Lucky Number Superstitions Across Cultures

Introduction:

For this folklore collection project, our group decided on doing “lucky number superstitions” as our topic. All members of the group are currently student-athletes or have played a sport at one point in life, so we knew we wanted to explore folklore that related to sports. We initially wanted to look at the folklore for a specific sports team at Dartmouth, but we felt that was too common and less interesting of a topic, so we changed our minds. Lucky number superstitions interested us all; again, because of our involvement in sports, we felt that this topic would be extremely interesting to learn more about. We felt that it would be hard to limit this topic to a specific culture or group of people, and since our group is made up of students of diverse cultures, we wanted to explore these more. We decided to interview 70 students of all years at Dartmouth and have them express their cultures during the interview, as well as any significance for their superstition. However, when interviewing, most said that their cultures did not play a role in their lucky number superstitions, but instead was due to personal preferences. We then altered our topic to look more at the differences and similarities between our informants’ lucky numbers (and unlucky numbers if they had any) and their personal preferences, as well as expanding it to interviewing both athletes and non-athletes.

Presentation:

Lucky Number Superstitions Presentation

Items:

Collectors:

  • 💡 Mia Bagatourian
  • Zack Milko
  • Leah Johnson
  • Allie Winstanley
  • David Alino
  • Megan Tao
  • Gavin Muir

Common Themes:

  • These numbers all resonated with our informants on a personal level
  • Their lucky numbers arose from personal experiences and stories, not from their cultures
  • All had unique strategies to conceptualize their lucky numbers
  • Some had specific superstitions that were associated with their numbers, while others felt their lucky numbers were good omens in their lives
  • Some felt that as they got older their lucky numbers became less important to them
    • Lucky numbers shifted to more of a preference than a superstition

Conclusion:

As a group, we have collected 70 lucky number superstitions, from 70 different informants. The 7 lucky numbers that we have decided to share with you all today, represents how diverse and individual our findings have been over the course of our interviews. The lucky number superstitions that we have collected ranged from being about sports jersey numbers, birthday’s, and culture, to deeply personal superstitions that came from internal struggle and the loss of loved ones. Through this project, we have learned that many people have unlucky numbers, but just about everyone has a lucky number that they superstitiously believe will guide them in some way.

Tags/Keywords

  • Customary Folklore
  • Superstitions
  • Lucky Numbers