Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Never Write a Name in Red Ink

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/10/17
Primary Language: English

A, the informant, was born in California, but her family is from China. She learned this from her parents and grandparents. She said it was something she feels like she was just born knowing. It was ingrained in her not to write her name or anyone else’s in red ink. She says she also just never really uses red pens anyway.

The following belief is very common throughout China and other Asian countries. A said it was very important especially in school to be careful whenever writing, and make sure not to use red pen very often.

“So there’s this belief that you should never write someone’s name in red ink. I learned this from my mom and it’s a Chinese thing. One time I learned that it has to do with something about the ruler of Hell writing the names of those cursed to go to Hell in red ink. It comes from some folk tale I believe. If you write your name or someone elses’ name in red ink, the person whose name you write will die. There’s also just like an aspect of using red ink to be bad in general, like someone using a red pen when writing a curse for someone to die, or writing a letter that someone has died.”

I personally had never heard of this up until now. It’s surprising to me, since red is such an honored and respected color in China. I would never guess that it would be a bad thing to write in red ink, I would actually assume it was a good thing because of how prominent the color red is in China.

 

 

Soulmates

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Denver, CO
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

“There is this idea about soulmates in our religion. I believe it’s that you have 7 soulmates on this planet. Some people say you can meet multiple or even none of them. Which is very sad. Then there’s also reincarnation. You know, people can come down 7 times. If they have a deed they were sent down to do and didn’t, it’s believed that they are reincarnated up to 7 times to make sure they do it. So as you can see, 7 is a special number. It’s a godly number. It refers to the 3 fathers and 4 mothers idea within our religion. 7 days to make the Earth. So yeah, 7 is a very holy number for us.”

The informant said she heard this from her grandmother, and knew of it as just something widely believed in her religion. She expanded upon the idea of 7 being a holy number, as it appears in her religion many times in various ways.

This is a belief shared throughout those in the Jewish religion. Reincarnation is believed by many, as well as the idea of soulmates.

I didn’t know that reincarnation was a widespread belief within the Jewish religion. I also was not aware that 7 was a special number in their culture, but it makes sense with how often the number appears in their religious stories. I think their idea of soulmates is fascinating, and I somewhat believe in the idea of soulmates as well. I also enjoy the idea of reincarnation 7 times so a person can fulfill what they’re meant to do. It’s very poetic. 

Cats Can Harm Fertility

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ventura, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“My mom believes that cats have these…well I don’t know….but if you have a lot of cats, it just affects women’s ability to have kids. I don’t know why, she just says that. I think it has to do more with cat litter. Something about the chemicals in the litter can harm your fertility. It’s not necessarily the presence of the cats themselves, but they’re linked in a way. When my friend brought over her kittens to my apartment, and my mom saw pictures I posted, she freaked and thought I bought cats. She said that I would need to get rid of them and deep clean the apartment. I mean, they weren’t my cats, but I don’t believe in her superstition so I didn’t really care.”

The informant was born in Ventura, CA but her father is from Mexico City and her mother is from Guadalajara. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and partakes in many of the Mexican customs.

She originally heard this superstition from her mother. Apparently, her mom’s friend owned a bunch of cats when she was growing up and later when she wanted to have kids, she couldn’t. Her mother figured it was because of the cats. Therefore, she has never allowed her family to own cats, but they have had dogs before. 

I personally don’t believe in this at all. I myself own two cats. It’s possible that cat litter has chemicals that aren’t very beneficial to one’s health but if you’re not ingesting it, I don’t see it as a problem. Many people are afraid of cats as well, and think they are generally causes of bad luck. This could be the case as well, as seen with the black cat superstition.

 

Context:


My thoughts:

Mother’s Psychic Dream

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/19
Primary Language: English

The informant told me of a dream her mother had before marrying her father, which has deeply influenced her way of looking at the world:

“Okay so, one of  the earliest stories I remember hearing was my mom, after a few first dates with my dad, came home super worried and didn’t think that she’d get married or have kids or do anything with her life, and then that night, she had a dream, with her college roommates, who’s name is Laura, which is dangerously close to Lauren, but she hated Laura, like hated her a lot, and Laura was driving a car and my mom was in the passenger seat and Laura turned, and Luara was talking to her and “you’re going to be fine, everything’s going to turn out okay” and she like pointed to the back seat and she says that she saw a little girl and a little boy in a carseat, and the girl was older which would be me, and the little boy which would be my brother. i also have a little sister but she wasn’t there. I heard it, I think, when I was younger, oh I’m not, in similar moments, i’m not going to be able to do this and my mom was like “i’m not so sure” but i remember going to bed and thinking I’m going to have a dream like that’d I never have but yeah.”

 

The informant also told me that her family, especially through her mother’s matriarchal line is supposedly psychic, so this dream continues that pattern in her mother. She hopes to someday to have a psychic moment although she is not sure that will happen.

Psychic Grandma

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19
Primary Language: English

The informant told me this story about her family when I asked about her influences in her writing. She told me that her family has always been interested in psychics as they believe that many of the female members of the family have psychic powers. This stems from the fact that her great-grandmother was psychic – as detailed below:

“So in the light of women in my family having psychic dreams, my great-grandma who was widely tough to be psychic, so this is in my mom’s line,  so it’s in that line still, like the matriarchy, she like, could see ghosts, and people like my aunt has claimed to see her ghost, that like she’s like a spooky figure, and i never met, and she had a dream before when my mom was born and I don’t think she had a sister yet, and my great-grandma was like staying with my grandma because she was having trouble with the pregnancy. and my great grandmother had this dream of a baby carriage rolling down this hill, and like chasing after it and not being able to stop it. And then, she told this to my grandma and she told her that she thinks that there’s something wrong with the baby and my grandma’s like no, it’s fine, and she didn’t want to worry her too much about it, but she ended up giving birth to a stillborn baby! I know, it’s that creepy? And i guess now people see her ghost and stuff”

Analysis:

The dream confirms the psychic ability of the Great-grandmother to the rest of her family. Another post that investigates dream in the informant family is “Mother’s Psychic Dream.” This shows that dreams in the female line are very important to the informant.