Author Archives: Connie Mak

Folk Belief – Jewish

Nationality: Russian, Polish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Anaheim Hills, CA
Primary Language: English

“I guess I can talk about the Evil Eye. And this is almost kind of a universal um idea that not that many cultures have a concept of evil presence, or Evil Eye. And specifically, in Eastern Europe and southern Europe a lot of cultures um have talked about it that there’s this kind of evil presence in the world and uh you just kinda wanna scare it away. It’s really common among older people who are in the immigrant generation like the late 1800s or early 1900s and I’ve heard stories of my great-grandmother who would um almost spit at the ground if something bad was said and there is a Yiddish phrase called ‘Kanahora’ uh which kinda means God Forbid, it’s kinda like ‘knock on wood’ and uh basically you say that if you do say something bad. You say that and it kinda scares away any evil presence that might actually cause that to happen. Um the Jewish phrase is ‘Kanahora’ but I know that a lot of different cultures and religions have this notion of the evil and try to keep it away. I don’t know if it’s so much of a literal eye, I think it’s more just the fact that there is that presence watching over you and you wanna scare it away. I know that different cultures have talked about this and there’s always that fear of the unknown, nobody really knows for sure what’s gonna happen so they just hope for the best. Occasionally I would hear my grandfather who grew up speaking Yiddish yell out or say ‘Kanahora’ after something. But they haven’t told me any stories about them actually seeing any evil. I think my grandfather uses it because his mother or my great-grandmother used it all the time. There was a lot of lack of communication between my great-grandparents who came here from Russia and Poland and my family here now because they spoke Yiddish. Um, my family here basically weren’t so aware of how to speak that language so there is a lot of kind of cultural traditions that were lost there and a lot of lack of understanding ‘cause my parents would have been like the third-generation here so even my grandparents who were like the first-generation born here, there was a lot of Americanization that went on there so even if my grandfather says ‘Kanahora’ I don’t know if he really thinks that there is an evil presence. It might just be him using a term that he heard his mother speak when she came here. So ‘Kanahora’ is kind of the Yiddish version of ‘God Forbid.’ I guess the notion of the Evil Eye, specifically, is common in Eastern and Southern European cultures, mainly Eastern.”

I think this belief in the presence of an Evil Eye is more prevalent among religious cultures because they speculate that if there is a god(s) to help or protect them, there must also exist negative forces out there that harm them. This fear of the unknown reinforces people’s faith in God as they use the phrase ‘Kanahora’ in their everyday speech to call on God’s power to protect them from any unseen evil.

More information on the Evil Eye in the Jewish tradition can be found in:

Brav, Aaron. “The Evil Eye Among the Hebrews”. The Evil Eye: A Casebook. Wisconsin Press: 1981. page 44-49.

Folk Game

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County, CA
Performance Date: March 10, 2008
Primary Language: English

“It’s called No Nose Goes. And it’s basically if there’s a big group of people and one person doesn’t wanna do something or if nobody wants to do something then…somebody can say ‘No nose goes’ and then you put your finger on your nose and everyone else has to put their finger on their nose and whoever is the last to put their finger on their nose has to do whatever it is. I absolutely think this is an effective strategy for picking the person to do the task because it is awesome and…yeah, it’s awesome. Some friends in high school told me about this. In my group of friends we did it a lot. Um, I thought everyone did it until I came to college and then I found out that a lot of people didn’t know about it…The other good thing about No Nose Goes is that one person can just put their finger on their nose and say it really softly so that nobody else hears and then the last person whose clueless that doesn’t notice everyone else putting their finger on their nose gets stuck with it…and it’s fun.”

I agree with Ben that this No Nose Goes “game” is an effective strategy to pick a person in the group to do an undesirable task because it’s very simple (there aren’t a lot of complicated rules), it doesn’t take too long, doesn’t involve use of props (all you need is your finger and your nose) and it’s easy to spot the “loser” because the people in the group just have to look for the last member without a finger on his nose. In a way, the game is meant to punish the oblivious one in the group for not paying attention or actively participating in the group’s discussion or plan. No Nose Goes is commonly played in groups because it’s a form of group identity and inclusion. The outsider who has no knowledge of the game is naturally the one who is forced to do an undesirable task so the game is like a rite of passage that brings a new member into the group.

