Knock on Wood (1)

Title: Knock on Wood

General Information About Item:

  • Type of Lore: Customary, superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States
  • Informant: Gus Guskowski
  • Date Collected: 5/21/20

Informant Data:

  • Gus Guskowski is a Dartmouth ’22 from rural Massachusetts. They live with their mother and father. On campus, they are actively involved with the Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals, Dartmouth’s student-run Shakespeare troupe. They intend to major in classics.

Contextual Data:­

  • Cultural Context: Given that I have encountered this piece of lore before from another person who lives in the Northeast, and that I have encountered in when living in Ohio and Texas as well as in Massachusetts, this superstition seems to be very widespread, at least across the United States. The informant does not remember learning the superstition from any particular source, although they do speculate that they received it from their parents.
  • Social Context: In the same vein as the other informant that supplied this superstition, they did not indicate a particular social context for this superstition. “Knock on Wood” is a global superstition, applying equally to all social situations, and is not performed in a specific context.

Item:

  • When mentioning a future event (particularly a positive expectation for the future) in a way that implies that it is certain, one must declare “knock on wood” and knock on the nearest piece of wood to avert a negative outcome for the future event.

 

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

 

Transcript:

  • “Both of my parents and I all – I don’t know necessarily how much we believe in it – but all of us are very proactive about knocking on wood whenever we’ve said anything that might somehow jinx the future. So, like, discussing my plans for senior year, I say “when we’re back on campus senior year” and then I have to knock on wood in case my saying so will have somehow cosmically prevented me from being back on campus senior year.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant noted that this is a superstition that applies more to positive future events than negative future events
  • The informant also noted that while they would say that they do not believe in this superstition, if they were unable to knock on wood after mentioning a positive future outcome, they would be “uncomfortable.”
  • If there’s not wood nearby, the informant will knock the side of their head, mentioning that “it’s not about the wood, it’s about the act of the tapping.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • It is interesting that this informant also mentioned the concept of a “jinx” when describing this superstition. It seems that this superstition is, even on a conscious level, linked to a more primary superstition of the “jinx,” which implies that precautions must be taken to avoid preventing future events through the arrogance of assuming their occurrence. This superstition seems to promote deference to fate and humility in the face of the unpredictable future.

Collector’s Name: Ted McManus

Tags/Keywords:

  • Knock on Wood, Superstition, Jinx, Luck