Pickles, People & Place: Thinking Like a Folklorist About Rituals
Reflections on the NPR story about Mount Olive’s New Year’s Eve Pickle Drop This past week NPR shared a story about a place and event many North Carolinians know well: Mount Olive’s New Year’s Eve pickle drop – a playful tradition now tied to that town’s identity. At first glance, dropping a glowing pickle from […]
Kingdom Voices United: Building Community and Healing Through Gospel Song
The story of Kingdom Voices United starts with a vision from God. “I was on my way to service one morning and God just dropped it so heavily in my spirit,” Minister La’Wanda Leggett recalls. Though reluctant at first to start a choir, she recalls, after consulting with lifelong friends Apostle Stanley Douglas and Tony […]
Collard-Stealing Night: A North Carolina Old Christmas Tradition
Here in North Carolina we’ve eaten up the winter collard greens, and are eagerly anticipating the early spring crop. Thinking about collards put us in mind of a tradition we learned about some years back, Collard-Stealing Night. Though it may have been practiced in various parts of North Carolina, it seems to have been most […]