was really interesting, and it
talked about these two Greek words related to Greek mythology
about time, So there was kronos and chiros. You can
think of chronos as representing the godly personification is what
this text says of linear, never ending quantitative time. So
for me, chronos is the clock and we can think
of chronological order right, linear.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Time, right, But kiros is a little bit different. Chiros
is like I'm just going off the vibes, right, And
for me, that is what celebration time is, like, you know,
the vibe when we're celebrating, Just show up when it's time.
Do you remember that time we had a party and
our friend Sean said she was gonna bring hamburger buns
and she showed up so late.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Oh my gosh. And she showed up late.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I was like, okay, well, you're bringing a critical element
because we're grilling out and we have burgers and hot dogs,
and you were in charge of the vehicle buns for
those meets.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Sewn showing up when she felt like it was time
to show up for me, that's Chiros, right, it's no.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Real What is an hour? What is time? When the
party starts?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And I am a firm proponent of Kiro's when it
comes to when a celebration ends. The party is over
when we're dead.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So the next element of the coordinates of celebration is spatiality,
and that's all about where's the party at. Along with
our routinized celebrations, this usually happens at a certain place. Right,
So if you're celebrating passover, maybe you go to a
satyr at your grandmother's house every year, or maybe if
you're celebrating ed, you go to your uncle's house every year,
(12:31):
and that's where all of that celebrating happens. But it
happens in the same place, and so in your mind,
as soon as you walk through those doors, you're like, okay,
it's time to celebrate for me and my family, it
would alternate every year. For Thanksgiving, we would alternate between
my uncle Jacob and Aunt Rachel's house. Then it would
be at my house, so my parents would host Thanksgiving,
(12:52):
and so we would just go back and forth and
back and forth. And I think that's because my dad
is the oldest of eight siblings, and then my uncle
Jacob is his younger brother. He was right behind him,
so they're kind of like the heads of the family,
and so we just alternate between those two. It was
always so much fun seeing all of my cousins and
aunts and uncles and everything like that all in one place.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
What about u Z.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I think for major holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, when we
celebrated those growing up, we always went to my grandma's house,
so my mom's mom the drive down there, I remember.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
It will be like so excited to go there.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It was like an hour or so away from where
we lived in Greensboro, and it was just a thing, right,
you were just bubbling with excitement.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Now we went there every other weekend. That wasn't a holiday,
but it just hit different right now.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
It would have been like homecoming season.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I can remember A and T Homecoming all right, geho,
greatest homecoming on Earth. I didn't even go to A
and T, but I grew up in the city where
it was, so I felt like A and T's homecoming
was always like another big holiday. People would come because
a lot of my family members went there, so you
would see family. It was like a mini Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving,
and we would go to my great aunt, my aunt Lina,
we would go to her house. And so it's just
(14:04):
interesting how as soon as we started talking about celebrations,
I can pinpoint these different places for different celebrations.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, so I guess we can zoom out a little bit.
So it's like not even just specific for your family,
but even like culturally as Americans, like when we think
about celebrating New Year's Eve, we think of the ball
dropping in Times Square. We might not necessarily be there,
but it's just so iconic and ingrain into our minds
that we think of that.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
When we think of New Year's.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Eve, the spatiality aspect is really interesting because it can
be a whole city, you know, like when we think
about Mardi Gras in New Orleans and when we think
about Running of the Bulls there are these places where
these celebrations occur. And it can be broad like that,
but it can also be really specific. So, right, if
you normally eating your kitchen or your living room, but
(14:50):
for big holidays, you guys all gather around a dining
table and you use that special furniture.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Hah, the special plates, Yeah, the napkins.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
That's a spatial queue, right, is almost reminiscent of some
religious ceremonies and celebrations that happen in these sacred spaces
or sanctuaries, right, And we're almost replicating that. There's something
ritualistic about a lot of our celebrations anyway, and so
here we see it appearing again.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Even if there isn't a special place for whatever you're
trying to celebrate, we convert our existing spaces into a
space for celebration. Absolutely, and that is literally what folks
did for Friendsgiving. So we've touched temporality, which is time space,
reality which is where are you? And now we're hitting sociality,
(15:39):
which is how does it feel. It's the social aspect.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So the togetherness you're kind of dropping those barriers is
the vibes. It's really interesting because when you have a holiday.
