Category Archives: Signs

Prognostications, fortune-telling, etc.

Armenian Foodway – Salt Biscuits

Nationality: Armenian
Age: 24
Occupation: Medical Biller
Residence: Burbank, California
Performance Date: February 11, 2021
Primary Language: Armenian
Language: English, Russian

(This conversation took place in Armenian)

Main Piece

My informant described a traditional game that is very popular amongst the single youngsters in Armenia. On January 29 (the eve of the 30th), Armenians celebrate Saint Sarkis, or Սուրբ Սարգիս (pronounced “Surb Sarkis”), who was a military martyr. On the day before the celebration, single youngsters make and eat a very salty type of cookie, called Aghablit (Աղաբլիթ) and avoid water before going to bed. It is said that their future husband or wife will bring them water in their dream to relieve them of the extreme saltiness of the cracker. In the morning, they share their dreams with each other and see who “wins” the game, as in, who saw the most attractive and eligible people in their dreams.

Context

This tradition is performed every year on the eve of Surb Sarkis, which is January 29. This a casual event meant to entertain adults and forecast the future of youngsters. The results of this tradition are not to be taken seriously, but to entertain possibilities of the future. 

Background

My informant learned about this tradition from her classmates, who were all excited to meet their future spouse in their dreams. My informant explained that this tradition emphasized the importance of getting married and creating a family. She concluded that, because it is practiced by both boys and girls and is not limited to one gender, it is telling of the societal expectations for youngsters. Men and women were expected to prioritize getting married and building a family above all else. This tradition was specifically performed only on the day of Surb Sarkis. 

My Thoughts

This tradition emphasizes the importance of building a family. Armenians are very family-oriented, and it is important for parents to instill the same family values in their children. This salt biscuit tradition helps youngsters look to the future to build a family of their own. 

This tradition also assumes that the primary purpose of dreams is to show one’s deepest desires. This purpose is in line with Sigmund Freud’s definition of dreams, in which he explains that dreams show us what we wish to accomplish in our lives. Of course, this is not a scientifically proven method for finding your future spouse, but it is an entertaining tradition to participate in.

Indian Superstition – Leaving the House

Nationality: Indian
Age: 28
Occupation: Corporate Healthcare Lawyer
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 20, 2021
Primary Language: Gujarathi
Language: English

Main Piece

Informant: “If you’re about to leave the house and someone asks you where you are going, you have to come back in and sit down for a minute and then tell them where you are going. Basically it’s because it’s bad luck to interrupt someone as they are leaving. You shouldn’t ask someone where they’re going if they’re already on their way out and if someone asks you, then you should come back inside. Or else whatever you were going to do will not get done.”

Background

My informant is a practicing lawyer in Los Angeles, California. She is of Indian descent, and her knowledge of Indian folklore comes from her father. 

Context

This superstition is enacted when someone is about to leave the house and they are interrupted.  

My Thoughts

There is not always a rhyme or reason for superstitions. According to my informant, people follow superstitions even if there is no good reason to follow them. However, there are certain elements in this superstition that I connected with others. This superstition falls in line with the Indian black cat superstition (originally from Egypt, popularized in India). This popular superstition says that if a black cat crosses your path, you will have bad luck. Both the black cat superstition and the superstition told by my informant depict the interruption of a journey. In both superstitions, your interrupted journey will bring bad luck and assurance that whatever you were doing will not get done. 

The Baby that lives in the Operating Room

Nationality: Iranian-American
Age: 62
Occupation: Pediatric Anesthesiologist
Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Performance Date: April 21st, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Farsi

RA: “Lots of hospitals have ghost stories about the people who have passed away in the operating rooms. When I worked at Ben Taub hospital in Houston, there were so many because it was such a big trauma hospital. I can’t remember them now, partially because there were so many, but there were lots of stories of dead patients lingering in the rooms where they died, especially if it was an especially difficult case. One that I remember from my time at Children’s… well, it’s a little creepy. I don’t know if you want to hear it.”

