Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Nahuales/Nagual: “Shapeshifter”

Language: Spanish

“When I was younger, I remember hearing this story from older adults when I was an elementary student. Nahuales, who are people who have made a deal with the devil in order to become a shapeshifter. They shapeshift into animals or anything of their choosing in order to lure kids and cause harm. The first time I heard it was from a friend who said she heard of someone’s family who returned home to find a turkey standing in the middle of the room. The mother, sensing that something was off, smacked the turkey with a broom to try to get it out of the house, but to no avail, the turkey stayed. The daughter tried to pull the mom away from the turkey, and finally, when she did, the turkey left the house and shape-shifted back into its human form.”

Analysis:

Nauguals seem to serve 2 purposes: to warn children of dangers, and to warn them of the devil. This informant remarks that she heard this originally from older adults, but most commonly told stories between her friends. I think that this goes to show how folklore can range within a single community, dependent on your social groups: as a child, she was able to bond with her friends by telling these stories about this mutual creature they knew and feared, but the adults of her community more so used it as a way to try and keep their children safe.

La Lechuza

Language: Spanish

“La Lechuza is an old woman who people seek out to make deals with. The tale is, if you want to cause harm to someone, you can send the witch to carry out the action. You bring a photograph of your target and a personal item, like a piece of hair or a toothbrush, and the witch will transform into an owl and spy on your target. The owl will then follow the person and curse them. If anyone has unexpected illness or misfortune like losing all their money or job, that is said to be her work as well. If someone dies with no apparent cause or unexplainable illness, that is her work as well. I remember hearing it from some older kids in my neighborhood when I was younger.”

Analysis:

While I was listening to my informant, I got the idea that this type of legend would be used to explain a train of misfortune that someone could face, but when I asked my informant how they viewed this legend, they responded that they recalled that it was mostly used as a cautionary tale for when dispersing property among families or not to cross others. I thought that this was really interesting, as La Lechuza represents both misfortune that’s unexplainable and misfortune that you could receive as “karma”. Unlike other childhood legends I’ve heard, this one seems to follow you into adulthood, rather than just being a children’s warning.

Ratoncito Pérez

Language: Spanish

“I don’t remember the story super well, but it’s kind of like a version of the tooth fairy. The story goes that there once was a mouse that wanted to be a dentist, but couldn’t find any teeth to use. He then saw that children’s teeth would fall out, so he would go to collect them during the night. He felt bad for just stealing the teeth, so he would leave money or candy behind as sort of like a “thank you” for being able to keep the teeth. After that, children would leave their teeth underneath their pillows for the mouse”

Analysis:

I think it’s so cool that there are so many versions of “leaving your teeth for a creature to collect for money” around the world. When I think back on it, I think that losing teeth as a child can be an incredibly traumatic thing, so involving a reward and a mythical creature of some kind definitely makes it a lot easier for younger children to understand. I also think the inclusion of him being a dentist is beneficial, as since children (and even many adults!) fear the dentist so much, having kids feel like they’re “helping them out” may help them overcome some of these fears.

Don’t cross your eyes!

Nationality: American

Age: 22

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Orange County, CA, USA

Date: 04/05/2025 

Language: English

Description: 

When I was a kid and still now, because now my mom just finds it funny. But when I was a kid, it was like a pretty serious topic. She used to say that if I cross my eyes and someone slaps you on the back, then your eyes would stay crossed that way. And so sometimes, like when I was joking about it as a kid about across my eyes she’d threate to like, come back up and like, uh, hit my back. Not in like an abusive way, but in, like, a funny way. She would tell me how she had this one friend. This boy. And he was like making fun of that or something, and was like walking around crossing his eyes being, like, see, see, like, you can’t get me because it’s not real. And then, he was crossing his eyes, and someone came up and hit him on the back, and he stayed cross-eyed, and she would say he stayed cross-eyed forever, and he could never go to school, he could never do his work, because he couldn’t see straight. And glass never fixed it, and you can’t get surgery to fix it. And it was like something she used to tell me a lot. So, now sometimes we have a bit where I cross my eyes and she’ll come back and then hit me on the back and then I get all nervous about it still. Like, I still get nervous that my eyes are gonna stay that way.

