General Information About Item:

• Customary Folklore: Pre-test custom, superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: Japan
• Informant: EK
• Date Collected: 11/01/21

Informant Data: EK was born in Palo Alto, California, in 2002. He was raised by his parents in Burlingame, just 20 minutes north of Palo Alto, and lived there his entire life. His mother is Japanese and enjoyed passing down family traditions and superstitions to EK when he was younger. 

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context:  In Japanese, the name of the popular candy, Kit Kat, is pronounced “kitto katto” which sounds similar to the phrase “kitto katsu” which translates to “you will surely win.” This candy is very popular in Japan and is sold in a variety of flavors. 
• Social Context: EK collected this pre-testing superstition from his mother when he was in elementary school and I witnessed him performing this superstition when I met him in high school. He told me that it was a very popular Japanese pre-testing superstition.. When he was younger, EK would always get nervous before taking exams. It wasn’t that he didn’t do well on them, but instead just that he got really anxious beforehand. In order to calm his nerves, his mom would pack a Kit Kat candy in his lunch bag on days where he had assessments and told him to eat one before he took tests. He later noticed that his peers who were also Japanese would also come to tests with a Kit Kat or two in hand. When the informant asked his classmates why, they also stated that eating one prior to a test brings one good luck.

Item: In Japanese culture, eating a Kit Kat before an important test brings one good luck since the candy’s pronunciation is similar to a Japanese phrase that can be translated to “you will surely win.”

Associated File

Transcript:

• “I always have a Kit Kat with me on a test day. If I don’t have one, I feel weird and almost never do well on my test.”

Informant’s Comments:

• The informant strictly follows this superstition and has told many peers about it, influencing them to do the same. 

Collector’s Comments:

• This was one of the more interesting ones I heard about. I thought that the phonetic relation between the item and the reasoning behind it was a little far-fetched, so I wouldn’t personally follow this superstition myself.

Collector’s Name: Kevin King

Tags/Keywords:

• Superstition 
• Japan 
• Kit Kat