Category Archives: Dartmouth College

Not Getting a Haircut – Poland (Claire Macedonia)

Title: Not Getting a Haircut (Poland)

General Information About Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Pre-test custom, superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Poland
  • Informant: EW
  • Date Collected: 11/07/21

Informant Data:  EW is a Senior at Dartmouth College from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He attended Liggett Academy in Michigan and is the son of Polish parents.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: EW shared this piece of folklore with me in an in-person interview. He mentioned that his family and other Polish families he is close with are very superstitious, especially when it comes to one’s education. The informant also explained that his siblings follow this superstition to the same extent that he does. 
  • Social Context: EW took part in this superstition all throughout his childhood. He became so attached to it that even now, in college, he makes sure to follow it. 

Item

  • In Polish culture, one is not supposed to cut their hair at least a week before an important exam because it is a sign of cutting off the knowledge that you need to retain for the exam.

Associated File

Transcript:

  • “I remember when I was younger I thought my mom was being so weird not letting me get a haircut before I would take my finals. I slowly began to buy into it and now would never get a haircut before a big exam or interview.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant noted that he has told many of his peers about this superstition and that once they also began to follow it, they also started to strictly follow it. 

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this superstition to be entertaining but also rational in a way. I see and understand the reasoning behind not cutting one’s hair. However, I am not too sure if I will be following this superstition myself.

Collector’s Name: Claire Macedonia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition 
  • Polish 
  • Haircuts 

I Don’t Want To Live on The Moon – Reem Atallah

Title: I Don’t Want To Live on The Moon

General Information About Item:

Verbal Folklore Language: English

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Informant:  B.T.

Date Collected: 10-18-21

Informant Data: 

B.T. is a junior at Dartmouth. He is from the East Coast and is involved with athletics and volunteer groups on campus. He has an older brother and a younger sister. B.T. said that this lullaby is the one he remembers and liked the most because it came from his favorite childhood show.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: 

This lullaby was sung to B.T. because he and his parents would often watch the show Sesame Street together as a family bonding activity when he was little. This was a song that one of his favorite characters on the show sang and he repeated the lyrics he could remember often so his parents decided to sing it as a lullaby.

Cultural Context: 

This lullaby is based on the song called I Don’t Want to Live On The Moon released in 1991 on the popular children’s show Sesame Street. It appears on their soundtrack album entitled “Jim Henson: A Sesame Street Celebration (Vol. 2).” On the show, this song is performed by the beloved TV Show character Ernie.

Item:
Well, I’d like to visit the moon
On a rocket ship high in the air
Yes, I’d like to visit the moon
But I don’t think I’d like to live there
Though I’d like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I might like it for one afternoon
I don’t want to live on the moon

Associated file: 

Informant Comments: 
“I think since I loved watching Sesame Street as a kid that my parents thought that if I heard a song from those characters that it would make me happy or soothed so I could fall asleep just like when I watch TV and fall asleep during the show.”

Collector Comments: 
I also really enjoyed Sesame Street as a kid and found it incredibly creative how his parents liked the song so much and knew that he enjoyed it enough to make it a lullaby for him.

Collectors Name: Reem Atallah

Tags: Dartmouth, English, male, student, verbal folklore

Pre-Game Stretching (Troy Burkhart)

Title: Pre-Game Stretching

General Information about item:

  • Magic (Sympathetic) Superstition
  • Origin: Florida
  • Informant: W.S.
  • 10/3/2021

Informant Data:

  • W.S. was born in Gainesville, Florida in the year 1999. He played on club squash (1 year) freshman year and was a weightlifter (4 years) throughout high school. He is majoring in engineering moded with economics and a minor in Japanese. His background is mostly European with family origins in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and England.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Stretching is a typical exercise that sports teams go through to increase mobility and reduce injuries during games and practice. While the amount of stretching varies in importance for every sport, in high impact running sports like squash, it is a very important exercise to do pre-game.
  • Social Context: Stretching is usually done in a circle before the game. Teams are able to discuss tactics and strategies for the upcoming game, joke around, and take their mind off the anxiousness for the game.

Item:

  • According to W.S., most squash players take the rubber ball and use it to stretch their muscles and focus. Players take the ball and place it between their body and the ground and slowly roll back and forth on their feet and arms. However, at Dartmouth, they have a different warm up routine with the squash ball. Instead of rubbing the bottom of their feet, the team takes a squash ball, and goes through a full body warmup using the squash ball rather than just their feet.

Associated files/pictures:

Transcript:

  • “I roll my entire body starting with my calves, then hamstrings, quads, back and finally lats. I feel much more stretched and prepared than just rolling my feet and arms.”

