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