Tag Archives: hockey

Hockey Tournament

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General Information About Item:

  • Material Lore, Hockey
  • Customary Lore, Family tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: A.M.
  • Date Collected: 11-10-2021

Informant Data:

  • A.M. is a senior at Middlebury College located in Middlebury, Vermont. He was one brother and a mom, and has a large extended family all of whom live in the area surrounding him. He was born in Sherborn Massachusetts, and has lived there his whole life. He grew up in a Catholic family and noted that Christmas is his favorite holiday of the year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The cultural context of A.M’s family hockey tournament relates back to his family’s heritage in Canada. His grandparents Immigrated from Canada in the 1940s to start a family in the Boston area. Hockey is the national sport of Canada in the winter so it makes sense as to why the Marinello family honors this tradition every year.
  • Social Context: This tournament is a means for his family to gather as they don’t see each other nearly as much as they used to. Now that A.M. and his brother are in college, this tournament is one of the few times each year that they come together as an extended family.

Item:

  • Every year, A.M’s family gathers at a local pond to play Hockey. Initially it started as a family tradition where his brother and he would go practice for their upcoming tournaments, but ever since it has been a way for their extended family to come together and catch up. Hockey is something which has always been a common denominator between his family- all of his cousins grew up playing from a young age and get competitive about it.

Transcript:

  • “You know how much my family loves hockey. While we go to church the day of Christmas, the hockey tournament which my family hosts is the centerpiece to our Christmas spirit. To me, Christmas is about coming together with your loved ones and spending time with them. While there are many settings in which this can be accomplished, something which connects my family with our heritage is the game of hockey. It’s something which I look forward to every year and am devastated when we can’t play. When the weather is too warm for the ice to melt on the local pond, we try our best to recreate this environment but it truly doesn’t compare. Everyone wears some sort of Christmas attire- last year I dressed as Santa and Michael(his brother) dressed as an elf. I guess in this way we relate it back to the westernization of Christmas, but this tradition doesn’t revolve around the religious aspects of Christmas much.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “As much as my family is Catholic- and we do practice our religion on a regular basis. I don’t think that people can come around to Catholicism during the holiday season and claim to be truly dedicated to Catholicism. So I’d say we don’t focus much more on our religion during the holiday season any more than we would in June. The hockey tournament is more about family than religion.

Collector’s Comments:

  • A.M. had interesting insight into the Christmas season. He explained that what makes the Christmas season special is not the gift giving or the hanging of the ornaments on the Christmas tree. It’s the traditions and folklore like his family hockey tournament which are specific to his family that make it special. It’s because they take ownership over the holiday that makes it truly special.

Collected By:

Daniel Hincks

Boston, MA

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS013

Fall 2021

Playoff Beard (Drew Clutterbuck)

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Title: Playoff Beard

General Information about Item:

  • Magic Superstition (Contagious Magic)
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: S.K.
  • Date Collected: 11-6-21

Informant Data:

  • S.K. is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2023 who is majoring in economics. He was born and raised in Milton, Massachusetts and began playing hockey at the age of 7. He is currently competing on the varsity hockey team at Dartmouth College.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In hockey, there is a regular season, where teams play each other a fixed number of times to decide who gets into the playoffs. In the playoffs, there are several rounds in which one team plays against another in a series. If a team loses the series, they are out of the playoffs and will not play another game until next season. The last two teams play in the finals to decide who wins the championship.
  • Social Context: This folklore was collected over facetime when asking the informant if he had any superstitions. The informant has always known of the playoff beard since he was a child because it has been around all levels of hockey, even the professional league, for decades. He only started participating in it when he was first able to grow facial hair.

Item: If you shave your beard during playoffs, then your team will be knocked out of the playoffs.

Transcript: “One superstition we have, and so does every other team in hockey, both college and professional, is that when the playoffs come around, you can’t shave your beard. It’s called a playoff beard and if you shave it then your team will be knocked out of the playoffs. I’ve been participating in this superstition before I even came to Dartmouth, when I was first able to grow facial hair.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I’m not really sure how or when it originated, but it has been around for a very long time and is a big part of professional hockey.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is an interesting superstition because not only is the whole team involved, but the entire sport of hockey seems to be involved in it.

