Knocking on Wood and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

Background:

Informant (L) is studying at UC Berkeley and has lived in the US his whole life.

L: Well, I’m a big believer in knocking on wood.

I: Is there a reason you have a whole knocking on wood belief?

L: Yeah, because like, let’s say hypothetically, it’s not real. But if there’s a chance it’s real, wouldn’t you rather absolve yourself from spiritual anguish? It’s the same as like being agnostic, and your whatever beliefs on religion, it’s like if there’s a chance it’s real, you might as well. So like are you familiar with Einstein’s theory of relativity? When you like you say something, you kinda put it out to the universe, so if you put it out into the universe, “Oh, well I hope I don’t get into a car crash” then it’s out in the universe, so like you influence yourself subliminally to get into a car crash and you can undo that by knocking on wood three times. Or if there’s no wood available, you can do it on your head.

I: On your head?

L: Yeah, ‘cus it’s your head, your noggin. It’s like made out of wood, it’s funny.

Context:

I asked my informant about any beliefs or superstitions he had over a phone call. This was the first one he gave, so I asked for further elaboration. 

Analysis:

Knocking on wood is perhaps one of the most common pieces of Western folklore in modern times. I found my informant’s sincere belief (which was further confirmed by his partner) in such a custom interesting, as my previous experiences with this piece of folklore have mostly been done in a joking manner. My informant rationalizes this Law of Contact with a scientific theory as support, which demonstrates the effect of empirical evidence on a belief in a custom. He argues that the physical act of touching something (either wood or one’s head) can undo an action, which is also an example of a conversion superstition. Knocking on wood undos the subliminal influence of what’s been put “out in the universe”, as my informant notes. The immense popularity of knocking on wood is a main factor as to why it still persists to this day, and because of how easy it is to do, people may do it as an extra safety precaution.

C-47

Background:

The informant is a sophomore studying Film Production at USC.

Main Piece:

“Yeah, we usually call things by like, their names, but I guess it’s not technically their names either… like how those fresnels are ‘tweenies’ or ‘baby baby’ or something. Oh, you know what’s the stupidest one? C-47s. Like, I just want to know who came up with that one, it’s so dumb.”

Context:

I asked my informant about any specific terms they’ve heard on film sets. The “C-47s” that the informant mentions is jargon for clothespins on film sets. Fresnels are a specific type of light.

Analysis:

This is an example of occupational folklore. To an outsider, using these terms may be confusing, but within film sets, this jargon is generally standard knowledge, though there are variations depending on regions. In usage, one would generally hear jargon in a conversational setting (eg. “Can you hand me a C-47?” “Can you set up a tweenie?”) There are a variety of stories and reasons why the word “C-47” is used for clothespins, probably the biggest one is that it’s much shorter and more informal to use. Personally, I think the word itself is a bit pretentious (and the informant also mentions that), but people will generally still throw around the term because it’s more in use.

Berkeley Seal

Background:

Informant studies at USC and has a boyfriend who attends UC Berkeley.

Main Piece:

“So basically there’s seals on the floor there, and you’re not supposed to step on it until you graduate, ‘cus if you do step on it it’s like bad luck or whatever, um, so when he was talking about it I was like ‘man, fuck that’ and I stepped on it and he [the boyfriend] was like ‘no!’ and I was like ‘bro I don’t even go here’ like this shit doesn’t even apply to me.”

Context:

My informant and I were discussing school customs, as we didn’t really know any that pertained to USC. They brought up something they heard at Berkeley.

Analysis:

This is a classic example of a college superstition using sympathetic magic, specifically the Law of Contact, that fails the student if they step on the seal (which is an important symbol to the university). There are probably countless stories of people who stepped on these seals and couldn’t graduate. While my informant specifically didn’t say anything about counteracting the bad luck (usually a method of conversion exists so it’s not completely doomed for the student), such superstitions surrounding graduation are commonly found across many colleges with many different variations. Interestingly, my informant raises a question of who this Law of Contact is able to be applied to—they are a student at USC who came into contact with a Berkeley custom, so they believe the “curse” wouldn’t be applied to them.

