Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Greek New Years Customs

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.

Following are two New Years customs from the Greek community the informant lived in as a child.

Custom #1:

When growing up, there was a tradition in the informant’s family and the Greek community at large that the adults would always gamble on New Years eve. All the families would gather, as New Years is a family occasion, and the adults would bet on cards while the kids played. The believe was the gambling for money would bring luck for the coming year; it was an auspicious practice to handle money at the very threshold of the New Year.

Analysis: The handling of money at the beginning of the year probably owed some of its origin to ideas of sympathetic magic. The act of handling and interacting with a lot of money as the New Year begins is an enactment of the what the people wish to happen for the rest of the year; they hope that for the upcoming year they will have a lot of contact with money, and thus be prosperous. Gambling at New Years is a type of ritual, although most of the people participating probably think of it as a good luck ceremony. That the ritual magic implications of the gambling are more important than the more straightforward attempts to win money are supported by the fact that it is a whole family affair, including children.

Custom #2:

It was tradition in the informant’s family and the Greek community at large to throw a piece of iron into the house on New Years. Iron horseshoes are usually used, as they are the most common piece of iron around the house. The informant does not remember exactly why this was done, but he remembers learning that it should be done through the stories the old Greek women would tell him. They would explain their cultures traditions to the children, telling them stories and legends. They were the main transmitters of tradition in that social network.

Analysis: In the Greek community that the informant grew up in, the stories were transmitted by the female elders. The informant says that it is through the stories of these women that the young in the community learn who they are. These women are the active bearers in the community. It is their place in the social construction of the Greek society, rather than personality or personal preference, that determines who are active bearers of lore and who are passive. The childrens’ roles are as passive bearers. But this position switches with age, although not sex. The position of those who tell stories is regulated in the Greek community.

Blonde Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine, CA, USA
Performance Date: April 25, 2011
Primary Language: English

My friend, who is a blonde female, told me this joke: “So, uh, one day A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer.  She says she’s going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.  The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce.  The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, and she has the title and everything is all good.  The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.  The bank’s president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then goes to drive the Rolls Royce into the bank’s underground garage to park it.

Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and interest, which is about $15.  The loan officer says, ‘Miss, we are very happy to have your business, and this  has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled.  While you were away, we checked you and found that you are a multimillionaire.  What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?’

The blonde replies, ‘Where else in the city can I park my car for two weeks for only $15 and expect it to be there when I return?’

My friend and I both agree that this a counter-current to the general trend of blonde jokes. Usually demeaning (playfully) of blondes and depicting them as naive, ignorant, or the like, this one conversely shows the blonde winning out over the bank employees (even the president). We see yet another example of the common person triumphing over those who traditionally would have come out on top. It is very much a “Legally Blonde” moment, an instance when the once-oppressed rise above any previously constricted confines to challenge and negotiate their place in society.

The Bronze Cat

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 14 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Although Morgan’s narrative is first person, this story clearly contains intrinsic folkloric value and that is how I will analyze it.

“When I was about thirteen or so, I was in a corner store in Wildwood, New Jersey (where I’ve always spent my summers) when a little metal cat caught my eye. I couldn’t look away from it; I was utterly enchanted. I had to have that cat. I had to buy it no matter what. It wasn’t that it was cute; it wasn’t. It didn’t have pupils. It was misshapen. It was bronze and smelled like money. I couldn’t put it down, though–it was like it was begging me to take it home.

When we got home, though, it felt totally different. I looked into its face, which had looked so sweet in the store, and suddenly it looked malicious. It made chills run up and down my spine to be anywhere near it, and I could hardly stand touching it. I felt nauseous and scared. So I left it upstairs and came down to the TV room–it was waiting for me. I rounded on my sister, demanding to know why she’d brought it down, but she hadn’t touched it. Its pupil-less eyes followed us around the room.

We both agreed that it was evil, so we sealed it in a little box with a rubber band and a note that said DO NOT TOUCH, DO NOT OPEN, along with a short story that I made up about its origins. We took it to the attic, where there was a floorboard that, when struck in a certain corner, could be pried open to reveal a hidden compartment. We put the box in there, sealed it, and climbed down the ladder.

It was waiting in our bedroom.

We ran, crying, to our parents, who promptly sealed it in a plastic bag with salt in the fridge while they determined what to do with it. Eventually, they decided that–since no returns were allowed–we would have to donate it. I protested, saying that I couldn’t bear the thought of passing it on to someone else and leaving them stuck with it, and this is what they told me:

“Donating it removes the curse,” they said. “By doing a good deed, you erase it.”

It never came back for us.”

I asked Morgan how her parents knew how to deal with the bronze cat, and she said that among other superstitions she had grown up with, her parents raised her with the idea that salt and cold neutralizes bad luck and curses. “We do this fairly systematically; if we’ve identified an object as being unlucky, it often gets thrown in a baggy with sea salt and put in the fridge. I once did this with the names of the people who were bullying me, and they left me alone until someone threw out the paper.”

