Tag Archives: eyelash

Wishing on an Eyelash (Top or Bottom Fingers)

Age: 38
Hometown: Menlo Park, CA
Location: N/A

Context:
I learned this from my mom. She learned it as a child but doesn’t remember exactly where she got it from. She does remember that is was a common thing among her peers and they would all do it to each other.

Content:
Interviewer: “What do you do when you find an eyelash?”

Interviewee: “So you have to take the eyelash and you put it between your pointer finger and your thumb and hold it together and then you lift up your pointer finger and your thumb in whichever side the eyelashes on well.

Interviewer: “Why do you do that?”

Interviewee: “You’re supposed to guess which side first before you do that, and then if it lands on the side where you guess top or bottom then your wish will come true, and then you can blow it to make the wish.”

Analysis:
This is act is a form of everyday folklore and superstition, where a small ritual gives meaning to a random event. It has spread through peer groups, especially children, and has been passed down through generations like it has in my family. This also feels like something kids do together, which makes it more about bonding and sharing than just the wish itself. Overall, it shows how people take something simple and turn it into a meaningful moment, even if they don’ fully believe it will work.


Belief: Place an Eyelash on Your Head for a Wish

Text

“If an eyelash falls off of you, then what you should do is take it off and put it on your hair– on your head. And then, if you do that, that’s good luck. Very simple.” They look up in thought. “Or– let me think. It might be making a wish. Yeah, that’s right. You make a wish. It’s been awhile and I haven’t done it. It has to naturally fall off and it has to be on you. Like, usually it lands on your face, on your cheek.”

Context

RELATIONSHIP –
“My mom would just be like ‘Ah! Do this!’ And I was just like ‘Sure.’ I don’t think I ever really was too into it, but hey– it’s that thing with all wish-making rituals where people are like ‘Let’s do it anyway!’ Because who doesn’t want a wish coming true. I would always wish for stuff like… Well, it was always love stuff.”

WHERE THEY HEARD IT –
“I think it was a ritual that my mother said when I was like five. And it was still something she would joke about when I was like eleven or twelve. I genuinely don’t know where she got it from– I would assume just her family. So it might be and Iranian thing, but I don’t think it is. She definitely doesn’t do that anymore.”

INTERPRETATION –
“It’s kind of wild, ain’t it? I have no idea why it would be an eyelash, but there’s the one where you blow on it and you send that wish and part of you out into the world. But putting it on your head… a small hair going into big hair. It’s like growth, birth, or rebirth.”

Analysis

The idea of using an eyelash to make a wish is common– as is using a part of one’s body as a means of magical sacrifice for the sake of making a wish happen. In terms of components, an eyelash is light and delicate which is frequent for the action of wishing upon an object, like shooting stars. The meaning behind it having to fall off rather than plucking it off is also a means of luck which might contribute to the wishful properties the eyelash is believed to hold. Placing it onto the top of one’s head seems to be a way to reclaim and internalize the wish, trying to keep it close rather than expelling it into the world– like casting the spell onto oneself.

Fallen Eyelash

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: April 28
Primary Language: English

Context: 

This piece was collected over a casual FaceTime in which we were previously just catching up and talking about our elementary school experiences. We are close friends who met in high school and have known each other for five years. My informant (JS) was born in California and is now attending Carnegie Mellon as Computer Science major. He enjoys coding, playing video games, and weight lifting.

Main Piece:

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

Interviewer: Can you repeat that again, the one about eyelashes?

JS: So when an eyelash falls on your cheek, and you don’t know about it, a friend mentions it to you and you have to guess on what cheek the eyelash is, right? So if you guess the correct cheek and you manage to blow it off without, like, using a mirror or using your hands, you get to make one wish and it will come true! However, if you don’t, um, pick the correct cheek, you’ll have bad luck for the rest of the day, but it’s not like, major bad luck, it’s just, mild *laughs* 

Interviewer: And do you believe in this? And where did you learn it from?

JS: Um, I heard about this from my sister, I think. She brought it back from school. Hmm, I don’t believe it, but my girlfriend definitely believes it *laughs* so I always mention when one of her eyelashes falls down. Oh yeah and she’s from Pasadena. 

Thoughts: 

Wishing upon a fallen eyelash is an old practice. From what I’ve heard, blowing an eyelash away protects the person from witchcraft or the Devil, because the Devil tries to collect as much human hair from a person as possible in order to control them. For this reason, it makes sense to me that blowing an eyelash away would give the person good luck, because they evaded evil, but it was new to me that picking the wrong cheek would give the person bad luck. 

“You have an eyelash on your face, make a wish!”

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Arcadia, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

My informant learned this superstition when she was very young, so she doesn’t recall when she learned it.  She has been taking part of this superstition ever since she was in elementary school, where she probably learned it from a friend.  Whenever she sees a stray eyelash other people’s faces, she takes the eyelash, puts it on their finger and tells them to make a wish and blow the eyelash off.  She puts the eyelash on her finger if she finds an eyelash on her face and follows the same procedure.
She said that she does not believe in this superstition, yet she does it anyway.  According to her, there is no validity to this superstition, so she doesn’t believe her wishes will come true.  She believes that this eyelash superstition exists because losing an eyelash is more unusual than losing strands of hair.  Wishing with a strand of a hair would definitely not be as special because people lose many strands of hair everyday.
She tells this superstition because it has become a routine if she sees a loose eyelash.  It has become embedded in her that she has an automatic reaction to tell it.
Like the superstition of making a wish at 11:11, I do not necessarily believe that blowing an eyelash off my finger while making a wish will make my wish come true.  The willingness of a person to make his or her wish happen is what makes a wish come true.  Usually people do not rely on an eyelash wish, so they take action and make it happen.  I believe that eyelash wishing does contribute to making a wish become reality, but a person’s actions are what makes it become reality.