Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Garlic and Onions as Medicine

Age: 16

Text:

“One weird medicinal thing my parents would do is that even though they were doctors, they’re Romanian, so when we were younger, when we would get sick, they would always tell us to eat garlic and onions, which I think stemmed from the whole vampire Dracula thing, but somehow that was a way to avoid being sick.”

Context:

The informant describes a ritual from childhood in which their parents, both trained doctors, encouraged them to eat garlic and onions when they were sick. This advice was given as a part of everyday care, rather than in a formal medical context. The informant connects this to their Romanian cultural background referencing associations with garlic and onions as protection from things such as vampires.

Analysis:

This example of belief based folklore and foodways, specifically a home remedy that is passed down through cultural tradition. It reflects how folklore and coexist with formal systems of knowledge as the informants parents rely on both their medical training and inherited practices.

The use of garlic and onions as protective or healing substances connects in a widely known way to Vampires. However, this shows how stories and culture spread into each other and affect one another. This connects in a broader context to sympathetic logic where certain foods are believed to have magical qualities. While the information links this to vampires folklore it is also a cultural association around the world between food and health, showing how meanings can overlap across different traditions. Folklore is adapted and changed overtime, its performance and daily practice is what impacts the culture and identity around us.

This example also demonstrates how folklore functions as vernacular knowledge operates outside of institutional authority even when practiced by individuals within those systems. The fact their parents are doctors highlights that belief-based practices are not limited to a lack of scientific knowledge, but instead persist because they are culturally meaningful and familiar.

This example shows how folklore is transmitted within families and adapted into everyday life, shaping how people understand and respond to illness. Even if the reasoning is not fully explained or scientifically grounded, the practice continues because it is part of a shared cultural framework around healing.

Break a Leg

Age: 17

Text:

“I joined theater in high school because of my sister. She did it. And I learned that you should always say ‘break a leg’ instead of ‘good luck,’ because one time I said ‘good luck,’ and the person in the show got kind of, um, angry, and explained to me how that was actually really bad luck. So now I just make sure to always say good luck I guess.”

Analysis:

This example is a form of verbal folklore, specifically a superstitious/customary phrase tied to the performance settings. It reflects a broader theatrical superstition in which saying something positive (good luck) is believed to produce a negative outcome, while saying something negative (break a leg) will bring a good performance.

The moment of correction highlights how folklore is transmitted through informal social interaction, especially within a specific folk group like theatre performers. The informant’s experience shows how members outside of the folk group are socialized into the group norms, learning not just what to say, but what meanings those phrases carry within that context.

This practice also demonstrates how folklore relies on shared belief systems, even if those beliefs are not taken literally. The rule is maintained through repetition and reinforcement by the group, giving it authority within the performance space.

More broadly, this example shows how folklore helps define group boundaries. Knowing to say “break a leg” signals membership and understanding. In this way, the phrase functions not only as a superstition, but also as a marker of identity and belonging within the theatre community.

Splitting the Pole

Interview: “Its a superstition i guess. It’s a superstition like walking under a ladder. If you split the pole when you’re walking next to somebody, and you both go to different sides of the pole its bad luck. Which, I don’t know, probably came from it being unsafe to be on the other side, the side closer to the road.
I dont know if anyone really believes the bad luck part, I guess its just disrespectful, you know, to the person you’re walking with.”

Context: The informant is 21 years old. He first remembers encountering the superstition in grade school, but says it remains a relatively common practice among friends.

Analysis: This superstition is so common that I really never stopped to think about where it actually came from. While the informants hypothesis about road safety seems to be incorrect, it shows how superstitions like this can survive just fine without any knowledge of their history.
Another reason this belief probably survives so well is how naturally the superstition fits with the ritual itself. The idea that putting that physical barrier between two people would also contribute to a distancing in their relationship makes sense on a certain level, and shows the importance of having that parallel between the physical and symbolic.

Step on a Crack, you’ll Break your Mother’s Back

Interview: “Don’t step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back. So that’s the saying we used to… Uh… sling around on the playground. If you’re on a sidewalk or blacktop, you’re not supposed to step on the cracks. I think painted lines counted as well, in parking lots and stuff. I guess its a superstition but like, nobody actually believes it.
Its a little bit of a game. More than anything it was just to annoy people. If there’s a lull in conversation and somebody steps on a crack you’d be like: Oh, better call your mom, see if she’s okay.”

Context: The informant is 21 years old from Los Angeles. He remembers playing the game in grade school.

Analysis: This falls into a group of superstitions which are prevalent around schools. Like many school superstitions, it survives and spreads likely because the consequences are so severe. Even a child who is pretty sure that the consequences are not real, might still be hesitant to step on a crack, and might still warn his friends about it, just in case.

Crystals

Context: I asked my grandmother, 75, white, lives in North Idaho, about crystals and her belief around them. All through my childhood they have been around, whether as gifts at Christmas or just around the house. I knew they were spiritual in some way but wanted to know the greater context. My grandmother works as a spiritual life coach, working to bring people’s lives into balance. She is in the herbalist community and learned a lot of what she knows through classes she took. She still operates in that community and shares knowledge with her friends. 

Grandma: “I believe there is, how do I say it? There’s an energy within them. And I don’t know if it’s a… conscious. So out there in the field, scientists are looking at what is conscious, consciousness, consciousness in animals, consciousness in plants, consciousness in rocks, in crystals. So they’re looking at it. So they’re just asking all these questions. So somehow, I believe, there is an energy that I can ask for and draw on. That’s pretty up here because I can’t, I can’t give you the right, the right words to come down for that. Um, But for example, there’s a, there’s a crystal and I’ve forgotten the name of it, and I may have even given your mom one. So it has 2 pointy ends on it. And the idea is that you can hold it and connect with it, and it’s the crystal doing the work, whether you’re channeling through something. It, you know, it’s it’s not me, but but I can take this crystal and I can take a pointy end and I can point that energy at my shoulder or at your shoulder. And with intent, So intention is coming through that. For those for healing, but healing is reminding the cells, what their job is.” 

Analysis: This is definitely non-traditional folk medicine that is going about healing in a different way than Western Medicine, removing all separation between body and soul. Instead relying on soul and on energy to heal people. It’s about a belief in a larger energy that connects us all and figuring out how to channel it. It makes sense that crystals are used for this purpose. Crystallization happens naturally, grows up from nature making it a perfect conduit back into that nature. They are also not as rare and expensive as other jewels are, allowing them to be accessible and cost effective, which might be why they are so commonly used as a conduit to the spiritual. It shows a belief in something bigger, but also doesn’t reject science (though I haven’t researched how true her claims are), just kinda collaborates with it which I think speaks a lot to non-traditional medicine.