Cover mirror at night

Nationality: United States
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Madison County, NY
Performance Date: 04/17/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

BACKGROUND: My informant, MT, is a Mexican-American born in the US. Her parents are both immigrants from Mexico and speak Spanish. I asked MT if she had any familial superstitions or rituals that she wanted to talk about and she brought up this one. Despite not being very spiritual or religious, MT does this ritual every night. 

CONTEXT: This piece is from a text conversation with my friend to discuss superstition in her family.

MT: I have to cover all of my mirrors at night because my mom said ghosts and spirits can enter our world through them. 

Me: Do you have to use a specific thing to cover it?

MT: I just use a blanket and toss it over.

THOUGHTS: This belief was interesting to me because during my conversation with another friend about folk beliefs I heard about the same ritual only carrying an entirely different meaning. My friend of Irish heritage mentioned that his family always thought that mirrors and photographs can trap souls. Hence when a loved one dies, they cover up mirrors so their soul isn’t trapped in their reflection. It’s interesting however how both cultures associate mirrors and reflections with spirits.

3 6 9 the goose drank wine

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: 04/12/2021
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: My informant, AC, was born in the US and attended boarding school in NH. AC was very active in theater and this rhyme was something that the drama department would chant before a few other students brought to their attention that it was less light-hearted than it seemed.

CONTEXT: This piece is from a conversation with my friend where we talked about our time at boarding school.

THE RHYME: Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine. The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line. The line broke. The monkey got choked. And they all went to heaven in a little rowboat!

AC: Yeah — we used to chant it like, before every show for good luck. I don’t really know where we got that from but like basically I was taught it from all the older [theater] kids and I guess they got it from the people before. But I think it might be a song or something, like there’s more words.

Me: And when did you stop [the chant]?

AC: Well um, I know you already know, some people pointed out the chant might have some racist undertones. Like the monkey that got choked on the line could be — it’s almost representative of a lynching of a black person. So yeah, we don’t use that chant anymore.

THOUGHTS: This rhyme is interesting to me because as someone who also briefly did theater in high school, I would watch other students chant this backstage before a show to get pumped up. I never really knew why this was what they chanted, it seemed completely unrelated to theater, but people seemed to really like its bouncy quality. The interpretation of the song as a slave allegory makes some sense to me. “The monkey” being a racist term for a black man and the rest of the rhyme details how the man minds his business on a streetcar until he is lynched and sent to Heaven. Some students disputed the racial interpretation of the rhyme, dismissing it as harmless. But based on the tumultuous history of the school — having been built from slave labor — I wouldn’t be surprised if that interpretation held some truth.

The unlucky arches

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: 04/12/2021
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: My informant, AC, was born in the US and attended boarding school in NH. As we were talking about our different high school customs, AC remembered this superstition held by many of the students. It is a superstition that is passed down from upperclassmen to lowerclassmen.

CONTEXT: This piece is from a conversation with my friend where we talked about our time at boarding school.

AC: And I just remembered about the arches too. Like how everyone at [NH Boarding School] would avoid crossing under the big arches because they thought that if you were under there an odd amount of times you wouldn’t graduate. I’m not even superstitious but — I remember when [redacted] got kicked out and he lived in [dorm near the arches]. He was like the only one who would do it. (laughs) And it got him on the ass.

THOUGHTS: It was interesting to me how even in a high school, where people are decidedly not as superstitious about school fables as they are in middle school, most students were avoidant of the big arches. Even I would walk around the arches instead of under it and I didn’t even believe it was real. That leads me to believe that the fear surrounding the arches wasn’t a mystical one but a social one. People avoided the arches in order to fit in with the widely accepted school tradition rather than deviate from the tradition and be labeled as an outsider.

Classical diplomas

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: 04/12/2021
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: My informant, AC, was born in the US and attended boarding school in NH. As we were talking about our different high school customs, AC brought up our school’s initiation ceremony for everyone who took a classical language at the school.

CONTEXT: This piece is from a conversation with my friend where we talked about our time at boarding school.

AC: –and also the Classics diplomas. The kids who could reach the highest level of Greek or Latin got those laurel crowns at graduation.

Me: And they graduated before everyone else.

AC: Right. I feel like, like they needed to incentive Latin because why would anyone take a dead language. [It] made all those classics students feel special.

THOUGHTS: I feel like academic institutions, especially prestigious ones, thrive on exclusivity. Our high school had many rituals — not just academic ones — in order to separate students from other students and put them in ranks. Although the classics diploma was created to celebrate students who completed four years of a difficult language, many students were upset that they were not given the same attention for completing equally difficult languages like Mandarin or Arabic. Students pointed to the fact that Latin and Greek were eurocentric languages and hence more celebrated than it’s counterparts. Regardless, based on the fact that the classical diploma students were first to walk the graduation stage and were physically separated from regular students, it’s clear that they had some sort of precedence.

The Irishman and his brothers

Nationality: United States
Age: 21
Occupation: Student/Comedian
Residence: New York, NY
Performance Date: 04/03/2021
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: My informant, BH, was born in the US. The following piece is a joke he learned from his father (who is of Irish descent). BH currently is a comedian and loves to hear jokes from other people in order to “steal them for his own stand-up.” This joke is one he stole from his dad.

CONTEXT: This piece is from a conversation with my friend where we exchanged jokes.

BH: Okay so, a man walks into a bar —

Me: (laughs) Oh God —

BH: A man walks into a bar and orders 3 drinks. When the bartender brings him his drinks he starts drinking them one sip at a time. When he’s done with the drinks he slams his glass on the table and orders three more. And — And the bartender is like “Dude, I can give you three drinks one after the other and they’ll stay cold. You don’t have to drink them all at once.” Then the man explains that he’s drinking 3 drinks because he has two brothers — one in America and one, I don’t remember, somewhere else — and every night they all drink three drinks in celebration of each other. The bartender shrugs and gets him his drinks. So a few weeks pass. The guy comes in again but this time order two drinks. The bartender notices and is like “Oh, did one of your brothers die?” and the guy takes a long sip out of both of his glasses and says “No but I quit drinking.” 

THOUGHTS: At first I didn’t really get the joke, but BH eventually explained to me the stereotype of Irish people being avid drinkers. With that information, I finally understood the punchline — the man in the joke claims to have quit drinking only to continue showing up to the bar every night to drink by the pair. BH elaborated further on the stereotype, bringing to my attention that the joke could also be that a real Irishman would never give up drinking. Regardless, it is interesting how people have paired humor with alcohol. “A man walks into a bar” jokes are some of the most iconic jokes right behind knock-knock jokes.