Title: “Leg Shaking”

General information about item:

• Bad luck superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: Korea
• Informant: Jamie Park
• Date Collected: 10-17-18

Informant Data:

• Jamie Park was born in New York City, New York on October 22, 1997. Jamie lived in New York for a short time with her parents and sister, until they moved to Seoul, South Korea, where her parents initially immigrated from. The Park’s time in Seoul was brief and eventually they moved back to the United States, settling down in Rancho Palos Verdes, where Jamie grew up until she graduated from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. Currently, Jamie is a Junior undergraduate student at Dartmouth college, majoring in Studio art, with the hopes of going to medical school upon graduating. In addition, Jamie makes frequent visits to South Korea, as her parents moved back to Seoul in August 2018.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Jamie experienced this folklore first hand when she was about seven years old. She was sitting at the table with her mother and fidgeting her leg up and down. Her mother told her to stop shaking her leg since it would bring bad luck. When asked about the typical context of this superstition, she explained that is a common way for this superstition to be shared. Most often the superstition is said by an adult to child and more specifically a parent telling their child. A common example of this is one day when Jamie and her mom were sitting in the doctor’s office and she got in trouble for shaking her leg.
• Cultural Context: This is a common Korean superstition and Jamie talked about frequently getting yelled at by her mother when she was in middle school as the result of this superstition. This superstition seems to serve as a teaching tool for Korean parents to influence good behavior and teach children to act respectfully. It does this by creating fear that not sitting still and being patient will bring bad luck to the person violating the superstition.

Item:

• Shaking your leg when you are sitting is considered bad luck. This is because you are shaking good luck off you.
• Audio:

Collector Comments: This superstition was provided to us by two of our informants. Another interesting note is that this is an example of a magic superstition (contagious magic).

Collector’s Name: Will Graber

Tags/Keywords:

• Superstition
• Bad luck
• Korean Culture
• 18F