Tag Archives: festivals

Shotgun

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English

Collector: Do you ever say shotgun before you ride in a car?

Informant: Yeah, sometimes.

Collector: Do you have rules for that?

Informant: It’s usually when we’re on my ranch and we want to go for a ride on the four wheeler, on our ranger, which is like a golf cart. If my brother and I want to go, I’ll call shotgun. It’s usually just whoever says it first.

 

Informant is a freshman at the University of Southern California. She is studying Theater Arts in the School of Dramatic Arts here. She is from Austin Texas. I spoke to her while we were eating lunch at my sorority house. Much of what she told me was learned from her sister or her own experiences.

 

This is a piece of folklore that I personally see multiplicity and variation in. For many people, the only requirement of shotgun is that you have to call it first. In my experience, we have three rules. The first is that whoever calls it first gets to ride shotgun. The second is that everyone has to be within vision of the car. The third is that everyone has to have their shoes on. This third rule usually trips everyone up, but it has a purpose. It is to make sure everyone is actually ready to get into the car and go. Nobody can run out, call shotgun, and come back to finish getting ready. This type of thing is a funny little ritual, and people put more stock into it when riding in the front is a cooler thing to do than riding in the back, for example if you’re in a Jeep Wrangler with the front doors off.

“Faith over fear.”

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English

Informant: At my gym, we always say, “Faith over fear.” And that was like something we used to say all the time, and that was the one point that I was even semi religious in my life.

 

My informant is a freshman at the University of Southern California. She is from San Diego, California. We had this conversation in the study room of my sorority house.

 

This is interesting because it somewhat can be related to a ritual before going out to perform. My informant was a cheerleader for a while, so this would work as a ritual and a superstition for some kind of performance she would ever do. It seems that many people have religious rituals they do before a performance, such as one of my informants doing the Catholic cross before going on in every ballet number she did. These manifest even in people who aren’t religious, and my informant is not religious anymore. This is interesting and shows some type of dependency on the idea of some hope for help from some other place, even without the belief that a God or higher power exists. It seems to be a type of mechanism that people just develop.

Paris Point 0

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Informant: There’s like, France. The x. The zero. Something zero.

Collector: Point zero?

SC: Point zero, yeah. In front of the…Notre Dame. And I have never stepped on it, but I have been to Paris multiple times.

MR: I’ve only been to Paris once, and I didn’t step on it.

 

Informant is a sophomore at the University of Southern California. She is studying Narrative Studies and plans to have a minor in Songwriting. She is from a suburb outside of Chicago, Illinois. I spoke to her while we were eating lunch at my sorority house one day. We were sitting together with some of my other informants. Much of what she told me was learned from her own experiences.

 

This is something I’ve heard about from multiple people and have read about in books. There seems to be a connection between some part of great cities and either returning to the city or having a wish come true. This is a kind of combination of superstitions and rituals and just might subconsciously influence people to return to the city. I can see a similar type of thing with the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, where if you toss a coin and make a wish the wish will come true. These old cities seem to have a type of magic to them which attracts you to return or fulfill a wish.

Pre-Game Ritual

Nationality: African American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant: I am scared of everything, so anyone else’s superstitions genuinely become mine because I am afraid.

Collector: Can you give me some examples?

MG: Um… When I was a rower, I, like, had to eat a very specific meal before every race, like, I wore, like, the same underwear every time under my uni, like, wore the same socks… I had a full orange, an orange sports bra, an orange set of underwear, and these orange socks that I wore, and one time, I could not find the other orange sock, and I had to go to Costco and buy another giant pack of socks because there was only one orange one in the set, but there were, like, it was a big set of socks.

 

Informant is a junior at the University of Southern California. She is studying communications here. She is from Boston, Massachusetts. She spent a while in the southern part of Spain, and speaks fluent Spanish. I spoke to her while we were eating lunch at my sorority house one day. We were sitting together with some of my other informants. Much of what she told me was learned from her own experiences.

 

We were in the middle of talking about folklore and ghost stories, and the conversation turned toward superstitions because Maya said she was very afraid of everything. She has a very particular way of doing things just because and often picks up habits from other people. This type of superstition is seen, I think, in a lot of different people. It manifests itself slightly differently every time, but for the most part many people who are athletes or performers have this type of superstition where they have a ritual or specific thing they need during every meet or performance.

Evil Menehune

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hawaii
Performance Date: 04/21/15
Primary Language: English

The informant was a high school classmate that graduated the same year as me and also is studying at USC. We met up for a snack at one of the cafes on campus and, then sat outside to catch up and exchange news and stories.

Informant

If you see a Menehune or hear their drums, you’re supposed to take off all your clothes and lie on the ground without making eye contact, or else they will kill you. To show even more deference, you have to further humiliate yourself in front of them.

The informant learned of this superstitious ritual from K (informant’s friend). He had said that his Aunt and Uncle had gone camping once, and they realized they were actually on a Menehune trail when they saw eyes watching them while they were sitting around the campfire. They then had to get naked and pee on themselves and bow down on their stomachs, in order to show that they were lesser beings than the Menehune, and to show respect.

Background & Analysis

The informant was born and raised in Waimea town on the Big Island of Hawaii. K is a good friend who is native Hawaiian, and his family follows traditional Hawaiian customs and practices. Supposedly if you heed the superstition, you will be okay.  K has told the informant many other scary stories about Hawaii as well, and also ones about good spirits.

This superstition was fascinating to me, because I know a different version. In all my life living in Hawaii, I have always perceived the Menehune as mischievous tricksters, yet relatively benign. Also, I have always heard they bring good luck if you come across one. In a way, they have always been the Hawaiian leprechauns to me. The ritual the informant described to me is very similar to the ritual you are supposed to perform if you come across Night Marchers on a Night Marcher trail. Night Marchers were the warriors of the ancient Hawaiian Kings, that continue protect the Kings in spirit form. If you come across them, you are supposed to bow on the ground and avoid eye contact, and hope that the warriors spare your life. It appears that as this ritual spread across Hawaii and over time, the exact spirit or mystical creature it centers around has become confused and interchangeable.