You got your core group of people that you always
normally see, but then you always have some stragglers. You
got that one cousin who shows up for Easter, you like,
we haven't seen them all year, right, Or you have
that aunt or uncle that you don't really deal with
(16:03):
like that, but you're gonna keep it cute for the holiday, right.
I think it's really interesting. Even on a broader scale,
even if you just zoom out, we can almost consider
this as people being in the holiday spirit or having
some holiday cheer.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Mm hmmm hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It almost feels like community level or group level, we're
all extending a little bit more grace.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, worldwide vibes and no one is supposed to be
coming in and killing the vibe, and so sociality I.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Think is key to a good celebration.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But I think it's important to highlight sociality can go
either way because that sense of community. You can either
leverage it and make everybody feel equal, you can bring
everybody in. And it really depends on your holiday because
if you have a holiday that is built on power
dynamics and access to certain things, it can also isolate too.
So you want to be aware of that when you
(16:55):
building your friends giving. Are you saying everybody got to
bring a ball of asa space? Everybody can't do that.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I won't be there.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And some folks don't drink right, and so those are
all the things to think about.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I had to really question my cookout style. Over the
past couple of years, I've had more and more vegetarian friends. Oh,
and I said, what do you have to offer them?
Is it a celebration if they can only have a
potato it's not.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yes, this happened to me because me and Jimmy do
a holiday like dinner every year, and two dinners ago,
so not the last one we did, but the one
before that. We had some friends that showed up and
I knew that they were vegetarians, and we tried to
have some vegetarian options, but one was vegan and that
just eliminated all options. There was literally nothing for them
(17:45):
to eat. And I was mortified. I was messing up
the sociality of my dinner party. I was killing the
vibes from my vegan friends. But I know that they
knew you meant well. They were good sports. I was
crying into my hand, Queen of the hand was having
a bad night. That just takes us to the next
point about what happens when celebrations and the expectations around
(18:07):
them get really high and they can add on a
lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
But we're not going to talk about it just yet.
We're about to take a break, and when we come back,
we'll jump right into the case for scaling back on celebrations.
I know, seems a little counterintuitive, and how we'll continue
to celebrate even when we can't be together.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
We're back, and now we're going to jump into the
case for scaling back on celebrations. We have already talked
in great detail about how we love to celebrate, but
in some cases, some you kind of have to just
fall back a little bit and chill.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I think we have to make some points really clear.
When we say we like to celebrate, we don't mean
every time we have to take things to the top.
I mean we like to find the celebratory moments even
in the small things. Right, So it's like, hmm, this
doctor Pepper has all the fizz. It's a parday, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
It's all the little.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Things, the little stuff when it happens things go the
way you want, or even when things, don't. That's the
time to really celebrate that we're just here and making
it okay.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yes, I remember one time when we were in grad
school and I baked a batch of cookies and I
took some to the kid's lab and she loved it.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It was a celebration really for nothing.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
I love that kind of stuff, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I think we just need more moments of joy for ourselves, right,
because if we are relying on it externally, the external
world will fail.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
We see that we had all the twenty twenty and
look at what he did. I'm so ashamed of twenty twenty.
I don't even want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Right, you got to celebrate life while you still got it.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
But I think some people take it to the extreme
on the other part. Right, it's not a party unless
there are custom name cards for everybody, streamers hanging down,
a minor explosion of viral techniques, and I'm just like, no, no, no,
we don't need that for a birthday, for the first birthday,
you know, you know, they won't even remember.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
This, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I think we've seen even this year some issues with
some celebrations that went a little bit over the top,
like the gender reveals that started wildfires in California and Arizona.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, you want us.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
To know what genitalia your child has, and then you're
gonna burn down half the state.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I think that's a little excessive, right, it is?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
It is.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I think there's also a whole culture around celebrations. Some
of this feels like I look at Pinterest, I say, Pinterest,
you're giving people way too many ideas. My friend, her
cousin was having a baby and she made a whole
cake out of diapers. She was like, I have to
find the right lace to tie around these diapers. I
have to find the right ribbon and trimming. It was
a Safari style thing, and she needed to find all
(20:56):
these animals and glue them on. And I was like, girl,
this feels more stress fold them anything.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
But it was a labor of love for her.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I remember this.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
But I think social media is also a driver because honey,
people start posting yes, doing it for the gram.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
I'm just trying to do it for me.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So another reason why people might be celebrating a lot
could be because of this whole idea of globalization. A
lot of people are starting to live farther and farther
apart from each other. Because of the way technology is,
we have the ability to stay in contact with people
literally all over the world. Yes, the cultures are blending,
so we have a lot more multicultural families, and social
(21:34):
media is at.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
The wheel of this bus.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
We are over celebrating and oversharing and doing all of
the extra things.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
And so it's going to be really interesting to see
how this season of celebration plays out. With first everybody
sharing on social media, with second, everybody supposed to be
quarantining up until now.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Right, y'all supposed to be social distancing.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I'm interested to see how all these factors come together
during this season of celebration.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
It's a unique time.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
And let me tell you something, baby, I'm zooming. Okay,
I'm zooming with y'all, And don't zoom by my house,
especially not unannounced.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yes, we are talking about the web conferencing software. Do
not zoom here.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I'm all about togetherness, but let's be together.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Virtually be together apart.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
This year, I'm gonna do a friends giving with a
few people who have been in their homes NonStop and
who are just as diligent about coronavirus safety protocols as
I am, and then I'm zooming with everybody else they
can also have the same thing we're having here. I'm
gonna be sharing my recipes.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yes, all of it, and I will be eating yes.
