Tag Archives: kit kat

Eating Kit Kats (Japan) – Kevin King

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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

Amazon.com : Japanese Kit Kat Mini Bar 21 pcs , ALL DIFFERENT FLAVORS Assortments (original green tea set) : Grocery & Gourmet Food

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

Kit Kat – “Surely Winning” (Japan – John Zavras)

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Title: Kit Kat – “Surely Winning” (Japan – John Zavras)

General Information about Item:

  • Material Lore, food
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Japan
  • Informant: RM (friend from home)
  • Date Collected: 10-03-21

Informant Data:

  • RM is a friend from home (Boston, MA) who is Japanese. He has a lot of family and many cousins that live in Japan. His family in general takes superstitions very seriously. He and his family are very high-achievers, and they place a lot of stress and importance on school.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Japan, exams and grades are taken very seriously. The entrance into university is much more dependent on placement in standardized tests than in the United States, for example. 
  • Social Context: This folklore was recorded in a FaceTime interview. Since exams are taken so seriously, there are many forms of folklore and superstitions revolving around good performance and good luck. When you only have one opportunity to take an exam, the stakes are high, and the demand for superstitions and good luck increases.

Item:

  • The superstition is to eat a kitkat the day of a large exam for good luck. This superstition is a modern interpretation of a more traditional superstition, which is Katsudon. Katsudon is a warm bowl of rice, egg, and deep-fried pork. It is eaten before or on the day of an exam for good luck. Katsudon in Japanese is similar in wording to Kit Kat – Katsudon is pronounced“Kitto Katsu” in Japanese, which means “Surely winning.” Kit Kats are pronounced “kitto katto” in Japanese, which is very similar to the Japanese for Katsudon. This superstition utilizes the law of similarity – if one consumes a kitkat, which is similar in name to Katsudon (the sacred dish that means winning), then they will succeed on their exam. 

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

Why Kit Kats Are Good Luck For Japanese Students

Transcript:

  • “I always eat a lucky KitKat before an exam. It’s my go-to snack”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant says that he was very quick to catch onto this recent superstition, even though he learned about it when he was in the US and its mainly only found in Japan.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this fascinating, the fact that just because KitKat sounds like Katsudon, it’s also used as a superstition to forge good luck. This provides a great point about folklore – it can evolve in many ways and is always molding to modern culture.

Collector’s Name: John Zavras

Tags/Keywords:

  • Material Lore
  • Food
  • KitKat
  • Superstitions