Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Korean ghost legend

Text:

“The folklore — or legend — I want to share is a Korean ghost legend that I heard from my mom growing up. I heard it when our family first moved to the United States, when I was in second grade, around Halloween.

The story my mom told me takes place in her high school — an all-girls high school back in Korea. In the last stall of the school bathroom, a ghost pops up out of the toilet and asks if you want red or blue toilet paper. Unless you ignore the ghost and walk out, or say you don’t need any toilet paper, you’re not safe. If you choose either option — red or blue — the ghost kills you or drags you down into the toilet with it.

As for where my mom heard the story, she didn’t specify who she heard it from, but there’s a Korean word called quedam, which refers to well-known, typical ghost stories, especially ones set in schools. Korean high schools are large buildings, and they get very creepy at night with the lights off. My mom said a similar legend originated in Japan, among Japanese schoolgirls, and eventually found its way to Korea, where it became widely known across Korean high schools.

The ghost targets a specific group — students — and the story only occurs in a specific location: the last stall of a school bathroom. I don’t think the legend goes into the ghost’s origins. It’s not specific to one high school or one region. I think its purpose is simply to be a scary story that makes you think twice before using the bathroom late at night at school.

Korean high schools have a unique system where, unlike American high schools that end around 3 p.m., students are required to stay at school until late at night — sometimes until 10 p.m. — to study for college entrance exams. So the school gets dark, and that’s exactly the context where these kinds of ghost stories become very relevant.”

Context:

This text was collected from a sophomore civil engineering student at USC. He shared this legend in a recorded interview, recounting a story he heard from his mother when he was in second grade, shortly after his family immigrated to the United States. The legend centers on a bathroom ghost in the last stall of a Korean school, which offers victims a fatal choice between red and blue toilet paper. The informant learned through his mother that the legend likely originated in Japan among schoolgirls before diffusing into Korean school culture, where it became widely known under the broader category of quedam — a Korean term for traditional, well-known ghost stories. The legend is deeply tied to a specific institutional context: the Korean high school system’s requirement that students remain on campus studying until late at night, which creates the dark, isolated conditions that make the story feel plausible and threatening.

Analysis:

This text is a legend: it is set in the real world, targeting a specific location and population, and designed to feel believable rather than fantastical. Thus, Linda Degh’s point that legends function as debates about belief is useful here: the story doesn’t demand full belief, but it enacts enough doubt that a student alone in a dark school bathroom at 10 p.m. might hesitate and feel scared. This is also the legend’s social function; it governs behavior within the folk group of Korean students, creating informal rules around a vulnerable, isolated situation. Moreover, the story’s transnational diffusion from Japan to Korea is a clear example of oicotypification: the core structure travels across borders while adapting to fit the local institutional context of Korean school culture. The legend also does what ghostlore characteristically does: it attaches supernatural danger to a specific, mundane location, transforming an ordinary school bathroom into a site of folk belief. The story’s survival across generations and national borders speaks to its resonance with universal anxieties around isolation, darkness, and vulnerability.




Luka Doncic Trade Consparicy

Text:
“So, me and basically all my friends I grew up with, we’re all huge sports fans. So, a big conspiracy theory that we thought might have been true is about the NBA, which is the professional basketball league. There was a recent trade of a player named Luka Doncic. Basically, one of the best players in the world. He got traded to the Lakers, which is one of the most popular teams. who weren’t doing so well.
Everyone was like, “How did they agree to this?” And what’s even crazier is that a few months later, the team that traded Luka Doncic got the number one overall pick, which is like, it was like a really valuable thing that they just lucked into by a one percent chance. So the conspiracy theory is that because the NBA’s viewership was really down during that period, they kind of forced that team to trade their star player to a big market. 
And in exchange, they can win the lottery to have the best new and young players. I guess the big thing is, at the end of the day, sport is just entertainment. So the theory is kind of questioning the integrity of the league, and like, you know, is it purely just for profit, or do they still have the respect and love for the actual game still.”

Context:

This text was collected from a male college student who grew up in a close-knit friend group bonded primarily through sports fandom. The conspiracy theory centers on two real recent events: the trade of star player Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and the NBA subsequently winning the first overall draft pick at statistically unlikely odds. The informant and his friends circulated this theory informally among themselves, piecing together public events into narratives of institutional manipulation. The informant’s concluding reflection (questioning whether the league retains genuine love for the game) suggests the conspiracy functions less as a firm belief and more as a way for processing disillusionment with a beloved institution he has invested significant emotional identity in since childhood.

Analysis:

This piece is a contemporary legend in a folkloric sense: it is set in the real world, centered on debatable truth claims, and functioning as what Linda Degh describes as a debate about belief. Additionally, the friend group collectively constructing and circulating this narrative exemplifies how proximity and shared experience generate folk belief. The theory also demonstrates the Goliath effect, as blame migrates toward the most powerful institutional player, the NBA itself, rather than individual teams or owners. The league becomes the “villain” in the legend precisely because of its size and commercial dominance. The narrative also carries deep community values around authenticity and integrity in sport, and the conspiracy framework is used to articulate anxieties about cultural hegemony. More specifically, the way that profit-driven culture industries reshape experiences that many folk communities hold as genuinely meaningful. The theory ultimately functions as a form of vernacular resistance, allowing ordinary fans to critically examine an institution that holds significant power over their cultural and emotional lives.




