Tag Archives: spirits

Haunted House in New Orleans

Text:

Interviewee: “My mom has a friend who lives in, supposedly, a haunted house in New Orleans, and her grandmother had just died when she was taking a shower, and you know, in the shower, like, when the mist gets fogged up, and you can write stuff? She wrote something like, “I am here.”

“This is your mom’s friend who has a house in New Orleans?”

Interviewee: “Yes. Her mom had just passed. “

“Was she scared?”

Interviewee: “Yeah, she said she jumped out of the shower and ran out of the house.”

“Why would her mom do that?”

Interviewee: “I don’t know.”

Context:

This story comes from a friend’s account of a family friend who lives in a haunted home in New Orleans, a city known for its strong cultural associations with ghosts and the supernatural. The experience is tied to a moment of recent loss, with the woman’s mother having just passed away, which may influence how the event is interpreted. The setting of a “haunted house” adds to the way the experience is understood.

Analysis:

This is an example of a legend within belief-based folklore, especially tied to ghost stories and supernatural experiences. The message “I am here” suggests a spirit communicating through physical means, reflecting a magical superstition in which the spirit world can interact with the physical world.

Holding Breath When Driving By a Graveyard

Age: 20
Hometown: Ponte Vedra, FL
Location: Graveyards

Context:
My friend who goes to USC told me this superstition when I was mentioning some of the ones I had. She is originally from Florida and was first taught about this as a small child from her older sister. She told me that her sister thinks she first heard it when she was really young in elementary school.

Content:
Interviewer: You were telling me about a certain action you have to take when you are by a graveyard, can you tell me about that?

Interviewee: ” Yeah, so I always hold my breath when driving past a graveyard so any spirits like in the graveyard so | don’t breathe them in.”

Interviewer: “Do you remember where you learned this or how long you’ve been doing it?”

Interviewee: “I learned this from my sister as a kid she told me about it and ever since then I’ve been doing.”

Analysis: This is a superstitions folk belief that brings together a physical action with protection from a spiritual danger. Holding your breath turns a fear of spirts that seems a bit abstract into a simple behavior, allowing a person to have a sense of control over the unknown. The idea of “breathing in” spirts reflects how invisible threats are made tangible through bodily actions. Overall, it shows how folklore helps people cope with fear by creating a simple and repeatable ritual tied to a specific place.

Don’t Whistle Inside The House

Interviewer: Is there anything you used to tell me as a kid that you inherited from your family? 

TK: Sure, I used to tell you that you shouldn’t whistle inside the house. Do you remember?

Interviewer: Oh yes, I do. I never understood the logic behind that one.

TK: Neither did I. I guess I was told this so many times as a kid myself that it developed into a habit. 

Interviewer: Wow, I could have been a whistling prodigy if it wasn’t for you. 

TK: Sure you could have, sweetie. It’s never too late. 

Interviewer: To tell you the truth, I used to secretly whistle all over the house when you weren’t at home. 

TK: Funny, I used to do the same thing when I was a kid. 

Interviewer: What do you think is the logic behind this belief? 

TK: I think it has to do with upsetting house ghosts, but I can’t be sure. My grandma told me once, but I forgot.

Context: 

This conversion happened with my mother over a phone call. She grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia. This rule was passed down to her from her mother and grandmother. She doesn’t believe in the rule, but anytime I whistle inside the house to this day, she gives me the stern “stop that” glance. 

Analysis: 

This is an example of a household superstition. This taboo against indoor whistling is common in Georgia to this day. Whistling taboo is a good example of intergenerational transmission where the taboo is passed down throughout generations. One interesting detail is that the rule is enforced even if the original motivation behind it gets lost. The habit that forms through customary repetition regulates behavior and connects generations.

Sweeping Ritual – Chinese New Year

Age: 21

Collection Date: 03/26/2026

Context:

During an in-class fieldwork activity, my informant, “R,” told me about a ritual tradition his family practices. The ritual is one of many that his family practices during the Chinese New Year season.

Text:

R: During the Chinese New Year, it’s a very cultural and ritual-heavy period of the year. One of the things that we’ll do, and that a lot of the families will do, is you’ll sweep your house, and then you’ll sweep the things out the front door. So you’re basically sweeping out like, you know, the bad spirits or, you know, all the bad luck. You’re getting that out of your house.. So you’re kind of like cleansing the place. So, like, all the bad luck, all the evil kind of goes out the door, you know. 
It’s kind of like putting a physical touch on a spiritual belief.

