My source is a current college student who was exposed to the belief in the evil eye and the warding off of bad luck from a young age, her parents and her brother also being superstitious. She described to me a personal experience with her belief of the bad luck of the evil eye. As she was biking to school one morning, she was passing a woman when the woman suddenly looked at her with a deathly glare and evil expression in her eyes. This initially startled her as a bad premonition due to the evil eye and as she continued biking to class, her tire caught on a spike, throwing her off her bike and tearing a large gash in her wheel. She attributes her run in with the woman with the evil eye to the ill will and bad luck that she suffered.

There are many people around the world who hold superstitious beliefs in bad luck such as a mirror breaking or spilling salt. My source’s belief in the bad luck of the evil eye is no different. Likely a folk belief passed on to her by her parents or perhaps by her brother, it continues to have impact in her life day to day. Folk superstitions often seem to be so deeply ingrained in a person’s mind that it affects a person’s life in a very palpable way.