Tag Archives: good luck charm

Grandma’s Earrings & Brooch

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

“When my grandma passed away, the two things that I got from her were a pair of ladybug earrings and a butterfly brooch. So I started as a tradition wearing one of these items. Anytime I had a big presentation, anytime I had a big event, anytime I went to a family event where my grandpa was going to be there, as a way to invite her. I don’t know. It just felt like if I was wearing one of those, she was with me and she was able to see what I was doing and still keep up, even though she wasn’t alive. It definitely got to the point where times when I was like ‘oh, i don’t really want to wear either of these. They don’t go with my outfit’ but I’m not going to say that grandma can’t come to Christmas dinner. So you wear the brooch or you wear the earrings so that grandmas with you.’ I do that for a lot of things.”

Do you also view them as good luck charms in a way?

“Oh, definitely yeah. I mean it’s just like having someone on your side/ I mean, I don’t think it physically brings me good luck. Even though I know butterflies are signs of hope and I know ladybugs are signs of luck, I don’t view it very strictly in that way. It’s supposed to be my grandma and she’s going to help me get through it.”

Did you start doing this on your own?

“Yeah, I started a couple months after, so I’ve been doing it for about nineish years now.”

Analysis: After the death of close relatives, especially grandparents, we receive family heirlooms or some sort of memorabilia from their lives. Particularly with jewlery, we tend to inscribe intense meanings onto these items, feeling that they are a connection to the person’s spirit. Wearing their jewelry is like carrying them with us, just as the informant described. By having her grandmother with her, the informant has the confidence to face stressful events as well as accompanying her at family gatherings. The informant specified that she feels an obligation to wear the items around her grandfather since he had lost his wife. In a way, this creates a special bond with her grandfather who sees his granddaughter carrying a piece of his wife as she lives through her. This is one of the many ways of coping and supporting family members in their losses of loved ones.

New Years Penny

Text: 

The informant’s family and friends trade pennies with every other person at their New Year’s Party and wish them good luck for the New Year. 

Context:

The informant is from Texas and his family now lives in California every year after the New Year starts they trade pennies with one another.

Analysis:

To me, there are a few things at play with this tradition. The choice of the penny is meant to represent money. Similar to how Professor Thompson mentioned champagne is drank to show wealth and wish for wealth for the new year, and pennies are used to wish the other person financial fortune in the year to come. In addition, this is done to force everyone at the party to wish the other good luck which stops them from carrying any feelings of ill will toward the other into the New Year. 

Legend: Chinese Jade Dragon

My informant for this one was my mom. I asked her if she had any interesting stories on folk narratives and she brought up the legend of the Chinese Jade Dragon. She talked about how in Chinese culture, dragons represent strength and good luck, and jade represents wisdom, courage, and beauty. Together, a jade dragon is a symbol of good fortune. She mentioned how many shops would have a jade dragon placed inside to attract good business and prosperity. She said that she had gotten one for our home for my health because I had asthma and a bad dust allergy as a kid, and the pollution in China gave me really bad allergic reactions, causing my face to swell up, and I would have trouble breathing probably.

For as long as I can remember, my family has always had the same jade dragon in our living room as our good luck charm and protector of the house. It’s a family tradition to rub the dragon’s head or back for good luck. After we moved from China to Canada, my mom made sure to have our jade dragon shipped over to our new home. I practically grew up with that dragon, it’s been with me for most of my life and it has been very loved and well taken care of by my family. In a sense, the dragon has fulfilled its duties because after we moved to Canada, I no longer had asthma, and my dust allergy became much more manageable. Moving out of China was the best thing that could have ever happened to me and I’m really fortunate to have been given that chance.

Wearing the same shirt to all tests in nursing school

Nationality: White
Age: 28
Occupation: Nurse
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Primary Language: English

Ritual:

When AH was in nursing school, she would always wear a specific Brett Eldredge shirt to tests. She believed that it brought her good luck.

Context:

I met the informant, AH, through friends when we saw Kelsea Ballerini together. She likes many other country artists as well, including Brett Eldredge. He is her favorite singer and he feels like a good luck charm to her. Plus, wearing his merch gives her a sense of comfort as she walks into stressful situations like nursing school tests. AH started doing this on her own early in her nursing school years.

Analysis:

I related to what AH said, as I have done the same with Taylor Swift shirts during big tests for school. The superstitious belief that certain things we wear, especially if we associate them with people we love, can bring us good luck is very common. Realistically, there is no direct link between what we wear and how well we do on our tests – there might be a correlation, but that doesn’t always equal causation. But, we like to think there is one in order to relieve our anxiety. It makes us feel like we have control over the results in more ways than we actually do. Of course, this is done after hours of studying, but when you value academic performance as much as AH and I do, you’re under the mindset that every little thing helps. Neither of us are very religious, but this ritual does reflect our belief in luck and superstition, to an extent. Our decisions about what to do, especially on important days like test days, aren’t always rooted in logic that can be proven.

Coins on the Ground

Context:                                                    

O is a Pre-med biology major at USC, currently a freshman. O is a Vietnamese American who grew up in Vancouver, Washington — a short drive from Portland, Oregon. 

Text:

Me: Do you have anything you collect or do for good luck?

O: Yeah, actually I collect coins. Not just pennies, but like all kinds of coins.

Me: Really? How do you find them?

O: It’s really ridiculous, I just pick them up from the ground and keep them in my pocket, because I think they will bring me good luck.

Me: From the ground?

O: Yeah, they would be lying on the ground while I’m walking and I’ll pick them up, put them in my pockets.

Me: Do you keep the pennies forever?

O: No. I take them out and put them back on the ground once I think I don’t need the luck anymore. Like, the luck can go to someone else. 

Analysis:

O demonstrates some form of sympathetic magic. He connects receiving luck to picking up coins from the ground, both how lucky he is to find the coin and the luck the coin itself gives him. The luck O has that initially gives him the coin is somehow transferred into the coin, where there is some exchange between him and the coin that gives him luck with the penny as a conduit, collecting and releasing luck for anyone to pick up. The idea of quantifying luck or magic seems like contagious/contact magic, where magic or superstition can transfer from one person to the next with the penny is added as a middle man. Keeping the coin is somehow magic that ensures the luck will be sustained in him while giving it away is also magic, ensuring that luck will be passed on to the next person. If luck was the contagion of magic, the coin would be patient zero.