Context/Background: The Informant is of Polish descent and her grandparents and mother strongly identify with the Polish culture. While she, however, does not view herself as socially integrated, she’s been exposed to many customs and superstitions throughout the years. In this context, there is a superstition around a popular Polish food.

Informant:

“So, Pierogis are basically like… this super Polish dish which… I don’t even know how to explain them in a broad sense. They’re like, very large dumplings in a way. But, um, it’s basically like… pasta and its field with… you can have cheese and potatoes, cheese and spinach… Uh, there’s pork ones. There’s not really beef ones. Never chicken. Never fish. And you basically- when you make them- they’re really hard to make… when you make them, you don’t count them because it’s like… it’s considered like… you just shouldn’t do it. Don’t. But my family’s never like, ‘Don’t count them!’ but like… we know it’s a thing.” (Informant)

Introduction: The informant was introduced to the Pierogi counting superstition by her parents.

Analysis/Interpretation: I think the notion that one shouldn’t count food is notable since I’ve heard in many cultures that counting is important since “lucky” if oftentimes attributed to numerical values and becomes culturally significant. The informant wasn’t exactly sure why this was done, and was more sure that is was just a very important rule. More insight towards numbers in the Polish culture might be helpful this context to understand the full custom.