Category Archives: Signs

Prognostications, fortune-telling, etc.

Dandelions

Nationality: American
Age: 29
Occupation: Vice Principal
Residence: Oakland
Performance Date: 4/10/20
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant is my older sister (LC) and the following text is transcribed from our phone conversation. She reflects on a good luck ritual she used to do with her friends that was taught to them by their parents.

Main Text (LC): “The belief or myth behind the meaning of the Dandelion is that if you make a wish and blow on one, and the seeds all go everywhere, your wish will come true. And I think that’s the myth everyone knows about them. But now, to me, they mean something else. They show up in this book about activism and social justice that I read and the book states that the dandelion is a metaphor for change. The book says that just like the dandelion, only one seed is necessary to spread great change, and I find this message very powerful.”

Analysis: The belief or ritual that blowing on a dandelion grants your wish has been commonplace in the United States for a long time. This practice reminds me of how a child blows out a birthday candle and makes a wish. I think it is interesting how the dandelion is used as a different metaphor in the book my sister read and demonstrates how an object’s symbolism can change over time and garner new meanings.

Children’s Game: Cars

Nationality: African American
Age: 58
Performance Date: April 22, 2020
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from an interview between the informant and the interviewer. “A” refers to the informant and “B” the interviewer.

A: “We used to play a lot of games when were kids. Did [my sister] tell you about the game with the cars?”

B: “No.”

A: “What we would do is we would sit on the porch, and there were a lot of kids in our neighborhood and we all grew up together. So, like, as your sitting on the porch the next car that comes down the street would be your car. Okay, so it might be a nice car. It might be a clunker, you know? So you didn’t really want it to be a clunker, but yeah. And you couldn’t like back out of it. So if it’s your turn, the next car would be yours. So, we would all do that until we all had a car. For that day, you had a nice car if it was a nice car. If it was a piece of crap then you had a piece of crap for that day.”

Context:

I collected this piece of folklore in an over-the-phone interview. The informant, my uncle, used to play this game when he was a kid growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. He and his neighborhood friends would play this game while they were in elementary school, and then they grew out of it. He is African American.

My Thoughts:

This game shows how kids fantasized about a certain right of passage, driving and owning a car. In this game, kids got to experiment with how their lives may be when they grow older and what kind of car they may have as a symbol of success. If a kid got a nice car, then he could boast about the kind of car he has with the money and accomplishments that could probably come with it. A “clunker” would be like a projection of an unsuccessful future. This game was ultimately an outlet for kids to think about their future and a way to showcase how cars are connected to one’s success.

Witching Rods Gold Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Independent Contractor
Residence: Chico, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2020
Primary Language: English

Here is a transcription of my (CB) interview with my informant (HH).

CB: “Okay so what did your mom teach you?”

HH: “My grandma. It was….divining rods or witching rods? I can’t remember exactly. But they were two sticks tied together, and you’d bow ‘em and there was a certain way you’d hold them in your hand, and you’d walk around and when you were over gold they’d let you know”

CB: “Why do you think it was important?”

HH: “It saved a heck of a lot of time when we were looking for gold.”

CB: “What do they mean to you?”

HH: “It was a pretty cool experience when I was a kid. Because those rods knew what was happening. So you’d take a pan of gold and then you’d wave it over the pan a few times and you’d walk around and pretty soon they’d start pulling you down just like a fishing rod. And you’d know if you dug deep enough you’d find something. And my grandma lived on a great big gold claim, and so we’d go visit her and always go looking for gold”

CB: “Why do you think people kept using the rods instead of something like a metal detector?”

HH: “Well it’s just what they’d been doing since before metal detectors.”

Background:
My informant and all of his family grew up in northern California which has a rich history associated with the Goldrush. The area where he lives is just an hour from where gold was first discovered. Many of the families and towns in the area can trace their history directly back to the Goldrush. While it is no longer a profitable career, gold can still be found if dug in the hills or panned for in the creeks. Many still actively search for gold as a hobby. The gold plot that my informant described can be traced through family back to the Goldrush. Growing up, his parents and grandparents often sent him and the other kids searching for gold as a way to keep them entertained. Witching rods are typically associated with finding water to dig wells, however the old gold miners were known to use them to find gold as well.

Context:

I interviewed my informant in person, at home, as we sat on the couch and discussed local history. The conversation was easy and comfortable. 

Thoughts:

While gold digging and panning are still somewhat common in our community, witching rods have been phased out, and are very heavily associated with ‘hillbilly superstitions’. I thought it was very interesting that my informant believed so strongly in the rods, when they had been largely discredited socially. I think this belief is rooted in the idea of tradition, and trusting the generations before you. He cited the continuation of using the rods as being accredited to the fact that it was tradition. It’s this idea that many people have successfully used the same tool as you that gives the practice a sense of truth beyond the science of a metal detector. Like many other families in the area, my informant’s family no longer owns the gold plot, or engages in gold mining of any sort. He has become a passive bearer, and I believe that this tradition won’t be practiced for much longer.

