Author Archives: Hope Riley

Cracked Mirrors in New Orleans

Text:

Interviewee: “I’ve just heard that cracked mirrors are bad, and they look scary.”

“Can you tell me about it, please?”

Interviewee: “There’s a lot of mirrors in New Orleans. With lots of, like, strange patterns of glass.

“Why?”

Interviewee: “I mean, New Orleans is a funky place.”

“But, like, what’s the belief around the cracked mirrors?”

Interviewee: “People think that they (the cracked mirrors) can trap, slash, distort your spirit, like, your reflection isn’t fully you.”

“But why are they funky looking?”

Interviewee: “Why is the mirror funky?”

“Yeah.”

Interviewee: “I mean, I guess they’re eerie because of how locals, locals believe in like Louisiana voodoo. They can be seen as portals between the living. You could get stuck inside a mirror. I have no idea why that ties to why they are like different colors and different shapes in New Orleans, but it definitely has to do with the culture.”

Context:

The interviewee was originally born in Mississippi and has an apartment in New Orleans with his family. They go to the city often. He is a white male aged 22-23.

This conversation comes from a discussion about local beliefs in New Orleans, a place known for its strong cultural traditions and spiritual practices. Cracked or decorative mirrors are seen all over New Orleans, so the interviewee is trying to explain ideas they’ve heard about mirrors.

Analysis:

This is an example of belief-based folklore related to mirrors. The idea that cracked mirrors can trap or distort the soul reflects a magic superstition, where an object is believed to have power over a person’s spirit. In places like New Orleans, ideas about spirits and the afterlife are culturally significant, reflecting the culture.

Overall, the “funky” or eerie appearance of the mirrors adds to their perceived power, blending design with spiritual meaning.

The Skinwalkers of Colorado Deserts

Text:

“Just tell me everything you know about skin walkers.”

Interviewee: “I have friends who would go camping a lot in the desert in, like, places around Telluride, and were genuinely scared of them. Some people, like some, are not friends, but people I knew would cuss you out if you said the word “skinwalk” and be like, why are you saying that?”

“Just saying it summons them?”

Interviewee: “Yeah. And they’re supposedly, like, some sort of mythical creature that’s in the wilderness and, like, this area.”

“The deserts of Telluride?”

Interviewee: “No, if you drive like 2 hours outside Telluride (a town in Colorado) you’d be in a desert.”

“And that’s Colorado?”

Interviewee: “Yeah.”

“And they are only in deserts?”

Interviewee: “Just like campgrounds, I feel like.”

“What do they look like?”

Interviewee: “They’re, like, very tall. They live on ranches. They’re like shape-shifting, witches, and they can transform into wolves and coyotes. Like people say they see them in the form of like a coyote, like they’ll be driving a car and they’ll be something, and then they’ll be driving a car in pitch black and they’ll see something running next to their car and it’ll slowly morph into something else. It’ll morph in and out to all fours, like a wolf or something. The skinwalker will then follow the car.”

“Do you have any specific stories that your friends have said?”

Interviewee: “No.”

“Have you ever been scared of them while camping?”

Interviewee: “No.”

“Have your parents?”

Interviewee: “Not to my knowledge.”

“So, if you say their name, does it summon them?”

Interviewee: “I’m not sure.”

“Why can’t you speak it?”

Interviewee: “I think maybe, like, people don’t like to just hear about them because they believe in them, and if you speak their name, it reminds them of the concept.”

“So did kids at your high school believe in them?”

Interviewee: “Yes. But it’s more like adults believe in it.”

“Really?”

Interviewee: “Yeah, like, *insert friend’s name*, you might have met. He’s scared of them.”

“Really? Does he go camping a lot?”

Interviewee: “Yeah. He thinks that they’re gonna try to kill him and eat him.”

Context:

The informant grew up and lives in Colorado. He is familiar with camping in the area, as he would camp with his father and brother a lot growing up.

The interviewee recounts what he and his friends have heard about skinwalkers in desert and campground areas in Colorado. The story reflects a mix of local beliefs, especially among adults and camping communities.

Analysis:

This is an example of a legend in belief-based folklore. Skinwalkers are described as shape-shifting witches that can take the form of wolves, coyotes, or humans, and are associated with fear and danger. The taboo against speaking their name reflects a magic superstition, where naming a supernatural being is believed to summon or draw attention from it.

The legend regulates behavior in wilderness areas, keeping people alert, cautious, and respectful of the land. While high school students might treat it as a scary story, adults and frequent campers treat the skinwalker as a serious potential threat. The legend blends supernatural fear with practical warnings about the wilderness, creating a shared cultural narrative within the community.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Relic Changing Colors

Text:

“It all started about 15 years ago. I had a huge devotion to St. Thérèse, and I feel that she’s brought me many blessings in my life, so we were going as a family to France, to Paris for a week, and I realized that St. Thérèse… town where she grew up in was Lisieux, France. So I had an original relic, which is a piece of her bone, which is very rare to get. And that’s called a first-degree relic. I then purchased 25 third-degree relics. A third-degree relic is something that was touched a first-degree relic. So it touched a piece of the bone, the hair, so forth, like that. So I bought 25 of those, and my husband was on the parish council and had a meeting with the priest before we left, so I said, take these 25 with you and have them blessed before we go over to France.

He said, This is ridiculous. This is a business meeting. That would be embarrassing to come in with these, uh, medals. I said, no it’s not. The medal is also a St. Thérèse on one side, and the other side is all red. It’s got a little red circle. So, I said, take these. I said, if you don’t take them, it’s gonna look bad because I already told the priest about them. So he gets them blessed.