Research revealed that this superstition is present in some form in several cultures. In the Jewish tradition, salt- because it was a pure substance- was believed to have a potency to ward off evil spirits. In the Bible, Ezekial 16:4 briefly mentions the practice of rubbing newborn babies with salt.
Among Scottish and English fisherman, touching cold iron was believed to neutralize the evil eye and protect one from demons (possibly because confronting the metal in its safer form neutralized the power that the evil could send into it).

There seems to be a dual lesson to be learned from this story. The first is the age old idea of “Be careful what you wish for.” It cautions both against the desire for material possessions and against engaging with supernatural elements whose purpose one might not know. Although there was not the traditional “wish” in this story, there was the desire for the statue, which ultimately led to the revelation of its malevolent nature. This sentiment can be found in many pieces of classic and popular culture- the Faust legend in both its incarnation as Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and as Goethe’s Faust in which an intellectual makes a deal with the devil and more recently (and more irreverently) the American film Bedazzled (2000) in which the main character sell his soul for seven wishes, but uses the last one to wish someone else a happy life. His selfless act negates the contract and allows him to keep his soul.

The information about salt in Jewish folk tradition can be found in Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion by Joshua Trachtenberg (Forgotten Books, 2008) on page 162.
“Touch cold iron” can be found in Evil Eye the Origins and Practices of Superstition by Frederick Thomas Elworthy (Kessinger Publishing, 2003) on page 222.
Full texts of Dr. Faustus and Faust can be found at Project Gutenberg.

Mexican Evil Eye Protection Superstition

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 75
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Buda, TX
Performance Date: 1944
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

My grandmother remembers learning a protection superstition from her mother when she was 8 years old, growing up in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. This superstition related to the Evil Eye and its negative effects. She says, “I saw it, even in my family, with my little brother, Frank. He was sitting outside on a blanket, he was like a year and a month. And he was playing there and this man that lived next door came by and said, ‘Oh how cute,’ and started talking to the baby. That night he was burning with fever, so my mother told me, ‘Go get the neighbor, because he probably gave him the evil eye.’ So I went and I got him, and he came over, and my little brother was laying down in bed, and he started praying, and he used to smoke I remember, and he would inhale the smoke from the cigarette and make a little cross with the smoke on his head, on his feet, all over his body. Just crosses over his body with the smoke. And he left. After awhile, Frank was ok. He didn’t have any more fever. And I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I saw it! He got well! It’s probably hard to understand, but it’s the evil eye, they call it.”

Esperanza told the story with little nervous laughs, as if she knew what she was saying sounded funny, but also was so real to her that she had to believe it. When she was asked what she thought about what she saw, she said, “It’s hard to believe, but I saw it that he was burning in fever, he was sick, and then I caught the man, and he prayed, and he was ok after awhile! He was fine! Some people use an egg. They get an egg and make crosses all over the body with a whole egg. Just pray and make crosses on the forehead all over and all that. They crack the egg and put it in water and say, “see? Here’s the Eye. It’s no longer in you” because the yolk would be in the water. I’ve seen all these things and I don’t think they do it anymore but I don’t know… I was young, you know, I used to watch all that, and I don’t know, they jut said someone gave them the Evil Eye and that’s how they cleaned their bodies.”

I think that being exposed to a superstition so young instills a sense of belief in the person who witnesses it, especially if the superstition is adhered to stringently.  My grandmother, many years later during this interview, seemed to begin to doubt the accuracy of what she saw, and the effectiveness of it – yet she never said she no longer believes in the superstition.

Mexican Folk Religion

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 75
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Buda, TX
Performance Date: 1944
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

My grandmother remembers old folk religious practices performed during the Lental season. She was a young girl growing up in the Catholic Church in Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico, about 8 years old, when she remembers a folk religious practice.

“During Lent, since I was little, my Mother used to send me to church. I was very small, and I would be scared, because they make it look so real, you know, the Passion of Christ, you know? There was a group of women all dressed in black, in the church, and they would be singing, but they sound like they were crying. And then, um, I would go into the church, and it sounds so scary to me, and then there were soldiers, you know, dressed like Roman Soldiers. They made everything look so real.

During Lent we were very dedicated to what really was Holy Week. Because I remember, that when I was little and I would be afraid to hear the ladies singing, and the big statues, you know, like the saints, and I look at them and felt like they were looking at me. I don’t know, I would be afraid because I was really little and I would go by myself because I was the oldest of the kids and the other ones were younger and I just lived a couple of blocks from the church so I would just walk there. My mother would say go to church, it’s Holy Week, go to church. We say Sabada Gloria, it’s the Saturday before Lent, we would take little buckets with water with rose petals in the water, and the priest would bless the water and we would take it home, and sprinkle it in the house to bless the house.”

Esperanza says, “I do believe about that a lot. Because I had mine blessed, my house. To me, it’s very important to take all the bad spirits, or bad karma, away. Only good, and I do believe, maybe, because I have a lot of faith. I do believe that god is with me, that by being blessed, he’s welcome and he’s been in this house.” Water as purification and for blessing is a very prevalent theme in Christianity, especially Catholicism, so it makes sense that my very religious grandmother would have partaken in this folk religious performance.