AB: “Creepy is good!”

RA: “Well, there was a baby that passed away in one the cardiac operating rooms, which is rare because we usually don’t have babies in there. One of my colleagues was in charge of that case and was really broken up about it. Ever since then you could hear a faint baby’s crying or laughter in that operating room. We knew it was the baby, and that she had stayed in the operating rooms as her final resting place. We could hear her from some of the nearby rooms, and the crying usually seemed to come from within the walls. Me and my friends, especially Erika, and some of the nurses would sometimes go to the room just to talk to the baby. We would usually just read stories, sing lullabies, and talk about our cases with it. She seemed to listen, and the crying always seemed to disappear after we talked to her. Sometimes, when I had little kids as my patients, I would take them to that room if it wasn’t being used so they could talk to the baby. They all got a kick out of it, and the kids that knew about the baby would even ask if they could play with her. Looking back, I’m sure it was something weird happening with the vents. There were lots of weird noises all over that hospital, and it usually had to do with fans and vents and wind blowing around in an old building, but everyone could tell that it was a baby laughing in that room.”

Informant’s interpretation:

AB: “Do you think the ghost of the baby really lived in that room?”

RA: “Well, in this case, that baby was just born. The only rooms it ever knew were in that hospital, and it probably spent most of its life in the operating room. She passed away peacefully, so I think she stayed in that room because it felt like her home. There was no sense that the ghost was evil or scary or anything, so I really think, the baby just chose to stay in space where it felt comfortable.”

Personal interpretation:

Ghosts often inhabit liminal spaces, and indeed, the operating room is a quintessential liminal space. Patients only enter this room during an operation, thus this room stands between sickness, pre-operation, and recovery, post-operation. When a newborn that has spent no time outside of a hospital dies in this space, doctors may perpetuate the life of the baby as a ghost that watches over a space that stands between life and death. The informant emphasized that the spirit was not malicious, and that she and her colleagues would often discuss difficult cases with the baby, so the ghost may even act as a kind of guardian of the operating room, protecting future patients and doctors.

Owl: Sign of Bad Luck

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 49
Occupation: Nail Technician
Residence: Iowa
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: Vietnamese
Language: English

Main Piece:

A: Bà cố nói là cái con đô không đem lại lucky. I don’t know the whole story, but bà cố said if they go on your house, you will have bad luck everything.

  • “My great-grandma said that owls don’t bring luck. I don’t know the whole story, but she said if they go on your house, you will have bad luck everything.”

Me: Everything?

A: Yeah like money, family… will not be happy. 

Me: When did she first tell you that?

A: Mommy thấy ở chên cái nóc nhà hồi xưa. 

  • “When I saw it on top of the roof back then.”

Me: Then she told you that?

A: Yeah.

Me: What do you do then? After you see one?

A: Đuổi nó đi. And pray that nothing bad will happen.

  • “Shoo it away. And pray that nothing bad will happen.”

Me: Have you ever seen anything happen? Bad luck after seeing an owl?

A: Yeah I saw it. Cái chuyện đó không biết là đúng hay không, mà bà cố bị bịnh, bà cố– like 

great-grandma– bà cố của mommy–  bà bị bịnh. Xong rồi when con chim, nó tới, đậu trên nóc nhà nó kêu, rồi sau đó là bà cố chết. 

  • “Yeah I saw it. I don’t know if this story is right or not, but my great-grandma was sick, she– like great-grandma– my great-grandma– she was sick. Then when the owl, it came, perched on the roof and hooted, then after that my great-grandma died.”

Me: How soon?

A: Not long after.

Background:

My mother is the one telling me this story. The day before, an owl was perched on a tree in our backyard while she was away at work. My dad was the one to see the owl and gathered my sibling and me outside to look at it, hoot back at it, and take pictures of it. He then told us not to tell my mom, who believes the owl is a sign of bad luck. In Vietnamese culture, seeing or hearing an owl is believed to be an omen that death is coming. My mother worries that this superstition is true, as she feels her great-grandmother’s death was connected to the sighting of the owl in some way. She warned me to shoo the owl away if I see it again.

