Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Stepping on a crack will break your mom’s back

Text: 

“I think it was at my kindgarten, where all the kids would say ‘stepping on a crack will break your mom’s back.’ Back then, the teachers would make us walk together as a class in line everywhere we went, so you could see everyone in front of you stepping over cracks in the sidewalk to save their moms, I guess. It was a big deal, too. Other kids would call you out if they saw you step on one, and I think some people even cried over it.”

Context:

My informant is from Austin and first learned this superstition in Kindergarten. She remembers following the superstition for approximately two years before stopping. She guesses that she either forgot about it or decided it was false. 

Interpretation:

This superstition is an example of how folklore can be spread at schools, particularly elementary schools or preschools. It reminds me of the cheese touch or cooties, as each of these are pieces of folklore that are turned into games by young children. This superstition specifically involves other people and reveals a deeper common anxiety about hurting loved ones. It also is an example of how rhyming can be used to define a specific superstition and help people remember it. 

Bloody Mary Oikotype

Language: English

Text Transcription

“I went to a Catholic elementary school. The building was a mansion turned into a school, and there were always rumors of ghosts and such. In fourth grade, my classmates and I were bored and so we decided to practice divination by going to the bathroom mirror and doing the Bloody Mary ritual. We didn’t know who would show up, but we figured with the ghost rumors, surely someone would appear. No one ever did. We tried again and again throughout the year, and nothing happened. Our teacher was definitely upset [that] we would believe in such things and told us to pay more [attention] in Bible class. I don’t know about the others, but I, for one, didn’t.”

Context

As I talked to the informant, they revealed that the version of the ritual that they did was slightly different from the version older students were using. Rather than try to glimpse a vision of their future husband’s face, they were hoping to summon an evil version of Saint Mary. They explained that the inspiration came from their disinterest in the original ritual and their desire for a more horror-inspired version. Personally, I took note of a possible counter-cultural aspect, considering the desire to summon an evil variant of a saint might not go over well in a Catholic school. It seems that this oikotype of the Bloody Mary ritual carries a bit of a rebellious streak.

Kapre

Text: One night in my family’s “barrio” in Ilocos Norte, there was a small boy sitting on the fence outside their family’s house. One of my relatives (which I will refer to as the “old man” for the rest of the story) found the boy after dark at around 8 pm. He said, “It’s late. You should go home and sleep now.” However, the boy “didn’t like the way the old man tapped the head.” The boy got up and suddenly he was a giant and towered over the old man. Then the old man got scared and tried to run but at the same time, the giant tried to touch him. The old man was so close to the giant that he was able to see the buttons on his shirt, but apparently the buttons on his shirt were as big as a platter. The old man was able to run away inside the house, but the giant ran after him and went on top of the house. Then the giant’s legs went under the house and tried to look for the old man with his feet. The giant had thought that he went under the house. Apparently, all the aunts and uncles knew there was someone on top of the house and thought it was like an earthquake so they prayed, and then the giant “flew away.” After asking more about his appearance, my grandma said he was very evil, extremely tall and scary. His eyes were very angry.

Context: My grandma informed me that this memorate belonged to the brother of her great grandfather around the year 1900, but it was told to her by her mother. Throughout the story, she did not know the name of the relative and referred to him as the “old man”, but she was still the story is true despite her not remembering details such as the relatives name and the fact that her mother wasn’t born yet. 

Analysis: I had asked my grandmother to tell me a story of the Kapre, mythical giants that live in the trees in the Philippines. She had told me about them when I was younger, but I could not recount any specific stories. This was my first time hearing this one, and I thought it was interesting of how she kept reminding me that her mother told this to her even though it was way before her mother was born. Not only has this story been passed down by two generations that did not witness the event, the belief that it happened is quite strong for an unexplainable reason. I had thought that details such as the kapre’s eyes and the buttons on his shirt were really specific and made me think that my grandma had listened to this story very closely because of fear. These kinds of tales that rely on someone’s fear make me wonder if something serious did happen whether it was something like war or an actual earthquake, but something supernatural such as the kapre was the only way to make sense of it. I think that the fear carried with this story is something that is very real, but the story had transformed into a myth more than an event that had happened.

