Tag Archives: conversion superstition

Don’t Step on the D (Donald Carty)

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Title: Don’t Step on the D

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore: Conversion Superstition
  • Place of Origin: Hanover, NH
  • Informant: Myself (Donald Carty)

Informant Data:

Donald (Donny) J. Carty was born in Dallas, Texas, on May 16, 1999. While he embraces Texas as his home, he is the only Texan in his family. His father, also named Donald J. Carty, moved to Dallas from Montreal, and his mother’s family immigrated from Mexico to St. Louis. Donny is a member of the class of 2021 at Dartmouth college, where he is a member of the football team.

Contextual Data:

In the Dartmouth locker room, there is one superstition that the whole team subscribes to. Emblazoned in the middle of the locker room floor is a large Dartmouth “D” Logo. Among the players, coaches, and support staff it is known that you are not to step on this D. Doing so is thought to bring bad luck to the team for the coming season.

Item:

Every fall, without fail, a freshman unknowingly steps on the logo, resulting in immediate uproar and scolding from the upperclassmen on the team. Anyone who steps on the D is forced to stop what they are doing, get on the ground, and kiss it to ward off the bad luck their mistake may have caused. It’s unknown how long this tradition has existed, but it long predates Donald’s time on the Dartmouth Football Team.

Collectors Name: Donald Carty (Myself)

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Locker room traditions
  • Football

Throwing Salt (Quinn Calhoun)

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Title: Throwing Salt over Shoulder

General Information about Item:

  • Ritual, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: KC
  • Date Collected: 10-21-21

Informant Data:

  • KC grew up and currently lives in Richmond, VA. She received her BA in art history from JMU in 1988 before teaching students of various ages from elementary school to college in various art courses. She and the rest of her family are of predominantly Irish-Catholic heritage. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Salt is believed, among various religions and cultures, to have certain properties which ward off spirits or promote good health. This specific practice seems to be originally a Buddhist Tradition, where one would perform the practice at a funeral to protect one’s household. 
  • Social Context: Quinn originally learned of the practice when his mother described her mother and some of her practices, who died long before he was born. KC originally learned of the tradition by asking her grandmother and mother about why they performed this practice at a family dinner. When the two explained the practice to her, they laughed it off as a superstition, she remembers noticing her mother performing the action more as she was conscious of it and realized that it had become a tradition nonetheless.

Item:

  • If someone talks ill of the dead or curses in anger, that individual ought to throw salt over their left shoulder to ward off evil spirits, or the devil, from entering their home and cursing them. It is also customary to pray before this action.

Associated file:

Example of table salt one might throw over one’s shoulder

Informant’s Comments:

  • It became something common enough that I find myself doing it mindlessly while working in the kitchen if I grab a pinch of salt—even if I haven’t cursed.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Recall seeing the practice in own household as a child, yet had thought nothing of it when young.

Collector’s Name: Quinn Calhoun

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • Irish Catholic
  • Conversion Superstition
  • Protection
  • Salt over shoulder

Throwing Salt When Returning from a Funeral

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Title: Throwing Salt When Returning from a Funeral 

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Korean Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Korea
  • Informant: Sunglim Kim
  • Date Collected: November 5, 2018

Informant Data:

