General Information About Item:

• Customary Folklore: Pre-test custom, superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: USA
• Informant: KH
• Date Collected: 10/26/21

Informant Data: KH is a middle school science teacher at St. Raymond’s Elementary School in Menlo Park, California. She was born in 1960 to a Catholic family and went to UCLA for college. She and her husband settled their family down in Menlo Park, just one town north of Palo Alto, after she finished graduate school at Stanford University. She has three children, all of whom have graduated from college. 

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: In Christianity, reciting a Hail Mary is a way to request purity from God and gain other virtues. It is most often recited in the morning and before going to bed. 
• Social Context: KH’s parents were devout Catholics all throughout her childhood. They never missed Sunday mass, and she attended Catholic schools until she went to college. Her mother was adamant that she recited three Hail Marys every morning and night. KH knew that the purity one requests from God by reciting these three Hail Marys also applies to the purity of one’s mind and decided to begin performing this ritual prior to her exams. KH became a teacher at St. Raymond’s School in Menlo Park, CA and ever since, she asks her students to do the same before each of their tests. I collected this item when I attended St. Raymond’s in middle school and had KH as my science teacher. Before our first test in the sixth grade, she told us the backstory of this superstition.

Item: Before taking a test, a student recites three Hail Mary’s in order to have a fruitful testing experience. 

Associated File

Transcript:

• “After reciting three Hail Marys, you’ll all not only feel more prepared to take your tests, but also in a better position to do well.”

Informant’s Comments:

• It was clear that the informant was keen on following this superstition. There was not a test that I took in her class where the students did not recite three Hail Marys prior to taking it.  

Collector’s Comments:

• This was a superstition I witnessed and performed for myself. I understand how it came about and especially given that I attended a Catholic school, it made a lot of sense. 

Collector’s Name: Kevin King

Tags/Keywords:

• Superstition 
• Christianity 
• Hail Mary
• United States