Tag Archives: Superstition

Sporty Superstitions

My sister is a sailor on the Stanford women’s team, the number one ranked women’s sailing team in the country. She’s starting in regattas as a freshman, so one would assume she knows what she’s doing. Although I couldn’t get any specific advice on how to make that happen—sorry to those hoping—I did manage to squeeze out some of what she considers to be a part of her “luck” factor. Before any race, and whenever she’s feeling nervous on the water, she does a specific breathing exercise that her coach introduced to the team.

This breathing exercise, which she plainly calls “our breathing exercise,” is recorded online as “5-in-5-out.” Funnily enough, she never really learned it “formally,” she told me:

“It’s just something that our coach told us one day. No real explanation, no official name—I don’t even think he gave us instructions beyond ‘do this when it feels right.’”

Still, from what I found online, the method follows the exact same steps she described:

  1. Sit up straight or cross-legged.
  2. Relax your shoulders.
  3. Inhale quietly through your nose for a count of five.
  4. Hold your breath for a count of five.
  5. Exhale quietly through your nose for a count of five.
  6. Repeat for 10 minutes.

She did however note minimal flexibility in how she practices it:

“I don’t really care about sitting a certain way or how long I do it for. Most of it is just up to whatever I think is best at the moment.”

At the end of the day, she does it however and whenever she feels she needs it.

Breathing exercises are one of those things that I’m not sure folklore has fully claimed yet. I feel as though it is typically regarded as more medicinal than folkloric, but we all know those two things go hand in hand. If I had to classify it, I’d say this kind of ritual has two hands in the folklore cookie jar—one reaching into sports superstitions, the other into traditional yoga and meditative medicinal practices.

When it comes to luck in sports, superstitions are everywhere. Baseball players wear the same jersey without washing it, Serena Williams famously wears the same pair of socks throughout a tournament, and my sister practices this breathing ritual before racing. It’s fascinating that humans try to “cheat” natural physical systems by invoking rituals, almost like tapping into forces beyond the physical—maybe an over-dramatization, but I think my point stands.

The interesting thing is that these seemingly kooky practices often have real benefits. If you believe you are lucky, you can sometimes manifest that luck into something real, whether it be confidence, composure, or performance.

Historically, these breathing techniques have deep roots. The Box Breathing method—famously taught to Navy SEAL snipers to maintain calm and focus—is a modern example. Yet, these practices aren’t new. Yogis developed Box Breathing over 5,000 years ago, originally calling it Sama Vritti Pranayama.

Despite their very real effects, breathing exercises like Box Breathing and 5-in-5-out don’t quite fit within traditional academic “science.” They exist in that murky space between folk wisdom, practical ritual, and physiological effect.

I’ve always loved the idea of trying to cheat chance and manifest luck. Whether it’s for tests, sports, or life in general, it’s only human to strive for perfection and victory by any means necessary—no matter how strange.

Theatrical Folklore: The Macbeth Curse – “The Scottish Play”

In theatre folklore, it is considered bad luck to say the name “Macbeth” inside a theater unless one is performing the play. Instead, actors and crew refer to it as “The Scottish Play” to avoid invoking misfortune. The belief is that uttering the name in a theater will bring accidents, technical failures, or even personal injury.

If someone accidentally says “Macbeth,” there are traditional rituals to reverse the curse, which often include:

  • Stepping outside the theater, spinning around three times, and spitting over one’s shoulder.
  • Reciting a line from another Shakespeare play, often from Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
  • Knocking on wood or performing other symbolic actions to cleanse the bad luck.

Many theater professionals follow this superstition, even if they do not fully believe in it, simply out of tradition and respect for the craft. 

I first heard about this superstition from M, the music director at my church, who has a strong background in both music and theater. He brought it up during our conversation. M explained that many actors and stage crews take the “Macbeth” curse seriously and will quickly perform a ritual if someone accidentally says the name inside a theater. He also mentioned that he has witnessed productions where, after someone said “Macbeth,” things started going wrong—props went missing, technical difficulties occurred, or performers forgot lines.

M sees the superstition as part of the camaraderie of the theater world, where traditions help create a sense of shared identity and respect for past performers. Even though he personally doesn’t believe in the curse, he follows the tradition out of habit and to avoid making fellow performers uneasy. The superstition surrounding Macbeth is an example of folklore that persists within professional communities, shaping behavior and reinforcing tradition. This belief connects modern theater practitioners to centuries-old customs, creating a sense of continuity in the performing arts.