So that's all I bring to the table. This is
the reason why I've been so diligent over the last
however many months. We've been social distancing because I knew
this time would come. I knew that folks would mess
us up, for all of us, and we would not
be doing the normal fall time celebrations, and that friends
giving would be affected. And I knew that my friend
would still be cooking, and I know me, I want
(23:06):
that food.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So I said sacrifice now so you can enjoy the
spoils later.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You can find us on X and Instagram at Dope Labs.
Podcast tt is on X and Instagram at dr Underscore
t Sho, and you can find Sakiya at z said so.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Dope Labs is a production of Lamanada Media.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Our senior supervising producer is Kristin Lapour and our associate
producer is Issara Svez. Dope Labs is sound design, edited
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of Partnerships and Production is Jackie Danziger. Executive producer from
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Speaker 4 (23:53):
Marketing lead is Alison Canter.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Original music composed and produced by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex
sugi Ura, with additional music by Elijah Harvey. Dope Lab
is executive produced by us T T show Diaz and
Takia Wattley.
Hey, y'all. Before today's new lab kicks off, we've got
a little treat, an oldie, but a total goodie on
the art and sociology of celebration. Whether you're gearing up
for the Fourth of July fireworks, a backyard family reunion,
or even just celebrating the miracle of being alive this summer,
(00:20):
this one's for you. Stick around, because sometimes the best
sparks come from labs. We've already lit I'm Tt and
I'm Zachiah, and this is Dope Labs. Welcome to Dope Labs,
a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science with pop culture
(00:40):
and a healthy dose of friendship. In this Lab, we're
dipping into a classic episode on why we as humans
throw confetti, light fireworks, and you know my favorite, gather
around the grill to celebrate. It's a timeless deep dive
into how celebrate shapes our brains, our bonds, and our
(01:02):
sense of belonging. If we promise, it'll make you think
a little differently about the next kickback, you go too.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
We love celebrating.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
We like celebrating everything from big things to small things. Yes,
in this episode, we are talking all about celebration and
the sociology behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I think it's important to really acknowledge celebrations exist across cultures.
They may look different, but almost every culture has some
type of celebratory time or season or event. And there
are some cultural universals, so behaviors that or values that
show up in different cultures. They might not necessarily be
(01:43):
the same, but we see them all the time. So
dancing or food, or rituals or different religious practices, those
are cultural universals, and they're all often elements of various
types of celebrations. So it can feel like celebration itself
is a hallmark of human behavior.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So with that being said, let's jump into the recitation.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
What do we know?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
TT, Well, we know right now there are a lot
of people that are celebrating, including us.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yes, and we also know there seems to be this
gravitational pool to celebration being outside, loud and with snacks
and drinks.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yes, we need libations.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And I think, you know, I just want to understand
what's driving us to celebrate. I think I want to
know why it's food always something that folks want to
bring out when.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It's time to celebrate. Is that something that's just like
is it a cultural thing?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Is it all cultures and even beyond just us celebrating?
This feels like some spontaneous celebration in the fall. There's
that season of celebration right after spooky season where if
people celebrate Thanksgiving around that time, heading into all of
the winter high holidays, I feel like I can almost
smell it in.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
The air, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But if I didn't grow up celebrating these holidays, would
I still feel that same way?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Maybe it's a part of our subconscious mind to feel
like we're supposed to be celebrating right now.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And then I want to know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Friendsgiving is a new thing, but I don't know whose idea. Yeah,
this was, it's a genius idea, but I want to
know whose idea it was and when it got started.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I think friendsgiving is the perfect example as we start
to think about celebration on a whole right because you
don't have to believe any one certain thing to participate
in friendsgiving. It also feels like it's a little more
low stakes than some of the other holidays, so you
don't have to jump in and sprinkle cinnamon all over
your house.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
If you want to participate in friendsgiving.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Friendsgiving feels more like a come as you are celebration
rather than you got to get dressed up with your
auntie and uncle and answer all their annoying questions.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I don't want to wear a sequin top. So I
think we're ready to move into the dissection and understand
more about celebration. So this dissection is a little bit different.
The guest expert today, Well, it's us welcome.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
I think we're.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Professional celebrators and I think it's a great time for
us to just hold that mirror up and explore some
of our own behavior around holidays.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
We're talking all about celebrations, and I think a great
place to start would be talking about a celebration kind
of like Friendsgiving, where it is a new form of
celebration and I think a lot of people are starting
to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So let's start with the history of Friendsgiving. It's basically
a spin on Thanksgiving. And when we look back at
Thanksgiving is basically a big feast. And so your want
for a meat lover's pizza, my want for mimosa. That's
gathering around food, and that's not new. Almost all cultures
are considered kind of cultures of celebration. And Thanksgiving was
(04:56):
centered on the fall harvest, similar to how we talked
about cuffing season and having been with the spring harvest,
it's kind of this cyclical or seasonal celebration.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
M okay.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And so it's best to have a feast, which is
like a large meal, and it's usually outrageous amounts of
food compared to what you would normally have day to day.
It's gonna be pretty hard to do that if you
don't have a season of harvest, if you don't have
a lot of stuff to choose from.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
And you know what I like is that when you
look up the definition of feast, it's a verb and
it means to eat and drink sumptuously.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I like that word sumptuously. I'm just started using that.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So when we start to think about friends Giving, this
is kind of new. Like you said, it's been on
the rise. If you look at Google trends and they
show you know, that little graph of how often different
terms are searched, it doesn't make its first kind of
big blip until like twenty ten, and then you just
see every year around November it just peaks up. And
so it's been on the rise since like the twenty ten.
(05:52):
If you think about two thousand and seven to twenty ten,
the economy trying to make a comeback. Millennials were one
of the first generations to move really far away from home,
So can you even afford to get back home?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So I remember being an undergrad and before we would
go home for Thanksgiving break, me and my friends one
year got together and had like a little Thanksgiving because
we were like, oh, you know, we're thankful for each other.
We should all get together and do something. So I
think it also was something where folks wanted to celebrate
Thanksgiving with their friends before having to go home and
(06:25):
celebrate with their families.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
And that makes me think also there is something that
we kind of borrow from LGBTQ culture, which is your
chosen family. Yeah, these people you choose and who have
chosen you in return. So even if you don't have
great relationships with your blood relatives, right, you have this
family who you are super grateful for and you want
to celebrate with them, so you create this occasion to
(06:49):
do that. I love that, z And so I think
we're almost talking about friends Giving, and when we think
about the evolution of it, some of it may be
out of necessity. So if you can't afford to travel home,
or if you have to do a pot luck style
dinner because do you know how much.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
A turkey costs?
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Turkeys are expensive. I will never purchase a turkey. Write
that in Stone. I will never purchase a turkey.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So when you consider those things and then these other
kind of emotional pools where you want to acknowledge these
people who have supported you year round and who have
helped you grow m you kind of have these converging
factors that drive this new holiday.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We're redefining family.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
We are, and we're also dignifying friendship.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
We talked about that in the What About Your Friend's episode,
like we need to be giving our friendships way more
weight than we give them, Like, our friends are so
important to our lives, and.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think if you understand that, then you got to
have a celebration. Yet, this is the bet Awards of friendship. Okay,
the Emmys of friendship, the Grammys of friendship, that's.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
What friends giving it is.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I need to find a dress, roll.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Out the red carpet for the people you love. So,
as we mentioned before, we're looking at celebration through the
life of sociology.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Sociology is the study of society, and that's the big umbrella.
