Tag Archives: Superstition

Knock on Wood

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

Context

The informant is a freshman at USC from Barrington, Illinois. During a call, I recorded an interview with them about rituals, superstitions, and festivals. When asked if they perform any superstitions, this is what they said. Important context to know is that their childhood home is a small ranch that has horses and other animals. They often go riding along trails near their home.

Text

PL: The biggest superstition slash ritual that I practice is knocking on wood. So whenever I say a thing that I–Okay, so like, scenario, potential scenario, I’m on a trail ride. I ride horses, and I’m with like a parent, with my mother, and we’re riding and I’m like, wow, it’s such a sunny day. Or like, I’ll say knock on wood because I don’t want to incur like, the bad luck of like, it’s gonna start raining because I immediately noticed that it was a sunny day or like it’s raining. And I’ll be like, I’ll notice it stopped raining. And if–if I say, “Oh, wow, it finally let up” or something like that, I will say “Knock on wood” and I will literally turn my horse to the side of the trail, find a–find a tree, knock on it, and continue.

PL: In the same way, I will say knock on wood and find a piece of wood to knock on. If I say like, “Hope you don’t die” or things like that were, like, I say a thing, but I don’t want it to happen. Or I say a thing and I don’t want the opposite to happen. And I will say, “Knock on wood,” and then I will find the nearest piece of wood and take my hand and put my knuckles against it a couple times in a knock. Yeah.

Analysis

“Knock on Wood” is a very common superstition in the United States, so it was not surprising to hear that this informant practiced this superstition. As the informant describes, the act of knocking on wood is meant to solidify a blessing or ensure that the opposite of a desired result does not happen. In this way, I feel that the practice is linked to the idea of a “jinx”–the idea being that if you vocalize a desired result, the opposite may happen as a direct result of that vocalization. “Knocking on wood” is thus intended to negate the effects of this jinx.

The Ghost day: Mid July

text:

“In the ghost day, you need to burn paper to relatives who had passed away. And you should better now go out alone during the night of the ghost day. Those whose yang qi are not strong enough should wear amulets to protect themselves and not look at the burning paper. “

context:

Mr. B is my friend in China. This ghost day is a Chinese traditional festival that memorates the dead in one’s family. He told me that most of this are his own personal experience in the ghost day.

analysis: The ghost day is a day when normal time is being cut off and the memories, tombstones, and many more things about the ghost and the dead have been brought forth. To analysis the ghost day, or ghost festival, is to analysis these things that represent this day.

These things include notions like Yin qi and Yang qi, which is 阴气 and 阳气 in Chinese. Qi, or 气 is a notion in Chinese philosophy and medicine that represents vital energy. The more yang qi one has, the more likely one is to defend against ghost. Ghosts on ther other hand, is the representation of yin qi. However, the majority of qi in women’s body should be yin qi, in Chinese medicine. Thus it well explains why majority of the ghost figures in East Asia are women. Man, who are representation of yang qi, rarely become ghosts.

However, there are situations that even man would have too much yin qi. These type of man would be characterized as girly and inwarded. As Mr. B said they need to protect themselves by wearing amultes or not looking at the burning paper. This is a folk belief of the ghost day that a superstition conversion that reverse the effect of too much ying qi.

Burning paper to ancestry is a ritual that is performed in Ghost day. How it’s done varys across region, but one similar notion is that these paper are 绸缎, or chou duan, that serves as cloth to make new clothes. Burning these paper, along with other things like fake money to the dead relatives, is a type of consolation one might be able to seek in days without their apparence.

Folk medicine: black truffle aphrodisiac

text:

Mr. B: “There is a folk story about black truffle, here it goes. Napoleon was once an incomplete man who can’t bear children. One day, one of his men said to him that there is a folk remedy for this issue. So, Napoleon used a lot of black truffles and an old hen to make soup. After he ate all the black truffles and drank all the soup, he made sex with his wife. And this time his wife got pregnant immediately.”

Context:

Mr. B is a friend of mine who lives in China. He consumes a lot of stories that circulate on the internet. This story is one of the stories he discovered on Baidu, a Chinese search Engine.

Analysis:

This story might have happened, or more likely not have happened in history. But the most important thing is that we don’t know if this is true, which gives this story the characteristic of legend. The actual effect of black truffles on sexual performance and the ability to have a child is not scientifically proven. But black truffle might enhance human ability in that regard as it contains lots of minerals that are valuable to the human body. These traits make this piece about folk medicine: black truffle, in the context of a legend: Napoleon’s story.

The fact that this story is viral on the internet in China shows the globalization of stories and a continuation, or regeneration of folklore in the need of current social value. People who carry this story to others might be someone who is interested in aphrodisiac-related things. Needs create supply, whether in material supply or in mental supply: hope is an important aspect of moving forward.

Folk belief about changing teeth.

Text:

“When Children lose their teeth, they should throw the teeth up if they lose their lower teeth, and throw the teeth downward if they lose their upper teeth. This helps the child grow their teeth quicker.”

context:

Mr. B is my friend in China. This is a part of his personal experience. His grandparents told him this piece of folk belief.

analysis:

This is a folk belief of magic that exemplifies the wish for the fast growth of children’s teeth. There is a lot of similar folk belief that involves such movement in a direction correlated with one’s growth. One example is that if a kid jumps a lot, he would grow very tall. Also, the physical movements of objects seem to have a lot of symbolic meaning in folk beliefs.

In regard to Frazer’s principles of sympathetic magic, this teeth-throwing magic fits in the categorization of both contagious and homeopathic magic. It is contagious that the teeth are a part of the body of the action. Although the new teeth have nothing to do with the old teeth, throwing the old teeth higher seems to have a magic force that will help the new teeth grow faster. On the other hand, it is homeopathic because throwing downward or upward is similar to growing teeth downward or upward. The differences are that one is by nature, the other by force, and one is new and one is old.

tattoo as taboolistic Sign: dragon on shoulder

Text:

“You should not tattoo a dragon on your shoulder because you cannot burden its weight. Eventually it will kill you.”

“The way to eliminate the effect of the dragon on he should is to tattoo a Nezha, or 哪吒 on you. Because Nezha can defeat the dragon, so that will keep you safe.”

Context:

My informant is a student at USC. Here is his intepretation of this piece.
“How I take this(tattoo) is like, you are putting a figure onto your body, then it really is on your body. And if you tattoo a dragon on your shoulder, there is a real dragon on your shoulder and you cannot possibly bear it.”

Analysis:

To provide some background, Nezha, or 哪吒 is a mythic figure in Chinese mythology. Nezha is a child that had a pregnancy of 3 years. He had the power to fight the dragon prince in the east sea of China. Eventually, he killed one of the dragon princes. Thus, in the case of the tattoo, putting Nezha as one of the tattoos by the dragon on the shoulder would serve as a suppressor of the dragon.

A tattoo is a sign. A dragon tattoo is a sign that one cannot bear on one’s shoulder. Fortunately, there is a remedy for those who had tattooed dragons on their shoulder without knowing the consequence. This remedy is the conversion of superstitious belief. However, this conversion is no less superstitious.

My informants’ analysis of the piece shows an interesting connection to the folk belief in magic. This tattoo is both contagious and homeopathic under his analysis. It is contagious because tattoo happens on one’s body. It is homeopathic that the tattoo dragon actually becomes a real dragon that kills people, and Nezha actually becomes real and kills the dragon. It’s fascinating isn’t it?