Tag Archives: bad luck

Upside down sandals will curse you

AGE

21

Date_of_performance

5/1/25

Language

English

Nationality

American

Occupation

Student

Primary Language

Spanish

Residence

San Martin, CA

Superstition: Leaving shows or sandals flipped upside down or on the side is bad luck. 

Context + Text: The individual is my roommate in college for the past 4 years. He had told me about this superstition his mom taught him about leaving footwear not right side up. “Whenever I got home, my mom always yelled at me to make sure my shoes are right side up, or the next car ride would be bad luck”. He continued to say he truly believed in it and would make sure that no one in his family left their shoes in the wrong position. It was something he believed in so much that he would make sure his college roommates followed the same rule. “One time, I had come back from a midterm, and I didn’t believe I did well on it, once I opened the door home, I saw my sandals were upside down”. That was the final straw for him, and he became even more attentive to his footwear anytime he came home, as he could not afford any more bad luck. He has continued his superstitious acts till this day and has even converted all his roommates to follow suit, so no footwear is left in the wrong position in our entire house. While we may not have experienced bad luck from this situation, his strong belief and emotions about this have made us all believers. 

Analysis: The idea of bad luck stemming from misplacing footwear can have various different interpretations. Some believe that it is a message from the universe for mistreating our sandals and shoes. They protect our feet from the ground and dirt, the least we can do is put them right side up whenever we are done using them. This interpretation is interesting as it gives a life to the shoes we wear, treating them as if they were pets or even human. We must show them respect because they protect us, but it’s just shoes. Another way to dissect the bad luck can simply stem from the annoyance and clutter that shoes can cause if they aren’t set properly. People have bad days all the time but having a bad day and coming home to see your shoes all upside down and backwards can be the final straw. Whether it stems from a dislike of seeing your shoes messed up, or as a respect to your shoes for protecting you, the superstition has made many people more anxious about how they take care of their shoes, and more careful whenever they come home. 

Folk Belief: String on Finger

Age: 24
Occupation: Paraprofessional

“I’m not sure if it has an actual name, but it’s like if you get a stye on your eye, it means you saw something you shouldn’t have. You would then tie a black string around your finger- I can’t remember, either middle or ring- 12 or 13 times. You would keep it there until it fell off to ward of bad luck”

[Would you do this yourself?]

“No, it was mostly my grandmother and sometimes my mother. Oh! And it also had to be done on the left hand.”

Analysis: There’s a lot to unravel here (like a string, haha): beginning with the stye on the eye, I think that many cultures consider the eyes “windows to the soul”, so it makes sense that any particular harm to the eye would be considered very serious. Additionally, there’s this “seeing something you shouldn’t have” element, which has manifested itself into a physical bump on the body. There’s a lot of folklore surrounding the idea of karma, which I think this also exemplifies: you saw something you shouldn’t, so now you have a bump and the possibility of bad future luck. What I find particularly interesting is the number of times the string must be wrapped around the finger: In many cultures, 13 can be considered an unlucky number, but here, it is used as protection against bad luck.

Knock on Wood

Nationality: American
Age: 55
Occupation: World Oil Leader
Residence: United States
Language: English

Text:

“Knocking on wood, this is believed to ward off bad luck or ensure good fortune. You knock on wood when you’re talking about something good but don’t want to jinx it so you knock on wood but if no wood is around you knock on your head. I usually use my head and knock 3 times.”

Context:

The Informant says they learned this from their grandma, but also recounts that people at work say it all the time during their meetings. They’ve had experience with this before of having bad luck if they don’t ‘knock on wood’ and really has a connection to the idea of three. They believe in this idea of bad luck in threes because it continues to happen in their life with accidents, sickness, and deaths.

