Women’s Hockey (Caroline Shaunessy)
Title: Pre-Competition Rituals of the Hungarian National Women’s Hockey Team
General Information about Item:
- Type of Lore: Customary Lore, Verbal Lore, Ritual
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: Hungary
- Informant: Lotti Odnoga
- Date Collected: May 20th, 2019
Informant Data: Lotti Odnoga is a freshman on the Dartmouth women’s ice hockey team and the Hungarian national hockey team. She is a defenseman and one the leading scorers on the team. She has not decided her major yet but plans to study sociology. Lotti was born and raised in Gyor, Hungary. She learned hockey from her older brother who plays. In high school she moved to the states to play hockey and go to boarding school at Vermont Academy. She also rides horses and won nationals in Equestrian.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: Hockey is a team sport that relies heavily on athleticism, but also has a large mental aspect. Games are the main form of competition. Players skate on ice and have to work together to maneuver a puck into the opposing team’s net. The game is extremely physical and requires a level of grit and intensity many other sports do not. This context is meaningful because many of the player often have to calm themselves down before games rather than pump themselves up. There is a fine line player have to fine in order to perform with peak results.
- Social Context: Lotti first learned about the pre-competition rituals of the hockey team playing soccer when she first joined the team. She was invited to join into the ritual by other girls on the team and says the game brings her a lot of joy. Lotti says that a lot of other teams especially in Europe play a variation of soccer before games. She noted that the Japanese team plays a strange version of the game. She feels that her team would never let this tradition or ritual stop because even her coaches join in playing.
Item: The specific game the Hungarian national hockey team involves all the members of the team joining in a circle and trying to keep a soccer ball in the air. If the ball hits the ground on your turn to keep it up, the player who let it hit the ground is out. At the end of the game, the last three people left get a turn to take the ball and kick it at one of the first three players out.
Athlete’s Photo:
