Category Archives: Protection

Navaratri

‘Every year for 9 days my family celebrates a festival called Navaratri. My mom (especially where she’s from in South India, a town called Chennai) has a ton of dolls that she puts on steps in our house called ‘Golu’ to tell stories. The steps are basically a showcase of stories of all the Hindu gods. Some people have really small steps and not many Golus, but my mom loves to go all out… The festival involves Pujas to celebrate the goddess Durga who is practically the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is known for protection and motherhood. Durga is celebrated for 9 days and nights because we’re told she killed the demon Mahishasura.’ – HP

HP has grown up celebrating Navaratri ever since she can remember. She enjoys celebrating this festival, as it’s a time where her friends and family come over to eat and talk, celebrate and do a puja. They gather around to see all the dolls. When she was younger she loved to see the different stories her mom would create with the dolls and put on the steps. Every time she visits India, her mom always buys a new doll for the Golu, so throughout her life, she has accumulated many. She wants to carry out this tradition for the rest of her life and share it with her own loved ones and future family. Its a way to show creativity with faith.

A photo captured in HP’s home of the Golu and dolls during Navaratri

Navaratri is a festival full of culture, heritage, and faith. The festival encompasses many prayers, customs, rituals, and incorporates countless folk beliefs, gestures, and storytelling. This festival includes many folkloristic properties. The stories told from the Golu and to the family and friends who gather around spread and share the heritage and ancestry important in the Hindu religion. Furthermore, many storytellings of Hindu faith, such as about the Gods and Goddesses, are shared, allowing for the audiences to continue to spread these tales, just as HP has done with me. This festival allows for Hindu creativity to bloom and be on display for any and all visitors. HP reminiscing on her past Navaratri holidays show that importance and especially the endurance of this ritual in her life. Additionally, her desire to continue these festivities with her future family encapsulates folklore and its inevitable spread of culture and heritage.

The Tale of the Capre

Tags: Tale, Philipines, Capre

Text

At night, when you’re looking up at the trees, you’re not supposed to point at them because they say that if you look closely, you’ll see eyes and they belong to a creature called the Capre. The  Capre is this old guy that sits in trees; he’s dark with horns and he smokes all day.

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: Filipino

Age: 21

Occupation: College Student

Residence: California, USA

Date of Performance: March 2024

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Tagalog

Relationship: Friend

Context

KM, the informant, is of Filipino descent.

Analysis

Filipino superstitions are typically associated with promoting good luck and health. This tale serves to act as a charm (or anticharm) of good luck. If you look at the Capre, you will get bad luck. If you don’t look at the Capre, you will get good luck.

The Manananggal

Tags: Myth, Mythical Creature, Philippines, Pregnant Woman, Cautionary Tale

Text

In the Philippines there’s this myth about the Manananggal. She’s this old ratchet girl that lives in a province and she’s addicted to pregnant women. Basically what happens is at night, when you least expect it and you’re pregnant, she can smell you and you’ll find her on your ceiling when you go to bed. Then she’ll pull out this long thing that she sticks in your mouth and eats up the baby inside of you.

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: Filipino

Age: 21

Occupation: College Student

Residence: California, USA

Date of Performance: March 2024

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Tagalog

Relationship: Friend

Context

KM, the informant, is of Filipino descent.

Analysis

This myth is popular in Filipino culture, serving as a warning to women, especially pregnant women, to not walk alone at night. Filipino elders are notorious for using fear as a tool to incentivize the youth and vulnerable to be safe and good.

Origins of the Osage People

Tags: Myth, Origin Story, Osage Tribe, Indigenous Peoples, Northwest Arkansas

Text

In the Ozarks, there’s an indigenous tribe of people known as the Osage. When they came to Earth, nothing existed except mud. And then, a great elk came and rolled around in the mud, blessing the indigenous people with grass.

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: Indian

Age: 22

Occupation: College Student

Residence: Northwest Arkansas, USA

Date of Performance: March 2024

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Relationship: Friend

Context

AH, the informant, was born and raised in Northwest Arkansas (NWA). NWA exists in a region known as the Ozarks.

Analysis

The Ozarks is home to many indigenous groups, each with their own origin stories. Upon some more research on the origins of the Osage people, I found that the story was more complex than the informant had explained. According to the Arkansas Archaeological Survey[1], they were initially “spirit beings” and came from the sky. In their humility, they called themselves the “Little Ones” and came down to Earth to become people. When they arrived, they found the Earth submerged in water and asked their messenger, the Radiant Star, for help. The Radiant Star sent them a sacred person known as the Great Elk. The Great Elk rolled in the water and lowered it. He then blessed the Osage people with more gifts of grass and landforms.

While the informant AH’s recounting of the origin story of the Osage people contained different details about what medium the Great Elk rolled in, the one similarity was that there existed a Great Elk. In indigenous cultures, a lot of traditions and customs surrounded their spiritual connection with animal figures. The elk, for instance, is often personified as protectors in indigenous cultures. In the origin story of the Osages, this was exemplified through the Osage’s reverence for the sacred Great Elk and the blessings that he brought.

Sources
[1] “Creation of the Work (Osage).” Osage Creation Story, Arkansas Archeological Survey, 3 Feb. 2017, archeology.uark.edu/indiansofarkansas/index.html?pageName=Creation+of+the+World+%28Osage%29.

Karma Points

Text:

Karma Points

Minor Genre:

Superstition; Ritual

Context:

“I believe in karma. Even if someone is justified in stealing or doing horrible stuff, I could never do it because I am superstitious of the idea of karma. Even though I see so much cruelty in how people act, whether that’s on the news or politically or whatever, I still can’t bring myself to do anything horrible on purpose because I believe in it coming back to me in some sense.

“As part of my belief in karma, I believe also in ‘karma points.’ Every time I see a piece of trash I pick it up now. I got used to feeling like it’s bad karma if I lock eyes with a piece of trash on the floor and don’t pick it up and just walk by it. Every time I look at one and register it in my mind as a piece of trash, I have to go grab it and throw it away in the trash can, which gives me a positive karma point. This superstition started in the beginning of 2024. I don’t know exactly why it happened, I just picked up the trash and it transformed into the superstition it is now.”

Analysis:

It is interesting to consider how the larger concept of karma translates into every-day actions in the informant’s life, and what that says about the idea of karma as a whole. If, for example, a person convicted of murder was considered to have a low level of karma, by the informant’s logic, they could work to restore their karma by picking up pieces of trash. This is an extreme example, but it goes to show that superstitious rituals often defy logic; routinely picking up trash would not make a serial killer a “good person,” but it may have a greater positive impact on an average person. The next logical question in such a perspective is then: at what point is someone’s poor karma irredeemable by small actions?

The idea of “karma points” therefore poses interesting philosophical considerations, but it can also be examined in a psychological context. The compulsion for the informant to pick up a piece of trash every time they lock eyes on it may be suggestive of a disorder such as OCD. While the inability to suppress an obsessive urge is a symptom of OCD, it is also a common experience for people who consider themselves superstitious; they will go to great lengths to avoid taking an action that they believe will bring about a negative outcome in their life. Ritualistic superstitious actions “dig the hole deeper” for the person who engages with them; as one gets in the habit of taking a specific set of actions, they assign more emotional significance to it and therefore become less likely to disengage with the superstition.