Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Ritual – American

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant listens to music before every game

Before playing any sport it is important to get into a “zone” so one is ready to play a full game.  One way to get into a “zone” is to listen to music.  Listening to music causes one to ignore all outside distractions and focus on one thing: the game.  It is common for many players to listen to music before a game, whether it is basketball, baseball, football, soccer, or any other sport.  My informant has played basketball ever since middle school and has listened to music before every game ever since his first basketball game.  The reason why my informant started this ritual is because he realized he had a connection with music which helped before games.

The reason why this ritual is so important in my informant’s world today is because he loves basketball.  Whether it is going outside on a warm day to play a pick-up game or just watching a game on ESPN, my informant just loves being a part of the game of basketball.  He grew up as a huge fan of the NBA, so it makes complete sense that basketball means so much to his life.  Since his favorite hobby is listening to music, this ritual is a way to incorporate both basketball and music into one idea.  My informant stated that music pumps him up and gets him ready, and music is very important in his life so it is a way to “reflect and examine myself before every game to get me ready.”

When I interviewed my informant, I asked him what he thought of this basketball ritual and he said “it is a good way to get motivated and is a way to get ready for a game.  Before a game you feel a lot of adrenaline and the music feels it.”

My view on this ritual is that it is an extremely good idea, because basketball is such a complicated sport that one needs a certain ritual to stay focused.  If one doesn’t have a set ritual to get focused, then it could lead a player to have a lot on their mind during a game which could affect his or her play.

Belief

Age: 50
Residence: Cleveland, OH
Performance Date: 1993

After my younger sister and I were born, my mother wanted to know how tall we were going to be as adults.  My family is rather short so she was worried that we would have the same fate and not be very tall.  Her cousin was supposedly able to predict the adult height of a child.  All he needed to know was their length at a particular age, which was 5 months for girls and 8 months for boys.  My mother gave him all the information that he needed.  From his predictions he concluded that I was to be five foot three inches as and adult, and my sister was going to be five foot one inch as an adult.  These estimates were extremely accurate.  I am now five foot three and one half inches tall at age 18.  My sister is only fifteen and she is five feet.  She will most likely grow that extra inch that he predicted.

Not only did my mom’s cousin have these beliefs and make these types of predictions about children after they were born, but also during the prenatal stages.  He predicted that my mother was going to have a girl both times she was pregnant.  When my mother was pregnant, according to her cousin she was caring the baby weight in the front, verses in the legs, hips, and bottom.  If the mother is carrying the baby weight in the front is means that she will have baby girls.  Conversely, if the mother has gained her baby weight in the legs, hips, and bottom, she will have a baby boy.

We will never know if my mother’s cousin’s tricks and beliefs in knowing the adult height of a baby, and the gender of the fetus really work or if it was just a lucky guess.  However, my mom will swear by his words till this day.

Folk Belief – India

Nationality: Indian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Bengali

“ Cow, if you eat, hot will become of you”

In Hinduism, the cow is considered a very sacred and revered creature, so much so that those who follow this belief also tend to follow a strictly vegetarian diet.  Though in communities where those who follow this practice are mixed with those who do not, it is often useful to have a more simplified or at least practical justification for this practice.  Particularly in the case of providing a more explanation to and between naïve and curious children, a biological reason that reinforces the religious reason are two forces which combine to be very persuading.  The biological explanation is as follows:  because it is very humid in India, meat in general, which conveniently for this belief system includes that of cows, very often goes rancid.  Should one proceed to eat this bacteria infested meat, one will become sick with a fever.  Thus, this little superstition is a perfect compliment to the Hindu belief, simply a different means to the same end.

The informant did mention he began to hear this more frequently when he moved from India to the United States, where the eating of cow was much more prevalent.  In an environment where a child’s practices at home are very different from those he or she experiences elsewhere in his daily life, the fear of sickness evoked by this superstition would quickly eliminate much of the initial curiosity by the child to indulge in what the activities that surround him.

Ritual

Nationality: Indian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angles, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Bengali

Superstitious Ritual

Nojor, loosely translated, “the Devils eye”

This is an act performed by elder women of the family to the children.  The woman will simply take the hand of the child, and firmly bite the smallest finger to prevent Nojor.

The informant explained to me that the idea here is that someone will look at the perfect, angelic child and will therefore become resentful and jealous.  Consequently, to protect the child from this curse, the mother or grandmother or other women of the family will bite the child’s finger, cause the child to cry or somehow distort their face.  The noise and facial distortion elicited from the child now make it imperfect, thus protecting it from the devil’s eye.

It is interesting how this is a demonstration of such a deep, ingrained superstition has actually become very ritualistic.  While most superstitions are nothing more than a verbal warning, the mother, in this case, skips the warning all together and simply takes it upon herself to prevent the curse that is surely approaching.

This act may be performed on any occasion, but in particular, according to the informant, on occasions that would warrant jealousy of the child.  For example, before the child is to perform or appear in front of a crowd in a any public display of talent or beauty.  The informant recalled one instance, quite late in his life, when his mother bit his finger before he went to his highs school prom.  “ You know, I can remember when my mom stopped doing it to me… yeah, there is a direct correlation between the time I stopped parting my hair on the side and the time she stopped biting me.”  Apparently for the informant’s mother, un-parted hair was enough imperfection so as to ward off evil on its own.

The cultural reflections of this act are dichotomous.  On one hand  there is a great deal of pride, I would indeed say arrogance that is shown by the older woman acknowledging that the child is worthy of jealousy; on the other hand it as if she is preventing the consequences of hubris in her own child.  With her older wisdom, she indeed can recognize the angelic qualities of her child, but sill forbid them naively over-displaying them.  Additionally, because this is such a common practice, from serfs to royal upper class, there is a cultural assumption that generally all children need protection from evil.  Thus we see the sacredness of children in this culture.

Evil Eye Superstitions

Nationality: Greek
Age: 50s
Occupation: Software Designer
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a male in his 50s. He was born to two Greek parents in New York. He was brought up in the Greek Orthodox Church. He lived in the Bronx for most of his youth before moving to the suburbs in Connecticut. He has worked as a journalist for most of his life, a job in which he spent a good deal of time in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent. He now lives in Southern California as a software developer. He is divorced with three children.

The informant’s family, his parents, grandparents, etc. believe in the Evil Eye, called Matia in Greek. The evil eye affects mainly children. It causes sickness, accidents, misfortunes, and other such bad occurrences. It is caused by the jealousy of other people towards a child, especially an attractive or beautiful one. His family believed that people, especially those unable to conceive or without children, will see a baby or child and lust after it. This jealousy causes the Evil Eye to be put upon the child. To ward off the jealousy induced evil eye, parents will hang charms on baby carriages and cots, mostly shaped like eyes. The parents also avoid invite jealousy of their children. They do not brag about their children and if any one ever pays their child a complement, they will spit on the kid or ground and say something disparaging to negate the complement. By doing this, the informant says they are not only trying to ward off the jealousy of other people, but also of God.

Analysis: The Matia for Greeks is a peculiar cultural phenomenon, when placed in the context of American culture. Americans place a lot emphasis on physical appearance, especially the beauty of babies and children. This is evidenced by the prevalence of child pageants and other such programs. For the Greeks, however, because of the belief in the evil eye, emphasizing a child’s physical appearance is considered dangerous because it can incite jealousy. This fear is so strong that the parents will even spit on their child. The belief in the Matia is so strong that they will go against the cultural structure of the country they live in to stop their children falling to the evil eye.