Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

St. Anthony

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/20/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant: My informant, M.A., is 18 and was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. M.A. parents both work as corporate lawyers and he hopes to pursue the same career. M.A. is also a practicing Catholic and is strongly connected to his religion. He has one brother and two sisters with the family being almost fully Americanized but still hold on to some of his Syrian heritage.

Folklore: “The patron saint of lost items is known to be St. Anthony. The myth goes that if you lose an item, you say a prayer to St. Anthony that goes, ‘St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come down. Something is lost and can’t be found.’ If you were to repeat this ten times then St. Anthony will help you find your lost item.” M.A. was taught this prayer from his mom at a very young age and was a commonly known story in his town. According to M.A., he says that his prayers have rarely ever been answered, but still performs the prayer regardless every time he loses an object because he figures it doesn’t hurt to try it.

Analysis: I was told this prayer from my parents when I was growing up, but the only thing that was different was that I didn’t repeat the prayer ten times. I felt that when I was a kid this prayer seemed to work a lot more than it does now, but I too still perform the prayer because it usually gets to the point where I’m desperate to find the item. Saying the prayer just gives me that small amount of reassurance that I might actually find my lost item but with my experience it’s usually gone for good.

Hawaiian Warriors

Nationality: Ameican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/20/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant: My informant, D.L., is 20 and was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. D.L. mother works as an admissions director for his high school. He has one older brother who also attends USC. Both of D.L. parents are full Chinese, but have completely adopted the Hawaiian culture. D.L. spends most of his free time at the beach and considers himself more Hawaiian than Chinese.

Folklore: “There is a rule in Hawaii that you’re not supposed to whistle at night. The night marchers are ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors and they’re said to roam the islands at night visiting old battlefields and sacred sites. Whistling at night is said to summon the huakai po (night marchers). If you make eye contact with the night marchers, you’ll die and be forced to march with them for all of eternity. If you happen to have an ancestor marching, however, no one in the procession can harm you.” D.L. was told this story from one of his teachers in elementary school to try and scare the kids in his class as a joke. D.L. doesn’t actually believe in the myth and thinks of it as just a story to scare kids.

Analysis: This myth is more of a ghost story that sounds familiar to a story I heard when I was growing up. I look at this myth as just a scary story and nothing more.

For more information on the myth, see http://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/night-marchers.php

Tokolosh

Nationality: South Africa
Age: 52
Occupation: Pharmacist
Residence: Granite Bay, California
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Afrikaans

Subject:

Protection from the Tokolosh

Informant:

Graham Giles grew up in Zimbabwe, and immigrated to South Africa at the age of Sixteen, where he lived for most his life, until immigrating again to the United States in 2012.

Original Script:

“Okay, so they put bricks under their bed, because they believe that the Tokolosh – the Tokolosh is like this evil little spirit right? He’s like this evil little um… you know like the Irish believe in the Leprechaun, he’s like this evil little spirit and that and he… and um obviously he’s under the bed and, and so what you do is you put the bed up on bricks so he can’t reach up and get you, you know what I mean? And that’s why the guys are also from.. you know they come up to the bed and, I don’t want to say they jump onto bed from a bit of a distance but you know what I’m saying to you? So they’re all raised, so you’ll find even well educated people put a couple of bricks under their bed, under the foot of the bed you know what I mean? Just to raise it up off the ground so the Tokolosh can’t grab you. So the idea is that the Tokolosh is this little bad… evil spirit. He’s a little evil guy: causes problems, causes whatever, and he’s evil. So obviously you walk into your bedroom, under your bed is this little dark space – that’s where you’re going to find a tokolosh, you know?”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

When asked where he learned the story, Graham just said that he can’t recall any one single person telling him about the Tokolosh, just that it was widespread, common knowledge in South Africa and Zimbabwe, and that many people fully believe in this Tokolosh, and raise up their beds for safety.

Thoughts About the Piece:

The Tokolosh seems akin to the Boogey Man, who lives under children’s beds and comes out to get them in the dark. However, while the Boogey Man is typically associated with childish fears of the dark, the Tokolosh represents a threat that even adults take seriously. From my own knowledge, I know that the Tokolosh is blamed for a whole host of problems: if something goes missing and the owner is certain that they did not lose it, he might say that it was the Tokolosh sewing trouble.

New Shoes

Nationality: South Africa
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Granite Bay, South Africa
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Afrikaans

Subject:

Superstition regarding new shoes.

Informant:

Anouchka Giles was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She moved to Durban, South Africa, in her twenties and lived there until immigrating to the United States in 2012. Lee (mentioned in the script) is a close friend of Anouchka’s from her time living in South Africa.

Original Script:

“So you buy a box of shoes, the worst thing you can do is put them on the table: that’s really bad luck.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

When asked where she learned about this superstition and why she followed it, Anouchka replied “okay, and then, well I dunno this was Lee’s thing. She told me about it and until she told me about it I was okay with putting shoes on the table, now I’m not. I don’t know, I don’t know where Lee’s got these things from.” The informant did not seem to know of any reason or logic for the superstition, but trusted her friend and followed the rule (of keeping new shoes off the table) just in case there was something to it.

Thoughts About the Piece:

I understand why putting shoes on the table might be considered a bad thing to do, but if anything I would imagine that this would be more the case for used shoes, which might be dirty, as opposed to new shoes.

Cold Drinks and Greasy Food

Nationality: United States
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/24/2017
Primary Language: English

Subject:

Korean folk practice for digesting greasy food

Informant:

Eumin Lee was born and raised in the United States, although both of her parents spent much of their lives in Korea. As a result, Eumin grew up surrounded by Korean culture and superstitions. She now studies at the University of Southern California.

Original Script:

“Um, she always tells me to never ever drink iced water after I eat something, after I eat any type of greasy food, because she thinks that, um, if I drink cold water while I’m eating this greasy food, that the grease will just, like, bubble up in my blood, or something, and just, like, be a detriment to my health. She always tells me to drink hot water or hot tea while I’m eating greasy foods.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

Eumin says that she does not really prescribe to this superstition, but it was advice that her mom strongly believed in and recommended to her.

Thoughts About the Piece:

In America, no one would look twice at somebody eating a greasy burger and plate of fries with an ice-cold soda next to them. If anything, it would be expected. However, after living in the US for several years, Eumin’s mom still believes that this combination of greasy food and cold drink is bad for a person’s health.