Tag Archives: travel

Hands on the Plane – Travel Superstition

Context:

Informant MW lived in America at the time of this collection. MW frequently travels to Zambia to work for her family’s ministry located there. Traveling to Zambia requires multiple flights. When speaking with MW, they shared with me a travel superstition that they learned from their parents.

Text:

The belief is that “you must touch the outside of the plane with your right hand or it will go wrong.”

As Christians, MW’s family regularly pray to God for protection and safe travels. Just as they were stepping into the plane to board, MW was raised to say a prayer of blessing and protection over the plane while touching its exterior with her right hand. Over time, MW explained how this belief became an almost enjoyable superstition. They told me how they would wait eagerly on the jet bridge until they could finally touch the plane.

Analysis:

After hearing about this belief, I have come to understand it as a way of self-identity and expression. MW identifies as a Chrisitan and believes that God hears their prayers and protects them. This travel superstition is an outward expression of identity that serves as a reflection of MW’s beliefs. In the Bible, there are several mentions of Jesus Christ’s powerful and healing touch. Additionally, the Bible mentions the right hand or the right side as being more righteous/holy than the left. I believe that it is likely that these mentions found in the Bible have contributed to crafting the belief in which MW’s family participates in.

Annotation:

Another version of similar travel superstitions can be found in the USC folklore archives. See here:

Wolf, Max, and Max Wolf. “University of Southern California.” USC Digital Folklore Archives, 20 May 2019, folklore.usc.edu/get-on-the-plane-with-your-right-foot-travel-superstition.

Don’t start traveling on Wednesday.

Context & Background: 

My friend who is almost like my grandmother and my late grandfather’s family friend acts as the informant to tells me a weird superstition they had in their small childhood town. 

Performance: (via phone call)

In the small town in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, where I grew up, there was a saying that you shouldn’t start traveling anywhere on Wednesdays. Even for me, this is hard to believe, but the town followed it, and so did I. It was impossible, though, to halt all travel on Wednesdays. So the shortcut to that was on Tuesday, you had to leave your shoes outside the house. If your shoes were outside, maybe at someone else’s house, you could travel on Wednesdays. 

Analysis:

This folk belief was very interesting to find out because there was an oikotype right in the story. The informant told me that it was hard to keep following this belief so the town revised it to be more doable. The oikotype being that if you had shoes outside your house already, you could go and travel. The meaning behind this is that because some part of you – your shoes – are already travelling on Tuesday, then you can go and travel on Wednesday. You are not starting a new journey, you are simply continuing it. A very interesting belief, and one that is from the part in India where my family is from, so my mom knew of this belief, but my family does not follow it. 

Don’t sneeze before you leave your house

Context & Background: 

KR – informant and friend from college of the collector. They share the same ethnicity and often talk about the similarities in their lives. SD – collector 

Performance: (via FaceTime)

KR: As you are leaving the house, if you sneeze, you have to drink water or eat something, and wait a few minutes before you leave your house again. 

SD: I remember this one! My mom told me that I would always sneeze as we left the house and we would have to wait before we left. Apparently I caused them to be late to quite a few places. (laughs)

KR: Yea, to children, if you ever tell them not to do something, they always do it. 

SD: No, this happened a few years ago actually. (smirks)

KR: (Laughs)

Analysis:

Don’t really know the historical, political, or humorous reasoning behind this belief. KR doesn’t know the meaning behind this belief either. Asking my parents, they said it’s just something we did. Sometimes, there are beliefs that keep going for generations, and their meaning gets lost with time. This is one case of that, but it’s still crazy to see the prevalence of this unknown belief in our lives.   

New Years Tradition: Empty Suitcase

Main Piece:

Informant: One other thing that we do on New Years is we get up on top of furniture, like chairs or tables with empty suitcases or carry-on bags. Think luggage for planes. And this has to be at exactly midnight on New Years’ Eve.

Interviewer: Why, why do you guys do this?

Informant: Well, apparently this is supposed to signify or help whoever does this travel more in the coming year.

Interviewer: So if you do this, it is more likely that you will travel in the new year?

Informant: Yes.

Background:

My informant is a friend and a fellow student at USC. She was born and raised in Florida but her father comes from Nicaragua and her mother comes from the Appalachian region. This tradition is something she got from her father and is something her entire family does regularly. She is under the impression that this is a common tradition that many families from Latin American countries participate in but she is unsure as to which countries specifically do or don’t participate in it. She thinks of it as another fun, special New Years’ tradition.

Context:

I had set up a Zoom call with my friend because she said she had some examples of folklore that she could share with me. This sample was shared during that call

Analysis:

This seems like a fairly straightforward tradition to me. Some researching online shows that it is a tradition in Colombia specifically to do what is essentially the same thing, but walking around the neighborhood instead of standing up on a table. Walking around a neighborhood makes sense because it is like you are imitating on a micro-scale, the travel you will be doing in the future. You’re walking instead of on a plane, you’re holding an empty bag instead of some stuffed luggage. So thinking about why standing on top of furniture would be a part of it, I think it makes sense that by standing on top of furniture a person gets higher up in the air and would, in this way, be simulating the flight that is usually associated with travel.

Get on the plane with your right foot: travel superstition

Context:
AW sits with her daughter preparing for the second night of her Passover Seder, the room is bustling with activity as people get food prepared for AW’s many relatives. AW’s Daughter chimes in every so often to ask questions
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Performance:

M: You have a very particular travel superstition is that true?

AW: Yes, I have more than one, but yes

M: could you elaborate

AW: Ever since I got on the plane since I was a little girl my mother would remind us to start every new venture, not just the airplane…the first day of school, when I walked down the aisle…

[AW gets absorbed back into seat planning for the seder]

MW: Ohhh that’s why you tell me to do it on test days

AW: Exactly, every time you start something new you do it with your right foot, it’s good luck.

AW: The first time anyone in the history of our family did it, my grandmother got onto the ship that took her to America, she did it with her right foot and my mother reminded me, so I remind you.
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Meaning to the informant: AW: First of all it reminds me of my recently departed mother, and it’s kind of a talisman, like a rabbit’s foot. It can be a bit of a ritual. I’ve done it as long as I can remember.
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Analysis: The association between the right foot and luck is well documented and speaks to a general insecurity regarding new ventures. As one crosses a threshold into a new space, as AW did when she walked down the aisle, or any time she boards an aircraft. This step ensures that transition happens smoothly. Other examples of this can be throughout the archive as seen [here] and reflect an overarching anxiety about the unknown. In addition to providing luck the action adds a familiar element to an unfamiliar circumstance, a location with which the actor can situate themselves to provide comfort when encountering something new. For another example of travel superstition surrounding the right foot see Southbound (Paniker 174) a journal of Indian Literature

Paniker, Ayyappa, and Chitra Panikkar. “SOUTHBOUND.” Indian Literature, vol. 39, no. 4 (174), 1996, pp. 127–156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23336198.