  • Sunglim Kim was born and raised in Seoul, Korea until the age of 17. Her family origins are Korean. When she was a junior in high school she moved to the United States, and went to high school in Seattle, Washington. She then went to UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree, went back to work in Korea for a few years, and then came back to the United States to get her masters degree at the University of Kansas, and then went back to Berkeley for her PHD. Currently, she is a professor of Korean Art and Culture, in the department of Art History at Dartmouth College. This is her 7thyear teaching at Dartmouth College. She is a mother of two children.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:When Sunglim Kim was 13 years old, and living in Seoul, Korea, her dad left for a funeral without her mom, and when he came back, her mom performed the superstition explained in the item below. She knew that this was a common practice in her culture beforehand. However, this was the first time she witnessed someone practicing this superstition. She agrees that it was a good idea and it was something that her family continued to do frequently, and Sunglim Kim continues to practice this today. Sunglim Kim also explained that women usually do not go to funerals, so her mom would usually be at home whenever her dad went to a funeral. This is because her mom normally needed to look after her and tend to domestic duties.
  • Cultural Context:Women in general usually did not attend funerals. This was because they would need to stay home and tend to their kids and other domestic duties. Women who are pregnant especially do not go to funerals, because women did not want to see anything negative during a time of pregnancy, with the idea that this might bring bad things into their child’s life. This superstition originated in Korean culture, and it was a very much engrained and a traditional part of their culture. It was a superstition accepted by most households, according to Sunglim Kim, and also accepted by all ages.

Item:

  • When someone comes back from a funeral, which is usually the man or husband, the family member at home will throw salt on them as they enter the door to ensure that they do not carry with them any spirits of the dead into the house. Spirits of the dead that entered the house could potentially be harmful, and bring more death or negative things to the family. The salt would remove the dead spirits, and maintain the purity of the person and the house.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

  • “Whenever my father came back from funerals, and then my mother, before he entered, would always put some salt around him.”

Informants Comments:

  • Sunglim Kim believed this to be an important superstition to abide by when someone returned to the house after a funeral. She said that normally her mom did not go to the funerals, so it was usually her mom that was throwing salt on her dad when he returned.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I thought this was a very interesting superstition because it demonstrates gender roles within Korean culture. It was traditionally the man that was going to the funerals and the woman that stayed at home. This shows that the women’s duties are very much valued, and women can’t get much time off from tending to their kids. Also, it shows that pregnant women are treated very well in the time of pregnancy since pregnant women were not allowed to go to funerals since they were not meant to see anything negative in the time of pregnancy. This is also an example of a Conversion Superstition, which means if A, then B, unless C. So in this case, if the husband goes to a funeral, then he will bring spirits of the dead with him back to the house unless he gets salt put on him.

Collector’s Name: Kipling Weisel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Korean. Superstition. Throwing Salt on Husband. Conversion Superstition.

New Swim Shoes

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General Information about Item:

  • Material Folklore – Tools
  • Conceptual Folklore – Superstition
  • Conversion Superstition
  • Contagious Magic
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: John Hall
  • Date Collected: 02-19-2018

Informant Data:

  • John Hall was born in Manhattan, New York on July 15, 1998. John lived in New York City for a couple years before moving to New Jersey. John started swimming when he turned 11, because his younger brother has started swimming and he wanted to join. He is a sophomore at Dartmouth, and he swims sprint freestyle.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In many sports, and life in general, people will do or wear things that they think can help. Even though the superstition may do nothing, it gives the person a sense of reassurance and confidence.
  • Social Context: The data was collected in a one on one interview in Baker-Berry library. John described a superstition and tradition he did with a friend on the days of swim meets. The folklore was created to help bring good luck before the meet. He started doing his superstition in 7th grade, and has continued to do it since then.

Item:

  • John would wear the same shoes for every meet until he did bad. Once he did bad, he would go purchase new shoes to wear for meets until he did bad in the new shoes. He has done this with his friend for years.

Image of Flip Flops (Deck Shoes):

Transcript:

  • “Starting in 7th grade, my friend and I bought the same flip flops for a summer swim meet. We wore them to every meet until we did bad in the meet, then we would switch to wearing a different pair of shoes on the day of the meet. As soon as we did bad, we would switch to a new pair, to help bring good luck. The bad shoes would still be worn, just not during swim meets. “

Collector’s Comments:

  • I thought it would be expensive to maintain, but deck shoes are only a couple of bucks.