Folk Game

Nationality: Armenian. Italian, German
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Van Nuys, CA
Performance Date: March 10, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Armenian

“Shotgun is this rule that applies to…um, basically, to ensure that you get to ride shotgun in a car, meaning the passenger seat right next to the driver uh you have to yell ‘Shotgun’ but there are some rules I think. Me and my brother, we usually, um, we agree that the car has to be in sight before you can yell ‘Shotgun’ and uh…also I think there are other things you can call out depending on where you want to sit in the car. I’m not sure what the other ones are but I think there’s ones for if you wanna sit behind the driver, behind the passenger, or if you wanna sit in the middle…um, I don’t know, I think it’s just the extension of the Shotgun Rule. I know each of them has a specific name but it’s not as common as yelling Shotgun. Although, now that my brother’s gotten way more stronger than I am, the rules no longer seem to apply. Even if I call Shotgun he will push me out of the way and steal the seat. As to how this rule got started…I think maybe, maybe, back to the olden days… when um, as people, as frontiers were moving west, the person who would sit in the carriage next to the driver would literally have a shotgun in his hand to defend the driver. I think it’s a pretty fair way to decide who gets the best seat in the car. It’s the best seat in the car ‘cause you get to control the A/C, and the radio, you’re not crammed in the back…you get your space up in the front there. I think it’s a good basic rule…I know me and my brother we tried to implement new rules but it never really stuck and I can’t remember what they were.”

This Shotgun Rule is effective and fair because it’s simple enough for people to remember the rules (you just need to be the first person to call “Shotgun”). The passenger seat next to the driver is the privileged seat because, as Shushan mentioned, you gain the same access and privileges to the A/C and audio controls as the driver and you get your seat and your own personal space whereas the people in the back seats have to share their space. Additionally, you get the same front view as the driver as well as the side view from the window so you can see more of what’s outside.

Joke

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chino Hills, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“Okay, so…there is a taxi driver and it was really late at night and he just finished his shift so, you know, he’s in his taxi and he’s driving his way home. But then along the way, as he was driving a street, he sees this woman dressed all in white just standing on the side of the road, waving her arms in a very dead kinda fashion, a very somber wave sorta. And so the taxi driver was like “Oh, why not? I think she needs a ride” so he stops the car and he lets the woman get in the car. All right, so the taxi driver was like “Where to, Miss?” and the woman just says “Take me home, it should be by the cemetery.” And the taxi driver said “Um, all right…I know where the cemetery is so I guess I’ll just take you there.” Now again, this woman is dressed all in white and she’s pale and she has no expression on her face and she’s just sitting in the back seat. All right, so you know the taxi driver’s just driving along and he looks at the rear-view mirror and he sees the lady in the back seat just sitting there and he looks at the road and he looks back again and the lady just disappeared. And he’s like “Oh my gosh….maybe I’m just tired so I’m just hallucinating. I’m just imagining.” So he blinks a little and looks in the mirror and he sees the lady again. He’s like “Okay okay, I’m not freaking out. I’m not freaking out.” Then he makes a turn and he looks in the mirror again and the lady disappeared and he’s like “Okay, don’t freak out. This is just your mind playing tricks on you.” So he looks at the road and he looks at the mirror again and the lady appears. All right? Ok. So he’s really freaked out that this point. He’s really scared. So he’s just, you know, he starts breathing really hard and he’s like “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?” And then once more, ok, once more, he looks in the mirror again and the lady disappears. He looks in the rear-view mirror and he doesn’t see anything. So he freaks out BIG TIME. You know? He’s like “OH MY GOSH! I have to stop now! I have to stop!” So he suddenly just screeches the car, he brakes and it’s like a sudden halt and he just stops all of a sudden and he looks in the rear-view mirror again… and the lady appears. But now there’s blood running down all over her face. And the taxi driver’s just…you know, runs and jumps out and goes “Oh my gosh! Please don’t hurt me, please!! What’s going on? What’s happening?” And then the lady says “What are you talking about? I’ve just been bending down to pick my nose but then you stopped the car and then I rammed my head into the seat and then I got a bloody nose.”

