Author Archives: simobob

Kicking the Lamppost for Good Luck

Age: 58

1. Kicking the same lamppost going to and leaving from a football game at the Coliseum for good luck. 

2. This participant went to the University of Southern California and graduated in 1995. While at USC, the participant remembers the football game days very fondly, including all of the odd good luck rituals that students would perform in order to ensure a win over the visiting team. One such ritual that she remembers is how students would kick a lamppost while exiting campus (through the Exposition Blvd exit) and walking towards the Coliseum, and would have to kick the same one they initially kicked while walking back onto campus. The participant admitted that she didn’t really understand where or when this tradition came from, but she remembers all of her friends – and the students around them – would go out of their way to kick the lampposts for good luck at the game. She admitted that she thought it was hilarious that students at USC today continued the tradition – probably with the same lack of knowledge of the traditions’ origins.

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: While I myself also do not know specifically where this game-day tradition originated, I can attest to the fact that USC students (myself included) still participate in the ritual to this very day. It could be possible that – much like the idea of a lucky shirt or some other lucky totem/item – one student or a group of students just so happened to kick the lamppost one day on their way to the game, and after winning that game, believed that they had to maintain the exact same routine they went through that day to ensure that they would continue to win games at the Coliseum. Since USC is a school with such a large football culture, it is no surprise that this game-day tradition would therefore spread amongst the students who wanted more than nothing to crush their opponents and uphold their school image through their sense of school spirit.  

Beach Bonfires/Senior Sunrise and Sunset

Age: 21

1. Senior Sunrise and Sunset (ft. a bonfire) to mark the beginning and end of the final year of high school. 

2. Growing up in Huntington Beach, this participant went through a special tradition in high school, called the senior sunrise and senior sunset. When the participant first “officially” became a senior (that is, the weekend right before school started for the year, he explained), he and his graduating class drove down to the beach and lit a giant bonfire and waited for the sun to rise so they could all watch it together. Then, at the very end of the year, right before graduation, the class all drove down to the same spot, lit a bonfire, and watched the sunset together. At the very end of the year, during the sunset trip, some kids brought all of the school work they had done throughout the year and burned it in the large fire pit they had going. The participant explained that he thought this ritual – done every year by the graduating seniors at his high school – was supposed to be symbolic of how special the year was supposed to be for them, and how at the end of it, it was almost as if the sunset was not only concluding the day, but their year as seniors and time together. 

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: Upon hearing this ritual from the participant, I believe that I agree with his interpretation. The sun – often used as a representation of the life cycle of something – is used here as a symbol for their time at high school, and the experience of the bonfire retreat was obviously meant to unite them all in this feeling of great achievement – unifying them in their shared accomplishment of making it to the end of high school. The bonfire itself I think is also symbolic, especially at the sunset event where kids would burn their old homework. If we are to consider fire in its traditional symbolic sense as a way of cleansing, I would argue that the graduating seniors were, in a sense, cleansing themselves not only from their past work but also from their former selves. Leaving high school, they enter a transitional period in which they’re meant to go on and become adults; as such I think it could be seen that the bonfire is also meant to represent their cleansing or rebirth of themselves – no longer children.

Snake Skin on a Fence Brings Rain

Age: 21

1. Text: In Texas, there is the folk belief/ritual that if one puts snake skin on their fence, rain is likely to come. 

2. Context: This participant, born and raised in Texas, spoke of a superstitious ritual that he believes is pretty unique to Texas. He says that growing up, whenever he would visit some of the more rural – or even suburban – areas of the state (he himself had grown up in more of an urban area), he would sometimes see fences lined with snakeskin. When he asked his parents about it after seeing it a couple of times – too often for it to just be an odd decoration or coincidence, he explained – his parents just told him it was an old superstition that the snake skin would bring rain. He never really understood why this would be a belief, and explained that his best interpretation or understanding of the odd ritual was that maybe it was an old Native American tradition or something akin to an old superstition left over from a bygone era.   

