Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

See a Penny

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 55
Residence: Wilmington, CA
Performance Date: January 2012
Primary Language: Spanish

When I was a little girl I would pick up coins I found on the street indiscriminately. One day my uncle say me pick up a penny and smacked it out of my hand. The penny I had picked up had been tails-up and according to my uncle, was therefore bad luck. He believed picking up pennies in particular to be good luck but only if done in a certain way:

” ‘Nomas cuando cae de cara lo levantas. Y luego le ases la señal de la cruz en el cemento o donde haiga caído. Si no lo persinas entonces no es buena suerte. Y de una vez te persinas tu tambien para que tengas mejor suerte”

“Only pick it up when it’s heads-up. And then you have to make the sign of the cross in the cement or wherever it had fallen. If you don’t cross it, then it’s not good luck. And you might as well cross yourself with it too so that you can have better luck.”

My uncle was a devout Catholic who immigrated here when he was an adult. He is particularly attached to his rural Mexican and Catholic superstitions in America. He came to the U.S. for the prospect of economic advancement. While I’ve heard it is prudent to bless any money you find from other people in my family or Mexicans from the same region as them (Southern Mexico) my uncle always stressed pennies were the only luck money to pick up. In fact he thought it especially bad luck if you found bills – the higher the value of the money the worst the luck.

I believe this is a reflection of his reconciling his rural and religious virtues with his experience in the economic culture of America. He appreciated the economic resources of this country and therefore saw the value in picking up found money. But his background warned him against potential greed that would distance him from his religious beliefs. Pennies symbolized a brick-by-brick approach to economic gain that he could support.

After my uncle told me about this I was particularly attentive to pennies, and anytime I saw a penny I would think of the rhyme from the musical movie Grease (1978):

“See a penny pick it up… all day long you’ll have good luck!”

Frenchy recites this rhyme and is the one prudent enough to notice the penny to give to Kenickie for good luck in his race. Rizzo’s greedily intercepts Frenchy, however, and she snatches the lucky penny to give to Kenickie herself. The penny then not only looses it’s luck so innocently acquired by Frency, but it becomes unlucky as it causes Kenickie to get a concussion which takes him out the race completely.

 

SuperSkank Doppleganger

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, USC
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English

One of my friends was especially concerned last year with a potential Doppleganger. She had never encountered evidence of her Doppleganger until she came to USC. Here she explains the first instance she heard about her other’s existence, and her most recent experience with her Doppleganger’s antics:

“Freshman year during welcome week, I was with my friends at one of the events and I was eating a snow cone and a guy came up to me and asked me how my snow cone was and started a conversation in a way that seemed like he already knew me, which was confusing, then he introduced himself to the girls I was with and asked me for my name again, though he hadn’t gotten my name the first time…he then told me that we should go to chipotle again sometime soon. This was extremely odd because I had never been. My roommate looked at me and asked ‘When were you at chipotle?’ and I responded that I wasn’t at which point the guy told me that there was a girl on campus who looked just like me.

At one point last year at a block party, the girl was there as well. I kept having random guys come up to me and “reintroduce” themselves. I even had a man try to kiss me. Everyone was dancing in the street and all of a sudden a guy I’d never seen before dances over to me, grabs my head and tries to kiss me. I didn’t really know what to do. I pushed him off and he got all confused and asked ‘Aren’t you the girl in my class.’ I was not. But apparently my Doppleganger was and she would’ve been okay with this dude making out with her. So not only do I have a doppleganger, I have a superskank doppleganger.”

A Doppleganger is a German “double goer” – a physical double of someone who lacks their soul and is therefore some kind of spiritual void. It is believed that when a person encounters their Doppleganger, they will die. Fyodor Dostoyevsky explored this frightening superstition in The Double (1846).

My friend took a class freshman year that introduced her to the concept of Doppleganger’s and the imminent death associated with their presence.  After the bombardment of sightings of her Doppleganger last year my friend had the following conclusion, “I have to kill her.” She of course didn’t actually kill her, in fact she has never seen her Doppleganger herself. But after she started joking about this her look-alike never resurfaced and hoards of strange men stopped assuming she would be okay with them kissing her.

Evil Eye Bracelet

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, USC
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

My friend has a bracelet she wears constantly. It is a charm bracelet of blue eyes inside intricate golden hands. She talks about how she acquired it and what it means to her:

“I got it with my mommy  – she [her mother] actually isn’t sure how she feels about it… Evil eyes are blue eyes & she gets upset cause she has blue-green eyes.

I think it’s supposed to be intentions more than blue eyes. I think it’s blue because it originated in India or something & it originated during the time whites were coming in.

I had this little girl at the Getty [Museum] giving me the extra-evil eye & I decided I needed protection.

And I dont know how much I really believe – but I kinda do or I wouldnt be wearing the bracelet.

I lost it for a bit and I told my mom and she freaked out cause she thought it would be really bad luck. She also freaked out cause one of the ojos [eyes] fell out.”

worn constantly to ward off the evil eye

 

The Evil Eye is a belief held by various groups, some since antiquity. Charms such as this bracelet are a common attempt to ward off the evils of an envious eye. The circular blue beads or eyes are a common representation of the Evil Eye.

