My paternal grandmother, who is of Italian heritage and a second-generation American, described a folk remedy against headaches that was practiced before her day. She said “When a person had a headache, a friend would obtain a basin of water and sprinkle a few drops of olive oil on it, make the sign of the cross and recite a prayer. That was to chase the evil spirits away.” This was also used to make a person stop gossiping. Obviously, this would have been practiced before her family emigrated and assimilated into American culture. It is closely tied to the Catholic church and Catholicism’s deep roots in the nation of Italy. My informant, while still a devout Catholic (as is most of her extended family), did refer to this practice as a superstition, and is far more likely to resort to Tylenol or Advil to relieve a headache than to attempt to cure it through any spiritual means.
The tradition itself seems to reflect elements of both Catholicism (sign of the cross, prayer) and more obscure or pagan religions (chasing away evil spirits), though perhaps my informant uses “evil spirits” synonymously with “demons.” My informant’s description also seems somewhat vague and incomplete, as though it has been transformed through much telling and retelling over time. My conjecture is that the tradition originated many centuries ago, well before the advent of modern medicine, out of the idea that demons or evil spirits are responsible for physical distress. Certainly “magic superstitions,” under which classification this ritual falls, for curing ailments have existed well before even the Roman Catholic Church, and this one was likely Catholicized like many other pagan beliefs, superstitions, and even holidays. As today’s society (at least in America) tends to favor scientific progress as the solution to medical problems (and a host of other problems), beliefs imported from worldwide have tended to fade out in this forward-looking culture.
Tag Archives: catholic
The Feast of the Seven Fishes
This special feast was a tradition that my father’s father observed with his family before he married. According to my informant, this was the traditional meal of Christmas Eve. After going to church to attend the midnight Mass before Christmas Day, my grandfather’s family would come home and eat Seven Fishes Dinner, quite a generous meal, during the wee hours of Christmas morning. As my mother has always aimed to have dinner on the table around six or seven o’clock, I found this quite shocking, but my informant added that they did not arrive home until around one in the morning to enjoy the feast. This feast obviously included several varieties of seafood, not limited to just fish. My informant recalled salt cod, shrimp, and calamari/squid, as examples of items my great grandfather ate on Christmas morning.
Annotation/additional comments:
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in an article on Dec. 22, 2005 (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05356/625983.stm), recognizes the Seven Fishes of Christmas Eve as an Italian tradition and describes a restaurant owning family’s variation of the feast. Their meal includes “scrod florentine, breaded filets in a bed of spinach; anchovies olio, pasta cooked with oil, garlic and the salty fish; linguine with white clam sauce; fried calamari rings,” and “deep-fried smelts, decapitated and marinated in lemon.” This is the meal they serve at home, not at the restaurant. The family also serves the feast as a special at their restaurant.
In the article, the main chef adds that there are “many theories” regarding the meaning behind the Seven Fishes of Christmas Eve. He claims, “It has always meant the Seven Sacraments,” adding that some families celebrate with twelve or even thirteen varieties of seafood, to represent the twelve disciples and Jesus. He suggests that the arms of the squid may have symbolic significance (“how God reaches out to us”), and that “the eel was supposed to be the speed in which Jesus’ word travels through the world.”
Many changes in the feast have been made over the years in this family, including the removal of eel from the menu and of the heads from the fish, and obviously many changes have occurred in various communities since whenever this tradition began. According to the newspaper article, this family also celebrates their feast after seven o’clock rather than midnight like my grandfather. Regardless of the variations in religious symbolism and details of the menu, this traditional feast illustrates the role of food in uniting and defining a culture, in this case Italians or Italian Catholics.
The Legend of the Dogwood
In Jesus time, the dogwood grew
To a stately size and a lovely hue.
‘Twas strong & firm it’s branches interwoven
For the cross of Christ its timbers were chosen.
Seeing the distress at this use of their wood
Christ made a promise which still holds good:
“Never again shall the dogwood grow
Large enough to be used so.
Slender and twisted, it shall be
With blossoms like the cross for all to see.
As blood stains the petals marked in brown
The blossom’s center wears a thorny crown.
All who see it will remember me
Crucified on a cross from the dogwood tree.
Cherished and protected this tree shall be
A reminder to all of my agony.”
(author unknown)
This poem of unknown origin canonizes an old legend about this twisted, beautiful tree. My informant originally heard of the legend from her grandmother, and was unaware of its roots. As neither the Bible nor other historical records have anything to say about the wood used for Jesus’ cross, the idea that the dogwood was used cannot be verified. The legend exhibits a high degree of Christian symbolism, which would lead me to guess that it has foundations in the Catholic church, which has always shown great interest in symbolism, perhaps as far back as the Middle Ages.
My informant said, “According to the legend, the dogwood was one of the largest and strongest trees in the Middle East at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, and thus was the wood of choice for making crosses. Supposedly, the biggest and strongest was used for Jesus’ cross…. because of his pity for those who suffered on the cross, Jesus spoke to the dogwood tree and told it that it would be slender, bent, and twisted, so that it would never again be used as a form of execution.” She pointed out that one can look at a dogwood blossom and see that it has two short petals and two long petals in the semblance of a cross. The edges of the blossoms display a color pattern that resembles a nail wound, “tinged with brown (rust) and red (blood).”
My informant also recalled part of the legend not mentioned in the poem. Supposedly, three days after Jesus’ death, the dogwood trees began to wither and die. Several years later, woodcutters were amazed to have witnessed how forests of the trees they once used for lumber had been transformed into groves of twisted shrubs with fair blossoms.
Mirrors attract storms and should be covered during a storm.
My informant is a native of Brazil and is of Portuguese descent. According to her, her grandmother, from whom she learned this superstition, was a fervent Catholic and “knew hundreds of saints and their miracles and for every misfortune or mishap there would be some saint to pray to or a superstition to fix it!” She said superstitions were her grandmother’s specialty. She recalls of her grandmother: “If it was raining hard with thunder and lightning she would go around the house covering the mirrors: they attract the storm.”
I have never heard any superstition quite like this one, though I have heard others that associate omens with mirrors. Certainly I have never associated mirror superstitions like this one with Catholicism. This magic-superstition is probably either taken directly from native lore or is a hybridization of the lore of the Portuguese with that of the native land.
Sta. Clara Superstition
“If you wanted the weather to change from cloudy and rainy to sunny and dry: break an egg over a wall under the moon in honor of Saint Clara and the weather would change in the morning.”
This is my informant’s synopsis of a superstition her grandmother held. My informant is a native of Brazil and is of Portuguese descent. According to her, her grandmother, from whom she learned this superstition, was a fervent Catholic and “knew hundreds of saints and their miracles and for every misfortune or mishappen there would be some saint to pray to or a superstition to fix it!” She said superstitions were her grandmother’s specialty.
This belief strikes me as one of the most contrived-sounding superstitions I have ever heard; it really seems strange to combine all those elements. According to the New Advent’s Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html), there were two St. Clare’s (but no “Clara”). Both were known for their piety, but neither is associated with the weather or the sun or clouds or rain. Certainly, neither is associated with the egg or fertility, as nuns are celibate. This magic- superstition is likely an example of hybridization. As many holidays including Christmas and Easter were once non-Christian feasts, to which the Catholic church attached Christian meaning to facilitate mass-conversion within their growing dominion, this superstition was probably once a native idea, to which Portuguese Catholics attached Saint Clara (or Clare). As the name “Clare” (and also “clarity” and “clairvoyance”) is associated with light, St. Clare was probably chosen to replace a pagan entity that manipulated weather in the native lore.