Tag Archives: Sticks

Cornell Superstitions

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Title: Cornell Superstitions – Lily Delianedis 

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Magic Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Lily Delianedis 
  • Date Collected: 11/09/21

Informant Data:

  • Lily Delianedis is a female athlete at Cornell and is in the class of 2025. She is from Edina, MN and moved there when she was in middle school from Cape Cod. She is currently living in New York and is undeclared for her major. She plans to get her Master’s Degree after Cornell and wants to live on the East Coast when she is older.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The cultural context is that many hockey players go to coffee shoes before games and re-tape their sticks as well.
  • Social Context: The social context is interacting with people who participate in the handshakes and re-taping their sticks together. 
  • The magic substances in these superstitions are hot chocolate, tape, and the team sign. 

Item:

  • These items are customary types of folklore under the genre of magic superstition. Lily performs these before each home game. 

Transcript:

  • “I have to drive to a coffee shop and get a hot chocolate, then drive around and listen to music. When we have our team warm ups I have to tap a certain wall during warmups, and do a specific handshake with one of my teammates. I have to tape my stick before our team warm ups and tap our team sign in the locker room with my stick on the way out to the ice before the first period. If I do not do these things then I will feel off and I will not have a good game.”  

Informant’s Comments:

  • Lily said she adopted these superstitions from teammates before her who she was friends with, and now does these things with two of her closest friends on the team, recommending others to do so as well.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I was interested that their team does not have any collective superstitions or group superstitions, but they do have rituals that they like to complete before games such as playing spikeball or participating in a race. However, these things are not cause and result and are not necessary to be completed in order to play well. 

Collector’s Name: Currie Putrah 

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Magic Superstition 
  • Sticks
  • Tape
  • Sign
  • Hot Chocolate

Princeton Superstitions

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Title: Princeton Superstitions – Annie Kuehl 

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Sign Superstition, Magic Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Annie Kuehl 
  • Date Collected: 11/10/21

Informant Data:

  • Annie Kuehl is a female Princeton student in the class of 2024. She is from Edina, Minnesota and lived there her whole life. She is currently living in Princeton, NJ. At school Annie is on the Women’s Ice Hockey team and plans to pursue a career in business. She has 2 superstitions that she follows strictly before games. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The cultural context is being part of a team where other girls use white stick tape as well, which is a superstition passed down from team to team. 
  • Social Context: The social context is interacting with people who also tape their back-up sticks before games, along with getting caffeine. 
  • The magic substance in the superstition about taping her sticks is the white tape. 

Item:

  • This item is a customary type of folklore under the genre of magic superstition. Annie performs these before each home game. 

Transcript:

  • “If CVS is out of Celcius Green Tea Lemonade then I will go to Starbucks and get a Venti Iced Vanilla latte. I tape all 3 of my sticks with white tape before our team warm ups.  ‘I once broke my stick and had to use my backup, which had the worst tape job of my life, so ever since then I’ve starting taping all 3,’”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Annie mentioned that if she did not do these two things or if she only taped two sticks then she would play badly and not be able to communicate with the women she plays with. She also said she now tapes her backup sticks with her linemates in order to play well. 

Collector’s Comments:

  • I was very intrigued by Annie’s superstitions because she was the first person who mentioned a sign superstition. It was also interesting to hear about the reason she tapes all three of her sticks based on something that happened to her, but that how she started using white tape initially was because her idol on the team did before her. 

Collector’s Name: Currie Putrah