Title: Pre-Race Buffalo Wings
General Information about Item:
- Customary Folklore: Superstitions
- English
- United States of America
Informant Data:
- Delaney Hall was born on November 8th, 1997 in Mineola, New York. He was introduced to swimming by his father, a water polo player at Bucknell, and his aunt, a swimmer at Lafayette. At 9 years old, he started swimming competitively all year round for the Long Island Aquatic Club. He is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth specializing in breastroke and individual medley.
Contextual Data:
- Social/Cultural Context: Delaney learned this ritual from his father when he swam for Long Island Aquatic Club. Swimmers have many food traditions, but it is uncommon for them to directly incorporate homeopathic magic, as is demonstrated here.
Item:
- Delaney has a superstition that before every race, he needs to eat buffalo chicken wings to swim fast due to the homeopathic magic of the chicken “flying” just like he would “fly” through the water.
Transcript of Associated File:
- “One of my first swim meets was in Buffalo, New York, which is the birthplace of the chicken wing. My dad told me that if I were to eat chicken wings before my race, I would sprout wings and be able to fly across the water. I tried eating them and I had a great meet, so ever since then, I’ve been eating chicken wings.”
Informant’s Comments:
- Delaney states that he no longer partakes in this ritual as he realized not only how ridiculous it is, but how it is in fact counteractive to his swimming performance.
Collector’s Name: Robert Purvis
Tags/Keywords:
- swimming, buffalo wings, buffalo, tradition, pre-race, superstition