Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Mistletoe

Nationality: American
Age: 62
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English

My informant told me about the holiday tradition of hanging mistletoe around christmas time so that those who find themselves under it have to share a kiss, though my informant apparently does not participate in the tradition. He states that “if you kiss someone under the mistletoe, you fall in love.” Though I knew about mistletoe, I had never heard that it was supposed to cause you to fall in love.

Mistletoe is considered to be a symbol of fertility and has served for many other purposes besides this, like protection from evil. So how did this go from an object of fertility to one of love? Maybe to has to do with the American  culture and it’s obsession with the idea of love, especially the romantic idea of love at first sight, or even first kiss. But in Greece, if an in one couple kissed under the mistletoe it was supposed to serve as a proposal, as well as bring them good luck in their relationship. Somehow this has changed from and already in love couple sharing a kiss, to a couple falling in love through the kiss they shared underneath it. Maybe this idea of luck and love somehow intertwined, where the mistletoe became lucky in helping participants who kiss under it to fall in love.

Aloe

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Toledo, Oh
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

Sitting in our kitchen my informant and I were talking about our grandmothers she said that her grandmother had aloe leaves to cure all of her sicknesses, “if we were sick and had a fever she would go to one of her plants pull off a leaf and rub it on our foreheads, if we got a cut she would rub a leaf on it, if we had a soar throat she would use the aloe leaves, she used them for everything”

The grandma uses aloe as a miracle drug and probably could have some sort of placebo affect where it would work even by rubbing a leaf on the throat to get rid of a sore throat.

Gargling Salt Water

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Architect
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English

My informant told me that, when she was younger and had a sore throat her mother would make her gargle with warm salt water to get rid of it. She continues to pass down this method for curing a sore throat to her children.

Warm liquids generally tend to be soothing for the throat. Salt absorbs liquid and dries out areas, so if it absorbs liquid in the back of the throat it can help to kill the bacteria, which needs a wet environment to survive in.

Super Jesus Piece of Knock on Wood

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Long Beach, CA
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“My mom is catholic and she would always carry this wooden cross with a jesus face on it in the car. And it was like this huge, chunky, wooden cross. So it would constantly fall off so she would like superglue it on, like she was super obsessed with that goddamn thing being on there. And, like, any time she breaker really hard it would just lie go and hit me in the face if I was sitting there and I would be like, ‘fuck,’ and she would be like, ‘why are you cursing the sacred Jesus cross?!’ But she actually had it in the car, she always said, because it was good to knock on wood, so she would knock on that when she would almost get in an accident or something. So it was her, like, super Jesus…piece of knock on wood.”

Knocking on wood is very commonly used, including a song called “Knock on Wood” by Eddie Flood and Steve Cropper. Knocking on wood is supposed to prevent tempting fate. The cross with jesus adds another protection through a religious belief.

Volleyball Luck

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Toledo, OH
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

My Informant plays volleyball a she note something that she has seen many other captains do, though she does not do herself. “Before a volley ball game the opposing teams stand on opposite ends of the net. They stand on the end line and slap hands under the net with the other team before they play and say good luck to the other team. The captain is usually first in the line and on there way to the net before they slap hands with the other team, a lot of captains touch the antenna to make sure the net is in the right place and for good luck.”

They touch the lucky net before they touch or, in a way, taint themselves with the hands of the opposing team. Though my informant does not believe in this activity to gain good luck, and she takes it more to be a silly, invalid superstition, many other captains take it very seriously.