Tag Archives: supersition

Do not buy metal on Saturday

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: Canadian 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Westlake Village 

Text

Interviewer: Is there a superstition that your family and others around you hold?

SA: “Indian culture has a lot of interesting superstitions…like how you’re not supposed to buy metal on Saturdays. That belief stems from Shani, the Hindu planetary God of Saturn, who is associated with iron and conflict. People also avoid buying sharp objects like knives on Saturdays for similar reasons.”

Context

SA and her family are Indian and practice Hinduism. SA did not specify whether her or her immediate family practices this superstition, but did mention a general superstition held by those in her culture.

Interpretation

I’ve heard of a lot of superstitions as I’ve grown up, especially Asian ones, but this was a new one for me. If I was told this superstition without the context of the Hindu God of Saturn, I would not have understood why this superstition is held at all. However, with understanding that Shani is the god associated with iron and conflict, it makes sense as to why people following Hinduism connect iron and metal objects with conflict. After some quick research, it seems that people tend to donate iron in respects to Shani, so buying metal would give someone bad luck in terms of financial prosperity. I feel like this connects to western society’s obsession with astrology. We do certain things or date certain people depending on how the stars are aligned, under which planet they run under, and what it all means for us.

Examination Outfit

Age: 20
Occupation: Undergraduate Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Text: I tend to get very stressed over exams in college. It is not for a reason revolving around a lack of preparation, rather a sense of worry attributed to the cost of tuition. Because of this, I have a superstition that I truly believe works in aiding my best effort during these exams. I wear the same, cozy, outfit to each and every exam. I ensure that my grey sweatpants and grey sweatshirt and ready for me to wear the night before any major test, to ensure that I can succeed.

Context: Informant describes first performing in accordance to this superstition their sophomore year of college when they began the organic chemistry series. Though they are a very smart individual who vigorously prepares, they have recently believed in this superstition due to wearing this outfit during a crucial examination. Informant relays a small story describing their first organic chemistry exam, where they didn’t feel prepared enough but still received an exceptional grade. They were wearing the gey sweatpants and sweatshirt during this exam. From that point on, the informant has decided to continue wearing this outfit during academic examinations, furthering their belief in the clothings’ magical effect on them during the test- taking process.

Analysis:

I find this superstition to be very interesting in its ability to help me understand the origins of superstitions. The informant describes a story in which they first experienced what they believe to be a magical effect produced by the wearing of a specific outfit. This event occurred at a time where they did not believe that their own skills were purely responsible for the grade they achieved. Because of this, they are now convinced that the clothing they were had a magical role in assisting them. I am now firm in believing that this archetype, one in which some inanimate object or odd activity is used as the justification for success in replacement of ones own ability, is prominent in the creation of superstitions.

Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas for Financial Luck

“While I don’t have a whole lot of rituals or superstitions my family does have a few things we do every year around the holidays. The first is that on New Year’s Day we always have collard greens and black eyed peas with dinner. The greens symbolize paper cash and the peas coinage. The idea is that eating these foods will bring us wealth and success in the New Year.”

Context

“Though both are soul food staples and are enjoyed across the country, I’m not entirely certain where this tradition comes from. My Dad was born in South Carolina and my Mom was born in Michigan and I think it’s a tradition from my Dad’s side of the family more so than my Mom’s so it’s possible the tradition stems from the Black community in the American south.”

Analysis

Personally, I saw an immediate connection between the superstition and the symbolic representation of the greens and peas. Similar to communion bread and wine representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the collard greens and black eyed peas represent financial symbols. I assume this metaphor is based on the visual similarities that the food has to their symbolic objects: collard greens evoke green paper bills, while the small collections of round peas could loosely reflect a collection of circular coins. The folkloric representation of these two objects as food is directly tied to observable and similar aspects both share.

Additionally, the act of ingesting these symbols as food is itself symbolic of the intent of the ritual: to gain financial success in the New Year. These symbols, and the folkloric power they carry, are digested and become a part of the energy needed to sustain ourselves into the new year. Financial success gets as close to us as it possibly can through the consumption of its metaphorical representations, becoming a part of our being that we carry into the future.

Las Lechuzas

Age: 20

Folk Narrative: Legend

Text: Las Lechuzas (The White Owls)

“In my grandma’s pueblito in Guerrero, she was told that the lechuzas, or the white owls, would swoop up disobedient or unbaptized children who were out at night. The lechuzas would appear with the face of an old woman and were believed to be a witch who sold her soul to the Devil. They always appear outside the home looking in, on the rooftop, or in a tree. It is believed that if you harm or kill a lechuza, it can transform her back into a woman. It is also believed that if you pray for her, she will return to her human form. It is also believed that if it lands on your roof, it means somebody in your family will die”. 

