General Information about Item:
- Superstition
- Material lore
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: Italy
- Informant: EM
- Date Collected: 11/07/2021
Informant Data: EM is a sophomore (‘24) at Dartmouth College. She is from Florida but her parents are Italian and stress on the importance of culture and academic success.
Contextual Data: EM’s parents also want to teach EM Italian culture. One aspect is a superstition that they taught her to do well on an exam. The folklore that she collected was that it was considered good luck to eat a slice of bread before her exam. She started doing this in middle school, and to this day still does so. This folklore was collected in an in-person interview.
Item: Before taking an exam, EM’s parents would give her a slice of bread as good luck for her exam.
Interpretations: I found this compelling because I had never heard of a superstition quite like this one before. It was interesting to see EM describe this superstition because they seemed to be more than happy to share this specific lore.
Collector’s Name: Isabel Robinson
Tags/Keywords:
- Italy
- Superstition
- Bread