So that can be the development the structure of a
society or how it functions, and you can also talk
about like social relationships and institutions.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So when we're talking.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
About the sociology of celebration, we're talking about how we
behave cross culturally when a celebration occurs, whether it's planned
or spontaneous.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
When we try to figure out some clues to help
us characterize why we behave like this, why we enjoy celebration,
and sometimes while we celebrate too much. We came across
the Journal of Comparative Research and Anthropology and Sociology. They
had a whole issue on celebration and these two authors,
Rusu and Cantola laid out this great kind of way
(08:50):
to navigate through celebration. If you think about celebration as
a map. On most maps, you have a north, south, east,
and west.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Those are four coordinates. They give us three.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Coordinates temporality, spatiality, and sociality.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Okay, so let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
So let's talk about temporality. And this is all about time.
So when we think about time as it relates to
celebration celebrations are these disruptions in our day to day.
I can remember as a kid somebody's birthday party happening
on a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That was an anomaly, right, Yeah, we were gonna eat cake,
we were gonna do all these things that we did
not normally do on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Chuckie Cheese had the best pizza.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Pizza is your celebration food.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It really is, and it probably started with chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But you almost find that when we think about these
celebrations that are rooted in time, so religious holidays, they
almost pattern our day to day. So if you think
about our year going along in a circle, every time
we hit March or April, there are some spring celebrations.
Every time around the summer, there's Juneteenth or fourth of July,
(09:55):
whatever you celebrate. Right, there's these things in every year
when you come around, they almost pattern what our cycle
of time looks like because they're a disruption every time,
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Every year at the same time.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Right, And so it's interesting we can think of these
celebrations that's helping us shift from the monotony of this
day to day kind of punch in, punch out clock
in clock out. They add some excitement to our day
to day lives.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And it gives us something to look forward to.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Right, Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
And it feels a little crazy, right because you're saying, oh,
we pattern time with these celebrations and they disrupt time.
So if they disrupt time at the same time all
the time, aren't they a pattern too.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
It's too much for my brain. It's like if we're
going into exception.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I saw something else that was really interesting, and it
talked about these two Greek words related to Greek mythology
about time, So there was kronos and chiros. You can
think of chronos as representing the godly personification is what
this text says of linear, never ending quantitative time. So
for me, chronos is the clock and we can think
of chronological order right, linear.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Time, right, But kiros is a little bit different. Chiros
is like I'm just going off the vibes, right, And
for me, that is what celebration time is, like, you know,
the vibe when we're celebrating, Just show up when it's time.
Do you remember that time we had a party and
our friend Sean said she was gonna bring hamburger buns
and she showed up so late.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Oh my gosh. And she showed up late.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I was like, okay, well, you're bringing a critical element
because we're grilling out and we have burgers and hot dogs,
and you were in charge of the vehicle buns for
those meets.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Sewn showing up when she felt like it was time
to show up for me, that's Chiros, right, it's no.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Real What is an hour? What is time? When the
party starts?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And I am a firm proponent of Kiro's when it
comes to when a celebration ends. The party is over
when we're dead.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So the next element of the coordinates of celebration is spatiality,
and that's all about where's the party at. Along with
our routinized celebrations, this usually happens at a certain place. Right,
So if you're celebrating passover, maybe you go to a
satyr at your grandmother's house every year, or maybe if
you're celebrating ed, you go to your uncle's house every year,
(12:31):
and that's where all of that celebrating happens. But it
happens in the same place, and so in your mind,
as soon as you walk through those doors, you're like, okay,
it's time to celebrate for me and my family, it
would alternate every year. For Thanksgiving, we would alternate between
my uncle Jacob and Aunt Rachel's house. Then it would
be at my house, so my parents would host Thanksgiving,
(12:52):
and so we would just go back and forth and
back and forth. And I think that's because my dad
is the oldest of eight siblings, and then my uncle
Jacob is his younger brother. He was right behind him,
so they're kind of like the heads of the family,
and so we just alternate between those two. It was
always so much fun seeing all of my cousins and
aunts and uncles and everything like that all in one place.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
What about u Z.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I think for major holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, when we
celebrated those growing up, we always went to my grandma's house,
so my mom's mom the drive down there, I remember.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
It will be like so excited to go there.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It was like an hour or so away from where
we lived in Greensboro, and it was just a thing, right,
you were just bubbling with excitement.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Now we went there every other weekend. That wasn't a holiday,
but it just hit different right now.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
It would have been like homecoming season.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I can remember A and T Homecoming all right, geho,
greatest homecoming on Earth. I didn't even go to A
and T, but I grew up in the city where
it was, so I felt like A and T's homecoming
was always like another big holiday. People would come because
a lot of my family members went there, so you
would see family. It was like a mini Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving,
and we would go to my great aunt, my aunt Lina,
we would go to her house. And so it's just
(14:04):
interesting how as soon as we started talking about celebrations,
I can pinpoint these different places for different celebrations.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, so I guess we can zoom out a little bit.
