Tag Archives: superstitions

Introduction

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Many of our superstitions relate to daily routines – what food we eat, what clothes we wear, and what actions or activities do we partake in (e.g. stepping out the door with your right foot on the day of an exam). This is likely due to the fact that our everyday routines are subject to change and are within our control, unlike the result of our actions (exam performance). Also, as expected, many of our superstitions exhibited elements of both homeopathic and contagious magic. Both terms were defined by Sir James George Frazer when he coined the term “sympathetic magic.” Homeopathic magic draws on the “Law of Similarity” of “like produces like” while contagious magic draws on the “Law of Contact” which states that there is a connection between a severed part and the original body that it was a part of. A superstition that we collected that draws on contagious magic is the Turkish tradition of swallowing a grain of rice draws on notions of contagious magic; the grain of rice makes “contact” with the prayer spoken by the parent, and this prayer is carried into the student when it is consumed. An instance of homeopathic magic would be avoiding wearing the color yellow in Spain because it is associated with the devil. The color yellow might not have directly come into contact with the devil himself, it is still associated with dark forces and would hence bring bad luck. While these two examples illustrate separate instances in which homeopathic and contagious magic are manifested in superstitions, many other items that were collected showed a combination of the two types of magic. 

In addition, we observed a few repeated pieces of collected folklore. One example of this was the superstition of eating kitkats before exams to channel good luck. This led us to conclude and see with our own eyes that many cultures and communities have similar superstitions, and that some of our superstitions are used by many different folk groups all over the world. Perhaps its possible that many of our collected superstitions originate from similar ancestral folk groups, or that the internet and other forms of communication have led to increased cultural diffusion of folklore around the world. 

Thank you for taking the time to review our collected folklore!

Red Underwear (China – John Zavras)

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Title: Red Underwear (China)

General Information about Item:

  • Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: MK (friend from Dover, MA)
  • Date Collected: 10-20-21

Informant Data:

  • MK is a friend from home (Dover, MA) and a College Student. He is Chinese and was born in China. MK, his family, and most of his extended family moved to the United States near when he was born. Although MK is not in China anymore, his family kept many of their Chinese rituals, folklore, and traditions. This is one of those traditions.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In China, the color red is a sign of good luck. It is the color that symbolizes the Chinese Communist Revolution, which led to the Communist party’s takeover in China. It is a color of great honor and pride, and it along with yellow are two lucky colors in China. Red is also the main color of the Chinese flag.
  • Social Context: Just like in my folklore that I collected from my Japanese friend, exams are a very important and stressful part of East Asian culture. So much weight is placed on standardized exams, and the need for folklore and superstitions to channel luck and relieve anxiety is crucial.

Item:

  • The informant claims that he wears red underwear every time he has a big exam. The superstition is as follows: If he wears red underwear on the day of an exam, he will earn a great score; if he does not wear red on the day of an exam, he will do very poorly and earn a failing grade. This is an example of the law of similarity – the red color symbolizes Chinese nationalism and good luck.

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

2020 New 2 Pcs/lot Boys Girls Red Boxers Underwear Children Youngster 5 12T| underwear children|boys underwear boxer lotgirl boxer lot - AliExpress

Transcript:

  • “One of my favorite superstitions is always wearing red underwear when I take an exam. I even have a lucky pair that are super bright red that I always wear. Red is the color of China – it symbolizes our government and our proud nation. It is a lucky color for all of us Chinese-Americans, and with the power of China on my side, I can get a good grade on my exams. I first learned about this superstition from my older cousins, who also used to wear red underwear when they took exams. ”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant is very passionate about wearing your country of origin proudly. He recommended that everyone finds some way to honor their ethnicity and country of origin and let your connection with your roots bring you good luck and prosperity.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this superstition inspiring, and it made me want to be more appreciative of Greece and the United States (my countries of origin).

Collector’s Name: John Zavras

Tags/Keywords:

  • Material Lore
  • Superstitions
  • Red
  • Student
  • Exam

“Calcă Cu Dreptul” – Step Right (Romania – John Zavras)

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Title: “Calcă Cu Dreptul” – Step Right (Romania – John Zavras)

General Information about Item:

  • Superstition
  • Language: Romanian
  • Country of Origin: Romania
  • Informant: TM (’23)
  • Date Collected: 10-6-21

Informant Data:

  • TM(‘23) is a Romanian Dartmouth student. He speaks Romanian and is deeply ingrained in Romanian culture. In our in-person interview, he recalled a phrase and superstition that he actively practices but does not know the origin of. It was passed down from his family from generation to generation. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: There are many superstitions in Romanian culture. This culture has a lot of folklore and rich culture, as he described, and he grew up in a very traditional fashion with lots of rules and superstitions in his household. This particular folklore is an adaptation of a traditional Romanian folklore: if you step outside of the house with your right foot, you will be rewarded with good luck. If you don’t step with your right foot, you will have bad luck.
  • Social Context: This folklore is very prevalent in many social groups around Romania and around the world. It has even made appearances throughout the United States, particularly in areas with a lot of Romanian immigrants.