Context:

This is a transcript of our live conversation. My mother was in the process of making dinner (which was phở: Vietnamese rice noodle dish in beef broth) when I asked her about this story, being reminded of our visit from the owl the day before. 

Thoughts:

This was the first time I’d heard from either of my parents that an owl was a sign of bad luck, or that it is an omen of death. My mother is the person in our family with the most knowledge of superstitions, and the one who holds the most belief in them. Folk belief is contextual, not all-or-nothing, and not stagnant, thus, if my mother never had the personal experience of an owl visit being close to her great-grandmother’s death, she may not believe in this sign as much. Such is the case for my father, who rarely believes in superstitions. Thus, when he told us about the owl, he wasn’t fearful, and encouraged playful behavior when teasing the owl. However, the tone changed slightly when he shared an anecdote that he also saw a connection between an owl’s visit and the death of one of his neighbors when he lived in Vietnam. Being a paranoid person, a part of me is a bit fearful of the potential veracity of this story. However, I was reminded of how I’d heard this owl’s coo many times before knowing about the superstitions around owl visits, and nothing of bad luck had occurred then, influencing my belief in this superstition.

Serrano and Cahuilla Dragonfly Song

Nationality: Cahuilla and American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Southern California
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Cahuilla

Main Piece:

I: It’s called the Dragonfly Song, it’s like a lullaby kind of song– so you sing it, and like if your heart is good, and it’s like– you don’t have anger or resentment or like bad feelings, or revenge, or any of those things– but like basically if you have good intentions like a good heart and you sing it dragonflies will come to you and they’ll sit on you. And like it’s really neat to like see it happen, like– they’ll fly around you and then they’ll come fall on you. And, they’ve never like… landed on me because (indicates that she is referring to the good intentions) but like I’ve seen like them go to other people. And so it’s like a really neat– I think people do it with hummingbirds too, but like it’s– so, it’s a lullaby that repeats the 4 verses over again, but the lullaby verses are like “Ooshkana ooshkana oh oh, ooshkana oosh” (these lyrics are typed out phonetically). And it repeats in different variations four times and you have to sing it in verses of 4.

Background:

My informant is a good friend from high school. She is a part of the Cahuilla and Chippewa Indigenous Nations and explains that she learned this Dragonfly Song from a Serrano elder, though it was not the first time she had heard it. She believes that her mother might have sung this lullaby for her when she was a baby. She explains that her parents were actively involved in Indian Country, working with Native children in the community, and her father was the director of a foster care agency that was specifically for Native Youth but also worked with rehabilitating families. She says it was probably during one of their group sessions with the youth where Ernest Siva, the Serrano elder, was a guest and sang this song. This song is meaningful to her because of the symbolism of the dragonfly as a messenger from the spirit world.

Context:

This is a transcript of a conversation between my friend and me over the phone. I have talked to her a few times about my folklore class and explained the collection to her. She was happy to help and talk about some of her traditions.

Thoughts:

My friend and I have talked often about our respective traditions with each other, but there are so many that we have not talked about in detail. This is the first time I learned about the Dragonfly Song and thought it was beautiful. She explained to me that in Cahuilla culture, the dragonfly is thought to be a messenger from the spirit world, and thus, is the connection of the physical world to the spirit world. The need of having a good heart and good intentions in order to attract dragonflies when singing this song illustrates how the spirit world is regarded in Cahuilla culture: healing and nourishing. Its purpose as a lullaby also indicates the importance of children and the youth, as being able to sing this song and attract dragonflies (proof of having a good heart and good intentions) to soothe a child transfers the positive energy and intentions to them.

For more on the Dragonfly Song, see:

Siva, Ernest. Voices of the Flute: Songs of three Southern California Indian Nations. Ushkana Press, 2004.