So it's like not even just specific for your family,
but even like culturally as Americans, like when we think
about celebrating New Year's Eve, we think of the ball
dropping in Times Square. We might not necessarily be there,
but it's just so iconic and ingrain into our minds
that we think of that.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
When we think of New Year's.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Eve, the spatiality aspect is really interesting because it can
be a whole city, you know, like when we think
about Mardi Gras in New Orleans and when we think
about Running of the Bulls there are these places where
these celebrations occur. And it can be broad like that,
but it can also be really specific. So, right, if
you normally eating your kitchen or your living room, but
(14:50):
for big holidays, you guys all gather around a dining
table and you use that special furniture.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Hah, the special plates, Yeah, the napkins.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
That's a spatial queue, right, is almost reminiscent of some
religious ceremonies and celebrations that happen in these sacred spaces
or sanctuaries, right, And we're almost replicating that. There's something
ritualistic about a lot of our celebrations anyway, and so
here we see it appearing again.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Even if there isn't a special place for whatever you're
trying to celebrate, we convert our existing spaces into a
space for celebration. Absolutely, and that is literally what folks
did for Friendsgiving. So we've touched temporality, which is time space,
reality which is where are you? And now we're hitting sociality,
(15:39):
which is how does it feel. It's the social aspect.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So the togetherness you're kind of dropping those barriers is
the vibes. It's really interesting because when you have a holiday.
You got your core group of people that you always
normally see, but then you always have some stragglers. You
got that one cousin who shows up for Easter, you like,
we haven't seen them all year, right, Or you have
that aunt or uncle that you don't really deal with
(16:03):
like that, but you're gonna keep it cute for the holiday, right.
I think it's really interesting. Even on a broader scale,
even if you just zoom out, we can almost consider
this as people being in the holiday spirit or having
some holiday cheer.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Mm hmmm hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It almost feels like community level or group level, we're
all extending a little bit more grace.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, worldwide vibes and no one is supposed to be
coming in and killing the vibe, and so sociality I.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Think is key to a good celebration.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But I think it's important to highlight sociality can go
either way because that sense of community. You can either
leverage it and make everybody feel equal, you can bring
everybody in. And it really depends on your holiday because
if you have a holiday that is built on power
dynamics and access to certain things, it can also isolate too.
So you want to be aware of that when you
(16:55):
building your friends giving. Are you saying everybody got to
bring a ball of asa space? Everybody can't do that.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I won't be there.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And some folks don't drink right, and so those are
all the things to think about.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I had to really question my cookout style. Over the
past couple of years, I've had more and more vegetarian friends. Oh,
and I said, what do you have to offer them?
Is it a celebration if they can only have a
potato it's not.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yes, this happened to me because me and Jimmy do
a holiday like dinner every year, and two dinners ago,
so not the last one we did, but the one
before that. We had some friends that showed up and
I knew that they were vegetarians, and we tried to
have some vegetarian options, but one was vegan and that
just eliminated all options. There was literally nothing for them
(17:45):
to eat. And I was mortified. I was messing up
the sociality of my dinner party. I was killing the
vibes from my vegan friends. But I know that they
knew you meant well. They were good sports. I was
crying into my hand, Queen of the hand was having
a bad night. That just takes us to the next
point about what happens when celebrations and the expectations around
(18:07):
them get really high and they can add on a
lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
But we're not going to talk about it just yet.
We're about to take a break, and when we come back,
we'll jump right into the case for scaling back on celebrations.
I know, seems a little counterintuitive, and how we'll continue
to celebrate even when we can't be together.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
We're back, and now we're going to jump into the
case for scaling back on celebrations. We have already talked
in great detail about how we love to celebrate, but
in some cases, some you kind of have to just
fall back a little bit and chill.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I think we have to make some points really clear.
