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“Yeah so every year, I think this is a pretty widely common thing in high schools in like America but like when you’re a senior there will be a day where everybody skips class and it’s called senior skip day. For us, like the high school I went to, it’s pretty much become a tradition where every year the senior class will like meet up and we’ll drink and pregame and all that and then all of us will go to the beach and like hang out for the day. Just like everybody in the class or like anybody that wants to go so like it’s open to everyone and I mean like everybody gets into it because it’s the last few like moments you’re sharing as a group you know. So, yeah, that’s one of the more special traditions I’d say from my high school.”
Context
AV says that senior skip day is a very common and well known tradition among high school seniors in America, and notes that all his friends in college, his siblings, and his high school friends from other schools participated in their own senior skip days at their respective high schools. AV says that at his high school, their specific tradition of drinking and going to the beach as a large group was well known from year to year and nobody really deviated from it. He doesn’t know when it started, but he says a few years later, kids are still doing it now and everybody gets into it.
Analysis
Senior skip day is a piece of customary folklore, a yearly tradition that is widespread throughout American high schools, yet is given its own unique spin by each specific school and student body. It’s a great example of how school lore passes horizontally through students rather than vertically from the institution. It’s a tradition that plays on liminality and communitas, as normal school rules are void (and the school doesn’t mind) and the entire student body is together in experiencing this tradition. For AV’s school specifically, skip day has almost become a festival that marks the end of high school and the social bonds as a graduating class, and according to Santino, intertwines the playfulness of festivals while still marking that transition past high school. Skip day is also a great example of how lore passes down as even though it’s not an official tradition of the school, the same event has been and will continue to be passed from senior class to senior class.
Monthly Archives: May 2026
Valorant 9-3 Curse
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“I play a game called Valorant and basically in ranked games there are like two halves of twelve rounds each and there is a well known curse among people that play the game that if a team is up 9-3 at the half then they’re cursed to lose the game. I swear it happens so much too like you’ll be easily winning the first half and it’ll be 9-3 and you’ll just lose bad in the second half. So yeah like me and my friends or even if you’re playing with teammates if you’re down 9-3 people will say like oh it’s the 9-3 curse we’re gonna win and stuff like that.”
Context
JC says that the 9-3 curse has existed since the early days of Valorant around 2020/2021 and pretty much everybody involved with the game knows what it is. He says he vividly remembers moments where he was up 9-3 and lost as well as moments where he was down 9-3 and came back, but doesn’t remember other comebacks or blown leads as vividly. JC says that more times than not, if the score is 9-3, someone will bring up the curse.
Analysis
As someone that also plays Valorant, the 9-3 curse is definitely a legend that has blossomed and stuck among the game’s folk group over the years. No one knows who started or popularized the curse, but it spread extremely fast orally through being mentioned in ranked games and by streamers. As such, it’s a great example of Peck’s discussion of digital folklore, as it was created online and spread asynchronously as well as orally and visually, and each time the 9-3 curse resulted in a comeback only served to add to the legend. The curse is not particularly evidence based, but because of its infamy as a curse, all of us in the Valorant folk group will always remember losing 9-3 leads way more than any other scoreline, which shows how the belief is social and situational because it fits into the lore and the Valorant world. For losing teams, the 9-3 curse has become a way to manage the uncertainty of the game’s result, and something to back you (or predict the future) as you try to mount a come back.
Matzo Ball Soup
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“My dad’s side of the family is Jewish so they had a lot of like food and meals that they would eat either for special occasions or like just throughout the year because it’s like Jewish food. And the one that’s carried through to my immediate family is matzo ball soup because it’s a really good remedy for like a cold or just general sickness normally in the winter so the cultural tradition here is getting lots of matzo ball soup and using it as like a cure to sickness when we’re not feeling well.”
Context
ML says that not a ton of Jewish customs carried over to her immediate family, but matzo ball soup was one that did because of their belief in its comforting and curing powers. She remembers eating it when her or her sister were sick, and she said that eating it did make her feel better.