Analysis:

This is represented as superstition, but more specifically, magical superstition. Magical superstition focuses on the idea of influencing an outcome with an action rather than predicting it. The idea is that if you knock on wood or your head it might influence or ward off misfortune or a ‘jinx,’ but doesn’t exactly predict it. In Frazer’s belief, this can be seen as sympathetic magic, where an action is taken to influence an outcome. Knocking on wood is apotropaic magic, a type of sympathetic magic, where the action of knocking on wood or your head will ward off evil influences or ‘bad luck.’ It’s a protective ritual with the hope of protecting one’s self from negative outcomes by knocking on wood. It’s also a very social aspect, where even the informant states that they use it with their coworkers during meetings, connecting them together with a familiar action which even becomes automatic. People might partake in this action in order to relieve anxiety and stress over possible negative future outcomes and prevent the opposite of whatever they said from coming true. The idea of knocking three times also is significant as its seen in many other cultures as well as this idea of bad luck comes in three, where knocking on wood prevents this three times.

Walking Under A Ladder

Nationality: American
Age: 55
Occupation: World Oil Leader
Residence: United States
Language: English

Text:

“There’s this belief of walking under a ladder being bad luck. One common explanation ties the superstition to medieval times when ladders were thought to resemble gallows, implying a fate of death by hanging.”

Context:

The informant says that their superstitions come from their grandma and also hears it from coworkers. They really do believe this even if it’s not true because they don’t want to test their luck, but also sees it happen a lot in their life with bad luck.

Analysis:

This represents an American superstition, where an action that we take results in this idea of ‘bad luck’ or where bad events will ensue. Specifically, this acts as sign superstition, where an action can predict an outcome It creates a sense of ritual avoidance, where people will actively avoid the action of walking under a ladder to prevent bad things from happening. ‘Bad luck’ also seems very vague and broad, meaning that this action can be attached to anything that the individual deems as ‘bad’ and use it to explain why horrible things might happen to them. From the informant, it roots back to medieval times as symbolic to gallows, where both might represent the overall idea of death. Gallows aren’t seen as often anymore so this sense of death progresses and connects to something more relevant: ladders. Unlike gallows, ladders are seen more as invitation of bad luck if one purposefully takes the action of walking under one, not necessarily that it is certain that ‘death’ or ‘misfortune’ will immediately ensue. Psychologically speaking, it acts as a way for people to be on the lookout for unfortunate events and then immediately tie it to their action that may have caused it rather than the thought of it being random. It becomes a warning to everyone to avoid walking under ladders without knowing what exactly might happen.

Banging Pots and Pans on New Years 

Nationality: Mexican-Filipino American
Age: 22
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Irvine, CA
Language: English

Text

“Every New Year’s Eve, right when the clock strikes midnight, my family rushes outside and we start banging on pots and pans like our lives depend on it. It’s loud, chaotic, and silly if you are a neighbor watching next door.

We don’t do this tradition just to make noise for fun, we are scaring away bad spirits. My Lola would say, ‘Make it so loud the malas (bad luck) can’t follow us into the New Year.” i feel like this tradition is not about silence and reflection. It’s more about being loud, communal, and kind of joyful. It shakes things up and clears space for something better.

Every year, no matter where I am, I find something to bang. When I’m not at home, I’ll use a cup and spoon if need be. Because for me, the noise is more than just a tradition. It is a way of saying that we made it to a new year and that we should chase bad spirits away and welcome what is to come next.”

Context 

The informant reflects on a recurring family ritual: banging pots and pans at midnight on New Year’s Eve to ward off bad luck. She traces the tradition to her lola (grandmother) and describes how this action has remained central to her family’s New Year’s celebration.

The informant highlighted how rituals passed down through generations become markers of cultural identity even when performed in different settings from where her grandmother originally would do this to where her family does it now.

My interpretation 

From a folklore perspective, banging pots and pans on New Year’s Eve functions as a protective folk belief ritual that’s aligned with what James Frazer termed magic superstitions. In this case it would be conversion magic where action is required to prevent misfortune. The practice is not institutionally religious but it operates within a system of vernacular spirituality and community belief that’s passed down through generations in domestic spaces.

The ritual also fits within a life cycle of belief systems surrounding transitions and thresholds like what Victor Turner would call a liminal moment. The striking of the pots is part of a ritual of noise that marks and manages a cosmic shift. Symbolically, the sound disorients evil, clears spiritual residue from the old year, and prepares the household for prosperity.

This ritual functions as both cultural preservation and performance of identity. It’s an informal act of heritage that resists assimilation by rooting the celebrant in a shared memory and practice.