When we say we like to celebrate, we don't mean
every time we have to take things to the top.
I mean we like to find the celebratory moments even
in the small things. Right, So it's like, hmm, this
doctor Pepper has all the fizz. It's a parday, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
It's all the little.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Things, the little stuff when it happens things go the
way you want, or even when things, don't. That's the
time to really celebrate that we're just here and making
it okay.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yes, I remember one time when we were in grad
school and I baked a batch of cookies and I
took some to the kid's lab and she loved it.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It was a celebration really for nothing.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
I love that kind of stuff, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I think we just need more moments of joy for ourselves, right,
because if we are relying on it externally, the external
world will fail.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
We see that we had all the twenty twenty and
look at what he did. I'm so ashamed of twenty twenty.
I don't even want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Right, you got to celebrate life while you still got it.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
But I think some people take it to the extreme
on the other part. Right, it's not a party unless
there are custom name cards for everybody, streamers hanging down,
a minor explosion of viral techniques, and I'm just like, no, no, no,
we don't need that for a birthday, for the first birthday,
you know, you know, they won't even remember.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
This, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I think we've seen even this year some issues with
some celebrations that went a little bit over the top,
like the gender reveals that started wildfires in California and Arizona.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, you want us.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
To know what genitalia your child has, and then you're
gonna burn down half the state.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I think that's a little excessive, right, it is?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
It is.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I think there's also a whole culture around celebrations. Some
of this feels like I look at Pinterest, I say, Pinterest,
you're giving people way too many ideas. My friend, her
cousin was having a baby and she made a whole
cake out of diapers. She was like, I have to
find the right lace to tie around these diapers. I
have to find the right ribbon and trimming. It was
a Safari style thing, and she needed to find all
(20:56):
these animals and glue them on. And I was like, girl,
this feels more stress fold them anything.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
But it was a labor of love for her.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I remember this.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
But I think social media is also a driver because honey,
people start posting yes, doing it for the gram.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
I'm just trying to do it for me.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So another reason why people might be celebrating a lot
could be because of this whole idea of globalization. A
lot of people are starting to live farther and farther
apart from each other. Because of the way technology is,
we have the ability to stay in contact with people
literally all over the world. Yes, the cultures are blending,
so we have a lot more multicultural families, and social
(21:34):
media is at.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
The wheel of this bus.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
We are over celebrating and oversharing and doing all of
the extra things.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
And so it's going to be really interesting to see
how this season of celebration plays out. With first everybody
sharing on social media, with second, everybody supposed to be
quarantining up until now.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Right, y'all supposed to be social distancing.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I'm interested to see how all these factors come together
during this season of celebration.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
It's a unique time.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
And let me tell you something, baby, I'm zooming. Okay,
I'm zooming with y'all, And don't zoom by my house,
especially not unannounced.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yes, we are talking about the web conferencing software. Do
not zoom here.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I'm all about togetherness, but let's be together.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Virtually be together apart.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
This year, I'm gonna do a friends giving with a
few people who have been in their homes NonStop and
who are just as diligent about coronavirus safety protocols as
I am, and then I'm zooming with everybody else they
can also have the same thing we're having here. I'm
gonna be sharing my recipes.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yes, all of it, and I will be eating yes.
So that's all I bring to the table. This is
the reason why I've been so diligent over the last
however many months. We've been social distancing because I knew
this time would come. I knew that folks would mess
us up, for all of us, and we would not
be doing the normal fall time celebrations, and that friends
giving would be affected. And I knew that my friend
would still be cooking, and I know me, I want
(23:06):
that food.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So I said sacrifice now so you can enjoy the
spoils later.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You can find us on X and Instagram at Dope Labs.
Podcast tt is on X and Instagram at dr Underscore
t Sho, and you can find Sakiya at z said so.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Dope Labs is a production of Lamanada Media.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Our senior supervising producer is Kristin Lapour and our associate
producer is Issara Svez. Dope Labs is sound design, edited
and mixed by James farber Lamanada Media is. Vice President
of Partnerships and Production is Jackie Danziger. Executive producer from
iHeart Podcast is Katrina Norvil.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Marketing lead is Alison Canter.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Original music composed and produced by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex
sugi Ura, with additional music by Elijah Harvey. Dope Lab
is executive produced by us T T show Diaz and
Takia Wattley.
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Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.