Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Superstition: Sports Luck

Nationality: American
Age: 25
Occupation: Colorist for Cartoon Network
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 20 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish, Japanese

White/Hispanic

California State University Fullerton

Illustration

Colorist for Cartoon Network’s Regular Show

English, Spanish

20 April 2011

Sports luck- Kicking the base of the flag pole.

“I’m a huge SC football fan. I’ve been going to football games with my family since before I can even remember. And for as long as I can remember, I’ve kicked the base of one of the flagpoles off Trousdale on the way to the Coliseum. I think I learned it from my father, he has been an SC football fan since he started going to the games when he was a Freshman. I don’t really know why I do it, I guess for luck and because that’s what my family always does. It’s a pretty common thing; you can hear people kicking the metal base plate long before you ever reach the flagpoles. The bases of the poles are scuffed and are so loose because of the thousands of people who kick it every game. It’s really funny when you get new fans that don’t realize how hard you have to kick the base to make a loud noise.  They’ll just tap it and it doesn’t make a noise. When this happens, it’s not uncommon to boo the person, unless they’re a kid or something.”

Looking at the act of kicking the flagpole, I agree with my informant. This act is an example of sport’s luck. People have thousands of different little things that they do prior to and during games to ensure there team the best chance of wining. If your team wins its because they are the better team, however if they lose, and you failed to adhere to your pre-game ritual, then its all your fault. The act of kicking the flagpole, in my opinion, is also a simple gesture to ward off possible calamity and for luck. It’s a superstition akin to knocking on wood after saying something is going really good. The act of kicking the pole can also be seen as a way for people to recognize the real fans that have stayed with the team for years. AT recalls a time when barely 15, 000 people would attend SC football games. In her own words, “Man we (the team) were bad back in the mid 90’s. Some fans started calling it the Dark Ages. The Coliseum was practically empty, you were a real fan if you stuck with the team back then. Now, we win all the time, which is awesome. But because of this, we get a bunch of bandwagoners that don’t know anything about the traditions.”

Occupational Folktale- Stanley Kubrick

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The informant is a 27-year old grad student. He was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Seattle, Washington, was educated at UC Berkeley and now studying film production in Los Angeles. He’s worked as a freelance writer and filmmaker around Los Angeles and is a teaching assistant at the School of Cinematic Arts. He shall be referred to as NW.

Here, NW shares a legend about the early career of Stanley Kubrick:

“And there’s lots of crazy stories about him, like, that early on in his career, you know, he, in one of his really early movies, The Killing, he got in an argument with uh, with his cinematographer, ‘cause the cinematographer didn’t think he knew what he was doing based on like, a lens choice, wide-angle lens, and now Kubrick’s really famous for his wide-angle lens shots, in certain films, you know, then he’s just his upstart director and the cinematographer changes the lens out because he thinks he made a mistake, and so they take it and Kubrick notices it, and then like blows up on him, and tells him, ‘if you touch my lens again you’re fired, and I won’t ever see you again.” And then they have this big argument. I hear those stories about a lot of directors, famous directors, it’s like, and people kind of tell those now and it’s like, ‘oh, look at what a genius and how sure he was of himself back then,’ and I don’t know, again, I don’t know if that happened or what, but I think it’s a way of rationalizing like, ‘oh, if you were a real director, you’d know like what the hell you’re doing right away… From personal experience, I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but it’s like a way of building their legend, you know, it’s like anyone, you know it’s like, people tell stories about Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln whoever, like they knew this, so they did this, and that showed who they were really early on and you’re kinda like I don’t know if that really worked that way, but it helps build them up as these, like, mythic figures so you’re like that’s what, that’s what a filmmaker is.”

As NW explains, this is a very relevant idea for young filmmakers. It is common to idolize the great directors of the past, and stories like these increase that level of respect.

Specifically, this story addresses some of the tensions that happen on film sets. Because film is a very collaborative process, it can be easy for one person to alter the work of another. As such, a person with a strong vision might see that compromised because of the interference of another person, such as this young Stanley Kubrick.

More importantly, this story stresses the importance of ego in the film industry. A director must be able to clearly argue for his or her vision, as Kubrick does in this story. Though his choices seemed like the mistakes of a novice, they were actually the eccentric brilliance of an auteur (in retrospect, that is). Thus, this story seems to encourage young filmmakers to think creatively and fight to protect the purity of the vision they have in mind for their artwork. It celebrates someone who, while acting like someone difficult to work with, was a true artist. In this industry, it is commonly believed that the most successful far surpassed their likability as people with their sheer talent. Thus, this seems to be an address of such a conflict for young filmmakers.

Superstition: Running a Yellow Light

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: EMT, Social Worker, Army ROTC
Residence: Connecticut
Performance Date: 24 April 2011
Primary Language: English

White/Jewish

Fordham University/University of Southern California

Army ROTC, EMT, Social Worker

Military Social Work

English

Connecticut

24 April 2011

Superstition- touching car roof

“Here’s something I can tell you. About a month ago I got a ticket in the mail for running a red light. You know, one of those automated deals were they show you the picture of it and everything. It’s really funny ’cause in the picture you can clearly see my left hand touching the inside roof of my car. Basically, when your driving through a yellow…you kiss the tips of your fingers and then place them against the roof of your car.” HS explained that the reason she did this was for luck and to ward off accidents. She stated that she started doing it because it she saw her older brother do it all the time when she was in the car with him. She said she also did it because while an EMT in New York she saw many horrific traffic accidents, and she didn’t want that to happen to her.

