Author Archives: Katie Chorao

The Girl in the Bathroom

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Long Island, NY
Performance Date: 4/18/21

Main Description

The informant describes the story of the little girl said to haunt her high school’s bathroom. The girl’s name was Pearl (a name derived from her high school’s mascot’s name), her cries could be heard between flushes, and she became the joking scapegoat of most high school girls’ problems. 

Informant’s Opinion

“Pearl wasn’t a scary ghost at all… more of an inside joke that everyone could bond over. Like, ‘Your hair’s looking bad? Pearl must’ve had something to do with it.” I’m really curious about where she came from though, because every girl knew about her but no one knew anything about her. How did she die? Why did she haunt the bathroom? No one knew.”

Thoughts

This story reminds me of Harry Potter‘s Moaning Myrtle: a girl who died in the girls’ bathroom and who provides comic relief throughout the Harry Potter series. I would assume that the girls of the informant’s high school watched Harry Potter and then wanted to create their own Moaning Myrtle in their bathroom, and in doing so they were able to iterate authored literature and create folklore from a copyrighted source.

Lady Bugs as Good Luck

Nationality: Italian-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Staten Island, NY
Performance Date: 4/23/21

Overview

The informant is Italian-American and lives in Staten Island. She describes the tradition of collecting ladybugs for good luck. She says that every summer as a little girl, her and her friends would always get excited about finding ladybugs because their parents told them that they were good omens or brought good luck. 

Analysis

I asked the informant whether other bugs or animals also represented good luck and why the ladybug in particular was so special, to which she answered that “it’s a mix of color and numbers. The Italian community is very religious, so most of it roots back to that. There are usually seven dots on a ladybug, which are tied to the seven deadly sins in our eyes. By catching a ladybug, it’s like you’re stopping the sins. The ladybug’s red color also ties into the virgin mary and images of blood.”

Thoughts

The idea that ladybugs, an insect tied to so much negative religious reference in Italian’s eyes, is a sign of good luck is very interesting. It reminds me of other instances where something inherently bad becomes spun into a good thing (for example, many people think that getting pooped on by a bird is good luck). Do people simply want to reframe negative things into positive things? Or are we implying that there is no true good and bad?