Category Archives: Myths

Sacred narratives

Holi Festival

Nationality: Indian
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing
Residence: France
Primary Language: English

There was demonic king in India. His name is Hirankashap. It was known that he was an evil king and egotistic. He used to command everyone in the kingdom to worship him. He had a son named pralad, and the son did not believe you should worship kings. Pralad worshipped the real gods. So the king tried to kill his son many times, but somehow his son never died, because lord Vishnu, the one he was praying to, would save him every time. So every method to kill him was unsuccessful. The king had a sister named Holika who was immune to fire. The king told Holika to sit a fire and bring his son into it. Holika went into the fire and took Pralad into it, but Pralad kept chanting the name of lord Vishnu, and instead of Pralad, Holika burned. In the end, Pralad came out unharmed, and Vishnu was impressed with his devotion. 

The festival Holi is derived from Holika’s name. Normally, the day before Holi, we have huge bonfires all over India. And in the fire we throw away all our bad luck or whatever. Like Indians believe some objects in their house bring bad luck. So they basically leave these objects in bonfire, and try to burn out their bad thoughts and other bad things in fire. Its considered a sign of burning out all the bad things in life, and the next morning we wake up realizing we burned all the bad things in our life and we are supposed to feel happy. So we go out to celebrate and we play with colors.

Context: Indian people believe in devotion. They really believe that you have to be devoted to the gods you are praying to, and only if  your super devoted the gods will come down and save you. It also signifies even if your problem is really big, like your father is demon king, the gods will save you.

What are the colors do you play with?

Its started with people playing with natural colors, like a rose or something. So they actually make powders out of these flowers. 

Thoughts: I have seen photos of this festival online and it looks amazing. I feel great finally understanding what would prompt over a billion people to take  the streets and play with colors. It is interesting to note the contrast between the greyness of ashes left in the wake of burning negative things someone life to vibrant colors the very next day.

The Black Stallion and Creature With Three Red Eyes: Don’t Walk Alone at Midnight in Guatemala

Nationality: Guatamalan-American (American citizenship)
Age: 20
Occupation: Student studying medicine at USC, Hospital Tech
Residence: 2715 Portland St Los Angeles CA 90007
Performance Date: 2/12/21
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

I heard this legend while many of my housemates were gathered around a table and drinking. The first time the speaker shared this story, he mentioned that his grandfather never drank after he saw a red-eyed figure in Guatemala. When I asked him to retell his story for collection, he gave much more detail about the two creatures his grandfather feared.

*

The speaker’s grandfather used to tell this story when he would get drunk: he saw two creatures. One was a being with red eyes, the other was a black horse. In 1960 in San Rafael, Guatemala at exactly 12 am, neighbors in a village of only 15 or 20 houses could hear a black stallion. And if stragglers outside a home were caught alone, they would hear a horse running after them. They wouldn’t see the horse. If they managed to slip inside their house and close the door, they would hear the horse pounding at the threshold until 12:01. Then they would not hear it anymore.

If the horse caught stragglers, they would die of an underlying disease like cardiac arrest or drug overdose, something “easy to explain.” In those days, a lot of children went missing in the wilderness because the area was “unexplored.”

One night, the speaker’s grandfather and his friend left a larger group of friends playing soccer to walk home around midnight. They were both drunk. Suddenly, the speaker’s grandfather felt dread. Every step they took felt “like mud” and the speaker’s grandfather felt like he was being watched. Both friends turned around to see a seven-foot-tall humanoid figure with three red eyes watching “like a little kid goes onto a tree and just sticks his head sideways and stays staring at you.”

The speaker did not know how his grandfather got home that night, but the friend went missing for over a week. “They did find the guy, his friend, my grandpa’s friend. And so he just told me that this dude was torn. Like torn apart. “

When asked what this creature was, the speaker said that “It’s from the time before even that place was colonized by Spain… around the Mayan time… the Mayans just disappeared one day. They were so advanced for their time.” He went on to say that his grandfather believed that the Mayans, who the speaker mentioned were polytheistic built massive pyramids, disappeared because they were killed by these strange creatures. “These things that they [victims] see now are from times that we can’t even comprehend because he’s like, yeah, they’re from the future. And I was like, What the hell do you mean the future?” The speaker trailed off.

