Tag Archives: luck

Lucky and Unlucky

Age: 23

TEXT

Collector: What do you find lucky, what do you wish on?

Informant: I wish on birthday candles and I suppose if I ever saw a shooting star, however I haven’t. This works for me because I’ve always heard about it in stories and movies. Something lucky is a ladybug if I ever see one because my mom told me stories of ladybugs being lucky and making a wish on them as you let them fly away.

Collector: What about bad luck? What can you tell me about that?

Informant: Bad luck or superstitions like going under a ladder or seeing a black cat pass by? If I see a black cat on my path, I usually don’t feel unlucky because there is a black cat that always visits my house and I always give him food, and at one time, he was a strange black cat that crossed my path.

CONTEXT

This informant from Chicago provides me with their take on luck and bad luck, as well as how these superstitions formed. They cited ladybugs, shooting stars, and birthday candles as both symbols of good luck and something to wish upon. Whereas they spoke on superstitions they grew up being designated as bad luck, such as black cats and walking under ladders, but offer their disbelief in these rituals.

ANALYSIS

Talking to this informant was interesting because it revealed what makes something lucky/ unlucky to some individuals and how those superstitions form. This individual uses firsthand experience to dictate what superstitions they believe, and emotional attachments and stories passed on by family to determine luck. In this family, they have cultivated their own ritual of catching, releasing, and wishing on a ladybug as it flies away, symbolically releasing the wish into the world.

塞翁失马，焉知非福 or sài wēng shī mǎ，yān zhī fēi fú

Age: 24

TEXT:

“塞翁失马，焉知非福” or “sài wēng shī mǎ，yān zhī fēi fú”

CONTEXT:

Informant- “Another Chinese proverb called “sài wēng shī mǎ，yān zhī fēi fú” meaning “the old man lost his horse, who knows if it is not a blessing”. So the story is about an old man whose horse ran away and his neighbors felt so sorry for him, but he said, “who knows if this is a bad luck?” And later the horse came back with another horse. The neighbors congratulated him, but he said, “who knows if this is good luck?” And then his son wrote the new horse and broke his leg. And again, everyone thought it was terrible, but soon after a war broke out and all the young men were drafted except his son because of his injured leg.

So this message is that like luck can change and we should not judge events too quickly. This is like, I’ve heard it from my parents, but we also taught, we also like teaching this story to little kids in school. So it could be seen as a proverb of moral tale and folk philosophy about fate.”

ANALYSIS:

This proverb provides a fluctuating understanding of fate and destiny, as well as provides a tale that instructional listener not to be too quick to judge and rather to wait to see how things play out in the long run. It makes a lot of sense to me that this proverb would be taught in schools and two young children because young children are often very quick to judge a book by its cover or react in haste rather than process their emotions and respond accordingly. This folk speech reminds me of the reading, Mechling, “‘Cheaters Never Prosper’ and Other Lies Adults Tell Kids.”

Clapping to Reverse Bad Luck: Eye Twitch

Text:

Informant: “So, like my mom is very superstitious. She’s, um, Vietnamese, and she has a Buddhist background.

So, like, she heard from her parents that if your eye twitches, your right eye twitches, it means something bad’s gonna happen, or, like, more bad luck for the day. So, to reverse the bad luck, you have to clap twice until the twitching stops.

And then the thing is, like, if the left eye twitches, it’s good luck. Something good is going to happen.

I don’t know where she learned that from, or how that happens, but she told me that.

Whenever my eye twitches, I perform the clapping. Which is all the time.”

Context: The informant is a Chinese-Vietnamese-American USC student whose mother has a Buddhist background and is very superstitious. She learned this belief from her mother, who heard it from earlier generations. Even though she grew up in the U.S., she still follows the practice when it happens.

Analysis:
This is an example of folk belief and a protective ritual. The idea that an eye twitch signals good or bad luck functions as a sign, where the body is seen as predicting future events. The act of clapping twice to stop bad luck is a simple, repeated behavior meant to reverse or control that outcome. Even if she doesn’t fully understand where it comes from, she still does it, showing how superstitions are passed down and continue through habit and family influence.

Even VS Odd Flowers

Text: The excerpt below is a performance describing the even vs odd flowers Romanian superstition.

Interviewer: Do you have any folk beliefs of what brings good or bad luck?

Interviewee: And, so like, I brought this up in class on Tuesday, but it’s the, uh, when you bring someone flowers, if it’s an even number, that’s bad luck, because you only bring even numbers to funerals, when you are mourning someone, in Romanian culture, so you’ll always bring odd flowers [when going to an event that is happy].

Interviewer: Do you know where you heard of these beliefs?

Interviewee: Yeah, they’re from my parents, it’s part of the culture, it’s like a very superstitious culture.

Context:

This excerpt is from a conversation during a discussion class of Forms of Folklore. The person interviewed is of Romanian heritage, and grew up in America. They always bring an even number of flowers to funerals, and an odd number to joyous events.

Analysis:

This belief likely is held because the believer likes to feel greater influence over events that they do not affect. The superstition also points to the multiple, competing symbolic meanings of flowers, how flowers are given joyfully to someone you love, but also, they are used to mourn for those who die. These competing use cases resulted in this belief forming, where which circumstance of flowers had to be made clear. It is also interesting how odd is considered lucky, while even is considered unlucky. This folkloric belief, in its focus on odd and even, is extremely similar to and possibly connected to the pulling petals folk activity, where depending on if the number of petals pulled is odd or even, someone does or does not love the ritual performer. Also, the fact that odd in particular is joyful, while even is somber, could have arose from the fact that giving one flower is common, and it would be strange from that to be classified as unlucky, so from there, all odds were made happy, and evens were made unlucky.

Lucky 8 and Unlucky 4

Text: The performance captured below is an explanation of different lucky and unlucky numbers in Chinese folk belief.

Interviewer: Do you have any superstitions or things that bring luck?

Interviewee: Yeah, so for uh, again for Chinese people, we have lucky numbers and unlucky numbers. For some reason that I am not super sure about, the number eight is a lucky number. It, like, signifies good fortune, or whatever, and the number four is an unlucky number. I think the last time I hear it, it’s like because (sǐ 死) in Chinese kind of sounds like death, so that’s uh like why.

Context:

The interviewee is an Asian-American student at USC whose parents are first-generation immigrants from China. First, the student was asked if he held any superstitions, after a while of thinking, his response was as described above. When asked how he engages with this belief, the interviewee responded:

Interviewee: Unconsciously I always try to do things, like in eights probably. Like, if I think about it, throughout my life, like, I do feel like eight’s a lucky number.


Analysis:

These examples explain how language affects folk belief. The belief follows the pattern of homeopathic magic, as due to the fact that 4 phonetically sounds like the word for death in Mandarin, negative folk beliefs and superstitions are placed on top of that number. This example also exemplifies how different cultures vary in how they view specific numbers. The additional belief that 8 is a lucky number showcases conversion magic, as now that the evil number 4 is doubled, its unlucky connotation is inverted, and the new number 8 now carries good luck. The response from the interviewee also showcases how belief exists on a continuum. He does not actively advocate that 8 is actually lucky. However, this cultural superstition still subconsciously affects him, and informs how he acts day to day.