A 1902 entry in Folklore Journal by Charlotte S. Burns on a similar charm reads as follows :

” ‘They are used by natives as charms to nullify the effects of the Evil Eye; a beautiful child, a valuable horse, or even a tree, is often adorned by one of these beads for this purpose. They are always blue.’ (Cf. Folklore, vol. xii., p. 268.) A Syrian woman, a native of Jerusalem, but living at Haifa, frequently (1899-19oo00) told Miss Bunbury
that people with blue eyes, or with teeth wide apart, have the Evil Eye. This is also noticed by Mr. Frederick Sessions (Folklore, vol. ix., p. io). The use of blue beads as a charm against it is then evidently a piece of sympathetic magic, while the ascription of the power (in an Eastern country) to blue- eyed people looks like a racial superstition.”

Much literature is written about the existence of the Evil Eye in various cultures, the source of the evil and how to combat it. Benjamin L. Gordon explains the Evil Eye as : “an eye believed to have the power of inflicting various diseases and evils on persons by a mere glance, without the fascinator’s coming in contact with them or without his administering anything to them. This belief has been persistent throughout the ages from remote antiquity. It has been recognized alike by sacred writers, classical authors, fathers of the Church, rabbis of the Talmud, philosophers and ancient and medieval physicians.” He writes about the history of the Evil Eye superstition, fear of disease and examples from various cultures in his “OCULUS FASCINUS (FASCINATION, EVIL EYE)” Arch Ophthal. 1937;17(2):290-319.

Coachella Car Painting

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, USC
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

The Coachella Valley Music Festival attracts increasing crowds every year, in fact this year was the first the festival had to be recreated a second weekend to meet demand (and still sold out). The popularity of the festival encourages participation in many ritualized customs pertaining to the experience of Coachella.

One Coachella-specific ritual is the painting of cars that are going to be driven to Coachella. The ritual is so popular that the organizers and promoters themselves have recognized it as an iconic part of the festival experience. They host a “Carpoolchella” contest which rewards those who participate in painting their cars for Coachella, and their website hosts a gallery of car paintings.

One frequent Coachella-goer explains the ritual:

“Basically the main reason people do that now is competition. But people did it before, and of course not everyone even has a shot of winning so some people still just to do it as a big part of their trip.

It also represent where you came from. A lot of people are from out of state and they paint their cars to show how far they’ve driven just for Coachella. Like, carpoolchella-OHIO or something. I’ve seen a big giant New Mexico flag as the background for the Coachella landscape.

There’s people who go all out for this because they really associate it with their trip and getting to Coachella. Like sure you might win passes for life – but probably not. Some people just have always done it so they’re going to do it every year. It’s part of the checklist: stuff to survive the heat, survive the cold, drugs, food, first aid, car gear…car paint.”

 

This ritual first of all represents an establishment of Coachella culture. As the festival explodes in popularity festival goers want to show that they are a legitimate part of the festival experience. Those who have a longer tradition of going to the festival often have a traditional aspect to their car painting through which they can proclaim their veteran status. Those who are new to the festival want to make sure their experience is complete by enacting rituals.

There is also a slight superstition, especially for those who have made a habit out of car painting. Car painting becomes a necessary step in preparing for the festival, which if ignored could have as disastrous results as forgetting any other basic necessity. Since there is no necessity that car painting explicitly fulfills it can be seen as a sign of protection, especially for those who make longer roadtrips.

Luck on A Game Day

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, USC
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

On Home-Game Saturdays during the Fall semester, USC’s main campus is covered with tailgate parties. These range from tame alumni and fan cookouts, to blackout-inducing keg stand ragers. Regardless of the University’s opponent, a few things remains constant: drinking, eating, rivalrous talk, and superstition. As kick-off approaches the tailgates begin to wind down and the tailgaters head en masse to the Coliseum. Most tailgaters will head to the Coliseum through Trousdale, the small brick street in the middle of campus, regardless of where on campus they were actually tailgating. A graduating senior explains the ritual that follows this procession to the Coliseum :

” So you walk down Trousdale past Tommy Trojan, and Shumway fountain and then when you get to the very end of Trousdale right before Expo there’s this big lamppost. Right before crossing the street for the Coliseum you kick the the lamp post. But you kick it with your heel, so backwards. If you miss you’ve given the whole game bad luck. If you don’t kick it and you’re a USC student that’s bad luck too. So everyone who walks by and is walking to the game for USC has to kick it. Sometimes you have to wait ’cause  it gets kind of crowded. And people can kick you by accident sometimes. I guess that’s bad luck too.”

This ritual reflects and anxiety of the vast population of USC students and aficionados. It is amazing to see the number of people who are otherwise unaffiliated with USC who go to tailgates and participate in this ritual. Undergraduate students seem to take the superstition particularly to heart, often reminding each other to enact the ritual or scolding those who do it wrong.

In a game where spectators invest so much (financially going to games & funding tailgates, physically enduring the long hours of tailgating and exposure during the game, and emotionally) in the success of their team it must be frustrating to have the entire outcome out of their control. Participating in such rituals gives them a sense that the outcome is also to a certain extent out of their teams control – and therefore they can not be held completely responsible. Loosing then becomes a matter of bad luck instead of choosing the wrong team. It also gives a little more control to the spectator as their individual actions can finally contribute to the outcome. By kicking the ‘post USC fans are doing their part in fighting off any bad luck to plague their team.