Culture in North Carolina

jueves, 16 de junio de 2011

Some Sayings

Here are some sayings that you may here in North Carolina. Check them out, you may learn something new... also, this may help you save some blushing situations...

"I'm going to beat the tar out of you..."
"I'm going to jerk a knot in your tail...."
"Mash the button" instead of press the button
"Dope" instead of soda or coke or pop. As in RC Dope and a moon pie.
"He's a few bricks shy of a load" for a stupid person.
"She's madder than a wet hen" for someone who is angry
"He is older than dirt" for an elderly person.
"Beauty is skin deep, but ugly is straight to the bone" - For an unattractive person.
"Crooked as a barrel of fishhooks." for a dishonest person.
"I ain't lookin" for I'm not looking for, as in "I ain't lookin a job"

Dixie Flag

Dixie Flag o Confederate Flag:

For some a symbol of southern pride and for others a sign of hatred and bigotry.

Rednecks

A. PRODUCT: The word Redneck can be used either as a pejorative or as a matter of pride, depending on context.

B. PERSPECTIVES: Today Redneck predominantly refers to a particular stereotype of whites from the Southern United States. Some historians claim that the term redneck originated in 17th century Virginia, when indentured servants were sunburnt while tending plantation crops.

C. COMMUNITIES: A redneck´s favorite activities includes hunting, shooting at road signs and lights, professional wrestling, NASCAR, monster truck rallies, car engine repair, collecting junked cars and large appliances on their lawns. Country and Southern Rock bands are their preferred genre of music.

Stereotypical redneck females have similar characteristics and interests on a feminine scale. They are most often seen barefoot, pregnant and wearing shorts with heels.

A redneck is also seen as having way to too many children and dogs, participating in domestic disturbances, and waiting around for their welfare checks.

Above all a true redneck always has a Dixie Flag (Confederate Flag).

D. PEOPLE: originally used to describe a person of pale skin that has been sunburned doing outdoor work or field work, and disproportionately applies to the poor. Today, a redneck is a stereotypical southern United States socially conservative, fiscally liberal, rural, working class white person with northern European ancestry.

Grits

A. PRODUCT: Grits are mainly eaten at breakfast. They consist of coarsely ground corn. They may be served with grated cheese, butter, sausage or country ham red-eye gravy. Grits are usually prepared by adding one part grits to two-to-three parts boiling water, sometimes seasoned with salt. They are usually cooked for 15 – 20 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the grits become a porridge-like consistency.

B. PERSPECTIVES: Throughout time, the south states used to be dependent on this product. The state of Georgia declared grits its official prepared food in 2002.

C. COMMUNITIES: The general thought for grits can be related to what The Post and Courier proclaimed in 1952, "An inexpensive, simple, and thoroughly digestible food, [grits] should be made popular throughout the world. Given enough of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace.”

D. PEOPLE: Grits are a symbol of diet and customs for every community in the Carolina States. Grits have their origins in Native American corn preparation. Three-quarters of grits sold in the United States are sold in the South stretching from Texas to Virginia, also known as the "grits belt".

II. Kennedy rocking chairs

A. PRODUCT: When John F. Kennedy was a young senator his doctor recommended using a particular rocking chair to help him relieve his back. The reason this chair is so comfortable is because of the steam-bent curve in the back. It sweeps in so that the sitter's back will have firm support. It carries the weight down as the rocker contacts the floor.

B. PERSPECTIVES: John Kennedy bought the rocking chair made of Appalachian oak from P & P Chair Company located in Asheboro, North Carolina. This exact same chair is still being produced today by the same company and in the same place. The importance of the rocking chair is related to the importance of John F. Kennedy.

C. COMMUNITIES: John F. Kennedy promised to end racial discrimination and he managed this with the Civil Rights Act of; he also appointed black people to many federal positions during his time in office. For every USA citizen Kennedy gave blacks the same rights as whites.

D. PEOPLE: For the black community and for civil rights activists in the USA J.F.K. ended with the segregation and gave blacks their well deserved rights.

Identifying with North Carolina's Culture

I. North Carolina Wineries and Vineyards.

A. PRODUCT: North Carolina Wineries and Vineyards. Wineries make distilled drinks, undistilled juices, jams and sauces from their vineyards' abundance. The fruit is also popular to use for pies. It is said that in 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh ,a founder of what would become North Carolina, spotted the Mother Vine on Roanoke Island (still growing and producing scuppernong grapes, a type of muscadine grape), and later settlers planted cuttings from this parent vine in the Washington County town of Scuppernong.