“I’m not sure if it’s real or not, I’m going to believe because the way he will talk to me, he would stare me down in the eyes,” the speaker continued. “And my grandma would also support that, because even she would hear the black horse because that another story my grandma told me when my grandpa was asleep, was, he couldn’t sleep at night, most of the time in Guatemala, because he said that that’s the human figure would haunt him because of his friend.”

The speaker noted that black stallions were also a status symbol in Guatemala reserved for members of the military.

When asked why he first told the story, the speaker noted that ” Usually when I’m under the influence, then the story comes out But usually, when you’re impaired or under the influence, you see, I wouldn’t say another dimension, but you see something else? Like you see? We see different.”

The speaker’s grandfather worried that these two creatures would come for him after he moved to the U.S. He later died of a heart attack.

*

This speaker is a good friend but he embellishes stories a lot. He later told me that he believed that he’d seen the red-eyed creature in the U.S. even though he called both of these creatures “just legends” in the recording. I also happen to know that in telling these stories, he was trying to get me to trust him again after a breakup. After, he often offered to tell similar stories. But I think he was being genuine when he told me what he knew and what he had seen.

This speaker also struggles with drinking alcoholic beverages. Telling this story may be a way for him to express the fear he feels drinking to suppress emotions or escape responsibility.

He later asked me not to tease him about ghosts because to him, these stories are very real. I might not believe these stories in the daylight, but I will never walk alone at midnight in Guatemala.

Dog Guardian or God Watching over the House in the Form of a Dog While Family is on Vacation

Nationality: Caucasian American
Age: 15
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Azusa, CA
Performance Date: 5/2/21
Primary Language: English

Because this interview exchange took place with my sister, I was able to ask in-depth questions about the events and beliefs she discussed in her stories. I remember the day she describes in her interview. We had just gotten home from vacation and a little dusty white dog met us at our car. We don’t own a dog and thought the animal was a stray. I didn’t think much of that event, but this experience had a large impact on my sister, who believes this dog watched over our home while we were away on vacation.

*

My sister said that God works through people and animals, and that during a conversation with our neighbor, she learned that the animal has been seen wandering around our house in the time we were gone. Our parents feared that the house would get robbed while we were away. They prayed that God would keep the house safe and that no one in the community would notice we had left.

My sister described how our parents would hush us any time we mentioned that we were going on vacation. We couldn’t talk about it outdoors, and while packing, we always kept the car closed to avoid showing passers-by a trunk full of suitcases.

One time when my sister and mother were not on vacation but rather at school and at work, the house did get robbed. They arrived home to find the door swung open and an alarm blaring. My sister said that this was a very bad experience, and that at first she couldn’t believe that the house had been robbed. She thought someone had come home early or that someone had left the door unlocked.

My sister said that she was not sure whether the dog was God or a messenger, but she did say that she believed it watched over the house while we were gone, and that she hadn’t seen it since.

My sister also mentioned that she is training for Confirmation, a sacrament of initiation in the Catholic faith that allows high schoolers to reaffirm their belief in church principles. She said that she had not met any other animals or people that she believed had watched over her. She also said that this might be because she considers herself capable and that she wants to take care of herself.

She also said that she did not come to this conclusion right away. It was only years after this event that she came to believe the dog had offered protection. She was pleased to know that God had watched out for the house when the family was away.

*

I do not share my sister’s belief in Catholicism but I do believe in signs. I remember this event and know that the dog made us nervous at the time. It was strange that the dog went right up to our car, and I do believe I saw the animal around the neighborhood after that day. This is an example of religious folklore. There are cannon Bible stories where God talks through a donkey to get his message across, such as the story of Balaam, the donkey, and the Angel ( Numbers 22:21-39 of Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition Bible)

You can find a version of this story here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+22%3A21-39&version=RSVCE

This story also relates to conversations about whether animals have souls.

