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“A superstition or tradition that has been a part of my life for a while now is before football games, I tape up my wrists and I write GGM on my left wrist. GGM as my mantra saying God got me and I know that whatever happens on the field, God got me and it’s a part of his plan so that helps me kind of destress before the game and it’s been a powerful thing in my life.”
Context
LS has developed his own pre game tradition that connects his faith and his sport of football. He has always worn wristbands and wrist tape for games, but since the later years of high school he started writing GGM as he became more involved with Christianity. LS says that many athletes, both on his team and professionals, will write notes of their faith on their equipment, and it’s a very strong way to stay connected before and during the game and keep calm.
Analysis
LS’s ritual is a great intersection between material culture, rituals, and religious folklore. Writing his mantra of “God got me” is a way for LS to honor his faith and belief in God before every game, as well as managing his uncertainty and feeling a sense of ownership over the unknown events that will happen in the game. This ritual ties into his place in the Christian and athlete folk groups, as many athletes have superstitions around material culture like clothing, and writing notes of faith is a way to channel good luck into special objects/clothing (Sims, Stephens). It’s also somewhat of a magic superstition for LS, as he believes that the combination of honoring God and writing the mantra and his wrist tape will lead to more positive outcomes in the game.
Tag Archives: Christianity
Pregame Visualization, Music, Prayer
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“So before lacrosse games I’ll always close my eyes and visualize what I want the game to look like for me. And I always, um, listen to like classical music. Kinda like, movies, like I listen to Interstellar sound tracks and like classical music like orchestra stuff or anything by Hans Zimmer to calm down. I don’t really like listening to loud music, I feel like calming down is helpful. And I always drink a lot of water and pray before games, just to help with calming down and like getting in the zone too.”
Context
HL says that unlike many of his friends, or many athletes of this generation, he dislikes loud (often rap) music and prefers calm classical instruments and soundtracks. He used to just go with the flow before games and mess around with friends, but for the past year or 2 he sets aside 5 minutes on the bus or in the locker room to close his eyes, tune everything out, and visualize and calm himself down. He will also pray to honor his faith of Christianity and keep him connected to God and have a strong mind during games.
Analysis
HL’s pregame routine is an example of a personal spin on a very common ritual for athletes to calm down and get in the zone before games. In his routine, he includes specific music choice, his Christian faith through prayer, and embodiment/performance through sitting with his eyes closed before every game. HL’s routine embodies Kaptchuk’s description of rituals, as his structured ritual is meant to transform him into a game ready mental state through sensory actions and attention to emotions. The embodiment/performance aspect of the ritual also shows that belief is more than just an idea of the mind, and can be present throughout one’s body. The act of getting mentally ready pregame was something that HL learned from his family as well as other athletes, but the specifics of his routine were created on his own, showing how even as folk lore is transferred, people put their own spins and interpretations of it. I think it’s really cool that everybody has their own ways and methods (multiplicity and variations) to achieving the same goal, which is being mentally ready and calm before a big moment like a performance, game, or interview.
Christian Ritual – Blessings, Bible Verse, Appreciations
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“Every day, my grandpa on my dad’s side sends me his blessings and a Bible verse in the morning, and I write it down every day in my notebook and I say three things that I’m grateful for and I also say well like what I guess the Bible like means to me so yeah that’s like a ritual or tradition of my faith that I do.”
Context
Having grown up in a family of devout Christians, IK explains that the daily routine of sending blessings and a Bible verse is one that his grandpa does for all members of his family. For IK personally, he also adds saying his appreciations and the meaning of the Bible to his daily routine as a way to honor his faith and start off each day strong.
Analysis
This is an example of a ritual in IK’s life that exemplifies his belief, which in this case is his Christian faith, and is an example of Kaptchuk’s ritual theory as repeated routines that create some emotional change. It represents a core piece of his family lore that has been passed from his grandfather to every member of his family and that he will continue to share to his kids and grandkids. This ritual also serves a specific function, as for IK the blessings, Bible verses, and appreciations are a way for him to honor his faith before the start of each day and go into each day with the strength of God behind him. For IK, this routine is not just a habit, it is a ritual that serves a specific powerful purpose each morning. As a Christian myself, this story strengthened my place in the Christian folk group because my mom and my grand uncle also send me daily Bible verses, and it’s cool to see that it is a common practice and one that I should continue to honor and eventually pass down to my kids.
How to cure a cold (with optimism)
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“My cure to the cold is to drink lots of fluids, like tea, and to have an optimistic mental attitude. I synthesized this from drinking lots of fluids being good for you and tea kind of being a good warm…. like tea, so warm fluids being good, and the… I can’t remember where it is… and a combination of the Bible, in Proverbs or wherever it is, and kind of the medical stuff like… I don’t know. It seems like you can release endorphins, I don’t know if ‘endorphins’ is the right thing, but it seems like you can fight off infections that way. So I just put this stuff together and thought that you could have this optimistic attitude to fight off what’s coming. But it seems to me like it only works at the tipping point, like it could be right at the balance. But once you’re sick, you’re sick.”
Context:
Informant KB is a highly educated individual and has a background of studying psychology and religion. He was also raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, which is distinct for its emphasis on health and dietary restrictions. Despite general anti-science and anti-evolution tendencies in the Adventist church, KB is an adamant believer in synthesizing his faith with the findings and practices of the scientific community. As for Biblical references, KB may be referring to Proverbs 17:22, which reads, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
Analysis:
Cures to the common cold are numerous and variable, especially because there is currently no institutionally recognized cure. KB’s hypothesis is representative of the nature of folklore as “might be right” knowledge. KB draws on his background in psychology, citing the potential healing power of endorphins in response to a positive mindset. However, this particular cure implies that if one does not succeed in being optimistic enough, they are responsible for their own fall into illness. This may or may not intentionally parallel the common Christian view that if one does not take responsibility for their ‘sinful’ human nature, they are responsible for their eternal damnation.
Book of Job – Didactic Tale/ Moral Lesson/Oral tale
The person who I met with grew up in a religious family. They grew up in a Christian household with parents who are avid bible readers and church goers. That in turn lead to their parents using a lot of biblical references in conversation, including references to the Book of Job.
The book of Job in the bible details the life of Job, a proud servant of God who had everything we could have wanted because of his strong faith in God who has blessed him because of this faith. However, Lucifer (the Devil) challenged God to test Job, proclaiming that his faith wouldn’t be so strong if bad things started happening to him. God, believing in Job’s faith in him, accepted this challenge and allowed Lucifer to test Job. Job then ensured many hardships including his family dying, losing his wealth, and his health. However, Job’s faith did not waiver. He stayed true to God no matter what happened to him.
This book of the bible was crucial to my informants upbringing. It’s a story about having faith in the lord no matter what happens in your life. The message is that anything bad happening to you is all part of God’s plan and you should always stay faithful to Him. The bad times will pass and the good times will come. It’s a message to stay positive when things aren’t going your way and to push forward but put into a religious context. Why is this message presented to my informant this way? It’s because they grew up in a very religious household so that’s how it was framed. I’m sure their parents could have found comfort in the idea that it’s all part of God’s plan but the message stays the same no matter what the context is. As to why their family is religious, I think it has something to do with their ethnicity as a someone who’s grandparents immigrated to the US from Mexico. Christianity is the dominant religion in Mexico with a majority of those Christians being very devout like my informants family are. I think they brought their faith over with them and brought their kids up with the same beliefs and so on. Being devout Christians, it makes sense that they would transcribe this positive message to their children in a religious context through their telling of the Book of Job.