Category Archives: Game

The Lucky Jersey Number

Folk Belief / Superstition
Occupational Folklore – Sports / Number Lore

1. Text

SI, a college athlete and lifelong soccer player, described a common superstition in sports: the belief that a specific jersey number brings good luck. For SI, the number is 12, a number he has worn on nearly every team since middle school. “It’s more than just a number,” he said. “It feels like part of me. When I wear it, I play better. When I don’t, I feel like something’s missing.”

He explained that the belief isn’t about the number being universally magical, but about it becoming his number through performance and association. “I had my best game ever in seventh grade wearing number 12,” he recalled. “After that, it just stuck. Every time I had a good game in that jersey, it reinforced the feeling.” SI went so far as to describe himself as being “protective” of the number even feeling annoyed if another player tries to claim it first.

The superstition extends beyond performance to preparation. “One time I couldn’t wear 12, and I just dropped the league. I was already in a tournament league.” he said.

While SI recognizes that there’s no scientific logic to it, he believes the number has become a symbol of confidence and consistency. “I know it sounds silly,” he said, “but it’s mental. I just feel better when I have it.”

2. Context

SI first developed a relationship with the number 12 in middle school, during a formative moment in his soccer career. After an unexpected breakout performance in a local tournament while wearing that number, the connection became ritualized. From that point on, he began requesting the jersey number for every team he played on, even switching teams in some cases to ensure he could keep it. Over time, the number took on an almost talismanic quality, a symbol of personal power and performance.

This superstition is typical within sports folklore, where personal and communal rituals help athletes cope with the intense pressure and unpredictability of competition. SI’s belief in the power of his number was not taught formally but developed through associative experience: repeated moments of success while wearing the number reinforced its symbolic power. His emotional attachment to it grew not from tradition passed down, but from personal repetition and ritual — a hallmark of vernacular belief in individual athletic settings.

SI’s relationship to the number is deeply embodied. He noted that wearing it helps him feel physically and mentally aligned. If he’s forced to play without it, he often adapts by symbolically carrying the number elsewhere — on his warm-up gear, wristbands, or even drawn in marker on his sock. These substitutions act as symbolic proxies, maintaining the ritual even when the official uniform can’t.

The importance of the jersey number is also entangled with group identity. Numbers can signify status, position, or legacy — especially in team sports whime numbers are often retired or passed down. SI mentioned that when someone else wore him number, he felt “weirdly territorial, like they were taking something that belonged to me.” This shows how the number not only signifies self, but also occupies cultural space within the team structure.

3. Interpretation

The belief in a “lucky jersey number” is a classic example of sports superstition, rooted in what folklorist Linda Dégh would identify as personal experience narratives that become ritualized through repetition and reinforced belief. The number, in this case, functions as a symbolic charm, an object that carries emotional and psychological weight far beyond its practical use.

This superstition operates at the intersection of magical thinking and performance psychology. The number itself has no inherent power, but the belief in it helps the athlete enter a desired mental state. In this way, the superstition becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: the confidence it instills improves focus, motivation, and execution. The lucky number acts as a trigger for performance identity, allowing the athlete to “step into” their best version of themselves.

SI’s attachment to the number, even when it’s not available, reflects a broader human impulse to anchor meaning in material objects. In moments of unpredictability (a game, a tournament, a close match), the number becomes a stabilizing symbol. It offers comfort, consistency, and an illusion of control — all of which are critical under competitive pressure.

On a larger scale, this belief mirrors number lore found across cultures, where certain numbers (e.g., 7, 13, 3) are invested with spiritual or superstitious meanings. In SI’s case, the number is not culturally universal but individually sacred, rooted in him specific history of success and reinforced by the ritual of wearing it. This personalizes the belief while still aligning with broader folkloric patterns — specifically the idea that symbols gain power through use, memory, and embodied repetition.

Ultimately, SI’s lucky jersey number is more than a superstition, rather a living symbol of personal history, identity, and agency. Like many forms of folklore, its truth lies not in evidence, but in function: it works because it feels true.

Seven Degrees of Separation From Kevin Bacon

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: Unemployed
Language: English

Informant Analysis: I first heard about the “Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon” when I was younger. The idea is that any actor, or really any person, can be linked to Kevin Bacon through seven or less people. It’s like a pop culture twist on the “six degrees of separation” theory, which suggests everyone on Earth is connected by six or fewer people. My dad always thought it was funny and kind of spooky how often it worked. It stuck with me because it turns celebrity culture into something you can play with.