Collector’s Name: Drew Clutterbuck

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • American
  • Hockey
  • Beard
  • Dartmouth
  • NHL

One Strip Wonder (Jack Cameron)

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Title: One Strip Wonder

General Information about Item:

  • Sign superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Canada
  • Informant: NU
  • Date Collected: 10/29/21

Informant Data:

  • NU is a 21-year-old Dartmouth student in the class of 2024.  He was born in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada and raised from age 12 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Nick is a member of the Men’s Varsity Hockey team at Dartmouth. Away from hockey, Nick is an amateur DJ who enjoys playing his music at various functions.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Hockey players have to un-tape and re-tape their stick after almost every use. Tape on a hockey stick allows for more grip on the puck when passing, shooting, or stickhandling. Some players elect to apply wax onto the tape to prevent the buildup of snow and ice on the blade of their stick over the course of a practice or game.
  • Social Context: This specific superstition was mentioned when the interviewee was their pre-game routine. Hockey players tape their sticks in a multitude of different ways, all depending on personal preference.  Though the taping of the stick is often different, every hockey player does it after almost every use.

Item:

  • Un-taping a hockey stick happens very quickly, but in this case, the tape must come off all in one piece. Hockey sticks are taping in a looping motion, slightly overlapping each strip so that there are no gaps. To be able to take the tape off in one piece means that the tape was worn down in a specific pattern.  

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

Transcript:

  • “A sign of good luck in Canada is when your tape comes off all in one. I don’t really know where it started, but we were always told that if your tape comes off all as one piece then you have to stick it to a wall somewhere in the room for good luck. I was told that it means that your stick is ready for a new tape job which means you’re more likely to score a goal, kind of like a snake shedding its skin to get a new layer.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • All of the Canadians on my team have heard of this and done this, but the Americans always look at us funny and think it’s dumb.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this sign superstition to be very interesting. I am also a hockey player, and this was something that I was taught when I was young – maybe ten or twelve years old. I was equally as surprised as Nick when I heard that Americans do not treat it the same way, and always feel a sense of happiness when my tape comes off all in one go.

Collector’s Name:

Jack Cameron

Dartmouth College

Russ013 21F

Prof. Apresyan and Prof. Gronas

Brown Superstitions

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Title: Brown Superstitions – Megan Forrest

General Information about Item: 

  • Customary Lore, Magic Superstition 
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States 
  • Informant: Megan Forest 
  • Date Collected: 11/08/21

Informant Data: 

  • Megan Forrest is 22 years old and was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, however, she lived in Dubai, UAE from age 5-11 which is when she started playing ice hockey. She finished her undergrad in May 2021 and is pursuing a Masters degree at Brown while continuing to play on the women’s ice hockey team.  

Contextual Data: 

  • Cultural Context: The cultural context is being on a team where other teammates sit in specific seats before their games. This team also does the same cheers before every game and announce their starting line-up which are traditions that have been passed down through many years. All of these superstitions are common among individual hockey players and hockey teams. 
  • Social Context: The social context is that Megan didn’t sit in her red #13 seat one game and she played poorly, so she vowed to never sit in another seat again. In regards to the team superstitions, the same idea is present; in the past there had been games where these superstitions were not performed and the team ended up losing, so they stuck with what worked (doing their team cheers and announcing their lineup in a certain way). 

Item: This is a customary type of folklore that is categorized under the magic superstition genre. Megan performs these specific rituals before every home game and has to adjust them slightly for away games. 

Transcript: 

  • “Before the game to get a caramel swirl iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Then I head to the rink. I sit in the stands in seat 13 in the top row of the red chairs and walk through our systems in my head while listening to a pump up playlist I have. At this point I’ll be finishing my coffee so I head downstairs and throw it out in a specific trash can by the stairs.” 
  • “As a team, we always do the same cheer after off ice warm up and a different one in the locker room before going on the ice for the first period. We also have one girl announce our starting lineup in a fun and creative way”

Informant’s Comments: 

  • Although 13 is usually considered an unlucky and “cursed” number, Megan told me that she has been number 13 since she started playing hockey because her mom suggested it as she is the 13th child in her family. This number has always been special to her mom and therefore to Megan as well so it serves as a lucky number rather than a cursed one.

Collector’s Comments: 

  • Before Megan told me the reasoning behind her superstition with the number 13 I thought it was a bit odd as well, but as we learned, a lot of folklore can be passed down by family members so it makes sense why Megan believes this number brings her good luck.