Andy heard this joke from his aunt when he was little. When asked why he thinks this joke is funny, he says that it’s probably because it starts off sounding like a scary story and the end is just not what one expects it to be. I think this joke reflects a general fear of encounters with strangers and nighttime. In this case, the description of the woman sets her up to appear like a ghost figure. She’s dressed in white, looks pale, and is expressionless. That, and the fact that she’s just standing at the edge of a road in the middle of nowhere at night can easily lead one to find her a bit abnormal…almost supernatural even. The surprising twist makes the joke so funny because it breaks the suspense with humor that people didn’t expect because they thought they were going to listen to a scary story. It is also interesting to note the element of the number three in this joke. The taxi driver looked at the rear-view mirror three times before he couldn’t take it anymore and decided to brake suddenly and that was when he saw her face full of blood.

Folk Belief

Nationality: African-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hillsborough, NJ
Primary Language: English

“We were in the park, this was in New Jersey…um like I think it was in Junior year of high school I’m not positive. Um, we had to go play outside because Serena, my friend who I was playing with, her mom didn’t like the idea of us playing Ouija board in the house and she thought it was kinda eerie just because…I guess it’s ‘cause she believe that it works, that you could recall spirits and she didn’t like the idea of having it in the house or of us playing it in the house so she made us go outside. So went to a park that was right by her house…me, her and my friend Christine… and we started playing with the Ouija board. We started asking “Is there anyone there? Is there anyone there?” and the pointer started moving. I don’t remember who we talked to or what they said or anything but pretty soon I got stung by…I don’t know what I got stung by. I just assumed it was a hornet or something but it could have been a little bit from a bug and it hurt really badly and I still have a scar from it actually but um…anyway, it was just really weird and it kinda freaked me out just ‘cause… I guess, of her mother making us leave and everything… so I already had it in my head that it was, you know, could be a bad thing that we were playing Ouija boards but….prior to that, um…we had played in her basement and it was just me and Serena I think when we played then. And we asked “Is there anyone there? Is there anyone there?” And it started moving and somehow or other, I think she asked “What year did you die?” And it had said the same year that her uncle just died…and she started asking it some more questions and she figured out that it was her uncle. And um, I think she asked for his initials…the initials of whoever we were speaking to and it was her uncle’s. And then she was asking a couple of questions like how her cousin was – her uncle’s daughter – and uh…whether or not he had seen or spoken to her grandmother who had died and she was just asking a couple of questions like that and…I didn’t really ask any questions because I didn’t really know him. I think it was that experience that made me believe it a little more because I don’t think that she would, you know, pretend…you know how they say people can push it but I don’t think she would have done that which is why it made me believe that it might be real. Plus with that whole sting thing. It was really scary, it wasn’t like he was freaking us out or anything…it was just kinda eerie, just kinda the thought that her uncle’s spirit could be like in the room with us. And the other time, it was just really strange…’cause I’ve never been stung by a bee or anything before and it would itch a lot afterward and I didn’t know what it was. It was just really weird and it left a mark.”

I think the Ouija board is a good example of folk belief because to some people it may be just a game but to others, it really is a way of communicating with the dead. Zakiya’s friend’s mother refused to let them play in her house because she believed strongly in the Ouija board and was afraid to “invite” the dead into her house. Perhaps this is out of fear that they may accidentally welcome evil spirits to their home. People who don’t believe in the Ouija board, however, may be skeptical about it and think people are just pushing the pointer themselves. Zakiya trusts her friend and doesn’t think she’s the type who would play such a prank but it could also very well be that her friend believes in the Oiuja board so much that she is subconsciously pushing it without intending to.

More information about the Ouija board as it relates to adolescents’ search of self-identity can be found in:

Tucker, Elizabeth. “Ghosts in Mirrors: A Reflection of the Self”. Journal of American Folklore: 2005.