My Analysis: This idea that everyone is somehow connected to Kevin Bacon is a fun way people explore how weirdly small the world can feel. It plays into this deeper belief that we’re all more connected than we realize, especially through pop culture. The randomness of using Kevin Bacon as the center makes it more of a running joke, but it still explores how interesting social networks are. At its core, it’s about how connections, coincidence, and community.

Bloody Mary Oikotype

Language: English

Text Transcription

“I went to a Catholic elementary school. The building was a mansion turned into a school, and there were always rumors of ghosts and such. In fourth grade, my classmates and I were bored and so we decided to practice divination by going to the bathroom mirror and doing the Bloody Mary ritual. We didn’t know who would show up, but we figured with the ghost rumors, surely someone would appear. No one ever did. We tried again and again throughout the year, and nothing happened. Our teacher was definitely upset [that] we would believe in such things and told us to pay more [attention] in Bible class. I don’t know about the others, but I, for one, didn’t.”

Context

As I talked to the informant, they revealed that the version of the ritual that they did was slightly different from the version older students were using. Rather than try to glimpse a vision of their future husband’s face, they were hoping to summon an evil version of Saint Mary. They explained that the inspiration came from their disinterest in the original ritual and their desire for a more horror-inspired version. Personally, I took note of a possible counter-cultural aspect, considering the desire to summon an evil variant of a saint might not go over well in a Catholic school. It seems that this oikotype of the Bloody Mary ritual carries a bit of a rebellious streak.

STEP ON A CRACK, BREAK YOUR MOTHER’S BACK

The informant was told in the third grade that if they stepped on a sidewalk crack, their mother’s back would break. This superstition lasted for years and is widespread, and is something that is often told amongst young elementary children. It is also believed that it can cause bad luck and misfortune.

Age: 24

Date: April 3rd 2025

Language: English

Nationality: White/Hispanic

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: California

Analysis: This story falls into the category of superstition and this story is often shared among young students in school. This superstition has racist origins, dating back to the 19th century. The original saying was “step on a crack and your mother will be black”, which then later evolved from being a harmful racist saying to being about bad luck.

Rites of Passage and Community in Wargaming

The Informant

The informant AG has been playing wargaming for over five years, and he has not only painted his own miniature sets but also developed his own homebrew games. The informant mostly plays ‘miniature agnostic’ games with abstract rulesets that enable players to bring their own unique miniature sets.

The Text

A common experience in becoming a member in the wargaming community is painting your own miniature sets, and it tends to be very poorly painted. The informant reports wargamers as largely older demographics amongst historical wargames while younger demographics play sci-fi wargames. A rite of passage the informant notes is learning how to thin the paint, as amateurs can be identified by blotches of paint on their miniatures that blot out the miniature details. While any wargamer can be identified by having miniatures of units on display, a passionate wargamer and a “poser” can be differentiated by the types of miniatures they have on display in their house. Uncommon miniature sizes like 6mm, 3mm, 2mm, and scaled ships or uncommon historical eras such as Medieval or Ancient as these miniatures aren’t usually commercially mass produced, and the players must go out of their way to acquire them. The base for the miniatures are also a good indicator, as companies like Litko allow specified customizations on base sizes and even material, offering wood or metals instead of the mass produced plactic, which proves further investment in the hobby. The Miniatures Page and Tactical Command are forums where these hobbies gather online, but they are rather dated in terms of web design. Tournaments and expos are events where wargamers gather, and people bring their own miniature sets while miniature studios market their services. If someone disrespects another person’s miniature set by stepping on them, tossing them aside, etc, they will be disqualified from the tournament or asked to leave if at a home game, likely to never be invited back again. These players often have special cases for carrying miniatures.

Analysis

There are a few folk aspects to this interview, starting with membership identification with a folk community through the miniatures, which seem to be highly valued and personal within the community. The existence and even preference for “agnostic” wargame systems suggest importance placed on the personalization of miniatures, and the personal offense taken when one’s miniature set is disrespected suggests a Frazeristic contagiously magical connection to the miniature as an extension of the self given the time invested on customizing and painting them. As such, they have meaning to the players in the sense that players convert their own time and labor into these products. Similarly, painting one’s own first miniature set is considered a rite of passage for becoming a member of the wargaming community, beyond first setting foot into a game store with the interest of trying a game with someone else’s miniature set. The choice made in how one creates or even carry their miniatures reflects Stuart Hall’s reception theory of identity expression in consumerism, with specific studios offering customized miniatures. Furthermore, tournaments and conventions serve as a festival where players can gather to share this common love for a niche hobby which they do not have much opportunity to express their affiliation in public otherwise. In a sense, performing this identity is an inversal of the norm, which the spatially and temporally localized festival enables and encourages.