I got a rental car, and I said, I’m going to Lisieux. So we go, and we had a private tour, and I took her original relic and put it on the floor of where she lived in this convent. My husband and I had the original. Then we went over to her body, and my one daughter came away from the body, and she said, “Oh my gosh, my, my relic turned white.” And I was like, gosh, that’s strange. We don’t really think anything of it. We had the entire basilica to ourselves.

A neighborhood child had cancer, so I had told the mom I would light a candle in the basilica of St. Thérèse Lisieux for her daughter. So, me and my daughter are over lighting a candle, and my husband is sitting in a pew praying in the front of the church. And as we’re sitting there, lighting the candle, one by one before us, they all started, 16 out of the 25, turned from red to white. And they were just one at a time, and we are just sitting there watching this in awe. So I said to my daughter, go get your father. He comes over. He sees these relics. And he is like, “oh my god”, we didn’t even know what to do.

There was a thing of holy wood. We took all the relics and we threw them in there because, honestly, I was a little scared and overwhelmed, and my daughter was kind of in shock. No one knew what to say. We were all just super quiet. And at the end of it, we took them all out, we dried them, the red ones were still red, the white ones had stayed white. So the, the crazy thing is afterwards, my husband said, I’m not gonna tell anyone this, ’cause we’re gonna look like crazy people. And I said, “well, we do have the before and after, and all of us witnessed it.”

So we do tell people the story now. And since then, as people have gotten ill and things like that, we have given out several of them. Each of the kids have one left. I don’t have that many left because people have been buried with them, or people have come to me and asked for them. I still have my original one, and when someone, if I have a friend who has, like, you know, serious illness or whatever, they usually take it with them to doctors’ appointments and things like that. But, so that is, um, my story of my relics turning, and I think our whole family has a beautiful devotion to St. Thérèse now. My one daughter carries around a little, tiny St. Thérèse statue. It’s maybe two inches high.

Context:

The informant is a middle aged white woman from Philadelphia. She recounts a family trip to the Basilica of Saint Thérèse, a major Catholic pilgrimage site associated with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Before the trip, the family had small medals (treated as relics) blessed by a priest. While visiting the convent and basilica, they prayed, placed the relics near the saint’s body, and lit a candle for a sick child back home. During this time, several of the red-colored relics unexpectedly turned white in front of them. In Catholic culture, relics are sacred objects connected to saints. Pilgrimage sites are often associated with miracles or unexplained phenomena, as is her tomb. The experience was emotional and overwhelming, and the family later shared the relics with others, especially those who were ill.

Analysis:

This is an example of material folklore and religious folk belief centered on miracles. The relics act as physical objects believed to carry spiritual power, and the color change is interpreted as a sign of divine presence or intervention. The event reinforces the family’s faith and deepens their devotion to the saint. It also shows how personal experiences at pilgrimage sites can become meaningful stories that are retold, especially when tied to healing.

Cursed Objects on an Arizona Reservation

Text:

Interviewee: “When I was on the reservation, one of the days instead of helping out on the farm and like with the water and everything, they took us to this canyon that was like two hours away.

That’s where we saw those drawings on the mountainsides from the Hopi and earlier groups, and there were also a bunch of houses that were like hundreds of years old.

They also had this thing where a lot of the objects there were kind of like cursed, but only if certain conditions were met. Like, we found some arrowheads in the ground, and we were allowed to pick them up and look at them. But they said if you took them out of the canyon or away from where they were found, you’d basically be cursed and could even die.

It reminded me of how in Hawaii they say if you take rocks from volcanoes you get bad luck. It was kind of like that, on the reservation they said if you tried to take anything off of the reservation, you’d be cursed.

They also had a lot of rules that mainly applied depending on whether you were Native or not. Like, they said there were certain things you can’t do if you’re not Native. There was one example where some of the objects we could hold as non-Native people, but they wouldn’t touch them because they said they would get extremely bad luck. Like one of the arrowheads, none of the Native people were allowed to touch it because it had some kind of history with them, but since we had no relation to it, we were fine.

But then there were other things where we weren’t allowed to touch them or take them home at all, because we as non-Natives don’t really understand the significance.”

Context:

The interviewee was on a service trip to Arizona with school peers. He is a white man aged 18.

During this service trip, he went on a visit to a reservation where the interviewee was spending time with a local community in Arizona and learning about the land, its history, and its cultural practices. The canyon visit included exposure to ancient sites connected to groups like the Hopi, as well as interaction with physical artifacts such as arrowheads. The beliefs about curses and rules around touching objects were explained directly by community members, especially in relation to whether someone was Native or not.

Analysis:

This is an example of material folklore. The idea that objects become dangerous or “cursed” only when removed reflects a magic superstition, where specific actions (like taking an object off the land) trigger consequences. These beliefs discourage people from removing artifacts and help protect culturally and historically significant sites.

The distinction between what Native and non-Native people can or cannot touch shows that meaning and rules depend on identity, relationship to the object, and cultural knowledge. The belief that some objects carry history that affects certain groups differently highlights how folklore is tied to ancestry and cultural connection. Folklore in this story regulates behavior, preserves respect for the land, and reinforces boundaries around cultural understanding and ownership.

“Red sauce”

Text:

Interviewee: “In my family, we call the red pasta sauce red sauce, but I know there’s a lot of debate about what it’s called. Some people call it gravy, which is disgusting. I know ours has zucchini and onion. Some people call it pasta sauce or marinara.”

Interviewer: “My family also calls it red sauce.”

Context:

This came up during a folklore class discussion about minor folk speech. The interviewee shared a common family term for pasta sauce and compared it to other names used by different people. The interviewer (me) noted that I, too, call it red sauce, as does the rest of my family.

Analysis:

This story shows how families have their own names for foods. Calling it “red sauce” connects the speaker to their family and reflects shared traditions. It also highlights how food language can spark similarities, or conversely, debate between families.