Item:

  • The piece of folklore is called “Calcă Cu Dreptul.” in Romanian it is translated to “step right” (meaning step with your right foot). The informant mentioned that he does not do this every day, but he always remembers to step outside with his right foot the day of a big exam in the hopes of securing a good grade.

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

2,061 Walking Out Front Door Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Transcript:

  • “Whenever I step outside of my house, I don’t really pay attention to what foot I use to take the first step, except for when it’s the day of a big exam. It’s one of the most important superstitions.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant felt very passionately that all people should abide by this superstition, as he swears that every time he walked out the door with his right foot, he aced the exam. Once, the informant didn’t walk out the door with his right foot and he got a C.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I personally had never heard about this superstition until now. It reminds me of the superstition some people have when walking on the sidewalk when they actively try not to step on the cracks in the cement.

Collector’s Name: John Zavras

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstitions
  • Romania
  • Student

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

Greek Idol (Greece – John Zavras)

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Title: Greek Idol (Greece – John Zavras)

General Information about item:

  • Material lore, religious emblem
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: Greece
  • Informant: John Zavras
  • Date Collected: 11-10-21

Informant Data:

  • JZ (myself) is a sophomore (‘24) at Dartmouth and is from Boston. He was born in Greece and lived there for a few years before moving to the U.S. He is ethnically and culturally Greek, and his family has many Greek traditions which have been passed down from generation to generation. He also is Greek Orthodox Christian and his family is religious. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: In Greek Orthodox Christianity, idols are often used to represent Jesus Christ. Holding these idols enables Jesus Christ to be “with you” or “on your side,” which leads to good luck. Idols are often thought of as embodiments of things, and this is a prime example of this. 
  • Social context: Idols can signify many things, but in this social context, it signifies good luck on an exam. Idols come in many forms. They can be apparel, pins that one can put on a piece of clothing, various forms of jewelry (a cross/bracelet), etc.. The Greek-Orthodox religion is very beautiful and devotes a lot of artwork and jewelry to create idols. 

Item: 

  • The item is a little wool/cotton cross on a pin that one can put inside or on the outside of their shirt. The informant’s (my) family wears these little crosses whenever they have big exams, and it signifies good luck and Jesus’ protection and oversight. If one does not wear the idol to the exam, Jesus is no longer with this person and they cannot be protected from a bad grade. This is a prime example of the law of similarity and homeopathic magic – the item (the cross that Jesus died on) is similar to and represents Jesus Christ, who is a holy entity of hope and good fortune. 
Greek Orthodox Filakto Protection Charm Christian Amulet | Etsy

Transcript: “This is one of our most sacred family superstitions. We have a box in my living room full of these little emblems, and we only open it up during special occasions (like big exams).”

Informant’s Comments: There are many other religions that use idols to resemble or signify things that are intangible or supernatural. This is one of the informant’s example of the law of similarity in regards to channeling good luck.

Collector’s Name: John Zavras

Tags/Keywords:

  • Material Lore
  • Superstitions
  • Religious Idol
  • Greek Orthodox Religion
  • Cross

Introduction

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Given the members of our group consist of three Dartmouth women’s ice hockey players, we thought it would be very interesting to learn about how folklore is both similar and different amongst our main competitors, other Ivy League women’s ice hockey teams. Dartmouth in particular has many rituals and superstitions that occur before games. These traditions have developed over time and continue on each year, as they have been passed down from past players to current players. As we took a closer look into each 2021-22 Ivy League hockey teams and the individual players on them, we analyzed their superstitions to see if there were common tendencies with their game day routines. 

For this collection project we interviewed 12 women (at least one from each Ivy League Women’s Hockey team). We interviewed them over FaceTime to create an open and casual environment so each informant would be comfortable sharing their individual and team superstitions. These informants ranged from freshman-seniors in college. From these 12 informants, we were able to gather 18 different items of folklore.

We tried to get a range of perspectives from each hockey team, and each person we talked to provided a new view on the way we look at superstitions and how we interpret them – specifically amongst the women’s ivy league ice hockey teams.

Conclusion

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Throughout this collection project we identified some similarities and differences among individual and team superstitions throughout our opponents in the Ivy League.  One of the similarities was that most of these superstitions were categorized by magic superstitions, which are based on cause and effect, and also containing cultural and social contexts. The second similarity that we found was that most team chants are passed down each year. Team chants were one of the most common team superstitions amongst the people we interviewed. Chants are a big part of team camaraderie and are a way to make sure every player heads into the game with high positive energy. Teams believe that if they all routinely chant together, they will enter the game strong and play well. There were many differences among individual player’s superstitions and these were inherited from others who came before the players, which have been passed down for generations. 