For another variation of Witching Rods see YouTube video “Beginners guide to dowsing” uploaded by gardansolyn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbwo0YCpV3E

Filipino Utensil Superstition

Nationality: Filipino American
Age: 57
Occupation: Healthcare Receptionist
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: April 27 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Piece:

Informant: So what I remember is, like, y’know, like that one, if you drop a utensil, either like, a fork– if you drop a fork on the floor, then they were saying that you’re gonna have a visitor, it’s gonna be a male. And if it’s, ah, a spoon, then it’s gonna be female.

Collector: Do you know why, like, the fork and the spoon have genders?

Informant: Yeah, it’s kinda like, the fork kinda like, represents the male, y’know, and then– if it’s like the little spoon, then the young, young, yeah, young girl. And then if it’s the little fork, it’s like young boy. Y’know, something like that, so it doesn’t have an age or anything.

Collector: Right, right, where did you pick this up, just like–?

Informant: Yeah, I heard it from the people, y’know, like, my relatives, and folks in the Philippines, y’know–

Collector: Where in the Philippines are you from?

Informant: Um, I’m from Cavite City. Yeah, it’s like an hour away from Manila.

Context: The informant is the mother of a close friend of mine, and is an immigrant from the Philippines. She has lived in Southern California for roughly 40 years, while still maintaining close connections with her home country. After the interview, the informant then recalled a past incident in which she had dropped a fork minutes before her daughter’s boyfriend came for a surprise visit. 

Analysis: This particular omen, as she mentioned, she had picked up from not only her relatives, but the general folk as well, suggesting that it is a household belief. While transcribing the interview, I searched the internet for more information of who participates in this belief. One thing I noticed is that when I searched up the phrase “dropping spoon company,” the only sites I found that mentioned it were at least ten years old, the latest being posted in 2010. However, when I searched up “dropping spoon Philippines,” there were far more results, most of them posted much more recently. Nearly all of them involved lists of Filipino superstitions, which were then posted on Filipino websites. One could reasonably assume that many of these lists were written by younger people, and from there, infer that this belief is still very much alive. 

Overall, this omen, though a minor thing, seems now to be a point of pride for many Filipino people. This pride could be an enactment of “cultural intimacy,” which Michael Herzfeld describes as “the recognition of those aspects of a cultural identity that are considered as a source of external embarrassment but that nevertheless provide insiders with the assurance of common sociality”. Though perhaps not too embarrassing, this belief is certainly not a proven fact by any means, and so could be seen as superstitious or outdated. Despite this, many Filipino people seem to regard it as an identity marker, given its inclusion in many lists entitled “You know you’re Filipino when..” 

Herzfeld, M. (2005). Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State. New York: Routledge.


Chinese Red Name

Nationality: Thai
Age: 20
Occupation: Student, freelance photographer
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 28 February, 2020
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the informant and the interviewer.

Informant: So, I grew up in Thailand but my family’s actually from Shanghai, China. There are lots of Chinese people living in Thailand, but even with Thai people there are plenty of cultures that we share. For example, we both don’t write our names with a red ink. Or anyone’s names, people tend to not write any names in color red. I though this was a strictly a Chinese tradition, but it was pretty common in Thailand too.

Interviewer: My Korean family also believes in that myth.

Informant: I guess it’s pretty common amongst all Asian cultures. I just thought it was Chinese exclusive because the color red is so heavily used in China. Chinese people love the color red. We think it can bring good luck and good energy, but it’s also heavily associated with death at the same time. So when you write someone’s name in red, it’s as if you’re welcoming death.

Interviewer: What would you do if you had to write your name and you only had a red pen?

Informant: (laughs) I guess I’ll have to write my name and hope I don’t die suddenly.

Background:

My informant heard about this piece when she was very little from her Auntie. While she doesn’t recall the exact whereabouts of how that was brought up, but she describes it as a common tradition that one acquires simply by being around other Chinese people.

Context:

My informant and I were discussing traditions that we share in common, as we come from two different cultures – Chinese and Korean, respectively. One thing we found was that both our cultures avoid writing a person’s name in color red. This conversation took place at her house, she currently resides in Los Angeles.

Thoughts:

This was an interesting piece of folklore to learn about as it’s common in multiple cultures. I think the reason why it’s so heavily spread in Asia is because how deeply Asian cultures are unified, especially East Asian regions where Buddhist ideologies of linking death and good luck as coinciding factors are common.