This conversation took place over the phone, and the recording is very bad quality. It is important to note that our house is visited by members of a feral cat colony and other wild animals like squirrels and raccoons. These animals were not mentioned in the interview. The house is also located less than 100 yards from a homeless encampment of about 20 people.

I find it interesting that this is the story that my sister wanted to tell me most. She knows quite a lot about folklore from playing Dungeons and Dragons (see, “How Not To Play Dungeons and Dragons” in the USC folklore archive”) but this is the first story she shared when I asked her to think of a story for this archive.

Andean creation myth

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Portsmouth, NH
Performance Date: 04/28/2021
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: My informant, MP, was born in the US but as a child, MP traveled with her parents all over South America. The following piece is one myth she remembers from her time in the Andes — their creation myth. The story was passed down from her parents to her.

CONTEXT: This piece is from a conversation I had with MP about the Andean creation myth.

MP: So it goes like, in the beginning, there was this god — I don’t know if you need the spelling — there was this god, Viracocha who created the Earth, which was totally dark and also giants lived there. The giants were really like, disrespectful of the god so he created a flood to destroy them and start over. This time he created a people in his image and sent a wise man to Earth to teach them how to live properly. He basically ended up creating [the city of] Cuzco. Anyways, when this was done, he eventually left.

THOUGHTS: This story, to me, is very structurally similar to the biblical creation story. In both stories, there is a God who exists by himself in darkness until he decides to create life. In both stories, the god creates life and, unsatisfied with the way they’re living, sends a flood to destroy them. Finally, both gods sent a spiritual representative (in this case it’s Viracochan, in the Bible it’s Christ) who essentially guides humanity towards the right path.

THE SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE – Tale / myth

Nationality: Irish
Age: 59
Occupation: Court Investigator
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: May 2 2021
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant speaking
Mother: “That was kind of one of the stories from Irish folklore. There were a lot about Finn MacCool, his dad. (reference previous story from informant) I just know one where there was supposed to be the salmon of knowledge, em and basically if you ate the salmon, you were supposed to have all the knowledge in the world. So it was claimed that Finn MacCool had managed to, had been a student of this… kind of sage, this storyteller who was very knowledgeable. And the storyteller was getting worried ’cause he’d given Finn MacCool pretty much all the information he knew. But it was supposed to be this Salmon, if you could catch the salmon and cook this salmon, whoever ate the salmon would have all the knowledge in the world. So the sage went out and managed to catch the salmon. But he asked Finn McCool to cook it for him, and, but not too eat it and not to do anything to it, just to cook it for him. And so apparently the story was that Finn MacCool, when he was cooking it, em, burned his finger and put his finger in the mouth and that was enough to give him all the knowledge of the salmon rather than the sage that he cooked the salmon for.”

Background
During a conversation between me and my parents about Irish folklore, my mother told me this story. It was directly after a different story (which has also been posted under the title of “Tír Nan Óg”) that was about Finn MacCool’s son. Finn MacCool, while a seemingly ridiculous name, holds a vast amount of importance in the culture. I barely ever hear anything about him, but my parents both grew up with many stories about him. In a way, he’s one of the biggest staples in Irish folk literature.

Context
This story was provided during a facetime with my folks. The speaker has a very thick Northern Irish accent. It should also be noted that in a
Scottish version, Finn is not living there as a pupil but just as a boy who had been forced out of his form. Link to this version below:
https://tracscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-Salmon-of-Knowledge.pdf

Thoughts
This tale is interesting. While it’s still tragic (like the Tír Nan Óg tale) it’s only tragic for the sage, which means for us we likely respond to it by laughing. But like in the previous story, we do see that even though this tale had a more lighthearted ending, all of the characters were still largely at the mercy of fate and luck. In truth, MacCool eating the salmon was just as much of a happy accident as his son falling off his horse was. I found that very interesting. And while this might be a bit of a stereotypical conclusion, it does seem to point to a worldview very invested in luck.