Informants Comments:

  • He highly recommends everyone to stretch. It significantly lowered the number of injuries he received while playing sports and he still stretches even though he does not play anymore.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Stretching is also a huge aspect of pre and post-game for hockey and is pretty much universal in all sports. However, we do this everyday before practice and before and after every game, not just before games.

Collector’s Name:

  • Troy Burkhart

Tags:

  • Water Polo
  • Dartmouth
  • Superstition
  • Repetition

Miracle (Pedro Campos)

Title: Miracle

General Information about Item:

  • Sympathetic Magic Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Origin: United States
  • Informant: Isaac Spokes
  • Date collected: 11/1/2021

Informant Data:

  • I.C. is a male student-athlete from the class of 2022. He was admitted into Dartmouth as a regular student and became part of the men’s heavyweight rowing team on his freshman year. He was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: During a competition rowers should work together to assure a good performance. It is essential that every rower in the boat stays on the same page regarding their movement’s intensity.
  • Social Context: I.C. became a rower in college, so he didn’t have any superstitions of his own before joining the team.

Item:

  • The team watches the movie Miracle before big races.

Associated files/pictures:

Transcript:

  • “Our one main superstition is that we watch Miracle before major races. It originated because it’s a sick movie and it gets us excited to row. In terms of believing in it, I do believe it gets us pumped as a team. Now, do I believe it really gives us good luck? Yeah, I think I do.”

Informants Comments:

  • I.C. said that he was skeptical about the superstition at first, but that once he participated in it for the first time, he started believing it gave them good luck.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It is very interesting how someone is more likely to believe in something when there’s a group of people inciting that person to believe In it.

Collector’s Name:

  • Pedro Campos

Tags:

  • Superstition
  • Dartmouth
  • Rowing
  • Movie

Hair Tie

General Information about Item

  • Tradition/Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Informant: GM
  • Date Collected: 11/9/2021

Informant Data

  • GM is from Northern California, outside of San Francisco. She competes in the 6k and an assortment of other races of varying distances – anywhere from a mile to 5k.

Contextual Data

  • Cultural context: According to GM, uptight members of the track team are very superstitious and have lots of pre-game rituals that they believe will help them perform well. Many athletes across many different sport have superstitions pertaining to certain articles of clothing.

Item

  • Before each race, GM ties two black ties to her hair. She then ties a bow to a third black hair tie.

Informant’s Comments

  • The point of the bow is to promote a “look good, feel good” mindset. She believes it will help her perform better in competitions.

Collector’s Comments

  • When I played soccer, I had a similar mindset. I always felt that making sure my apparel looked good was crucial to my actual performance on the field.

Collector’s Name

  • Alex Printsev

Kirkland Sports Drink (Drew Clutterbuck)

Title: Kirkland Sports Drink

General Information about Item:

  • Magic Superstition (Sympathetic Magic)
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: S.M.
  • Date Collected: 11-3-21

Informant Data:

  • S.M. is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2022 who is majoring in economics. He was born and raised in Belmont, Massachusetts where he began rowing at the age of 14. He is currently competing on the Men’s Heavyweight Rowing Team at Dartmouth. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Rowing is a sport in which you race in boats using oars, or paddles, to propel the boat forward. It requires a lot of nonstop physical exertion and is very demanding on the body. Sports drinks are an important way to replace water and electrolytes lost during exercise.
  • Social Context: This superstition was collected over facetime in November of 2021 when asking if the informant had any personal or team superstitions. This folklore originated when the Dartmouth rowing team was unable to find gatorade while shopping for an upcoming regatta. They were at Costco, so the only sports drink they could find was Kirkland brand and it made the team do very well and became their signature drink for regattas. 

Item:

  • The superstition that was collected is that if the rowing team has Kirkland Sports Drink before competing, they will do better than if they drank any other brand of sports drink.

Transcript:

  • Right now we believe in Kirkland Sports Drink as a huge plus. When we couldn’t find gatorade last year, the only thing we could find at Costco was Kirkland Sports Drink, so we got that in mass and it fueled us. So that’s our signature, like, we need this to do well.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I actually believe there is something in the Kirkland sports drink that makes us better. I don’t know what it is but I think it should be tested for EPOs.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I find this superstition interesting because it is very recent, it was only developed a year ago, but they believe in it fully.

Collector’s Name: Drew Clutterbuck

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • American
  • Heavyweight Rowing
  • Dartmouth
  • Sports Drink

Zhong Kui (Ian Hsu)

Title: Zhong Kui

General Information about Item:

  • Custom, Superstition
  • Language: Chinese
  • Culture of Origin: Chinese
  • Informant: BF
  • Date Collected: 10-25-21

Informant data: 

BF is an Asian-American who grew up in the California Bay Area. He grew up in a predominantly Asian community, and so was surrounded by Chinese culture all his life. Following high school, he underwent university studies in Los Angeles, where he resides at time of interview. 

