Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Book of Job – Didactic Tale/ Moral Lesson/Oral tale

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Language: English

The person who I met with grew up in a religious family. They grew up in a Christian household with parents who are avid bible readers and church goers. That in turn lead to their parents using a lot of biblical references in conversation, including references to the Book of Job.

The book of Job in the bible details the life of Job, a proud servant of God who had everything we could have wanted because of his strong faith in God who has blessed him because of this faith. However, Lucifer (the Devil) challenged God to test Job, proclaiming that his faith wouldn’t be so strong if bad things started happening to him. God, believing in Job’s faith in him, accepted this challenge and allowed Lucifer to test Job. Job then ensured many hardships including his family dying, losing his wealth, and his health. However, Job’s faith did not waiver. He stayed true to God no matter what happened to him.

This book of the bible was crucial to my informants upbringing. It’s a story about having faith in the lord no matter what happens in your life. The message is that anything bad happening to you is all part of God’s plan and you should always stay faithful to Him. The bad times will pass and the good times will come. It’s a message to stay positive when things aren’t going your way and to push forward but put into a religious context. Why is this message presented to my informant this way? It’s because they grew up in a very religious household so that’s how it was framed. I’m sure their parents could have found comfort in the idea that it’s all part of God’s plan but the message stays the same no matter what the context is. As to why their family is religious, I think it has something to do with their ethnicity as a someone who’s grandparents immigrated to the US from Mexico. Christianity is the dominant religion in Mexico with a majority of those Christians being very devout like my informants family are. I think they brought their faith over with them and brought their kids up with the same beliefs and so on. Being devout Christians, it makes sense that they would transcribe this positive message to their children in a religious context through their telling of the Book of Job.

Chinese New Year – Folk Origin Myth

Nationality: Chinese and American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Context:

My informant is from China. In China they celebrate Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Lunar New Year, which is the most important traditional holiday in their culture. Lunar New Year, marking the start of the lunar calendar year, is said to symbolize a fresh start and the opportunity to leave bad luck behind and welcome what the new year has to offer. The lunar calendar follows the moon’s monthly cycles and is about 354 days, making a leap month necessary to stay in line with the seasons. Lunar New Year is widely celebrated in many other East and Southeast Asian countries. Its significance lies in the blending of ancient traditions with modern day practices.

Conversation pulled from audio:
Informant:

“This is like a Chinese New Year’s story, basically. Like why you have to put like you have to have fireworks and like you have to put up like red stuff or wear red on Chinese New Year’s. It’s because like basically there was like a town in the past that was like always like attacked by like I was like tormented, I guess, whatever, like by a monster that lived in the mountains and it would come down once a year to like eat people. And basically like they realized that like by setting bamboo on fire, it causes like a bang, like a really like loud popping and like banging sound. And like the monster would be like scared of the sound. And then they also realized that like the monster was like scared of red because it’s like really it’s like looks like fire, right? And then so, but this is really out of order, but you guys can Polish it.

{ 1:01 }
And so like they did these things and then the monster would like stay away. And like when it did come down, it would like run away. So yeah.

Me: { 1:10 }
The red scared it off?

Informant: { 1:14 }
The red and then the firecrackers because it’s like when you set the bamboo on fire, it like kind of sounds like a firecracker.

Me: { 1:19 }
A ritual. Gotcha. I like that. That’s awesome. Thank you so much.”

Analysis:

Is this story true? Who knows. That’s what makes it a folk myth. Does it even matter if it’s true? I don’t think so. I find it interesting nonetheless. The fact that my informant was told this story as a child as the origin of Chinese New Year is all that matters. That’s what makes it folklore because this story has been pasted down by the folk, true or not.

What I find interesting is it’s explanations for why people wear red and light firecrackers during this holiday. The monster, symbolic or not, is scared away by the color red and the lighting of firecrackers because it’s scared of fire. Is this symbolic? I think so. I think it could represent bad luck, chaos, hardship, or winter and with the new year you celebrate to ward these things off. Often in folklore monsters are used to represent natural or social fears. This monster could also represent the warding off of doubts about the new year and struggles like famine and fear of invasion from the closing year.

The Office Building Ghost

Age: 65

Story: This is a crazy story that happened to me in December that I still think about everytime I go to work. I think it was like December 10th or 11th or something like that and I was working in the homebase office of my job, which I never go to, and it seems like for good reason. 

Well this day, I got to work and my manager was acting a little odd. She seemed a little antsy, a little jerky, but I brushed it off as an off day. A few hours go by and she just is not letting up. She’s squirming in her chair, sighing, huffing and puffing… and so finally I go “Hey, is everything okay?” And my manager assures me everything is fine and that she just needs to take a breath outside. So, she gets up, and as she’s walking out the door, a box of tissues on her desk goes FLYING off. 

Now, I do not believe in ghosts, I never have, I don’t think I ever will, but I swear on my life that this box of tissues, on its own, went flying off my boss’ desk and onto the floor. 

So, my boss turns around and shrieks “DID YOU SEE THAT?” and of course I did but I said “Oh the vent must be turned up too high.” But, I knew damn well that there was no vent… there must’ve been a spirit or something in that office, but I didn’t want to freak her out more than she was that day. 

My boss then steps outside finally, I pick up the tissue box, and as I do, a tissue is YANKED out of the box and onto the floor … and again, I swear I did not touch the tissue. It flew out of that box and I felt a force. That’s when I went running outside to grab my boss, and she did not want to come back into that room…so instead she went home, grabbed sage, and we burned sage in the room to rid it of the spirits there. 

To this day, that is the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t know if I believe in ghosts, but I do believe that happened.

