Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Angel Memorate – Georgia, U.S.A

Nationality: American - Caucasian/ German
Age: 26
Occupation: Cinematographer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 22 April 2011
Primary Language: English

“I was really young. I was, it was in Georgia. My Mom and my Dad were married at the time. My mom was at work, my Dad and my brothers were in the house sleeping. I could sleep so I – like taking a nap, it was midday I went out into our backyard and started swinging on the swings. I was facing away from the house. I was facing, like this hill that our backyard faced. And I was just swinging, running around, doing kids’ stuff and I suddenly heard my Mom’s voice calling my name – or what sounded like my Mom’s voice. It was a female voice. I turned around, and just as I turn around smoke starts coming out of the kitchen. Um, so I go running in there – the kitchen window, sorry the kitchen window. So I go running into the house and the – the kitchen’s on fire! And my Dad and my brothers were also so they had no idea. So I ran in there and I woke up my dad and my dad went and extinguished the fire and actually burned his hand in the process. And um, my Mom wasn’t home. So the voice that I heard, it was unexplained. It was a female voice that called my name and draw my attention to the fire as it began. So early on, and if it had been any later it might not have been able to be extinguished. And my family was inside asleep so who knows, you know, how bad it could have been.”

The informant is a 26-year-old cinematographer who grew up as a military brat moving every couple of years, before coming to Los Angeles, California for college and to work in the motion picture industry. He is the oldest of three boys and was recently married.

When asked what he thought it was the informant said, “I think it was an angel. I mean it was an angel or, or something along that line.” What had caused the fire initially was that there was a pizza box on the stove and his little brother had accidentally turned the stove on while climbing up on the counter to get something out of the cabinet. He said “There was no female that I knew that was there” and his Mom “didn’t even know about the fire until she came home.” He said “it was definitely a guardian angel or something.” He told me, “I didn’t know what [the voice] was until later on because I never, I wasn’t Christian or anything until my teens and then when I was saved then I realized, ‘Oh, I wonder if that’s what it was.’ To him what was significant was that his family was saved from great harm due to him hearing this voice. The informant says he usually tells this story whenever he is talking about miracles or God’s goodness, he called it a “praise report”.

I can see why one might be confused as to what to label this strange voice as. It didn’t move anything around like one might expect a ghost to do and he didn’t see the translucent form of a woman like we hear in many stories about ghosts. But most significantly what it did was good – it likely saved his family’s life. Stories about ghosts saving someone’s life are not characteristic. It is clearly a situation where the informant was trying to categorize something outside of scientific explanation or normal experience. As he says, when he heard an explanation that made sense of an experience, he integrated that explanation into his narrative. It happened to be that that explanation was of guardian angels in Christianity. Perhaps had he moved to Ireland and learned about friendly fairies (sí) he may have integrated this explanation into his memory. The key here is how closely the idea of guardian angels explained his unexplainable experience. In that he said it was “definitely” an angel says how well the concept makes sense in his mind.

School Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles and Three Rivers, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2011
Primary Language: English

“So, at my high school a small little high school I the central valley here in California, um, in drama, drama club, we believe, well I don’t believe, but a lot of people believe that there’s a ghost that lives in the, uh, the performing arts building. And his name is Charlie. Yeah, and, people have, I’ve never personally never had an experience with Charlie in the performing arts building, but a lot of people say that if they’re in the room by themselves if they get there early and its really dark, um you know, or they hear noises they think that Charlie is doing something backstage or is somewhere, uh. Yeah there’s a storage area underneath the seats it’s like, the seats are elevated. So underneath there’s, we store a lot of things in there. Uh, people swear that he, moves chairs and, or props and stuff for the scene around.  Some people think, I don’t think, I haven’t heard anyone say he’s important, or that he’s a historical figure.  Um, I don’t know, girls for some reason like to think that he’s younger. Guys like to think that he’s older. ”

The informant doesn’t know why why the particualr name “Charlie” was given to the ghost and is not sure how long the legend of the ghost had been around.  He  heard about the ghost when he was a freshman from a group of senior girls.  Girls may find the ghost of a young man lurking about the empty stage as exciting, and so encourage the idea that Charlie is a young male ghost.  Boys, on the other hand, may not find the same idea as appealing and rather, think of the ghost as an older man.

Chinese Shrines

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Savannah, GA and Hong Kong, China
Performance Date: April 15, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Suzanne is currently spending a quarter abroad in Hong Kong, China. She heard about these shrines from her professor who said the shrines were there for the Gods to watch over shops for their owners.  She took these pictures in  the area of Sham Shui Po, where there are a lot of shrines

“The one with the tree next to it was next to a security guard’s booth at Lippo Centre, in Admiralty. Best guess says that it’s to the gods of guardians, asking him/her/them to watch over them, not necessarily or pertaining only to their protection.