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: Upon initially hearing about this folk belief and ritual from my interviewee, I was similarly confused by the superstition. While I don’t fully know whether or not this is necessarily a ritual from any particular Native American tribe or belief system, I don’t doubt that it could have roots in some type of rain-related ritual, as rain rituals appear throughout countless cultures. Perhaps this superstition is meant to evoke a sort of causality through the fact that snakes might become more visibly present during rainy seasons/storms; it seems plausible that people believed that if rain causes snakes to appear more often, maybe this cycle can be triggered through the use of their skins. Just like how earthworms seem to pop up in abundance after a particularly rainy day, maybe snakes too appear more frequently – and maybe through this, people began to believe if they brought out snakes/snake skins they could evoke this pattern and it would begin to rain. 

Mums

Age: 20

1. Throughout Texas, during highschool homecoming season, girls usually wear large floral arrangements called a “mum”. 

2. This participant, despite not going to high school in Texas, has lots of family living there. She often visits her extended family in Texas, and throughout her many trips to the state has come to learn of this sort of “festival” (if one is to consider homecoming a festival/celebration) ritual through her cousins and their friends, all of whom were fairly close to her age. She herself has never participated in the tradition of wearing a mum, but some of these aforementioned cousins and friends have shown off their own creations and pieces which they wore to homecoming/for homecoming photos. A mum, as the participant described it, is a large floral arrangement that is usually worn around the neck. Sometimes, these arrangements are further embellished through the use of ribbons, tinsel, and other decorative craft materials. The way she sees it, mums are just Texas-sized corsages. The participant believes that this tradition is meant to show off who can achieve or afford the largest display of school spirit. She surmised that it was a tradition rooted in the deeply-entwined love for football – even at the high school level – that is essential to Texas.

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: Similar to the participant of this interview, I believe that “mums” are a part of a costume ritual meant to display one’s school pride and social status. Given that the mums are worn during homecoming season – a season/celebration that is centered around a specific football game in which traditionally alumni of the school are invited to come and celebrate – it only makes sense that a display of pride is of utmost importance at this time. Not only does it work to boost team morale, but it helps create a sense of community and identity based upon the high school you attend. I think they could probably also be used to communicate social status in a way, as upon looking up images of mums, I found that some of the more extravagant looking ones were absolutely humongous in size, and even included stuffed animals, bejeweled fabrics and ribbons, etc. – all materials that added together could be costly to put together – especially for just a celebration of a football game.

White Sage Tea

Age: 21

1. If you have a cold you should drink white sage tea.

2. This participant, born and raised in San Diego, recounted the fact that while she was growing up, her family was very much into holistic medicine and would often give her and her siblings various teas and “natural remedies” for any sickness. One specific medicine she remembers was white sage tea. Whenever she had a cold or a cough or just generally complained about feeling ill, her parents would give her a hot cup of white sage tea to make her feel better. She very distinctly remembers the flavor – she said it tasted incredibly “herb-y” and “earthy” and that she used to complain about the taste until her parents would agree to at least add honey or some type of sweetener to appease her. While growing up, the participant states that she never really thought about the origins of this treatment and simply thought it was normal. Now grown up, however, she has since learned that the treatment is rooted in local customs and traditions of the Kumeyaay – a tribe that has historically inhabited the San Diego area. Although she stated she never actually asked her parents why or how they came across the remedy, she assumes it’s just through the fact that they had always been tapped into holistic remedies, they probably just encountered the remedy through the local community.

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: Natural remedies or holistic medicine is something that has existed for generations, outdating modern medicine by centuries. This specific interview reveals how localized these practices often are. I myself also have parents who are fairly tapped into the world of holistic medicine, and yet despite this – having not grown up in San Diego – I was completely unaware of white sage tea as a remedy. Although this is a fuzzier distinction to make in the age of technology and globalization, since holistic medicine is not necessarily a mainstream practice, I would argue that it still relies on one’s local environment and historical communities on its upkeep and continued practice.