Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Fruit Ghosts

Nationality: Asian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington D.C.
Performance Date: 4/23/2012
Primary Language: English

My informant heard this from her Vietnamese grandmother when she was a child.

“When a fruit bruises, it’s because a ghost bites it.”

She thinks it’s weird and funny. She likes the image of a ghost trying to bite a fruit.

Ghosts are much more natural and interact more with the world in Asian cultures than in western ones.  Also when a fruit bruises it means its gone bad or damaged which ties in with death. It is as if the ghost cannot fully interact with the world and leaves destruction behind instead.  It can’t quite bite through the fruit but it is enough to leave a mark. Fruit is also left as an offering at graves, so it shows that the spirit of the dead person the offering was left for is enjoying the gift.

Hat indoors

Nationality: Asian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington D.C.
Performance Date: 4/23/2012
Primary Language: English

My informant heard this from her Vietnamese mother as she was growing up

“Wearing a hat indoors makes you shorter”

My informant is pretty short, so she uses this as an explanation of why she is short.

Asians are, on average, shorter than Caucasians and Blacks, and height is seen as a favorable attribute.  Plus, it is impolite to wear a hat indoors, possibly because it means that you do not intend to stay or do not trust your host (you are hiding your face).  Combining those ideas creates this idea that wearing a hat, or being impolite, will have a negative effect on how you appear to other people.  My informant likes to wear stylish clothes, including very pretty hats, and uses this saying as a joking justification for why she is the way she is.  It implies that she would have been taller if she could have resisted the temptation for stylish hats.

Easter Bunnies Messengers

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Waukesha, Wisconsin
Performance Date: 4/25/2012
Primary Language: English

Story:

 

“When I was a little girl my mother told me that the bunnies that came out during the spring were the Easter Bunny’s messengers and they told him what I was doing and whether or not I was being a good girl. The amount of candy and presents I got would depend on how good I had been. Later I found out the Easter Bunny wasn’t real and that the bunnies were just bunnies, but I always wondered whether my mother had changed the amount of candy my sister and I got because she thought we had been bad children. I doubt it though.

 

I remembered this from my childhood because I love animals and because bunnies always start coming out in the spring and whenever I see one I can’t help but remember. I loved holidays and I think my family made this up to discipline the children subtly. They wanted us to behave and they bribed us in a way. Just like during the Christmas season when children are told St. Nick is watching. I guess this story was a variation on that. “

 

Many other countries have holiday figures with helpers, like Santa Claus and the Krampus in Germany.  The rabbit is a fertility symbol during Easter which, before becoming Christianized, was a fertility ritual.  All of the rabbits are coming out so they would be easy to spot in the days before Easter.

11:11

Nationality: German
Age: 23
Occupation: Front Desk Worker/ Grad Student
Residence: The Valley
Performance Date: 4/25/2012
Primary Language: English

Story:

“My aunt was injured in a skiing accident and she’s parapaligic and now my cousin believes in 11:11 and now he has an alarm that goes off.  And every 11:11 he makes a wish for her to walk again.  I believe it too and I also make a wish for her.”

The 11:11 wish is relatively new.  The earliest it could have started is the beginning of digital clocks and clocks that actually showed 11:11.  Plus, it is only possible to have two if the time is not military.  It is the only numbers on the clock that is the same backwards, forwards and upside down.  Somehow, this has given the number special powers and has people believing that it is a sign or signals spirit presence.  For this family though, it is a way to influence something they feel helpless in front of.  When medicine doesn’t work, it is much easier to turn to some kind of magic to help.

Dove Signs

Nationality: German
Age: 23
Occupation: Front Desk Worker/ Grad Student
Residence: The Valley
Performance Date: 4/25/2012
Primary Language: English

Story:

“In my family, we believe that when a person dies, they become a dove.  When my great-aunt and grandfather died, the next day there were two doves in our backyard.  So I believe it.”

My informant thinks this is because the dove is often associated with souls that fly up to heaven.

The Mourning Dove is often symbolic of optimism and is spiritual with a message of life, hope, renewal and peace.  This is very helpful for a family that is coping with the death of a beloved member.  There are other tales of loved ones becoming butterflies or ladybugs. It is typically an animal that can fly and is very beautiful, which is similar to the idea that the soul of a loved one is beautiful and flies up to heaven.