Superstition #17 Books on the Floor or Feet

Title: Books on the Floor or Feet

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Verbal Folklore: Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: India

Informant Data:

  • Tanish is a ’20 at Dartmouth College. He is from Singapore and is Indian. He practices Hinduism. He is a Math major who likes playing tennis and fears the deep sea.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Tanish noted that while he learned superstitions from his family, they came primarily from the female side (mother, grandmother).
  • Cultural Context: This superstition had the strongest religious component out of all the Indian superstitions collected. Knowledge and learning are sacred, as are books and papers the instruments of learning. Stepping on books is seen as disrespectful.

Item:

  • Bad Luck Superstition: It is bad luck to step on books or let them lie on the floor.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

Informant’s Comments:

  • Tanish again associated books and learning with Hinduism and religious beliefs, which he feels play a strong role in superstitions as a whole and his everyday life.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I didn’t know that Hinduism associated books so closely with religion. This is another superstition that many of my informants mentioned as a prominent Indian belief.

Collector’s Name: Mitchell Tang

Tags/Keywords:

  • Indian/Bad Luck/Superstition/Book/Floor/Feet

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