Analysis
ML’s story is an example of material culture, specifically foodways, as well as folk medicine. The tradition of eating matzo ball soup contains religious and traditional values in her family, but also showed a long standing belief in its remedial and comforting powers. ML notes that not many other Jewish meals or traditions were passed on to her family, showing that some beliefs or pieces of folklore are stronger or hold more meaning and are able to be passed on more easily even as other traditions of the same folk group fade away. For ML, this belief was enforced by evidence, as she said that eating matzo ball soup did genuinely make her and her sister feel better, which only serves to enforce the folk belief. ML’s story with the soup is a great example of Kaptchuk’s discussion on healing rituals, as the soup represented a sensory experience, family, and hope along with the nutritional value, all of which combined to comfort ML. I think this is a very powerful idea, because my mom would make a specific noodle dish when my brothers and I were not feeling well, but I remember the love and the care that the meal represented more than how I felt after eating it.
Interlocking Arms
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“I played varsity basketball all 4 years in high school, and one like common thing that would always come up throughout the season was interlocking arms. On like senior night, the seniors would interlock their arms with each other before the game as their names were getting announced to like walk up and take their pictures and get flowers and stuff. I think it was like a way of showing that we were together, kinda like one group, one team sort of thing. But also during like clutch free throws at the end of the game everybody on the bench would interlock arms for the free throws. It was kind of like a superstition, something we did for good luck. You see it a lot on like TV too like in college basketball games they’ll do it and also in soccer games during penalty shootouts a lot of times the players in the back will have their arms interlocked, so yeah like the same thing we were doing.”
Context
DZ remembers interlocking arms as an unspoken act that would come up throughout the season for his high school basketball team in moments of solidarity (senior night) and in clutch moments when they needed the best luck. He says that the whole team would always participate, and no one would have to say anything; if one person started it, everyone would follow suit. DZ notes that this wasn’t something independent to his team and that he has seen it on TV a lot, so even the first time that his team did it he had an understanding of the meaning behind the act.
Analysis
DZ’s story of interlocking arms contains a lot of different folkloric themes. He says that the gesture was always unspoken and that he knew the meaning behind it from the very first time that his team locked arms, showing how folklore can be shared and enacted through example. The gesture also become a core part of the basketball team’s identity, representing unity and the team’s bonds in valuable moments. This gesture also served multiple purposes. In moments like senior night, it was used as somewhat of a rite of passage, marking the seniors transition into a new beginning. In clutch moments during games, it served as a superstition with magic behind it, a gesture that would create good luck and influence the outcome of the game positively. These different uses are an example of Santino’s point that rituals are both symbolic and instrumental, as interlocking arms represented team togetherness and helped create good luck. DZ saying that the gesture was not one created by his team, but rather a popular gesture among athletes shows that it is a core piece of lore among the athlete folk group, and also that it exists in multiplicity and variations around the world. I, for one, always noticed this gesture by sports teams in games I watched on TV, so I thought it was very cool that somebody I knew engaged in it in their own team as well.
Circle (OK sign) Game
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“When I was in like middle and high school, there was always a game where anybody could make like an OK sign with their hand and hold it below their hip, like it had to be below your hip or it didn’t count. And if you looked at it and they saw you looking then they got to neck you (slap you on the neck). This could just happen like any time so you would always have to be careful, and I remember my friends would try to like bait me into looking down so they could neck me. But if I got them they would always say they didn’t look. Looking back, it was like so stupid. But it was just a way to get to hit your friends I think.”
Context
VH explains the circle game as a long running game throughout middle and high school among his friend group. He says that no one ever explicitly taught him the rules of the game, and he feels that it just became a part of his life. VH also points out that the results were very up to personal interpretation and often disputed. This game was always playing, so at any time you could get caught looking. VH also says that he has seen this game on social media and other friends in college knew about it too.
Analysis
The circle game is definitely an example of customary folklore as it is a repeated game that VH learned through experience and participation rather than in any explicit or formal way, which shows how folklore is disseminated unofficially. It’s also a great example of how folklore is constantly evolving and not always clearly defined, as everybody would have their own take on the rules of the game. This game was a manifestation of childhood humor, and also utilizes play frames to slap your friends in an “acceptable” way. The circle game is a great example of the young boy folk group, as it exists in multiplicity and variations outside of just one school/friend group, as VH notes that he has seen it on social media and this was a game that was often played in my school as well (in a totally different state).