Tag Archives: Chants

Harvard Superstitions

Title: Harvard Superstitions – Kyra Willoughby

General Information about Item:

Customary Lore, Magic Superstition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Informant: Kyra Willoughby
Date Collected: 11/05/21

Informant Data:

Kyra Willoughby is in the 2023 graduating class at Harvard and plays on their women’s ice hockey team. She was born in Minnesota and played high school hockey for the Blake School in Minneapolis, MN. During her time playing on the Harvard Women’s Ice Hockey team she has actively tried to get rid of her individual superstitions because if anything went wrong she was convinced she would play poorly and could not properly prepare for games.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: At Harvard these traditions/superstitions have been around for many years (at least 10 according to Kyra). The new members of the team have adopted the superstitions as they have brought their team success in the past and continue to bring them good luck and success today.

Social Context: The social context for this superstition is that Kyra performs it with her other teammates to get pumped up and dialed in before games. They are all able to collectively clap, snap, and cheer along with each other throughout the dance performance that is going on.

Item:

This item is a customary type of folklore under the genre of magic superstition. Although Kyra doesn’t follow many individual superstitions, she still participates in her team’s superstitions and rituals such as performing handshakes and dance performances before games.

Transcript:

“There are two handshakes that must be performed during every warmup and they are passed down by graduating seniors every year.

“Our team has a dance to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody. This dates back to 1990, and the creator is unknown. One person dances to the song (this position is passed down by graduating seniors), while the rest of the team cheers and snaps or claps along. As a freshman, each player picks their seat in our home rink and has to sit there for the next 4 years of the performance.

Informant’s Comments:

Kyra said the creator of these two handshakes is unknown, and this tradition is at least 10 years old to her knowledge. She also said that if someone sits in the wrong spot during the performance to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” the whole thing feels off and their team won’t feel properly prepared for their game.

Collector’s Comments:

I found it very interesting how Kyra has actively tried to get rid of her personal superstitions because speaking from experience they can be pretty harmful. If one thing is off in my routine it could cause a chain reaction of bad events to come. It is also interesting how she still participates in her team superstitions to be supportive and add to their team chemistry before games.

Collector’s Name: Gabby Billing

“123 Dartmouth” Chant

General Information about Item:

Textual Folklore – Chant
Poly-modal Folklore – Ritual
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Informant: Ziqi Wang
Date Collected: 02-23-2018

Informant Data:

Ziqi Wang is a male student in the Dartmouth College Class of 2018. He was born in China and emigrated to the United States when he was 9 years old; he has spent most of his life in the Hanover, NH area, having attended Hanover High School. He studies economics and environmental science at Dartmouth, and intends to pursue a career in business in Boston, MA after graduation. Ziqi has been an active member of Dartmouth’s Club Swim Team since the fall of 2014.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: The Dartmouth Club Swim Team has a variety of bonding rituals which help the team come together. This particular ritual is mandatory for all members, with the repetition helping to enforce the primacy of the team in all members heads, while establishing the hierarchy of the team, by having team leaders lead the chant in a loud, authoritative voice and having junior members echo the leaders.
Social Context: This chant was explained in a one-on-one interview with the informant at Baker-Berry Library. It is performed at the end of the meet, with the members all huddling up together in close contact, creating a close bond. Various team leaders then lead the chant, with the rest of the members following them in the chorus. The chant is also used to signal the end of practices, illustrating the transition from the intensity of practice to post-practice relaxation.

Item:

At the end of every practice, the members of the Dartmouth Club Swim Team come together in a huddle and finish with the “123 Dartmouth” chant. It is led by one or more of the team’s leaders or senior members, with the rest of the team acting as a chorus. The text of the chant is shown below.
“Team Leader: ‘Club Swim on 3! 1, 2, 3! Rest of Team: ‘Club Swim!'”

Transcript:

“We end practice every day with a simple chant which is called 123 Dartmouth. One of the seniors or older people on the team shouts ‘Club Swim on 3!’ And then counts off “1,2,3.” Then everyone else shouts ‘Club Swim!'”

Informant’s Comments:

It seems kind of simple and is pretty similar to what a lot of other teams do, but it still adds a lot of excitement and energy for the team after practices.

Collector’s Comments:

This chant does seem similar to the huddle-ending practices of many sports teams at Dartmouth, but uniquely, it is led by senior team members, rather than the coach, like in most teams, illustrating a greater level of independence. It has a vague similarity to children’s folklore, in that as Bettelheim emphasizes, repetition is used to reinforce ideas for junior members. Also, it is composed and performed exclusively by and for students. This reflects the nature of club sports, which generally do not have formal coaching staff, requiring club athletes to learn and maintain their traditions and skills independently, much as children’s folklore is used by children to teach themselves and others, as opposed to adults teaching them.

Collector’s Name: Ashwath Srikanth

Tags/Keywords: Textual Folklore, Poly-modal Folklore, Ritual, Chants, Children’s Folklore, Swimming

Unit Song: Boots, Boots, Boots

Title: Unit Song: Boots, Boots, Boots

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant was a member of the 82^nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training.

Type of lore: Customary/ Verbal, Tradition, Song, Lyrics, Chants

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about any songs that they sung during their time in boot camp or while serving abroad. The informant laughed before they began speaking saying he didn’t remember all the words. The lyrics discuss the life in which the 82nd Airborne unit troops lived.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

Transcript: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: There is a song related to my unit. I don’t remember all of it, but I remember that it goes something like this: Put on your boots, boots, boots, and parachutes, chutes chutes, we’re going up, up up , we’re going down, down down, we’re all-American and proud to be. That’s all I remember.

Informant’s comments: He sang lots of songs during his time in the military, but did not remember the others or the words.

Collector’s comments: Informant was nervous to sing, but had a smile on his face. He also did the arm motion associated with the song. His arm at a right angle swinging across his body.