Cultural context: 

Social context: I once visited my BF in his home, and saw a peculiar-looking statue near his doorway. I remembered this, and asked him about it recently, thinking that it might have to do with supernatural creatures. Upon asking him what this was, he told me the story that had been told to him by his parents, who were born in China and immigrated to the US. 

Cultural Context: Many Chinese people often put statues of Zhong Kui next to their doorways. It is thought that this statue embodies the presence of Zhong Kui, and in doing so protects the home from evil spirits, and in doing so allows the house to have better fortune. 

Item: 

According to folklore, there was once a smart but ugly man named Zhong Kui who travelled to the state capital city to take the imperial examination that would allow him to achieve a high status in society. Zhong Kui scored very well, and was supposed to be awarded the highest score. However, when the emperor saw how ugly he was, he refused to grant him the title. Out of anger and frustration, Zhong Kui committed suicide. After his death, he was given divine judgment and sentenced to Hell because he had committed the sin of suicide. However, the Chinese King of Hell recognized his intelligence and potential, and gave him the job of hunting and capturing escaped ghosts to maintain order throughout hell. As a result, people often put statues of Zhong Kui near the door in order to make sure evil spirits do not come in. 

Informant Comment: 

BF does not really believe in this superstition. It is more a family tradition. 

Collector Comment: 

I wonder if there is some correlation between having a terrifying statue near the doorway. Perhaps, in the past, thieves were scared off by a terrifying and ugly statue.

Tags/Keywords:

  • Custom
  • Superstition

Chinese Mugwort (Ian Hsu)

Title: Chinese Mugwort during the Dragon Boat Festival

General Information about Item:

  • Custom, Superstition
  • Language: Chinese
  • Culture of Origin: Chinese
  • Informant: JH
  • Date Collected: 10-20-21

Informant Data:

JH is a Taiwanese national who immigrated to the California Bay Area in the 1980s. He currently lives in a predominantly Asian community and has seen Chinese culture for all of his life. He currently works as an IT engineer in the California Bay Area. 

Contextual Data:

Social Context: I recently had a conversation with JH where I asked about a situation several years ago when JH handed me a sachet filled with pleasant-smelling herbs. As I was young at the time, I took for granted that it would bring me good luck. I did not inquire further until recently, when I remembered the situation and asked about it. 

Cultural Context: The Dragon Boat Festival is an annual festival that lies on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. The festival is meant to reinforce good health, as it is believed that natural disasters and illnesses are common during this month. During this time, people believe that Chinese mugwort can ward off evil spirits. 

Item: 

During the Dragon Boat Festival, it is thought that more ghosts may come out and spread disease. To protect children against disease spread by these ghosts, children are given perfumed medicine bags filled with dried Chinese mugwort. In this way, it is thought that children are able to ward off evil. 

Informant Comment: 

JH thought that these medicine bags smelled good. 

Collector Comment: 

It was unclear whether the informant actually believed this superstition, or if this was more a tradition. 

Tags/Keywords:

  • Custom
  • Superstition

Nian (Ian Hsu)

Title: Nian

General Information about Item:

  • Folklore, customs
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Chinese
  • Informant: VH
  • Date Collected: 10-20-21

Informant Data:

VH grew up in Taipei City in Taiwan before immigrating to the US in 1989 in pursuit of tertiary education in Dallas, Texas. Following the receipt of her degree, she moved to the California Bay Area to work and has resided in a predominantly Asian community there ever since. She grew up surrounded by Chinese culture and is of Chinese descent herself.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Every year during Chinese New Year, people set off firecrackers, fill their house with red-colored objects, and use bright lights all night. This is done in order to scare off an ancient monster named Nian, whose story is written below.

Social Context: Reflecting on Chinese New Year, I asked VH why people were setting off firecrackers and she told me the following story in return. Presumably, she learned this from her own family in Taiwan in her youth. No other people were present.

Item:

Every year during Chinese New Year, it is believed that a monster known as Nian would come out from the ocean where it lived and eat people and livestock. As a result, villagers would usually flee to the mountains on that day to escape Nian. However, one day an old man came to the village and said he could drive the beast away. The villagers did not believe him, and ran away anyway. However, the old man stayed, and was able to drive away Nian with red-colored items, firecrackers, and bright lights. Once the villagers returned to find him alive, they believed that these were used to scare Nian away. As a result, every year on Chinese New Year, people use the color red, firecrackers, and bright lights to scare away Nian.

Informant Comment:

VH thought these traditions were all in good fun.

Collector Comment:

It was unclear whether the informant actually believed this superstition, or if this was more a tradition.

Tags/Keywords:

  • Custom
  • Folktale
  • Superstition