Kapre

Text: My grandfather was about 9 years old when this had happened to him in the Philippines. In the middle of the night at around 2 am, he had woken up to use the restroom. My dad added the fact that he and his siblings all slept on the floor in the same room. Since it is the Philippines, the bathroom was outside.

He started urinating and about 100 feet away saw what was probably a small person, maybe an old lady pacing in a circle. The lady starting walking towards papa and with each step seem to be growing until she was giant. My grandfather screamed and ran back inside the house.

Context: I had asked my dad for some stories for this project. He had told me a story that his father had told him when he was a little boy. Beforehand, my father had been listening to the other stories my grandma and aunt were telling me, so I believe he wanted to share this story because of how similar it was to the ones he heard growing up.

Analysis: Although I have written another story focusing on the kapre, I wanted to share this one specifically because of the context in which I heard it. After asking my dad for some folklore stories, he had told me this specific one of his father from the Philippines. My dad had never been to the Philippines before and has lived in America his whole life, so I thought it was interesting that his stories of the supernatural belonged to his parents. As my family continues growing, I wonder how these supernatural stories will evolve with them. I had never heard of a folklore type story coming from my parents. It’s only my grandma’s generation or older. Once I become my grandma’s age, will I continue to tell her stories? How much will my retellings change it? It seemed to me that new stories with these creatures had begun with each generation, but moving to America has stopped these stories and started the recirculation of legends and myths from my grandma’s generation. I become fearful that I will lose the culture that these stories hold so dearly to my family. As a third-generation child with parents that also feel very removed from the culture, these stories put into perspective my fear for the future and how I will continue to feel even more far away from my culture than I do right now. However, writing down these stories, I hope to somewhat perserve some of that cultural signifance and the feeling that my family has when we first hear these stories being told to us.

How the Paoay Lake Formed

Text: A long time ago, there used to be a small town in the Ilocos Norte region in the Philippines. One day, an old beggar woman went there to beg for food, but they “cast her out.” She went to many houses, but many of them were not generous and despised her because of how dirty and  poor she looked. After visiting all the houses, the old woman said, “These rich people are selfish” and suddenly transformed into an angel. She then casted a spell and drowned the entire village—making it the Paoay lake that it is known today. Apparently, this legend has circulated around Ilocos Norte for years after this incident occurred and many people started to believe that the old woman did that. However, people say that years later, large pieces of houses and jewelry still surface. 

Context: This was the first legend my grandma had told me after I asked her to tell me a folk narrative of some kind. Lake Paoay is one of the biggest lakes in the Philippines and is found in Ilocos Norte which is where my family is from and where my grandma had spent the first half of her life. She had originally learned this legend from her parents and older relatives but also mentioned that this legend was always in circulation in the Ilocos Norte region and considered true by everyone invluding herself.

Analysis: At first, I thought that my grandma had told me a local legend of some kind. The Filipino region that I’m from is not really common among the Filipino-Americans I know, so I was curious to know how local this story really was. I looked it up on the internet and was surprised to find out that other legends that were entirely different from what my grandma had told me. I had found multiple sources siting a Sodom and Gammorah rivalry type legend about this lake, but with the same ending: it is true because there are bits of houses and jewelry that float up to the surface. I thought it was interesting how this part of the story had remained the same despite the stories differing a lot. I also thought about how my grandma’s version of it was similar to the beginning of something like the Beauty and the Beast story. A stuck-up rich person shunned an old beggar woman because of her appearance. I also can’t help but think that this version had emerged in our family specifically because of religious implication. My family, my grandma and all her older relatives specifically, was/are very religious and into Catholicism. Maybe this version was the one that was told, but was changed to be more religious to get the children to like Catholicism more.