Analysis: This personal ghost story reveals how supernatural beliefs and folk narratives continue to shape how we interpret unexplainable events, even in professional settings. What makes this story so compelling is the dichotomy between skepticism and belief. My friend begins by emphasizing that they don’t believe in ghosts, but what they experienced at work that day has possible caused them to reconsider, at least for a little bit. This is a common feature in ghost lore: even skeptics can become believers when faced with something they can’t logically explain. It also highlights how ghost stories often originate from direct personal experience, evolving into contemporary folklore through retellings and shared memory.

The role of the sage burning at the end of the story also speaks to the blending of traditional folk practices with modern life. Burning sage is a ritual drawn from spiritual traditions, and in this case, it’s used as a way to cleanse a space of any hauntings, demons, or spirits, which is something we see across many cultures. The fact that this person and their boss felt compelled to perform a ritual to fight back at a spirit shows how folklore is still deeply tied into our behavior, even if we don’t know it.

Nature’s unpredictable… Or is it? 

Nationality: African American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): French

Age: 65

Occupation: Management Consultant

Residence: Upstate, NY

Performance Date: 4/20/2025

Context: 

My informant, WB, is a family member of mine who lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. From what I remember, they’ve always been into signs, aspects of nature that may influence decisions, and a lot of times, they’d be spiritual. I asked her one day, especially as I got more into science growing up, if there were any signs they could explain with science that they’d understand growing up that I may have never heard of, and there were. 

Text: 

“A ring around the moon means it’s going to rain. Growing up near farms 60 years ago before the sophistication of modern weather forecasting, we looked for signs in nature to predict weather. This of course could only be a source for prediction if it was a moonlit night. So when it was not a moonlit night, we listened for crickets to indicate a warming or cooling of the weather.  Also, whistling frogs for the coming of spring. Other indicators of bad weather were if your joints ache. This means a lot to me because it connects me to nature and the wonders around us in the natural world. To this date, I listen for crickets and whistling frogs to predict weather conditions. This was all passed down to us generation after generation. And it turns out that there was logic to this:

A ring around the moon: moisture high up in the atmosphere.

Whistling frogs: a warming trend for the coming spring and the frogs thaw. 

Aching joint: barometric pressure changes.

Crickets: hatch in the late summer.”

Analysis:  

This entry is a beautiful example of weather lore. Plus, it’s rooted in a time before people had access to modern meteorological tools. Though in my research, the belief that “a ring around the moon means it’s going to rain,” is actually one of the most widely known pieces of weather folklore, and has some scientific backing: the ring, or lunar halo, forms due to ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds high in the atmosphere, which often precede storm systems. So in that sense, this isn’t just folklore; it’s observational science passed down through generations. I also love how WB connects this tradition to other nature-based signs, like cricket chirps, whistling frogs, to aching joints. From my analysis of such signs, I found that many of these signs actually do correlate with changes in weather or season. For instance, Cleveland Clinic, in their article, “How Changes in Weather Affect Joint Pain,” explains the barometric pressure to joints, and according to the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, in their article, “Songs of Spring: A Ribbiting Chorus – Bell Museum,” frogs do indeed become more vocal as temperatures rise, signaling spring. What stands out to me most though is how WB frames all of this as a meaningful connection to nature, especially as our generations start to get lost in the digital age. This entry is fascinating to me because it’s not just about weather predictions, it’s about a whole way of understanding and interacting with the natural world. WB doesn’t just remember these signs nostalgically; WB still uses them, which shows how folklore can remain alive and functional even in a most contemporary context.

Wolf of Wall Street’s got nothing on this…

Nationality: African American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): French

Age: 65

Occupation: Management Consultant

Residence: Upstate, NY

Performance Date: 4/20/2025

Context: 

My informant, WB, is a family member of mine who lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. For a while now, I’ve known WB to be quite amazing at spending money, teaching me over the course of my life the concept of not wasting money on things that won’t be intrinsic in some capacity, or I’d end up like ‘another man on the street.’ Now, I always wanted to know what they meant by ‘man on the street,’ and it turns out it wasn’t a saying, metaphorical expression, or proverb, it was a reference to a stereotype they hated, yet held dear: 

Text: 

“Men are better with money than women. Now I don’t believe that but it’s something I grew up hearing. I come from a matriarchal family of successful women who oversaw and currently still oversee the family finances and the family business. They have all fared well and have been given the respect of being good with finances by their male family members and spouses especially. I think that saying came from an attempt for men to control women, like historically. We can look back in history and see when a man married a woman, her riches became his to control. Specifically in the most recent history, Colonial America, who followed the laws of their mother country; husbands controlled the woman’s property!!!” 

Analysis: 

So, this piece reflects a common gender-based folk belief which operates more as a social myth or stereotype than a truthfully grounded in experience. Now what’s compelling here is how the informant challenges the saying from both a personal and historical perspective. They come from a matriarchal family, where women not only handle finances but have consistently done so with success and respect. That alone functions as a counter-example that refutes the original saying and exposes it as culturally constructed rather than inherently true. However, I’ve definitely heard of this stereotype in my own life too, and of course, being related to WB, I never believed it either. The informant then takes it a step further by providing some slight historical context that reveals how the proverb wasn’t just a reflection of beliefs at the time, but also a tool used to justify inequality. And of course, in my research, and general experience in American history courses, yes, this stereotype was used tangibly to oppress women in colonial times and even still now in the digital age. Sadly some things never change. Though what I find most powerful here is that WB doesn’t just dismiss the saying they expose its function as control and offer real evidence from their family to disprove it. This turns the proverb into a kind of anti-folklore, still resembling folklorism though, a saying that survives culturally, even when it’s contradicted by lived experience. It’s also a good example of how folklore can be deeply personal and political at the same time, and how challenging traditional sayings can be part of reclaiming cultural and historical agency.