Context: When asked, my informant told me she first heard this narrative from her grandmother, who grew up in a small town in Guerrero, Mexico. She told me this is a prevalent narrative in her grandmother’s village, and all the community knows how to look out for the white owls. My informant’s grandmother still believes in this legend and gets visibly scared when she sees a lechuza outside at night or close to landing on her roof. She believes that there is a rule of three where if the lechuza lands on her roof, three of her family members will die. Because of this belief, she does whatever she can to stop them from landing. My informant mentioned that when she visited her grandmother, she was not allowed outside at night, just as her grandmother had not been allowed outside when she was younger. It is something that the whole town is aware of, and there have been stories of rebellious children who went out at night and never came back. The entire community is superstitious, and because it’s what they’re used to and weren’t told otherwise, they keep believing it. When asked how she interprets this, my informant mentioned that it is a way to keep children inside during nighttime so they stay out of trouble. The place that she grew up in was known for gang violence, kidnapping, and organ harvesting, so if they scare children into staying inside, they protect them from the potential dangers outside. 

Analysis: Looking at this narrative, we can see a typical legend structure. It is set in the real world (Mexico), and its truth value depends on those telling the story and those who choose to be wary or stay inside when they see a white owl. Additionally, legends tend to reflect the concerns of the people, which in this case was the criminality that the town was facing at that time. To protect their children’s health and innocence, they rely on these legends to keep them inside the house. This legend also ties into religious beliefs in the Devil, and it gets translated into a supernatural being– an introduction to Catholic cosmology with ideas of good versus evil, punishment, and redemption by being able to turn humans again. The story’s strength lies in its collective belief and behavioral impact: the grandmother, the informant, and the wider community recognize the lechuza as a dangerous entity. This community-wide buy-in transforms the tale into a functioning legend—it is not merely a scary story. Still, one that guides behavior, reinforces norms, and protects the vulnerable. Here, the supernatural story masks very real and present dangers: gang violence, kidnapping, and organ trafficking. By embedding these concerns within a mystical framework, the legend transforms fear into a tangible creature—something children can understand and avoid. In this way, the legend functions as a form of social control and protection, allowing older generations to encode safety messages into the oral tradition. Also, the multiple interpretations of the legend, such as the rule of three or praying to turn her human, make it continuously evolving and adapting to the person telling it. 

Taboo of Discussing the Baby during Pregnancy

Nationality: American
Age: 79
Occupation: Retired; Former Schoolteacher
Residence: Baltimore, MD
Performance Date: May 2, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Yiddish

Main piece: The idea that you don’t talk about it (the baby). You don’t talk about it, you don’t bring the furniture in the house, buy the furniture but can’t open it, or put it together until the baby’s born. You come home from the hospital and have to put the crib together. In the day, when your father was born, you stayed in the hospital after you gave birth for a couple of days. So you (or the husband) had time. People that weren’t you, giving birth. So probably a month before I was due to have the baby, we went to Hutzler’s, which at the time was a very lovely department store, and we bought everything that we needed. Furniture, clothes, everything. And when the baby was born, Z [her husband] called Hutzler’s and told them to deliver tomorrow or whatever, and that’s why we did. Because you just want to make sure everything is alright. 

Background: My informant is a seventy-nine year old Jewish woman living in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also my grandmother. She describes herself as a follower of “bubbe-meise” (Yiddish), translated to “grandmother’s fable”, or a more serious version of old wive’s tales that are often accompanied by superstitions. The baby she is discussing was her first child (of three), my father, who was born in May 1965. 

Context: This practice is customary for Jewish couples. During a celebration for my father’s birthday, my mother brought up a (non-Jewish) co-worker, whose wife didn’t want to know anything about the gender of the baby, or even talk about her pregnancy before the baby was born. My mom then told the co-worker, “how Jewish of her”. When I asked for an explanation, my grandmother interjected with this story about her pregnancy with my father. She takes this superstition incredibly seriously, having heard it from her mother, who heard it from her mother.

Analysis: This custom seems to exist to protect the emotional and well-being of couples who may end up losing their baby. As there is a high risk in giving birth, especially prior to the invention of modern birthing practices, having the room set up/furniture ready for a baby that may not end up coming home could be emotionally and financially taxing on expectant parents. With this practice, not talking about the baby or preparing for its arrival home until after its birth creates the illusion of low to no expectations in the liminal and risky space of pregnancy. Over time, this has almost become a superstition like a jinx, that talking about the baby will result in bad luck and potentially riskier birth.