Chinese New Year Tradition of Making “Dern”

Text:

“On the 15th of the Chinese New Year, my grandma would make something called “dern.” “Dern” is like a bun shaped in the form of our Chinese Zodiac. She would make the “dern” for all family members. She would make seven of them, and they are all in our corresponding Chinese zodiac. So, if I’m born in the zodiac of the chicken, then she would make a chicken. This is practiced on the last day of the Chinese New Year. All of our animal characters would be on the same big bun; there are usually three big buns in total. She would also make two fish on one of the big buns, corresponding to the proverb “May you have abundance/surplus year after year.” After I got a boyfriend, my grandmother started making his “dern” as well. It is referred to as “dern” in the Shandong dialect. To be honest, sometimes it is hard for me to recognize which animal is which after she made them. Another thing is that we have to eat it. We have to bring this gigantic bun back to our own house and place it on our table for a day, and then you eat it. I’m not sure why we put it on the table for a day, but if you eat your zodiac, that just means that you are safe and good, and you have to eat the parts with the pieces of gold as well, which means that you can earn a lot of money in the upcoming year.”

Context:

This text was collected from a Chinese international student from Beijing, China. She learned this tradition through direct participation in her grandmother’s annual practice and shared it with me in a casual conversation as she spoke from personal memory. Her grandmother was from Shandong province, and dern is also a word describing decorated buns in the Shandong dialect. The tradition takes place on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year (the Lantern Festival), which marks the final day of the celebration period. The grandmother serves as the sole maker of the buns, crafting zodiac-shaped figures for every family member. A significant detail is that after the informant began dating her boyfriend, the grandmother started making a bun for him as well, suggesting the practice functions as an informal way of welcoming new members into the family. She interprets eating one’s zodiac as ensuring personal safety and prosperity in the coming year.

Analysis:

This piece exemplifies material culture, more specifically when it functions as a family lore, which shows how a broader regional tradition becomes personalized at the household level. This reminds me of Carl von Sydow’s concept of oicotypes: in this case, the family’s specific variation — seven individual buns, three large bases, fish for prosperity, a one-day display — represents a local adaptation of a wider Shandong practice. The variation is shaped by this family’s particular values and composition. Moreover, the ritual also aligns with Frazer’s theory of homeopathic magic: eating one’s zodiac animal and the golden pieces embedded in the bun not only symbolize safety and wealth, it also enact them. Corresponding folk beliefs like those exemplified through the shape of the “dern” collapse the boundary between representation and outcome. The grandmother’s decision to include the boyfriend’s bun is especially interesting, as it functions as a vernacular act of admitting family membership, which comes before any official social recognition of the relationship.





Never accept money with your left hand

Age: 23

MN: “I have Nigerian ancestry. My parents both immigrated from Nigeria at a young age, so they are, you know, American largely, but they also have their roots in Nigeria. I have many family, both there, and here. So we kind of kept a somewhat watered down version of Nigerian culture in our family for a while now. Um, I was told a lot when I was a kid or younger that I should not ever take money with my left hand. You know? If someone could be able to give me change or if I’m taking money from an adult for- for a gift, I won’t ever use my left hand to take it.”

Interviewer: “Who specifically would tell you?”

MN: “Uh, a parent, an older person, an aunt, an uncle, a grandma, would all say the same thing, have the same note. Like: ‘hey, don’t do that. That’s not good.’ Right? I never got a deep dive into why, but it was always kind of a, like, it’s not respectful. It also has some element of bad luck to it. Like, you know, it doesn’t bode well for you to take money or take things with your left hand, which, in a sense, is kind of like a more ‘evil’ or, you know? Unlucky. I think there’s a worldwide kind of culture against left-handedness in general. We have the same thing over in Nigeria, I guess. There was also, what was it? There was the… Um… pockets. Yeah, hands in pockets. That was more directly related to laziness and being seen as lazy. Like if you’re at home and, you know, you should be doing chores maybe, having hands in your pocket shows shows that you are- that you have free time. Those kind of had the same “correction” when I did those things, either taking money with the wrong hand or having my hands in my pockets. It always felt like ‘this is not good for you to do.’ So, I don’t know if they’re related in any way beyond that. But I’ve always had the same kind of like, It always had like, it always felt like those 2 things were kind of related. In a way.”

Context: As stated in the interview, the informant is Nigerian American, and grew up in the United States. During the interview, he stated that some Nigerian customs that his parents were taught may have been “watered down” the longer they have stayed in the United states. He still feels as though these customs have heavily influenced how he grew up, and he still practices many of them to this day.

Analysis: There is a strong cultural association with the idea of left and right equating to good and evil. This isn’t specific to Nigerian culture, and can be found across many cultures around the world. It’s interesting how multiple different cultures can develop similar folklore, and how those ideas can also vary depending on the family, location, or personal experiences of the person sharing those ideals. I believe this is a mix of family folklore and a folk belief/ superstition that accepting money with your left hand is “bad luck”. This also reinforces social norms, like what is considered polite and rude specifically within the informant’s family and within his overall Nigerian folk group.

Lunar New Year Superstition

Age: 23

JL: “My Mom texted me today, ‘Hello my daughter and son. It’s Chinese New Year so you don’t have to sweep or take out the trash.'”

Context: This is from one of my roommates, who is Chinese American. She celebrates the Chinese New Year with her family every year. This was a text from her mom to her family group chat, which includes her father and brother. It is a Chinese superstition that if you sweep on the Lunar New Year, you sweep away all your good luck. If you take out the trash, you are throwing away prosperity as you enter the New Year.

Analysis: This superstition is a Chinese folk belief, combined with a calendar ritual relating to Lunar New Year. Like many other cultures folklore, this one relates the idea of good and bad luck with specific rituals. Functionally, not participating in these chores reinforces cultural identity, and also reinforces Chinese social values of prosperity and luck. I also think that the fact this was shared over text demonstrates how folklore adapts over time. Many years ago, this may have been an in person face to face conversation, but in the year 2026, people have found other ways to communicate and connect with one another in order to spread knowledge and information. Overall, this tradition helps create a sense of certainty when the future may be uncertain, especially at the start of a new year.