Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Baseball Superstitions

Nationality: Cuban-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. My friend was on the baseball team when he was in high school. When he played, he would walk onto the field with a mouthful of water and spit it out onto the field, from both sides of his mouth. This would be before it was his turn to bat or to pitch. He believed that doing this would ensure he would do well in that game. He actually had heard about this superstition from a fellow teammate that would always do this as well during their games.
  2. My friend had first heard about this superstition from a fellow teammate. He noticed his teammate performing this superstition one day during one of their games. He had asked them why they did this, and what exactly they were doing. Since that teammate had been one of the best players on their team, my friend believed that this ritual must have been part of the reason why he was so good. So, he started doing the same ritual during their games.
  3. Many sports have rituals such as this that athletes like to perform and even customize to some extent. These rituals can be shared amongst fellow teammates, or kept personal depending on that athlete’s belief towards their ritual; like will the ritual still be effective if it is shared with others or not.
  4. When I was in track and field in high school, we had interesting superstitions and rituals like this that some of my teammates liked to do. I believed that they were effective in their own way, maybe through the Placebo Effect, but not necessarily due to their own power. I tried some of the superstitions as well before my races and I noticed that some seemed to work for me, but I definitely due think that must have been due to other factors.

*For other versions of this superstition, and one’s like it, see:

“The Craziest Superstitions of Baseball Players.” : JUGS Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://jugssports.com/the-craziest-superstitions-of-baseball-players>.

Bloody Mary

Nationality: Cuban-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. My friend heard this version of “Bloody Mary” from another friend: “A long time ago, there was a girl named Mary. She lived with her father and mother, one year, she got very sick and fell into a coma. She was in a coma for 3 months, and then the doctor finally said that Mary was pronounced dead. But her parents thought she would come back alive so they got her in a coffin and buried her in their front yard, but they left a little hole in the coffin and through the dirt and put a string in it that was attached to a bell and put it in her hand. They waited for hours and when they were about to go in, they heard the bell. They dug her up as fast as they could but by that time, she was dead and her finger nails were all off and she was all bloody, (this is how she got named Bloody Mary) and it turns out, her parents beat her before she got sick and now she haunts because she thinks that the people that are her victims are her parents and she wants them to suffer just like her.” “If you want to summon Bloody Mary, and face her wrath, you have to go to the bathroom, turn off all of the lights, look straight into the mirror, and say ‘Bloody Mary’ thirteen times.”
  2. My friend heard this tale back when he was in elementary school, from another one of his classmates. He remembered being so afraid to even go into the bathroom after hearing this story, and it still has stuck with him ever since this time.
  3. Bloody Mary has been retold many times, in many different ways. This story is especially popular among elementary and middle school students.
  4. I also remember hearing this story when I was younger. As I got older, I do not recall anyone ever speaking about Bloody Mary, or even mentioning it. When I was younger I was also frightened by this story as well, since I remember I actually believed in it.

*For another version of this tale, see:

Richardson, Jancy. “The Tragic True Story of the Real Life Bloody Mary.” Moviepilot.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://moviepilot.com/posts/2822134>.

The Senior Prank Gone Wrong

Nationality: Hui
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese
  1. My friend told me about the worst senior prank to have ever been executed at his high school.

“So the seniors decided to do something REALLY big this year. They wanted to be different. To be remembered is the year that did THAT prank, what they believed to be the best prank you could ever have done. So you know what they did? They thought it’d be the greatest idea to start a food fight that involved the entire school. Only, they would be the only ones with the actual food, so really it was more like a food attack instead of a food fight. So what they did was, equip the entire senior class with gigantic water guns filled with condiments like ketchup, mustard, mayo, oil, vinegar, etc. On top of that, they had burgers, hot dogs, and other cheap foods they could make a large supply of quickly and easily stuffed into large trash bags. They went all over campus, pelting all the underclassmen with food and sauces, and even accidentally hit some of the teachers. At the end of what seemed to be hours, students were crying, getting pulled out of their classes by their parents, many were injured when trying to run away since there were huge crowds of students running in all directions attempting to avoid getting hit. It was a crazy day. The aftermath was awful too, our campus was covered in trash, and stains from all of the food. We live by the beach too so all of the seagulls came on campus and basically infested the place for weeks. It took so much time and money to clean everything up. The principal was so angry, they actually contemplated stopping the seniors from graduating that year. Senior pranks were also banned completely after this incident. It was a horrible idea.”

