Anonymous stated, “Jingle Bells is an english term for a Hmong ritual.  It is a cultural fact that if someone is sick it is because their spirit had left their body and wandered it off.  In order to call your spirit back, you must call a Shaman to your house to perform Jingle Bells.”  This Hmong ritual involved “a spiritual doctor to heal individuals and they perform the ritual with two bells in their hands, hence the name jingle bells, jumping up and down to enter the spiritual realm to see what is wrong with the individual and how to heal them.”  Anonymous “[has] never personally experienced jingle bells, but [has] watched the ritual being performed on other family members with severe sickness who could not be treated by medical doctors.” 

This Hmong remedy to fight off sickness is a unique cultural ritual.  It relays the Hmong folk group’s emphasis on spiritual health.  As shamans are also commonly found in Hmong communities, it is evident this ritual is done frequently.  Spiritual beliefs and remedies are fascinating to explore because they are not usually done in American folk groups.  Natural remedies usually include drinking or eating something warm or creating natural medicine, but this remedy relies purely on spirit and action.  In some Hmong cultures, Anonymous included that those that are in desperate need of help may “sacrifice farm animals to the spirits” in order to gain back their own spiritual health.  This may relate to a topic touched on in the Forms of Folklore class lectures where individuals held the belief that they would obtain certain powers from eating certain animals, yet in this case, individuals gain their spiritual capabilities from animals.  This ritual reiterates the special connection between spiritual, human, and animal folk groups, uniting them as one.

Anonymous used to work as a junior lifeguard and had undergone rigorous training that included “common ocean safety, fitness practice, buoy swims, getting out of a riptide and rip current, and how to efficiently save someone.”  During this training, one thing that the trainees were taught was to “Bite the shark first” which meant that they must stay confident during a shark encounter.  It was imperative that when encountering a shark to “not draw attention and hold your ground because if they see you afraid, they see you as a predator.”  It was also emphasized to “remember you are in their home, so be respectful.”

This approach to challenging sharks reveals how to ameliorate frantic struggle with calm and cool confidence while also portraying how the human folk group reacts to villainized animals.  Oftentimes, the first initial reactions that fear induces are fight or flight responses whether it is trying to fight back, screaming, running, or covering our eyes.  This is made difficult when in a terrain different from the one that we have adapted to, but by staying calm, humans hold the power to apologize to sharks for invading their safe space.

Sharks have been villainized for decades through media (such as Jaws) and because of their optics (sharp teeth, large nature, etc.), yet it is important to keep in mind what we would do if we were in their shoes.  If someone barged into our own houses, we would choose offensive tacts in order to keep the intruder at bay and the others in the house safe.  Sharks have families and needs of their own that humans fail to protect and understand.  By biting the shark first, we are ironically not fighting back at all, but rather showing respect to sharks and their respective community.