There are several theories about the origin of the “Macbeth curse”:

  • One suggests that Shakespeare included real witches’ spells in the play, angering supernatural forces.
  • Another theory is that the play’s themes of violence, betrayal, and ambition create a chaotic energy, leading to an increase in accidents on stage.
  • Historically, Macbeth was often performed when a theater was struggling financially, leading to an association between the play and bad luck.

Psychologically, the curse may also function as a self-fulfilling prophecy—actors who believe in it may become anxious, increasing the likelihood of mistakes, which then reinforce belief in the superstition. This pattern reflects a broader human tendency to attribute misfortune to external forces rather than coincidence or human error. Beyond superstition, the tradition of avoiding “Macbeth” shows how rituals and beliefs create a shared cultural identity within a professional community. Even in a modern, rational world, folklore continues to thrive, especially in artistic settings, offering performers a sense of connection to those who came before them. Whether taken seriously or treated as a humorous ritual, the belief in “The Scottish Play” remains an enduring part of theater culture.

Date_of_performance: 2/24/25
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: Teacher
Primary Language: English
Residence: San Francisco, CA

Childhood Family Superstition

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: White

Age: 21

Occupation: College Student

Residence: Connecticut, USA

Date of Performance: February 13, 2025

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Relationship: Friend

Text: “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.” 

Context: The informant remembers hearing the saying “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back” during childhood, particularly when playing with friends. It was a common saying on the playground, where kids would avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk to avoid bad luck. Even though they knew it was nonsensical, the informant and their friends would still follow the rule for fun, making it part of their playful rituals.

Analysis: This saying is a typical example of folk speech, a type of saying or ditty passed down informally through generations. While it lacks any real logical basis, it’s part of a childhood tradition that shapes behavior in a playful way. The saying reflects how cultural beliefs, no matter how irrational, can influence actions, especially when repeated among peers. It’s also a good example of how sayings like this contribute to social bonding, with children sharing a common, fun rule to follow. In my opinion though it doesn’t have real-world consequences, the saying helps form part of the social fabric of childhood play, showing how such sayings are passed down through communities, creating shared experiences.

“Depending on the Traffic” – Folk saying

Pulled from audio recording:

“Informant:
Oh, and another thing—this might not count as a proverb, but in California, people always say “depending on the traffic.” If something is 20 minutes away, you’d say, “20 minutes… depending on the traffic,” because it could be 50 minutes or even an hour.

Pearson:
That’s so interesting. That’s definitely not a thing in Connecticut. Traffic was never bad enough to add more than 10 minutes to a trip. Rush hour was the only time it got rough. But otherwise, it wasn’t a big deal. The idea that a drive could be 20 minutes or an hour was super foreign to me.

Informant:
Yeah, exactly. Like, I live 10 minutes from Malibu, but I’m an hour from school. At night, it’s a 45-minute drive. But if I leave during the day, it could take an hour and a half—just depending on the traffic.“

Analysis:

To me I think this is really interesting because it goes deeper than it’s actual meaning. Personally, I never really hear people say this for a couple of reasons. Where I’m from traffic isn’t really a huge thing unlike here where everything really “depends on the traffic” literally and figuratively. Like I said I think it also has a deeper meaning. I see it more as a saying like a proverb but not quite a proverb. I would classify it as folk saying that’s used to convey the idea of having things take longer than they maybe should because of various roadblocks.

Age: 20

Date of performance: Told to me on February 13th, 2025. Something they’ve heard all their life

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student at USC

Primary Language: English

Residence: From California, lives somewhere in the Los Angeles area

Weird Trees

Age: 20

Date: 2/27/24

Major: Archeology and Cinema and Media Studies

Year: Junior

Primary Language: English

Place of Origin: Houston, Texas

INTERVIEWER: What is the superstition that you’ve heard of and that you practice and where did you hear it from? 

STUDENT: Superstition? Sorry, I got to think. No, cause oh, I have one! I guess I only developed this superstition, this past summer because I was doing like archaeology work in Providence in San Andres . And so there’s like these funky looking trees on the island and like kind of, if you see a tree, like that stay away from them, because that means like someone’s doing like black magic. And so I’m like always looking at like kind of the foliage and being like, is this one of the trees like is today gonna be like a curse? I don’t know. 

INTERVIEWER: That’s really specific, but like it is it is that is kind of weird.. And you learned this from like other archaeologists? 

STUDENT: Well, yeah, like I learned it like in the field because like I kept having bad luck. and so so they were like, oh, like did you accidentally interact with this tree and I was like, I don’t know. So now, like whenever I have like a bad day, I’m like, did I touch the tree? Like, like, I don’t know that I touched the tree today, who knows? Right, okay, yeah. You’re welcome.