Stepping on a Textbook

Title: Stepping on a Textbook

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Sarina Kothari
  • Date Collected: 11/12/18

Informant Data:

  • Sarina Kothari is a ‘21 attending Dartmouth College. She is a pre-med student studying Biology and Math. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but currently lives in Orlando, Florida. Her family is Hindu, and she speaks some Hindi at home, but can not read or write. Her parents are from Bombay (Mumbai).

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Sarina explained that in her culture, people believe if you step on a textbook, you are disrespecting the gods associated with education. Education is very important in Indian culture, so if you do step on a textbook, you must “apologize” to the gods or else you will have bad luck.
  • Social Context: Sarina has always believed in this superstition. It was taught to her by her parents and elders, and is a very commonly known and practiced superstition in Indian culture. She explained that if you ever step on a paper or book that has important information in it, you must put your hands to it, then put your hands over your head and say a quick prayer.

Item:

  • This superstition is has strong ties to religion- you must perform an action if you disrespect a god to prevent bad luck.

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

Transcript: “So basically, there’s a superstition in Indian culture, when you like step on a textbook or piece of paper or anything with information on it, you have to put your hands to it and then put both of your hands over the head to say sorry to like education i guess. It’s important because in Indian culture, one of the gods signifies education, so if you like step on education, like especially textbooks, then it means you’re disrespecting a certain god so you have to put your hands on the textbook, then put it over your head. That signifies like oh it was an accident and I wasn’t actually disrespecting like education. I guess it stems from one of the gods, and now, a lot of people, even if they’re not super involved with Indian culture, its just a thing that they do. If I accidentally step on a textbook or a piece of paper with my notes on it, I will put my hands on it and just say a quick I’m sorry because its like signifying you respect education.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This superstition is an example of a conversion superstition: If you step on a textbook, you will have bad luck unless you put your hand to the textbook, then to your head and say a prayer.

Collector’s Name: Marlee Montella

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Textbook

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