Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Folk Belief –

Nationality: American - black/White
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mesa, AZ
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English

“If a fly lands on you while you’re making a silly face then your face will freeze that way forever.”

Demi remembers hearing this from her mom at a young age and even her older sister would tell it to her. Even though she does not seriously believe the saying she still tells it to people when they intentionally make strange faces. She has a few classmates who I have heard the saying before and almost everyone in her extended family is also familiar with it.

This is an example of a cautionary saying to prevent children from doing something that adults do not like. It seems like an arbitrary combination of an event that could possibly happen (a fly landing on someone) but the chances of it happening are slim (while they are making a funny face). The sole purpose of this phrase is to scare children into not making strange faces although it possibly has an opposite effect and makes them more curious.

Folk belief – Narrative

Nationality: American - black/Mexican
Age: 25
Occupation: High school mentor
Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English

My informant shared a story in heard from his babysitter while he lived in Puerto Rico. His babysitter was a black woman from St. Croix and she was a strong believer of mythical creatures, mystical occurrences, legends, witchcraft and magic. My informant does not remember extreme details of the story but he does remember her legitimate belief in it.

This is the story as he remembers it: One time late at night she heard footprints walking behind her but every time she turned around to look, no one was there. She then got in her care and drove home. Even when she got out of her car and walked up toward her house she continued to hear the footprints. When she got up on her porch and to her door she turned around as fast as she could and at the bottom of her porch she saw what she described as a hoofed man. Startled, she went into her house and nothing else happened. The next morning in the dirt along her drive she saw hoof prints leading up to her porch. She also said that a similar incident had happened to her cousin in St. Croix.

My informant said his babysitter was telling his this story to share her experience and not to scare him as it would seem based on the story content. The informant’s babysitter took a folklore creature and added him to a real life experience that she believed in. The creature she described is similar to pan or satyrs in Greek mythology or a faun in Roman mythology. These half goat half man creatures are also present in African mythology which is where my informants babysitter most likely got her belief from. There are also many accepted folk beliefs, myths and legends in Puerto Rico and the discussion of them is more widely accepted than in the United States.

Funny Name Legend

Nationality: African American
Age: 14
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: March 28, 2011
Primary Language: English

“There was a woman that wanted to name her twin daughters, Vagina and Erotica.  And apparently there are two people in America named ESPN after the sports channel.”

The informant said that he heard this story from a classmate at his high school a few months ago in December. He found the story shocking at first, then incredible and funny. He isn’t sure if he believes if it is actually true. The topic came up amongst his classmates because they heard that in some other countries parents aren’t allowed to name their infants whatever they want and have to select a name off of a list. The informant and his friends found this strange in comparison to the American culture they grew up in and so someone told this story. He thinks it shows that maybe people can’t be trusted to name their children whatever they want with practically no restrictions.

This legend is probably a variation of the popular “Funny Name” legend that has been circulating in the US at least since the early 1900s. The earlier variations of this legend usually describe the woman in the story as a black woman. It was probably repeated to show that black people weren’t even smart enough to give their children “sensible names” and just named them whatever sounded good. This legend reflected the racial prejudice that was socially acceptable in the culture of America in the early 1900. While there are still a fair amount of stories circulating about the strange names that African American parents give their children, in this version that my informant heard, the race of the woman was either left out (because the informant is African American and might have taken offense) or the race of the woman is no longer relevant in today’s culture.

There have been many accounts in the media about the unusual names that people give their children and these people are from many different racial backgrounds. People find these “unusual name” stories quite entertaining. A few years ago there was a news story about a Chinese couple that wanted to name their son @ after the @ symbol (CNN.com) and currently there is a lot of talk over a young man who named his child, Facebook after the social networking website (NPR radio broadcast).   Perhaps now people’s opinion has moved from one race not being intelligent enough to do something as simple as naming a child to what my informant said, which is that maybe some people either can’t be trusted with or that they purposely abuse the freedom they have.

Annotation: This legend does have some truth to it though according to this article written on ESPN’s official website. There at least three people with the name ESPN.

Texas toddler at least the third named espn. (2004, June 26). ESPN, Retrieved from http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=1829996

Humor – Joke

Nationality: American - black/Mexican
Age: 25
Occupation: High school mentor
Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English

Joke:

There were three men on an airplane; a white man, an Asian man and a Mexican man. They each had with them some cargo from their country. The white man had a bunch of hamburgers, the Asian man had tons of rice and the Mexican man had loads of tacos. The plane was too heavy so the captain told them ‘You’re going to have to throw out some of your cargo.’ The Asian man dumped the rice and said, “I have enough of these in my country,” as he threw out some rice. The Mexican man threw out some tacos and said, “I have enough of these in my country”. Then the white man threw the Mexican man out of the plane and said, “I have enough of these in my country.”

The joke is an example of blason populaire because it makes fun of one specific ethnic group. A white classmate told my informant this joke in elementary school. My informant went to a fairly conservative private elementary school and the boy who told him the joke was most likely repeating what he had heard from an adult or older person with a developed political opinion. He remembers being offended by the joke but thought it was funny at the same time. The joke definitely made an impact on my informant because he remembers the joke approximately ten years after he was first told it.  The joke reflects the sentiments of many (white) Americans regarding immigration of Mexican people to the United States. People often use jokes as a way to lightheartedly and inappropriately share their prejudices.

Dying in your birth month

African/Southern African-American Proverb

When you die the same season or month you were born, your time on this earth is coming to an end at the right time, if and when you die at any other time it is usually an untimely death.

The proverb or belief is used to explain or justify death, something that remains mysterious and inexplicable to people. My informant first heard this saying from her grandmother after her own father died at age 50. They considered his death untimely because he was so young and seemingly healthy but had a sudden and lethal heart attack. He was born in September and died in February so that strengthened their belief that his passing was an untimely one.

My informant’s mixed race family is from New Orleans, LA and she said her grandmother had lots of wisdom that she traced back to African although to her it seemed especially endemic to Louisiana. People often use sayings to justify or explain an occurrence that they have no control over and this saying is an example of that.