This native grape vine has a high tolerance to pests, diseases and other threats that enables the grapes to thrive in North Carolina's warm climate.

B. PERSPECTIVES: With the prohibition established by Congress on 1919, products from distilleries were packaged in jars rather than bottles. There were often high speeds pursuits at moonlit, leading to midnight chases across the countryside, making way to a motorized pastime that became a sport called NASCAR.

C. COMMUNITIES: Today there are not only samplings of wine alone, but wine with festivals, with arts and crafts, with local music and culture. The aroma of muscadines is related to nostalgic feelings to who grew up within sight of the vines. North Carolina's wine from native grapes has become the rave among health-conscious wine drinkers.

D. PEOPLE: The people who grow the vineyards are pioneers, farming families and chance-takers, wanting to return to old customs. In 1957 the North Carolina General Assembly officially adopted a poem, written by Leonora Martin and Mary Burke Kerr in 1904, as the official toast to the state or also called "The Tar Heel Toast".

The North Carolina State Toast

“A Toast” to North Carolina

Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,

    The summer land where the sun doth shine,

    Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,

    Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!

    Here's to the land of the cotton bloom white,

    Where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night,

    Where the soft southern moss and jessamine mate,

    'Neath the murmuring pines of the Old North State!

    Here's to the land where the galax grows,

    Where the rhododendron's rosette glows,

    Where soars Mount Mitchell's summit great,

    In the "Land of the Sky," in the Old North State!

    Here's to the land where maidens are fair,

    Where friends are true and cold hearts rare,

    The near land, the dear land, whatever fate,

The blest land, the best land, the Old North State!

II. The Moravian Star

A. PRODUCT: The star originated in the church's schools as a geometry lesson, it was soon adopted throughout the Moravian Church as an Advent symbol. For Moravians Everything was considered worship. It did not take long for the stars to go from a pastime for children to an occupation for the congregation.

B. PERSPECTIVES: For the Moravian congregation Daily life was centered on their Christian faith and there was no distinction between the secular and the sacred, even in their daily activities.

C. COMMUNITIES: The city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, founded by Moravians in 1766, uses the Moravian star as their official Christmas street decoration. In addition, a 31-foot Moravian star, one of the largest in the world, sits atop the North Tower of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

D. PEOPLE: Today people consider the star to be other than a pretty decoration; but believers still consider the Star the hope of Advent. On Christmas Eve, and on the day of our Lord’s birth, the Star takes on added significance, for then it becomes a symbol of Christ the Lord most glorious, Christ, the light of the world. Stars are displayed beginning the first Sunday in Advent through Epiphany (January 6).

Morning Star, O cheering sight!
Ere thou camest how dark earth's night!
Jesus mine, in me shine; In me shine, Jesus mine.

miércoles, 15 de junio de 2011

North Carolina Traditions

Pottery tradition

The North Carolina pottery tradition goes back more than two centuries and has become known worldwide. The first potter known to have settled here was a German who arrived in Rowan County in 1755. Moravian potters followed and worked in the Winston-Salem area. Potters concentrated themselves in the relatively isolated Piedmont region of the state rather than the more heavily settled coast, because the coastal area clay was mixed with sand and organic matter not suitable for mass-production pottery. Also, coastal communities could acquire urban utensils more easily from Europe or New England. Inland, there was more need for pottery and less competition. Both the traditions of the past and the experimental, artistic styles of pottery coexist in today’s North Carolina pottery culture, and it continues to thrive.

State Flower

State Flower

Dogwood

State Symbols

The Flag

That the flag of North Carolina consist of a blue union, containing in the center thereof a white star with the letter N in gilt on the left and the letter C in gilt on the right of said star, the circle containing the same to be one-third the width of the union. The fly of the flag consist of two equally proportioned bars; the upper bar to be red, the lower bar to be white; that the length of the bars horizontally shall be equal to the perpendicular length of the union, and the total length of the flag shall be one-third more than its width. That above the star in the center of the union there shall be a gilt scroll in semi-circular form, containing in black letters this inscription "May 20th, 1775", and that below the star there shall be a similar scroll containing in black letters the inscription: "April 12th, 1776".

State Song

The old North State

Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her!

While we live we will cherish, protect and defend her;

Tho' the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her,

Still our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her.