Second one was a couple streets off Temple Street, outside of what I think was a mechanic’s shop. You can see a couple large stacks of tires in the background, a bicycle’s front wheel and handlebar basket in front of them. From what I can gather, the characters ask for finance to be brought to their door.
It seems that there are more shrines in areas where there are lots of local shops, definitely haven’t seen any in more western areas. In my opinion, it may either be due to big name companies not wanting the shrines in front of their shops, creating a connection between the two, or maybe because religion is fading from the “more well-to-do” areas because they think they don’t need it while the owner of a non-chain store still believes that his god(s) still have power over his life.”
Often the Buddist and Toaist people of Hong Kong worship dieties and ancestors of both religions.  Shrines of ancestors are usually inside the home, while shrines to gods are placed outside.  Each profession has their own god, consequently, different stores have their own unique shrine to their god.  And these shrines are often small, and placed directly by the entrance to a store.  This makes it easy to pay homage and worship the shrine to the god while entering and leaving.  By worshipping the gods, it is hoped that one will reap the benefits of the god’s help. 

Giving Shoes

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 80s
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 22, 2011
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

You can not give shoes away to someone as a gift.  Doing so gives them the means to walk out of your life.

Lucy lived in Taiwan for most of her life and moved to Hawaii in the 1980s when her sons moved there.  She learned this folk belief from her parents when she was a child.  She does not remember from what context she learned this in, however, she believes in was in regards to a birthday gift for a family relative.  The idea is that by giving someone shoes, you are telling them to walk away from you.  This belief is very popular in China and is guarded against very carefully.  She strongly believes in this belief and proudly told me that she has never given someone a pair of shoes before.

I have also heard of this folk belief.  My cousin told me it one day when she asked me for a dollar.   When I asked her why she wanted a dollar, she told me that it was because she had a pair of sandals that she wanted me to have because she bought a pair that was too small for her.  When I asked her about the dollar, she told me this belief.  I find this belief to be a great indicator of how much our culture believes in the fates and making our own luck.  While I don’t like the idea that I will never get a pair of shoes as a gift, I like the meaning behind it.  I feel like it means that people will avoid any possible cause for friendships or relationships to end or be broken.

Folk Belief–Whistling at Night

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Critical Studies Film Student
Residence: Wantage, New Jersey
Performance Date: February 19, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Turkish

“It’s bad luck to whistle at night!”

A mutual friend of the informant and mine was whistling at night when my informant, with an exaggerated expression of fear, turned to our friend and demanded that he stop whistling. When our friend asked why he should stop, my informant emphatically responded, “It’s bad luck to whistle at night!” On other occasions, I have seen similar interactions between my informant and peers, and often my informant will talk about the folk belief in a whisper, creating a sense of fear.

My informant believes that whistling at night attracts jinn, which in turn causes bad luck. Jinn, according to my informant, are a race of dark spirits that live in this world and others. They are mischievous, trickster spirits that bring misfortune with them. He states that a belief in jinn is prevalent in his Muslim family. My informant stressed that he does not believe in jinn, and tries to portray this “superstition” as a joke, but admitted that the whistling seriously bothered him nonetheless.

My informant remembers vividly remembers the first time he was told not to whistle at night. He was a little kid, around five years old, when he was whistling at night in his house. His grandmother, an immigrant from Azerbaijan, scolded him harshly, telling him to stop immediately. My informant didn’t understand and argued back with his grandmother. His mother even stepped into the argument, trying to make his grandmother see the situation from his perspective. His grandmother then grabbed him by both shoulders, put her face directly in front of his, and commanded, “Do it! Go on, whistle.” My informant began whistling again, but after a few moments his grandmother shook him slightly and said, “Stop.” When he stopped, she whispered, “Now listen.” My informant held still for a moment and then, in the silence, heard loud banging noises that he claims sounded distinctly like footsteps. He never whistled at night again.

My informant adheres to this folk belief, and asks his peers to, but also publicly questions its validity. After relating the above story, my informant quickly assured me that the noises (which he had demonstrated by banging on the walls) had probably been the creaking of an old house. When he asks friends to stop whistling, he never explains why except by saying “it’s bad luck!” in a tone that implies that the whole situation, to him, is a joke.  For my informant, this folk belief is both worthy of respect and questionably true.

I had never heard this folk belief before, but it seems rooted in the traditions of my informant’s family life. He questions it publicly because, in a dominantly White American Christian/Atheist culture, which he also identifies with, a belief in jinn seems out of place, and “other.” The belief itself, though, questions individuals’ agency over their own fate. It reveals a belief in non-human forces that interact with humans and can be summoned by taboo actions.