From my perspective, touching the roof of your car as you drive through a yellow light is a simple gesture to ward off possible calamity and for luck. It’s a superstition akin to knocking on wood after saying something is going really good.  Looking at the gesture, I would say that it’s functions within a liminal space for three reasons. The first is that the vehicle is actually occupying a space where cars can cross from any direction; it’s in between the beginning and end of the intersection. The second reason is that it is a place that can be dangerous, if people are not paying attention. The third reason is that, when driving, going through a yellow light is kind of a grey area. As a driver you not supposed to really do it, but all drivers do at some point. I personally have never done it,and the reason I probably don’t is because no one in my family does it. In this sense, the touching of the roof can be a gesture learned from friends or family.

Passing A Knife

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Critical Studies Film Student
Residence: Wantage, New Jersey
Performance Date: April 2, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Turkish

“Never accept a knife hand-to-hand.”

My informant and I were eating rolls at a restaurant when my informant realized that he did not have a knife for butter. I picked up my knife and offered it to him. He looked at the knife in my hand, and then told me that he “never accepts a knife hand-to-hand.” He then picked up an unused knife on the other side of the table.

Later, when I asked him why he would not accept my knife, he told me that “people who exchange knives will fight imminently, like within the next hour or day or so,” or, at the least, “there will be bad will between them.” He doesn’t remember ever specifically learning this folk belief, but when he was a little kid he remembers seeing his mother subtly never accepting knives from other people. He tries to be as subtle as she is, saying something like “just place the knife here,” especially with people he respects or does not know well. He often feels cornered into accepting knives, though, so with peers he is comfortable with, he will just tell them the folk belief.

My informant thinks the folk belief reflects a respect for knives, and the violence that they symbolize. A knife, according to my informant, should not be handled lightly, because it is an object with “gravitas,” or immense symbolic power. From an etic perspective, this explanation makes sense; knives are dangerous objects and, even in the innocent context of sharing a meal, can connote ill will or violence. The belief might also reflect a respect for guests, family members, and the people that one eats with. Eating together usually implies a peaceful relationship and situation, so by not passing knives around the table unintentionally insulting or implying violent feeling another diner be avoided.

Birth rituals

Nationality: Korean-American
Performance Date: 14 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Jean is a Korean-American woman whose parents moved to the United States in 1966. She shared with me some customs and rituals that her family performed during her first pregnancy.
“I’d gotten an ultrasound and so was told that it was a 70% chance we’d have a girl [they did]. Mom insisted on my lying down, and then she held a string tied around a pencil over my belly and watched it turn slowly. When it stopped in a particular position, she then declared I’d be having a girl for sure.

“My non-Korean husband and I also wanted to give our daughter a Korean middle name, so my mom went to a name broker for a list of lucky names using the second syllable that would be part of it. In Korea, each generation of a particular branch of a particular surname shares one syllable in their first name. There’s literally a list of syllables for each generation (my dad showed me the family book, written in Chinese characters, which he owns because he is the first son of a first son and so on), and the list specifies whether or not the syllable will be the first or second part of the name. All of the male siblings and cousins in that family will have the same syllable. My dad even discovered he had a cousin very far removed because when they met for the first time, they shared the same syllable in their first name. Usually the naming happens after the baby is born because things like date and time of birth affect the naming, but because we were in the US and needed to put something on the birth certificate right away, mom and the broker used the due date. Since this naming is usually applied only to the males of the family, which may be why quite a few Korean people have commented that my daughter’s Korean name is more masculine than feminine.

Mom also made me a traditional after-birth soup, seaweed soup (mi-yuk gook), which I ate for several days, [one recipe available here: http://koreanfood.about.com/od/soupsandstews/r/miyukgook.htm] and then she asked if I could please stay home and not go out with the baby for 3 months. In the olden times, the newborn and mom didn’t go out for that period of time, which makes sense because of cold weather, too many folks who might pass on sicknesses, and general infant mortality rate. We then had a 100-day party (small) to officially celebrate her birth, and then on her first birthday, my parents held a really big party to celebrate their grandchild’s coming out. My daughter wore a traditional hanbok, and at the ceremonial table, several items were placed in front of them. The item she grabbed first would mean something about her life to be. She picked up uncooked rice, so my mom said she would never be hungry. (Pencils represented a scholar; money meant she would always have money; string meant a long life, etc.)”

These traditions are interesting because they reflect beliefs shared by many cultures regarding the importance of birth in determining the way a child’s life will progress. For example, the family book containing the name syllables and the tradition of each member of a generation sharing a particular syllable is similar to the less ritualized Western traditions of “family names” that are passed on through generations- my father is Edward Alexander Jr. and if I had been a boy, I would have been Edward Alexander III.

The 3 months ritual and the 100 days party are very interesting because they are traditions carried over from a time without pre-natal care and obstetrics, yet they still survive. Also interesting to note is that because Jean and her husband were living in the U.S. and needed a name right away, they modified the naming tradition a little bit and had the broker use the due date for the baby. It is possible that future generations of her family will continue to do the same thing, if they continue to live in the United States.