General Information About Item:

• Customary Folklore: Pre-test custom, superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: Korea
• Informant: LL
• Date Collected: 10/28/21

Informant Data: LL is a sophomore (‘24) at Dartmouth College born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Harvard-Westlake School, one of the top-ranked high schools in the country. She mentioned that she and her Korean family are fairly superstitious. 

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: In Korea, New Years Day is a big celebration for people and offers them a chance at a fresh start. A major tradition that people do is to not wash their hair, for they believe it will wash away their good luck. This ritual is often practiced by students on testing days. 
• Social Context: LL’s mother passed down this superstition to her as soon as she entered middle school. It is a tradition that LL used throughout middle and high school. I collected this superstition from LL during an in-person interview. Her parents were always very strict with her in her studies, and always wanted her to be the best in the class and score highly on tests. Thus, they were adamant that she followed this superstition as a child.  

Item: The night before a student takes an exam, they don’t wash their hair with shampoo because it is believed that this act will wash away (1) good luck and (2) all the information that the students studied. 

Associated File

Transcript:

• “Before I went to bed the nights before I would have a test, my mom would come into my room to make sure that my hair was dry.”

Informant’s Comments:

• The informant noted that she thought at times her parents made her follow this superstition to too much of an extreme. Now, she doesn’t follow it as closely. 

Collector’s Comments:

• I could relate with this superstition because during Chinese New Years, my mother would tell my sister not to wash her hair because it would wash away good luck. This isn’t really something I would follow, however. 

Collector’s Name: Kevin King

Tags/Keywords:

• Superstition 
• Korea
• Hair