Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Italian Toast

Nationality: Italian-American
Performance Date: February 2007

“This wine is good and clear.
Good health to everyone.
Hope they bring to the cemetery the ones
who wanted to do away with it.”

This saying has been passed down through the paternal side of my family, who are all of Italian heritage.  My father’s grandparents were immigrants in the early twentieth century and were the last to speak Italian fluently in my father’s genealogy.  Some of my older relatives still remember this saying, however, and have said it on occasion though it is obsolete.  My father begins it when toasting to his family, but never gets past the first sentence.  As it involves Prohibition (1920-1933), its terminus post quem is 1920.  As recent immigrants, my great grandparents had left a country where good wine was plentiful and many people drank it daily, and were now faced with an across-the-board ban on every kind of alcoholic beverage.  According to my informant, the Italian men who immigrated near this time would continue to make wine that their families would drink, keeping it hidden in their cellars while brewing.  When the wine was finished and illegally drunk, a toast such as this would be offered.  This particular saying was either created or picked up by one of my father’s grandparents, and as my family has increasingly forgotten Italian (I know essentially none), the saying has remained, whether or not my relatives are aware that it is an anachronism.  Though it is obsolete, it reminds us of our common heritage and of my great-grandparents (now deceased) and their families.

Saudi Hiccup Remedy

Nationality: Saudi
Performance Date: January 2007

Press a wet newspaper against the center of your forehead.

 

Who ever consults a medical textbook when they get a case of the hiccups?  There must be more methods of curing the hiccups (or at least attempting such) than for any other frustration that ails the human body, and it seems everyone has heard and tried at least one of these folk remedies.  I have heard of many supposed hiccup cures myself: scare the person with the hiccups, gulp down water rhythmically (seven times in one particular variant), rub your earlobe with your fingers (this one has actually produced results on me – perhaps there is some real nerve connection there or perhaps it is the placebo effect), drink sugar water, hold your breath.
Recently, my roommate (Lebanese) and I, along with a friend of his from Saudi Arabia (my informant), were driving to buy food, and my roommate began hiccuping quite forcefully.  Predictably, everyone began reciting the hiccup-cure ideas they had learned growing up.  Since my roommate was driving, he unfortunately had to suffer the hiccups (and did for quite some time) until they passed.  I asked the informant how he would cure the hiccups back where he used to live in Arabia, and his method was the most unusual I had ever heard.  He said his mother used to soak a newspaper and press it against his forehead.  The informant did not know why this worked, but claimed it did.  Perhaps the cold, wet sensation triggers a reset button in the nerves and stops the spasms, or again, perhaps it is just the placebo effect – and it is doubtful that any medical guide would ever confirm this for us or would address the effectiveness of these traditional remedies.

UFO Sighting

Performance Date: April 2007

Both my mother and sister claim to have witnessed a UFO several years ago while driving home from a Target store which is only about a mile from my house in Marietta, Georgia.  It was late and dark outside.  Through the front window, my mother saw a pair of white lights approaching the intersection outside of the Target.  She recalled that the object, which she definitely believed was a craft, was extremely low in the sky – she said maybe the height of a telephone pole.  She could make out a boomerang shape as it moved overhead, where to her amazement, it hovered in absolute silence.
While my mother will admit being uncertain as to the craft’s identity, she suggested that it was some form of secret military technology; in particular she indicated that the craft she saw resembled the stealth fighter she had seen in photographs.  This is one popular interpretation of unidentified flying objects, and it is a viable explanation for many such sightings, perhaps including this one.  Together with this idea of futuristic military (human) technology, it seems the idea of super-advanced alien technology forms the overwhelming majority of the public sentiment on the subject of UFO’s throughout the US and most of the free world.  Though many UFO witnesses (and many who hear second hand) ascribe a spiritual nature to their experience, these interpretations and others are far outnumbered by those that focus on the future and progress of the human race.  While my mother does not believe in aliens and simply gave an honest account of what she witnessed, people of other cultures would probably have provided vastly different explanations.

The Tooth Fairy

Nationality: American (British Descent)
Age: 56
Occupation: CFO
Residence: Del Mar, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2012
Primary Language: English

“I don’t know if anyone said anything to you about the Tooth Fairy yet. Basically putting a, uh, quarter or a dollar under the pillow as a kid at night when they lost their tooth. And the tooth fairy would come at night and leave money for the tooth. You’d have to put your tooth under there and the Tooth Fairy would come and leave ya money.”

 

“Do you remember if it was your mom or your dad told you to do that?”

 

“My mom an dad both. That was, goes back as far as time as far as I know.”

 

“Was there something special that you put your tooth in or did you just put it straight under your pillow?”

 

“No you just stuck the tooth straight under the pillow and looked under in the morning, wake up and find a quarter under your pillow is what it was. And then I think with inflation it turned into a dollar.”

Childhood is filled with imaginary creatures and mythical figures, and the Tooth Fairy is no exception. Losing baby teeth is one of our first rights of passage, not to mention a young child’s introduction to earning money. As well as in the case of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, finding out that the Tooth Fairy doesn’t exist comes as another early life shock.

Korean Dream Superstition

Nationality: Korean
Age: 54
Occupation: Nurse
Residence: Cerritos, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

“When you have a dream about teeth falling out, that is a very bad omen that brings death.”

 

My informant first heard this superstition from her mother when she was ten years old, living in the city of Pusan in South Korea.  Her mother had a dream that one of her bottom teeth fell out, so she told all her children to be careful.  Her mother was afraid that since her bottom teeth fell out in her dream that would mean someone younger than she would meet his or her death.  In Korea the people are anxious about having dreams of teeth being knocked out because they take that as a sign of death.  The upper row of teeth would mean death for someone older and the lower row of teeth would mean death for someone younger.  She believes that teeth falling out signifies death because once you reach a certain age, your teeth would start to deteriorate.  Teeth were vital in consuming food, so the absence of them were a great discomfort.  Therefore, when someone lost his or her teeth, it was common to believe death was near, especially without the technology of dentures then.

I can see how death and teeth falling out can be linked together.  The sign of youth can be when a baby first grows his or her teeth.  Hence, when someone becomes old enough to lose his or her teeth, that symbolizes a life coming to an end rather than a beginning.