Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Chew on a Piece of Thread

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Actor
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 3/18/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: B is a 20-year old born and raised in Southern California. He and his family are Jewish, and are all involved in theater.

Main Piece:

Informant: “Something my mom always told me is: if you’re wearing a garment of clothing that is actively being sewn or mended or stuff of that nature, you need to chew on a piece of thread.”

Interviewer: What happens if you don’t?

Informant: “Well, bad luck. There are all sorts of associations to death shrouds and dying, so it’s pretty bad to do.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant’s mother told him this superstition when he was younger. The family frequently sews clothes due to their involvement with the theater.

Context of Performance: The piece is told as a warning against bad luck, mostly during situations in which people are mending clothes.

Thoughts: The informant noted that although he is not very superstitious, he very much believes this superstition. I was not aware of this superstition, but was aware of other sewing-related superstitions, such as knotted threads signifying an argument in the future, or not leaving something unsewn through New Years.

Guggle Muggle

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Actor
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 3/18/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: B is a 20-year old born and raised in Southern California. He and his family are Jewish, and are all involved in theater.

Main Piece:
Informant: “My grandma used to, when we were sick, make this drink called guggle muggle. It was milk, honey, and egg.”

Interviewer: And it was supposed to cure sickness?

Informant: “Yeah, yeah, for things like a sore throat or a cold or whatever. You’d drink the guggle muggle, and usually it’d be warm. It was supposed to make you feel better.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant was given this folk medicine by his grandmother when he was younger. He still will make it if he is feeling sick even though his grandmother has passed away.

Context of Performance: The medicine was given when suffering from a minor illness like a cold or a sore throat.

Thoughts: I know of other folk medicines that involve giving hearty but sweet food or drinks when sick, such as toast with jam for a sore throat. The informant actually made this for me, as I was sick at the time, and it tasted very much as one might expect.

Stopping a Thunderstorm

Nationality: English
Age: 61
Occupation: Mother
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 3/18/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: Valerie is a 61-year-old, born and raised in Dorking, England. She moved to Pennsylvania at 40, and to San Diego at 45. She still regularly visits England, where all her family still live. 

Main Piece: “Something that you’re always supposed to do when there’s a thunderstorm is yell back at it. If you’re scared because it’s loud, you just yell back and you’ll scare the thunderstorm too. You won’t be scared anymore, and the thunderstorm will stop.

Background Information about the Performance: The informant was instructed to do so as a child by her parents, and would later pass it on to her own child. 

Context of Performance: The piece is told to frightened children to calm them down.

Thoughts: I have received this advice when I was a child and know that I was very reassured by it. It seems to be a way of both boosting confidence and of stopping the thunderstorm. The idea that one should mimic a natural event in order to stop it from occuring seems prominent in other folkloric beliefs as well.

Papaya Leaves for Jellyfish Stings

Nationality: Hawaiian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kaneohe, HI
Performance Date: 4/19/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Hawaiian

Informant: Uluwehi is a 21-year-old student from Hawaiʻi. She is from the island of Oʻahu.

Main Piece: “So, a good medicine is that if you get stung by a jellyfish, you should crush up papaya leaves and use that on the sting. I know they do it in the Molokaʻi races since it’s not good to bring in chemicals, and also they just generally do it.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant learned about this medicine while researching Hawaiian medicines. She uses it if she can when she or somebody she knows gets stung.

Context of Performance: The medicine is given to sufferers of jellyfish stings.

Thoughts: Doing further research, I found that papaya leaves contain papain, a chemical that has some use for pain and inflammation relief. Although no sting-related medicines have been made from it, the leaves could offer some pain relief from the sting as a result. I also think it is noteworthy that the papaya is not native to Hawaiʻi and yet it is still part of their folk belief.

Curse of Dudleytown

Nationality: Canada
Age: 35
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: LA
Performance Date: 2/20/17
Primary Language: English

Informant is a teacher living in LA.

The story is one from a  summer camp in CT where he and I met originally. The subject of the story is a town called “Dudleytown” which suffers a horrible curse: every 7 years, somebody nearby dies.

“So Dudleytown as you know, is haunted. Every seven years, somebody nearby dies. That’s because Edward Dudley was cursed by King Henry for treason, and the curse followed him across the Atlantic Ocean and caused all their crops to die. Now, nobody’s growing crops there anymore. But the curse still comes up once every seven years……. some things just stick with the location geographically, you know?”

He says he heard the story from other people at the camp when he first got there, as the location was relatively close by. He swears it is real and true but he does so with an air of silliness, indicating to me that this belief is faux-sincerity. I think this choosing-to-believe makes sense: people like the strong narrative of a 7-year-curse more than they want to “ruin the fun” in applying logic. It’s a fun belief and brings people together over a common fear, even if it is just pretend.