Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Why Hermes uses Orange

Nationality: American
Age: 65-67
Residence: New York
Performance Date: March 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Yiddish

The Story:

Why is Hermes’ color Orange? After World War II, the company had a shortage of paper. They only had orange craft paper. So when they would wrap their items and gifts they used that orange craft paper. Today, Hermes is internationally associated with the color orange.

 

Analysis:

The informant works at International Shoppes which is a company that deals with doing Duty Free shops in airports in the Tri-State Area. They carry merchandise from several jewelry designers such as Cartier and Hermes. The informant has worked at International Shoppes for more than Twenty Years, so he has had a lot of experience with the designers that they carry. For work, he has had to go to accessory conventions France and to Hermes Parties in Paris. I assume that it was through one of these events that the informant heard the story of Hermes’s use of the color orange.

The informant thinks that this story is “cool,” and I agree. Hermes is known for their classic orange – it is the color of their boxes, bags. Often times people even go as far as to refer to shades of orange as “Hermes Orange.” It is so fascinating that something, like “Hermes Orange,” which is considered as classy today only has the reputation it does because someone at Hermes in the 1940s had no choice but to make the decision to use the only paper the company had – that orange craft paper.

Four Leaf clover book

Nationality: Chinese/Korean
Age: 8
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 4/25/15
Primary Language: English

My informant and her brother have a book in which they taped four leaf clovers they found in the front yard and taped them into a little notebook. When I asked why they did this, they said that their mom told them that it would give them good luck. When they heard it, they ran out the door and tried hunting for four leaf clovers. I was surprised when I discovered that they actually managed to fill two pages and I checked the book itself to confirm that they were actually four leaf clovers. My informant said that after she collected the clovers, nothing happened to them, so she and her brother stopped believing in the four leaf clover. When I asked her mom about where she got the idea, she said that she and her sister used to look for four leaf clovers while they grew up in New Jersey. But they never could find any, so she thought maybe her kids could look for them. She joked that just finding the clovers might have used up all the luck.

Analysis

From this, I understand that the four leaf clover superstition comes about from the rarity of the item, which means that when you find one you can feel like you can get the luck. However, when someone actually does come across such an item, or in this instance many, the faith in such an object dwindles. That small joke their mom cracked actually shows how even though the results aren’t showing, the beliefs are still strong but neutered a little. A similar story occurs here (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1497230), which shows how people still stubbornly hold onto beliefs despite seeming to deny it after the results have given nothing.

Four leaf clover collection

Four leaf clover collection

Tooth Fairy story

Nationality: Cantonese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/15
Primary Language: English

This is a variation of the tooth fairy which my informant’s parents used to tell my informant and her brother. According to her parents, she had a tooth fairy named Sophocles while her brother had one named Socrates. In the night, if one of them lost a tooth,he/she would put it under their pillow. Then the corresponding fairy would come by, write a note, and leave money. It was usually a simple letter saying thank you, and in response, the person who lost the tooth would have to write a note back saying thank you for leaving a gift.

According to my informant, her fairy had 5 kids and a dog. Both she and her brother lived in the far away kingdom of Xanthus where, in her words ‘No ship, rocket, or plane could get there because it’s a magic kingdom’

My informant said that when she was young, this story excited her and made her believe in the myth. At one point, when she was in 4th grade, she wrote a story about her tooth fairy and she actually won a prize. Unfortunately, she forgot what it was. It wasn’t until her last tooth fell out in 8th grade that she stopped believing in the tooth fairy.

Analysis

This version of the tooth fairy myth is specifically tailored to these children, in my opinion. In accordance with usual practices, the tooth fairy still leaves money under a person’s pillow and takes their tooth in the end. The differences lie in the backstory of these fairies, and that they differ a lot from most traditional narratives of the tooth fairy. The story is tailored to whet the appetite of children and get them to believe in the story. Furthermore, there are also many humanizing elements about the fairies, including having kids and dogs, which makes the fairies much more sympathetic to humans and make them resemble less of mystical creatures. In the end, I believe this was done so that my informant’s parents could keep the childish wonder alive.

El Cucuy

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/22/15
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

According to my informant, El Cucuy was a creature similar to the boogeyman with a red cape, fiery eyes , sharp teeth and sharp claws. In the middle of the night, if you were a child wandering in the streets, you were not supposed to be found by him. He would often hang out in a plaza and try to void his presence. If he ever caught a child, he would take him to his cave, where there would be many skulls and dismembered limbs. This was what remained of the kids he captured before. And nobody would ever know what happened to the children because they never returned.

My informant described this as a story to scare rowdy children into obedience. It also, he joked, made for a very good horror story with all the blood and mystery that happens. But more seriously, he also said that this story was told to him by his mother when he was a kid. Being someone who grew up a Mexican-American, this story scared him as a child and he always obeyed his parents.

Analysis

This story reflects some elements of La Gerona, in that it is a story which is used to tame unruly children and make sure they respect the words of their elders. There also happens to be death involved when they get caught. But I feel that the main difference between the two is that while La Gerona is more sympathetic and tragic, El Cucuy seems to be more psychopathic and more intentionally killing children. This factor makes the story much more chilling than La Gerona, instilling more fear into the child the person is talking to. I think that this story seems to be a little exaggerated, especially the addition of the red cape, which seems superfluous. But since this story was told by his parents, I assume that this was a feature which was recently added either by the informant, who tends to exaggerate a bit, or by his parents.

Shoes On the Table – Never Marry

Nationality: Italian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: New York
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Anthony is a student at USC and one of my closest friends. He grew up in New York and moved to Los Angeles this year to study at USC. He comes from an Italian background.

 

 

Performance: “So I walked home – I had just bought a fresh pair of Jordan’s at the mall with my friends. They were very fresh, like $130. I was in 9th grade at the time so that was a big deal for me… a big investment. So I got them at the mall with my friends and then I took them home to show my Mom. I said Mom, I just got these new Jordan’s, they’re really sick, and she was like “ok let me see them” and then I put them on the table and was like ok check these out and she goes “DON’T PUT, THE SHOES ON THE GODDAM TABLE!” and I was like what why what the hell what the hell is going on mom. And she goes “You can’t put shoes on the table, or you’ll never get married.” And I was like what the fuck are you saying and she was like “you’re never going to get married if you put shoes on the table that’s what my grandmother always told me, so I stand by it.” And there ya go.”

 

Nice, so do you still not do it?

 

“No I do it… cuz I don’t want to get married.”

 

 

Response: This was a very interesting story because we discussed the taboo of shoes on the table in my Forms of Folklore class, but this variation of it never came up. It was agreed that if you did put shoes on the table it was either bad luck or that you would die sooner, but marriage was never mentioned. I find this variation to be interesting and confirms that boots on the table has true multiplicity and variation.