  1. Since he was actually there when this prank took place, he remembers it all very clearly. He still even has some photos and videos he took while all of this was happening. It was definitely a sad event for him, he was a sophomore when this happened, since he was so excited about taking part in senior pranks when he finally became a senior. But this prank ruined it for all of the future senior classes, unfortunately.
  2. This prank should never again be replicated, but the story can be shared as a warning as to what can happen when you take a joke or a prank too far. There certainly are limits to what you can do, and you should definitely keep this in mind if you’re deciding on trying a senior prank with your class.
  3. I actually was there as well when this happened, so I remember this pretty clearly. I was more upset by the fact that my friend actually broke her leg trying to run away from the people throwing food and condiments. It was a sad day for sure, and I’d hope that no other senior classes try something like this.

Sespe Ouija Ghost

Age: 20
Residence: Los Angeles, CA / Carmel, CA
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: English

TO is a student at the University of Southern California, and current president of SC Outfitters, the student-run outdoors club.

TO shared an Ouija board encounter with me that took place on her first retreat:

“We were backpacking for our first guide retreat in the Sespe Wilderness near Ojai, and someone decided to bring an Ouija board. My friend Mac told us that a long time ago, exactly where we were camping, there was a troop of Boy Scouts that got caught in a flash flood and all drowned, so we decided to try and summon them with the Ouija board. We tried to get in contact with them, and the board spelled out “J X I,” which we were convinced meant “Jimmy.” We asked Jimmy if we could talk to him about the afterlife, and he said “no.” We attributed this to him being a young boy who wasn’t allowed to talk to strangers, so we let him go…I slept with a knife under my pillow that night, I was so scared.”

I asked TO if she had been back to that campsite since, and if she remembered hearing or seeing anything unusual.

“I’ve never been back to that specific campsite, no. We’ve done guide retreats in Sespe since but we seem to purposely avoid that campsite…new guides who weren’t there that first year want to go back and try and talk to Jimmy again, but I’m going to say no. I don’t remember seeing anything, but I was so on edge I thought every noise that night was the ghost of a Boy Scout or something.”

My analysis:

Campfire ghost stories are even scarier when they take place where you’re campfire is located, but people seem to enjoy telling these kinds of legends while out in the wilderness. Ouija boards are a fun folk object, but also a terrifying one, used to start and further new or existing ghost stories. TO says whether or not her friend made up the story of Jimmy and the Boy Scouts is uncertain, but her reluctance to return to the campground indicates she at least somewhat believes him. It also turns into a fun story for her to pass down to new generations of guides/members of the club, and possibly something they can one day go back and test, to begin creating their own sort of folklore for the club.

Leave the Same Way you Came

Nationality: American - (Welsh)
Age: 53
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Winnetka, IL
Performance Date: Saturday March 26th, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: French

L is a 53-year-old homemaker living in Winnetka, IL. L grew up mainly in the northern suburbs of Illinois, but she also lived in Germany and England for a while when she was younger. L speaks English primarily but she is learning French. L attended both the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin Madison for her undergraduate college education. L considers herself to be American. She does not really identify with her Welsh ancestry.

L: If my mom comes in the front door and leaves out the back door, or any other different door, she thinks it’s bad luck for either her or the homeowner. You have to leave out the same door you come in though. That’s whether she’s going into other people’s house or you’re coming in to her house. She insists that everybody enters and leaves through the same door. It’s very weird.

Me: When did she she start doing this?

L: She’s done this her whole life?

Me: Any idea where she got it from?

L: Probably her mother.

Me: Did her mother do it too?

L: I think so, but I’m not really sure. I vaguely remember her doing it.

Me: And it’s just bad luck?

L: I’m not really sure if it’s bad luck for the person entering and leaving the house, or the homeowner. Or both.

L talks about her mom and her grandmother who have/had this strange idea that one must exit through the door they entered through. They believe that if someone doesn’t do this then they will bring bad luck either to the homeowner, themselves, or both. L  does not follow this practice unless her mom forces her to and she thinks the idea that not following this will bring bad luck is malarkey. She does not like that her mom follows this belief because it is annoying when she is closer to one door but her mom tells her that they have to go out through the door she came in through.