Category Archives: Protection

Garlic and Onions as Medicine

Age: 16

Text:

“One weird medicinal thing my parents would do is that even though they were doctors, they’re Romanian, so when we were younger, when we would get sick, they would always tell us to eat garlic and onions, which I think stemmed from the whole vampire Dracula thing, but somehow that was a way to avoid being sick.”

Context:

The informant describes a ritual from childhood in which their parents, both trained doctors, encouraged them to eat garlic and onions when they were sick. This advice was given as a part of everyday care, rather than in a formal medical context. The informant connects this to their Romanian cultural background referencing associations with garlic and onions as protection from things such as vampires.

Analysis:

This example of belief based folklore and foodways, specifically a home remedy that is passed down through cultural tradition. It reflects how folklore and coexist with formal systems of knowledge as the informants parents rely on both their medical training and inherited practices.

The use of garlic and onions as protective or healing substances connects in a widely known way to Vampires. However, this shows how stories and culture spread into each other and affect one another. This connects in a broader context to sympathetic logic where certain foods are believed to have magical qualities. While the information links this to vampires folklore it is also a cultural association around the world between food and health, showing how meanings can overlap across different traditions. Folklore is adapted and changed overtime, its performance and daily practice is what impacts the culture and identity around us.

This example also demonstrates how folklore functions as vernacular knowledge operates outside of institutional authority even when practiced by individuals within those systems. The fact their parents are doctors highlights that belief-based practices are not limited to a lack of scientific knowledge, but instead persist because they are culturally meaningful and familiar.

This example shows how folklore is transmitted within families and adapted into everyday life, shaping how people understand and respond to illness. Even if the reasoning is not fully explained or scientifically grounded, the practice continues because it is part of a shared cultural framework around healing.

Break a Leg

Age: 17

Text:

“I joined theater in high school because of my sister. She did it. And I learned that you should always say ‘break a leg’ instead of ‘good luck,’ because one time I said ‘good luck,’ and the person in the show got kind of, um, angry, and explained to me how that was actually really bad luck. So now I just make sure to always say good luck I guess.”

Analysis:

This example is a form of verbal folklore, specifically a superstitious/customary phrase tied to the performance settings. It reflects a broader theatrical superstition in which saying something positive (good luck) is believed to produce a negative outcome, while saying something negative (break a leg) will bring a good performance.

The moment of correction highlights how folklore is transmitted through informal social interaction, especially within a specific folk group like theatre performers. The informant’s experience shows how members outside of the folk group are socialized into the group norms, learning not just what to say, but what meanings those phrases carry within that context.

This practice also demonstrates how folklore relies on shared belief systems, even if those beliefs are not taken literally. The rule is maintained through repetition and reinforcement by the group, giving it authority within the performance space.

More broadly, this example shows how folklore helps define group boundaries. Knowing to say “break a leg” signals membership and understanding. In this way, the phrase functions not only as a superstition, but also as a marker of identity and belonging within the theatre community.

年年有余: A Fish for the New Year, and Not to Flip It

Text: On Chinese New Year eve my family eats a whole fish for dinner. The rule, as enforced by my mother IW, is that we must eat the fish from the top down. We never flip the fish over. To flip the fish, 翻 (fān), invokes 翻船 (fānchuán), to capsize a boat. If you flip the fish, you’re putting yourself at increased risk of capsizing your boat in the following year (valid for car analog also). Halfway through the meal, once the top side has been eaten down to the bone, we carefully lift out the spine in one piece and lay it aside, exposing the meat of the underside. The fish doubles as a pun in Chinese: 年年有余 (nián nián yǒu yú), translating to “may every year have surplus,” works because 余 (yú, surplus) sounds like 鱼(yú, fish). Hence “may every year have fish”. The fish must remain partially uneaten at the end of the meal, leaving leftovers for the next day (the first day of the new year) to literalize the surplus. 

Context: My mother, IW, grew up in a suburb of Beijing and has not deviated from the tradition since. She has done it every Lunar New Year I can remember. We typically have two fish over the holiday: one served on New Year’s Eve and another on New Year’s Day, we call the second fish leftovers even though I’m not sure that’s how it works traditionally. The fish at our table is most often halibut, this is tangential to the tradition and just a habit my family has fallen into (I think Costco has a good deal on halibut around that time), the strict tradition would call for carp or sea bass. 

Analysis: Two folkloric mechanisms run in parallel inside one piece of food. The first is homophonic word-magic: 鱼sounds like 余, so the fish itself becomes a small, uttered wish for surplus, and the requirement that some of it remain for the next day extends the wish across the new-year boundary. Homophonic mechanisms like this are common in Chinese culture, an artifact of the language’s limited distinct syllables that lend to a high density of homophones. The second: flipping the fish, enacts, in miniature, the boat-capsizing it warns against, and the taboo presumes the small gesture is continuous with the larger outcome. The careful spine-lift halfway through dinner is the practical accommodation of the rule, with the skeleton removed in one piece so every side of the fish can be reached without ever turning it over. The capsizing prohibition is, in origin, a coastal-fisherman’s taboo that has been carried into Lunar New Year practice throughout China, and in our household, a boat-less one, it has been extended to cars. Strict tradition can involve carp (鲤 puns with 利, profit), the species drift to halibut in my family is folkloric variation. 

Falling AC Units

Text:

In New York City, there was a common fear of Air Conditioners falling from buildings and crushing pedestrians.

Context:

Informant grew up in NYC in the 70s/80s, and was often told to be careful and look out for falling air conditioners, as apparently, they were common. At least, that is what she was told and raised to believe.

Analysis:

This belief is something I have heard of before, though it is less common now, in my experience. Still, it is rooted in a real fear, and it encouraged children to be much more cautious and aware of their surroundings.

Razors in Halloween Candy

Text:

In the 80s, there was a belief and fear that children would unknowingly receive candy at Halloween that had razors or sharp pins in it.

Context:

The informant was a child in the 80s and experienced this fear from their parents firsthand. It was a common fear that children would be injured severely by accidentally swallowing ingesting sharp objects when eating their Halloween Candy.

Analysis:

This fear still prevails today. It is rooted in real events, where parents would find dangerous items and materials in their children’s candy. It shows a belief and a way of thinking that affected parents/guardians mostly.