Collector’s Name: Matthew Luciano

Tags/Keywords: Material Folklore, Tool, Conceptual Folklore, Conversion Superstition, Contagious Magic, Swimming

Hats and Princesses, Or Else: a Conversion Superstition

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The photograph above features the informant’s two children on a visit to Disneyland 2001 or 2002 upon completion of their conversion superstition – avoiding bad luck by finding Ariel and getting their hats!

General Information about Item:

  • Customary lore, conversion superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Kevin Korsh
  • Date Collected: 2/25/18

Informant Data:

  • Kevin Korsh is a retired commercial Real Estate lawyer who lives in Weston, Connecticut. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Scarsdale, New York (a part of the greater New York City metropolitan area). He attended Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts and then Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, California. He first lived in proximity to Disneyland when he moved to Los Angeles after law school. In this period, he married California native Sally Korsh and fathered two daughters, Johanna and Karina. He never visited either Disney park as a child or young adult but visited around ten times as a young father with his family in the early 2000s

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Main Street USA at Disneyland, the area at the entrance to the park, features numerous stores that offer custom Disneyland memorabilia. One of these services is an embroidery station at which visitors can have hats or shirts embroidered with their names, slogans, and Disney characters of their choice. One of the park’s other main attractions lies in the opportunity to meet and take photos with human impersonators of various Disney characters. These include all of the traditional princesses that are featured in Disney films and some more contemporary characters. In the early 2000s, Disneyland had yet to extensively organize and advertise opportunities for families to meet and take photos with Disney characters. This required visitors to act a bit intrepidly, wandering the park and the recreations of landscapes from various Disney films in an area called Fantasyland to seek out the character of their choice. This included Ariel, the main character from the Disney classic The Little Mermaid.
  • Social Context: This superstition was developed among the folklore group of the Korsh family over the course of around ten visits to Disneyland in the early 2000s. While the superstition is told in the same way by both the Korsh parents and Korsh children, it has different meanings based on the age of the performer.

Item:

  • The following superstition takes the form of a conversion superstition (if A, then B, unless C). If the Korsh family visited Disneyland, they would have bad luck if the children didn’t get embroidered hats and got to meet Ariel.
    • According to the informant, ‘bad luck’ for the parents signified the likely tears and temper tantrums of their children if they didn’t get their hats and didn’t meet Ariel on that trip. As health-conscious parents, the superstition also had a protection-oriented purpose in making sure our faces were safe from the sun under hats.
    • The informant believes that ‘bad luck’ for the children meant more of a fear of supernatural curses and omens that took after the ones they observed in Disney adaptations of fairy tales.
  • The following is a transcript of the superstition as it was told to the collector in February 2018. Some words and phrases have been omitted from the original to allow for easy reading.

Transcript:

  • “You [the interviewer] and Jojo [Johanna] had an extremely particular set of requirements for what constituted a successful Disney trip way back when. If you two did not get to buy custom embroidered hats, you’d throw a fit. If you two did not get to meet Ariel, you’d throw a fit. If neither of these were possible, the trip was a disaster. It felt like you two genuinely believed the world would fall apart magically if we weren’t able to do either. It was frustrating, but endearing. Seriously – they didn’t even organize meet and greets with the princesses back then. We’d wander Fantasyland for hours hoping we’d happen upon Ariel. But you know me and your mom – we were okay with it as long as we had sunscreen and those hats kept the sun off your face.

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I love you both, but I’m pretty glad we’ve moved on from those days. Although those hats were definitely cheaper than the crazy phones and clothes you spend your money on now.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I really appreciated hearing this story in full from my father. Although I have vague memories of meeting Ariel and watching my hat be embroidered at Disneyland, I don’t have the capacity to recall the attitudes I brought towards my trips to Disneyland when I was so young. It was particularly interesting to discover how the same superstition had different significances to me and my sister vs. my parents. They feared more practical and health-related concerns, while we were young kiddos who genuinely thought we were entering our favorite fairy tale and irrationally feared what would happen if we couldn’t.

Collector’s Name: Karina Korsh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Hats and Princesses, or else: a Conversion Superstition