Title: Friday the 13th
General Information about Item:
- American Superstition
- Language: English
- Origin: France
- Informant: Bennett Mccaskill
- Date Collected 11/2/18
Informant Data: Bennett is a Sophomore baseball player at Dartmouth college studying Psychology. He was born in Del Mar, San Diego. He enjoys watching movies and television shows in his free time, and he is very active on social media.
Contextual Data:
Social: As a kid, Bennett loved to watch movies with his brothers. Sadly, his brothers were both older than Bennett, so sometimes they would watch movies that Bennett was not old enough to watch.
Cultural: Halloween was one of Bennett’s favorite holidays because he would go trick or treating with his friends and then come home to hang out with his brothers and eat candy. One year, he came home to his brothers watching Friday the 13th. They immediately paused the movie and told Bennett not to watch it because it is too scary. Bennett did not want to be left out so he begged to stay and watch the movie. It scared Bennett so much that he still believes in this superstition today.
Subgenre: bad luck superstitions
Item: You will have bad luck on the date Friday the 13th.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Associated File:
Max: So Bennett, tell me about your superstition of Friday the 13th.
Bennett: Well I think this is a pretty common superstition, and a lot of people will know that Friday the 13this just an unlucky day, but for me I think when the movie came out about this day with the scary guy with the hockey mask named Jason, that’s when I really became aware that it’s just an unlucky day and any time it’s Friday the 13thyou just know that you have to be careful.
Informant’s Comments: Bennett said that his older brothers convinced him to watch the movie Friday the 13thwith them when Bennett was young. He thinks that since he was so young, the movie scared him into really believing this superstition.
Collector’s Comments:
I found it interesting that this superstition was greatly influenced by pop culture, while the other superstitions Bennett shared with me were passed down from family members.
Collector’s Name: Max Hunter
Tags/Keywords:
Bad luck superstitions, American, Friday the 13th