For more more information on this superstition, see Chen, Kaylie. “Traditions at Berkeley.” UC Berkeley, 12 April 2021. https://life.berkeley.edu/traditions-superstitions/

The Loona Curse

Context: J is a 21 year old Filipino American college student who grew up in California, who has been a long time K-pop follower and fan of numerous groups, some favorites including Loona and Twice. This piece was collected during a discord audio call.

Intv: “Is there any folklore related to any of the K-pop groups you follow? Or is there Hololive lore?”

J: “Oh! There’s the Loona Curse!”

Intv: “What’s the Loona Curse? I’ve not heard of it.”

J: “Okay so basically it’s like if you speak bad about Loona your group disbands. Specifically if you’re like “loona is going to disband before [group] because y’all are flops.” 

Intv: “And wait, this has happened before?”

J: “Oh yeah, it’s happened like three times now. With Pristin (sorry Kim), x1, and gfriend.” 

Intv: “So was this like something that happened on Twitter?” 

J: “Yeah, but not by Loona specifically, but their fans definitely defended Loona on Twitter and the tweets eventually blew up but it never directly affected the groups involved, until they disbanded. Even then it was never direct but it was a huge coincidence that it happened.”

Intv: “Oh so it was a community based twitter event not involving the group members specifically?” 

J: “Yeah exactly! Oh! It also happened to IZ*ONE, they were huge in Korea and Japan.” 

Analysis: I find the sense of community created across cyberspace with random internet people to be completely beautiful. Even in an instance where, unfortunately, beloved musical groups are disbanded, in J’s retelling of the story I got such a sense of pride as a loona fan. I was even linked to a tweet that has thousands of retweets and likes about this phenomenon. https://twitter.com/yvesfan420/status/1518673182869180416?s=21&t=AZ7-coVbYpwZd2vhRlyiZw

Throughout the comments are fans of Loona, Pristin, x1, and so many other k-pop groups who have all been made away of, The Loona Curse. 

The Oxen and The Tiger

Context: J is a 21 year old Filipino American college student who grew up in California, who was regularly visited by her Grandparents who shared stories from their childhood. The piece was collected during a discord audio call. 

Intv: “Hey! I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me the story that your grandmother told you about.”

J: “ Yeah sure! So There’s a story my grandma used to tell, she heard while growing up in cambodia! Just a little outside of the capital of Phnom penh. It’s about the origin of tiger stripes and why ox have no upper front teeth.”

Intv: “Okay sounds great! I’d love to hear it!”

J: “So basically this tiger was stalking these oxen getting beaten around by a man while working the farm fields, full of curiosity, the tiger approached the oxen after the man walks away and asks “my ox brethren, why do you let the weak man beat away at you and make you work for him when you could easily kick him down and be free like me?” and the ox replies “it’s because the man has intelligence that makes us listen to him” the tiger then asks, “what is intelligence?” and the ox replies ‘go ask him yourself’ which the tiger does but approaches the human arrogantly because the tiger thinks he is the most powerful being in the world and demands that the human man show the tiger what intelligence was or the tiger would maul the human. the human responds ‘ah, i left my intelligence at home so i would have to go retrieve it but i don’t trust you around my livestock’ and while the tiger insisted that he’d wait for the man, they came to an agreement where the man would tie up the tiger to prevent him from potentially attacking his oxen. However, after tying the tiger very tightly to a tree the human placed a bunch of leaves and branches on the tiger and lit him on fire. The oxen began to laugh at the tiger while pointing at him with their front legs and they laughed so hard that they fell on their front two teeth and broke them and they never grew back. while the tiger screamed in agony until the rope tying him to the tree burned away and he fled back into the forest, with the black stripes being his burned flesh for forever”

Analysis: As a first time listener to this story the main thing that stands out to me is the human animal relations. Humans are depicted at the top of the food chain, not because of power but because of our wit. The unnamed human in this story even acts like a common trickster character, by pretending intelligence is a physical object. Also through the oxen we see another aspect of human capability and intelligence, through just how the oxen says “intelligence makes us listen to him.”