Subject’s Opinion 

Subject: I don’t know who told her that story. It had to have been like, a friend of a friend. It was like, probably one of those things you know where you hear down the grapevine. 

Analysis 

This cautionary tale, as the subject points out, becomes legend as it’s spread through parents to inform each other’s children about the “dangers” of crossing your eyes. In this case, the form of ostention the subject’s mother participates in to this day led me to consider the lingering effects of these cautionary legends. Even though the subject, now an adult, no longer believes in the legend, she still has some anxiety when the ritualistic slap is performed. This indicates that since the subject once believed in the legend, it’s difficult to dispel the belief completely, which in turn reminds me of ritualistic practices that reverse or undo these legendary effects.

“The Belly Button Snatcher”

Nationality: American

Age: 22

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Orange County, CA, USA

Date: 04/02/2025 

Language: English

Description: 

When I was in preschool, my teacher told me this story about the belly button snatcher. Basically, she told me there was this boy, right? And he goes to bed one night, and his mom says, you have to pull the sheets up all the way up to your chest, so you sleep well. And he says, I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to do that. So he pulls the sheets all the way down, so his whole belly is exposed. And his mom’s saying you have to pull your sheets up otherwise. The belly button snatcher’s going to come. He says there’s no such thing as the belly button snatcher. That’s stupid mom! You know, because he’s like a young boy. And so she says, okay, well, good night. And so he goes to sleep and the sheets are down by his feet because he refused to pull him up over his belly button. And he wakes up the next morning and he goes…and he drinks some orange juice. His mom makes him a nice breakfast, so he has some cereal, some orange juice, and he’s drinking the orange juice, and his shirt gets all wet. And he’s like, what’s going on? And he lifts up his shirt, and there’s a hole! And the orange juice is coming out of his belly button. And he’s eating his cereal, and there’s a hole! So cereal’s coming out of his belly button. And it’s getting all over his lap. And he’s like, what’s going on? So he gets up and he goes and takes a bath to try to clean himself off. And he gets in the bath, he starts filling up like a balloon. Because all the water is going in its belly button. So, he gets out the bath, and he drains out his belly button, and he goes Mom! Mom! I don’t have a belly button anymore. And she goes, the belly button snatcher came! He snatched your belly button. And I don’t know how it ends. And I don’t know if he ever got his belly button back. But it was basically, she scolded him for not having the blanket all the way up above his belly button.

Subject’s opinion:

Subject:  I don’t know if it was like a thing where it’s supposed to be…You’re supposed to keep warm at night, or you’re supposed to protect yourself at night? 

Interviewer:  That sounds like it. You’re supposed to keep warm because you get sick. 

Subject: Right? Yeah, but it is literally…I’ve spent, like, a good three years at that age, really paranoid about the belly button snatcher. Like, I couldn’t go to sleep. I would be sweating in bed, but I couldn’t go to sleep unless I had the sheets all the way up because I was so nervous. It’s like the same thing as when they tell you not to stick your foot over the side of the bed, because, like, someone’s gonna eat it or something.

Analysis: 

Based on the subject’s interpretation, the belly button snatcher is both an urban legend and a cautionary tale. While the subject denies the truth value of the tale in the present, her past belief in the story indicates a successful spread and reinforcement of a certain way of behavior that parents expect in their children. The story features key traits of a classic tale, utilizing only two characters and the repeated depiction of how losing a belly button negatively affects the boy character. This pushes the listeners, who are usually children, towards the belief that it’s dangerous to sleep without a blanket. It’s a classic example of a legend informing common beliefs that kids carry into adulthood.