Author Archives: Myranda Moran

Folk Belief: Sharing Food with a Pregnant Woman

Age: 24
Occupation: Paraprofessional

[Do you have anything you would like to share?]

‘I do remember this superstition my family had when I was younger. It was like we couldn’t share food with a pregnant woman. Like if they ate from a bowl and offered it to us, we could accept the bowl but we weren’t supposed it eat it.”

[Was it for the health of the mother? Or seen as bad luck?]

“It was like, you know how pregnant people get morning sickness? It was like you would get the morning sickness. I remember when I was younger, being with family, and my mother telling me not to eat from the same bowl as one of my aunts. I did anyway, and I actually ended up throwing up later that night.”

Analysis: I think that this superstition is unique in the sense that I think most folklore surrounding pregnancy has to do with the health of the mother or protecting/ promoting fertility, so having a folk belief surrounding how the health of a pregnant person could impact others is really interesting. Additionally, morning sickness here is treated less as a symptom and more as a contagious sickness, which I never really considered.

Steam Bath

Age: 24
Occupation: Paraprofessional

[Do you have any home remedies? Things you would do when you were sick as a kid?]

“I do! Either my grandmother or mother would boil a big pot of water. After it was steaming you would add pomelo leaves, lemon grass, and other herbs, ginger. Next, you would set it on the floor and kind of hover over it and bath in it, and it would open up your airways. It would also combat the cold air, if that makes sense.”

[It does! I know some cultures have hot and cold foods, but not like their actual temperature, but their impact on the body. Is it similar to that?]

“Exactly! It’s like when you were sick, your body was cold, and you need to heat it back up.Pho is also considered hot, because of all the spices.”

[Was this only for sickness? And when do you first remember seeing or doing it?]

“It was something my family did, but also my friends and some neighbors. And not necessarily, I know pregnant women or people who were about to be sick would also do it. Like after strenuous activity, it would tighten up muscles”.

Analysis: As I mentioned during my interview, many cultures share the idea of “hot” and “cold” foods, and this is the first time I’ve seen it out of a purely food context. After the interview with my informant, they mentioned how they felt that traditional medicine can be seen as more “gimmicky” because it tends to lean towards “cure-alls”, versus scientific medicine that pinpoints 1 issue. I think that in our example, you can see both of these ideas appear, the usage of the steam bath serves 2 purposes: to rid the body of cold air (something considered more “folky”) and to clear sinuses/the airway (which could be considered more “real” to Western medicine). I’m curious as to how, depending on the audience, steam baths could be portrayed: as a way for anyone to clear cold air, or only for people who are sick with clogged sinuses.

Folk medicine: Gargling Salt Water

Nationality: American
Age: 21

“Home remedies? I remember when I was younger we would gargle warm salt water whenever we had a sore throat.”

[Was it something you only remember doing as a kid? Or would your parents do it too?]

“No, my parents would do it too. I mean I also still do it to today. I’m not sure if there’s any real reason why it could cure a sore throat, but I think just gargling warm water is good because your throat can get dry. I do remember drinking the water for fun sometimes as a kid, but I don’t do that anymore.”

[Thank you!]

Analysis: Initially, what I found interesting about this is that although essentially it’s just a homemade saline solution, the term  “Salt water” is used instead. Additionally, I think this is a pretty efficient folk medicine because it’s fairly inexpensive (just salt and water), and can be found using items generally already in the house. It can also be made quickly, which would be perfect for a parent trying to heal children as fast as possible, or just themselves. This can be particularly helpful for children’s sore throats, because many kids don’t like the taste of cough syrup or general medicine, so getting them to gargle salt water is better than the possibility then the headache of gross medicine- or even downright refusal to take such medicine. Additionally,  the “gargling” can be seen as a fun activity (at least funner than taking medicine), which is always a bonus.

Folk Belief: String on Finger

Age: 24
Occupation: Paraprofessional

“I’m not sure if it has an actual name, but it’s like if you get a stye on your eye, it means you saw something you shouldn’t have. You would then tie a black string around your finger- I can’t remember, either middle or ring- 12 or 13 times. You would keep it there until it fell off to ward of bad luck”

[Would you do this yourself?]

“No, it was mostly my grandmother and sometimes my mother. Oh! And it also had to be done on the left hand.”

Analysis: There’s a lot to unravel here (like a string, haha): beginning with the stye on the eye, I think that many cultures consider the eyes “windows to the soul”, so it makes sense that any particular harm to the eye would be considered very serious. Additionally, there’s this “seeing something you shouldn’t have” element, which has manifested itself into a physical bump on the body. There’s a lot of folklore surrounding the idea of karma, which I think this also exemplifies: you saw something you shouldn’t, so now you have a bump and the possibility of bad future luck. What I find particularly interesting is the number of times the string must be wrapped around the finger: In many cultures, 13 can be considered an unlucky number, but here, it is used as protection against bad luck.

Folk Belief: Don’t whistle indoors

Age: 20

“This was something I definitely got yelled at for when I was younger, but Its bad to whistle in the house, or maybe just in general. You will go broke that way.

[Why is that? Just coincidence?]

“I think it comes from this old tale, or habit? Russians/ Slaves kept their money in their mouths (very poor folk who needed to hide stuff or something like that). Whistling would cause people literally lose their last dollar. I think also, it’s seen as kind of like, foolish? Like, if you’re dumb enough to just sit and whistle, you probably aren’t good with money.”

Analysis: There are many folk beliefs that include whistling as bad, mostly when it comes to whistling in a certain location. This folk belief is interesting because of how it includes the consequences of losing your money through a historical tale (or habit?), not just “generally bad luck”. Although the practice of holding money in your mouth isn’t held today, the belief still remains: transcending time and social practice. Additionally, this belief isn’t only held in people who experienced financial hardship, which is an interesting case of folklore spreading to places not within its original group (like to those who were more well off).