Cade Peirce

Logan, Utah
March 23, 2016
Giant Duck Day
Holiday Custom

Informant: Cade Peirce is an eighteen year old freshman in the BFA Acting program at Utah
State Universitys Theatre Department. His older brother Shay Peirce also attends Utah State
University and is a twenty-five year old Senior in the Communications major. Cade and Shay
currently live off-campus in the same apartments and are very close. The brothers were raised in
Lehi, Utah. Shay served for two years as an LDS missionary, but Cade came to Utah State
University directly out of high school. Cade and I met in the Theatre Department, specifically in
our Costume Construction class, which is where he first told me that he participated in the
creation of the Giant Duck that appeared on the quad in January.

Text: Uh, lets see, this was the sixth annual Duck Dayuhm, my brother was out on his
mission, in Boston, and [pause] Uh, they got snowed in and couldnt go out and do anything,
so they decided to make the best of it and they went outside and built a duck. So January 18th
thus became Giant Duck Day, and we celebrated it every year since. Uh, its ourthe snow duck
on the first year, uhm, and then I dont know which order it went in but we made a popsicle stick
one, we made a cake, we made one out of popcorn, uhm, one out of cardboard, and then again,
the final time, out of, uhsnow, again. [pause] So, next year I dont know what it will be but
[laughs as he says this], it will be something! I did not help make the first duck, just him and his
companionyeah. Uhm, they made the first one, and he sent us pictures and everything, uh, and
then the next year he came back home and, then he kicked off the traditionwe always make t-

shirts, uh we had orange shoes, wed always wear orange shoes, uhm, and then each year we, we
make t-shirts as well. When we were back at home and we had our endless supply of money
our mother [laughs at himself]uhm, we bought a chicken, not a duck, a chicken, we bought a
chicken, like a rotisserie chicken one like it was a duck, and ate, and then like ate bread crumbs,
so yanno like a duck themed dinner I guess. We go all out, the whole day is dedicated to the
duck. Yeah, so, everything is duck themed. The name is Epeketeli. Uhm, so, the elders that were
out building the duck with my brother on his mission, its all their initials. So, E-P, E-KE-P-EK-E-T [long pause, trying to remember the spelling] E-L, and then they added the I, because
Epeketel wasnt cutting it. Theyre all named Epeketeli, every single one of them.

Context: Every year on January 18th, Shay makes some sort of duck. While the boys use the title
Giant Duck Day, the duck is not actually always particularly giant. The duck built on the quad
to celebrate Giant Duck Day in 2016 was the largest, standing at about 66, and the first duck
ever built was about a third of that size. The ducks in between have all been relatively small. The
people who participate in the duck day celebrations vary every year, with Shay being the only
one who has participated every year, and Cade has celebrated only two out of the six years. The
Giant Duck on the quad has had the most people participate to date because students who saw
Cade and Shay building the duck decided to jump in and help. In the past, the duck has not
always grown bigger and better, although Cade notes that he thinks this standard has been set as
of this year and it will continue to get bigger and better until it is too big to go any farther. He
believes the tradition will continue in the family forever, but he isnt sure if friends or other
people will also adopt the tradition. Cade and his brother made up legend surrounding the entity
of Epeketeli, deciding that the original duck made by Shay on his brother is Epeketeli, and then
every single duck that has been made since then is a homage to the original Epeketeli, and then
every sixth year since the original the duck would come back in his/her (he says there is no
actual sex given to the entity) former glory as a snow duck but bigger and better, although he is
not sure if this will continue to be the case because the snow duck was so popular and the boys

look forward to making next years snow duck on the quad again. This was the first year that
Cade and Shay were made aware that there is an actual National Rubber Duck Day that is also in
January but on a different day, so the Giant Duck Day that they celebrate was only coincidentally
near the nationally celebrated holiday. When asked about it, Cade said To that, I reply to them,
well this isnt Rubber Duck Day, this is Giant Duck Day For Cade, despite the fact that the
holiday was based on the random impulse of his brother to build a giant duck on his mission, the
holiday has always meant something for him. He claims that even though its cheesy and clich,
its a day where the family and friends and people who havent talked in a while all get together
and have a fun day where they get to build something.

Texture: This interview was the second interview I did with Cade, but we did this one in a new
location. This interview took place in the green room of the Fine Arts Center. Cade had
accidentally double-booked himself that day and was supposed to be doing a run-through with
his co-stars for the upcoming musical production of Dogfight at Utah State University.
Regardless, he was willing to go forth with the interview because he had promised me first that
he would help me before he agreed to the run-through with the other actors. It didnt seem like
this affected him as far as being in a rush and not going into detail, in fact he went so far into
detail that I wasnt sure if I should even include all the details he gave me about the celebrations
surrounding Giant Duck Day. Since the green room is a public, open space, there were several
times that actors or friends in the program walked past while we were in the interview process
and would say hi to Cade, me, or even both of us, which may have distracted us a little bit. Also,
there is a lot of construction happening in the FAC right now and at one point there was a lot of
noise down the hall from us and it seemed like that caused Cade to lose his train of thought just a
little bit. Cade seems very proud of the attention that the Giant Duck on the quad got this year
and made sure to point out twice in the interview that Epeketeli reached three different news
stations and was reported in newspapers this year. Since Cade is an aspiring actor, he has a really
big personality and likes to talk, enjoys the spotlight, and absolutely loved the idea of being
interviewed, so despite my efforts to make it conversational he still responded as though he was
in an official interview setting. He talked a lot about Epeketeli. He really seems to hope that a lot
of people around campus will participate next year and even commented that he thinks it would

be really cool if some people picked up the traditions themselves and it turned into a real holiday.
Cade feels that, based on how large Giant Duck Day was this year without any form of
advertisement, next year it could get even bigger and better if more people know about Giant
Duck Day in advance. I discovered that Cade was involved with the making of the Giant Duck in
my Costume Construction class when he loudly asked everyone if they had seen the duck on the
Quad and, when most of us confirmed that we had, he announced excitedly that he helped make
the duck. However, he went into far more detail with this interview, and I do feel like that came
from his excitement at the idea of being interviewed and his determination to be a great
interviewee.