As we learned in class – everyone is the folk. All of the people we interviewed are the folk as they have their own folklore and share that folklore with others around them. Another main theme that we gathered is that most of the superstitions we collected were a result of a specific event that happened to the informant… for example, they broke a stick and had to use their backup with a bad tape job, which resulted in them playing badly, and they looked up to a teammate for guidance for an action to perform in order to play well.

Mirror on the Door (Noah Hensley)

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Title: Mirror on the Door

General information about the item:

  • Superstition, House Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Vietnam
  • Informant: KL
  • Date Collected: Oct 21, 2021

Informant Data:

KL was born into a family of Vietnamese immigrants. He initially lived in New York City, but eventually relocated to Burlington, NC to attend high school. He is a junior at Dartmouth College, studying economics

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: 

The Vietnamese are typically firm believers in ‘Feng Shui’i; arrangement of furniture and items in the house that promote good flow of energy throughout the house. Viet households are typically meticulously planned and laid out by the matriarch of the family. Mirrors are particularly important in planning various aspects of ‘Feng Shui’.

Social Context: 

As the mother typically is well versed in traditional superstitions related to Feng Shui, KL received knowledge of this practice through his mother. It is disrespectful to alter the Feng Shui of a room that has already been set up, so children in Viet families are often informed of various traditions through their parental units. 

Item:

Mirrors are often forbidden to be placed in certain areas of the house: at the foot of the bed, for example, a mirror is thought to bring bad spirits as energy is reflected back into ones-self from nightmares. Mirrors can also have the opposite effect, however. To protect positive Feng Shui, mirrors are placed on the front of the front door to ward off bad spirits and energies from entering the house. An evil spirit, before entering the house, would be afraid of its own reflection, and therefore not enter the abode. 

Informants Comments:

Very common in Vietnam, less common in US.

Collectors Comments:

It might strike some as unusual to put a mirror on the front door in the US given cultural contexts.

Collectors Name: Noah Hensley

Tags/Keywords:

Superstition

Vietnamese

Parents

Vietnam

Feng Shui, Mirrors

Ritual – Greek Yogurt and Cinnamon

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Title: Eating Greek Yogurt and Cinnamon

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Customary
    • Subgenre:   Superstition, Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: USA

Informant Data: Wyatt Smith ’19 is a 20-year-old male caucasian light-weight rower from Hong Kong. He is a long-time rower, having rowed competitively before Dartmouth, and was recruited to Dartmouth’s D150 Lightweight Rowing team.

Contextual Data: 

Social Context: Lightweight rowing has a very strict weight cut off of 160 lbs, which means heavier rowers over 160lbs are barred from competition. The D150 team has an average weigh in of 155lbs. Due to the importance of falling under the 160lb limit, weight cutting is a central part of the D150 experience. To prepare new rowers and to remind more experienced ones, previous generations of D150 rowers have developed a series of eating rituals based on scientific readings and personal observations/superstitions. These are performed the days leading up to races and subsequently passed down to new rowers.

Cultural Context: The practice of eating greek yogurt and cinnamon before race weigh-ins has been handed down through a line of rowers throughout the years. This practice links generations and reminds them not only of their status as lightweight (sub -160lb) rowers, but also provides a unifying agent for rowers trying to lose weight.

Item: This item is a customary piece of folklore that focuses on passing down a belief that eating greek yogurt and cinnamon instead of a normal dinner before a race will help you lose weight. It is customary because although the belief itself is a superstition, its observation and practice in the days leading up to races is a ritual.

Associated media:

Transcript (2:41 – 3:23):

WS: “Through kind of experimenting with your weight-cutting people have learned how to really perfect, uh, what to do; and so, for example, I’ve.. I’ve really come to enjoy eating a bowl of um… instead of dinner uh Thursday night, I’ll have a bowl of greek yogurt, with um… some fruit and lots of nut butter, and lots of cinnamon. I’ve found that that helps me get to weight and helps me not hold a lot of water, but uh… lose some weight. Um… and still have energy. And so I’ve personally passed that recipe down to younger people, and I think I learned it from an older guy who just graduated…”

BC: “Right”

WS: “and he might have learned it from someone else.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • The passing down of this superstition, as well as the ritualistic observation of this special dinner in the days leading up to a race is analogous to the “traditional wisdom” aspect of proverbs because both rely on traditions, specifically past observations and recommendations, to espouse a specific idea.

Collector’s Name: Brian Chekal