Tag Archives: banana

Never Bring Bananas on a Boat

Title: Never Bring Bananas on a Boat

General Information about Item:

  • Genre/Sub-genre: Customary and Verbal folklore: Superstition
  • Language: Hawaiian/English
  • Country: USA

Informant Data:

  • Sophia Domingo ’20
    • From Maui, Hawaii
    • Age 19

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Due to Hawaii’s landscape, an outdoor lifestyle is a large part of many local’s life. This includes boating and fishing.
  • Cultural Context: Various protocols and rituals are a part of life in the Hawaiian Islands. Legends and superstitions have developed over time and continued to be respected to the appreciation of the islands and ocean.

Item:

Hawaiian fisherman claim that bringing bananas on their boats is back luck. The superstition is that a banana on the boat will cause not only fish not to bite but also mechanical breakdowns on the boat. Angler fisherman of Hawaii journeyed on long fishing trips in dugout canoes in which they brought bananas as provisions. The longer the trip was in duration, the fewer the fish. The fisherman mistakenly confused the correlation between these two events for causation. Although the bananas were not the reason behind the lack of fish, the superstition stuck with the people.

Collector: Makena Thomas ’20

Tags/Keywords: ocean, water, boat, fish, Hawaii, tradition, banana, superstition