Tag Archives: protection

Double Ninth Festival (Quinn Calhoun)

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Title: Double Ninth Festival

General Information about Item:

  • Protection, Festival, Ritual
  • Language: Chinese
  • Country of Origin: Hong Kong
  • Informant: KF
  • Date Collected: 11-6-21

Informant Data:

  • KF, born in 2002 in Hong Kong, and grew up in the city. She is of Han Chinese descent, although her parents did not grow up in the same culture. She primarily learned of many of her cultural traditions through her classes and peers, although her mother, American education, did strive to teach her parts of Han Chinese culture. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Long ago a plague struck China, and it is believed that the reason that the plague disappeared was that a man climbed a nearby mountain which drove out the evil spirits which caused the plague. It is believed that one should hike a mountain in this vain in order to prevent a plague like this to occur again, and when an outbreak occurs, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is believed, or at least joked, that it is partially a result of individuals not adhering to the tradition.
  • Social Context: QC learned it from KF when discussing some our the different holidays. KF learned it from her mother as a public holiday, and while her mother did not believe in the superstition herself, she still observed tradition by teaching her children about the holiday and taking them to hike a mountain. 

Item:

  • Every year on August 8 on the Lunar calendar, one must climb a mountain to prevent the return of evil spirits (gui) from descending down and causing the renewal of the plague.

Associated file:

Informant’s Comments:

  • Highly would not recommend eating it if better options are available.  Not a huge fan.

Collector’s Name: Quinn Calhoun

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual, Festival
  • Hong Kong
  • Chinese
  • Plague
  • Protective

Throwing Salt (Quinn Calhoun)

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Title: Throwing Salt over Shoulder

General Information about Item:

  • Ritual, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: KC
  • Date Collected: 10-21-21

Informant Data:

  • KC grew up and currently lives in Richmond, VA. She received her BA in art history from JMU in 1988 before teaching students of various ages from elementary school to college in various art courses. She and the rest of her family are of predominantly Irish-Catholic heritage. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Salt is believed, among various religions and cultures, to have certain properties which ward off spirits or promote good health. This specific practice seems to be originally a Buddhist Tradition, where one would perform the practice at a funeral to protect one’s household. 
  • Social Context: Quinn originally learned of the practice when his mother described her mother and some of her practices, who died long before he was born. KC originally learned of the tradition by asking her grandmother and mother about why they performed this practice at a family dinner. When the two explained the practice to her, they laughed it off as a superstition, she remembers noticing her mother performing the action more as she was conscious of it and realized that it had become a tradition nonetheless.

Item:

  • If someone talks ill of the dead or curses in anger, that individual ought to throw salt over their left shoulder to ward off evil spirits, or the devil, from entering their home and cursing them. It is also customary to pray before this action.

Associated file:

Example of table salt one might throw over one’s shoulder

Informant’s Comments:

  • It became something common enough that I find myself doing it mindlessly while working in the kitchen if I grab a pinch of salt—even if I haven’t cursed.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Recall seeing the practice in own household as a child, yet had thought nothing of it when young.

Collector’s Name: Quinn Calhoun

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • Irish Catholic
  • Conversion Superstition
  • Protection
  • Salt over shoulder

Link

Title: Drop your cups; How to not get your greek house shut down

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: When minors who are drinking at a greek house hear or see one of the warning systems, they immediately get rid of whatever they are drinking. And if they don’t then fraternity brothers will slap the cups out of their hands. It is said that S & S officers will check students’ ID’s to make sure that they are of age to drink and the consequences for someone who is not of age and is drinking can be severe.  

Collector’s comments: The informant was very matter of fact about the rituals, he did acknowledge that he had never seen the bell system in use, but that it was a system that he had heard was used in the past very often.

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

Link

Title: Flashing Lights; How to not get your greek house shut down

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President 

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: At some greek houses, when someone believes that S & S is at their door, they flicker the lights in the building in order to warn the other members of the house that S & S is at the door and is about to perform a walkthrough.  

Collector’s comments: This is a ritual I myself have witnessed on many a night out at Dartmouth. It is at the point of common knowledge that when the lights flash S&S is about to come into the basement. 

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

Link

Title: How to ward off S & S.

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Krissy Saraceno. From Boston Massachusetts. Female Dartmouth ‘19 student. Lives on campus at Dartmouth in Russell Sage Hall. 19 years old.

Type of Lore: Customary lore, Ritualistic

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Students drinking in a dorm room can be faced with a lot of trouble if caught by S&S during one of their walkthroughs. The ritual described below is one that nearly every student performs, but very few notice, because we are all part of the folk. A lot of students at Dartmouth have their friends visit their rooms in order to hang out and possibly drink, therefore in order to escape notice from S&S, students perform this ritual.

Video: https://youtu.be/JQunnbKolsE This is a video interview with informant explaining the ritual. Krissy is walking the collectors through the process of how she would prepare herself and her room on the chance there would drinking taking place. 

Transcript: This is customary folklore, but verbally explained by informant. The informant describes how she locks the door, shuts the blind, and makes sure not to play loud music.

Informant’s comments: The informant described this ritual as a very common practice, and did not have very negative things to say about S&S, merely that many students obviously seek to escape possibly punishment.

Collector’s comments: This item is something I have observed myself in my time at Dartmouth, many students seem to practice this ritual.

 

Collected by Carter Copeland and Luke Hudspeth

May 23, 2016

 

Link

Title: Bells for S&S

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: “At some greek houses, when someone believes that S & S is at their door, they initiate a buzzer or bell system to warn everyone in the house in case they are doing something that would get them in trouble.” 

Collector’s comments: The informant was very matter of fact about the rituals, he did acknowledge that he had never seen the bell system in use, but that it was a system that he had heard was used in the past very often.

 

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

May 18th, 2016