Interviewer: Yeah

Interviewer: Yeah. Is that like more of like a, is it a, like a metaphorical thing or are you like actually sweeping out like dust and like cleaning as well? Like, is it kind of like dual purpose?

R: Yeah, it’s definitely dual purpose. Yeah, like Chinese New Year, you’re definitely cleaning the house, you know, putting up like decorations and stuff like this. 
You put out like little clementines and stuff, but. Yeah, you’re definitely sweeping like actual dust out. But with that, you know, you’re sweeping out the evil spirits and all that. There’s more behind it than just like simply cleaning.

Interviewer: So there’s more meaning behind it then just simply cleaning.

R: Double entendre. Exactly.

Interviewer: Is that something that you’d be doing, like your parents would be doing or like the the whole family’s getting involved? What’s that look like?

R: I wouldn’t say that. I mean, I’ve never swept, but like, obviously.

Interviewer: Could you vacuum? 


R: No, like, I’d be cleaning around the house, but it’s my mom that’s sweeping mainly.. But, like, you know, we all help out. It’s definitely, like, a big, big family time. Like you want to help out. You want to spend time with your family. So definitely, yeah. 


Analysis:

The ritual seems to be a form of imitative magic in which the performer performs a physical action that has an “intangible” effect on the spiritual world. The idea, then, is that the change made in the spiritual world would positively impact the real world. The act is also representative. So it would seem to be homeopathic; the performer is literally sweeping the dirt out while also having a profound spiritual effect. This suggests that their culture may view dirt and dust in the house as impurities that do not belong and, like evil spirits, should be dealt with to prevent disorder.

The use of a broom is also interesting. I didn’t get to ask whether it was a special broom, but brooms are seen as having magical elements in English and American culture as well. I’m thinking about the witches’ broomstick, a magical and important element we associate with Halloween. Even in our culture, brooms are symbolic of magic and the spiritual world. But perhaps in Western culture, witches’ association with brooms has more to do with gender norms. Brooms symbolize cleansing and purity, and in most cultures, cleanliness is next to godliness. It seems then that the same idea is kept in Chinese folklore. A clean house has no crevices for demons to hide.

The ritual also functions as a way for families to bond. The ritual and cleaning ceremony bring them close together to achieve a common goal. These are also traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, so all ages are involved and can relate. Older generations might find this a great opportunity to connect with their kids and share some identity. It also seems to help offer some agency over the uncontrollable. My informant explained that it might help prevent bad luck and evil spirits, or smooth out the uncontrollable elements we face in our daily lives.

Based on what I collected, men, women, and children can participate in the ritual. So it is all inclusive and reflects the culture’s view on women and gender roles. Perhaps, this wasn’t always so, but we learn that customs change and adapt to time. The tradition itself has been passed down; my informant views the memory positively. But, it likely isn’t the same ritual his grandparents performed. That highlights the idea that folklore is multifaceted and varied. No two rituals are completely alike, even within the same family.

The Unwanted Cuddle

Age: 19

EC: Pick an age 7  or 10

Interviewer: 7 

EC: So, when I was 7 years old my parents and I took a trip to the Whaley House in San Diego. It’s old, it’s like this old western town?

Interviewer: Were you going to the whaley house looking for ghosts, or just to see what it was?

EC: My family is into weird freaky stuff like that and it’s the most haunted house in America so my parents were into that. We also thought it was a museum more than a haunted house. 

For the most part it seemed sort of like a hoax. My parents thought it was more like a museum than a haunted house but it was like a cute little museum house with a courtroom, a store, and stuff like that so I just thought we were on a boring tour.

So I was looking for stuff to do in this old house, and the tour guide said that it was possible to feel a presence, but it still felt unrealistic and a hoax.  

We walked into their dining room which was a pretty small room and it was a pretty big group, 15-20 people, and I wasn’t paying attention or listening to the tour guide because it was a bunch of history I didn’t know since I was 7.

I am wearing this little pink, magenta little hoodie, and I was just looking around the room and staring at things. I stared at the dining room table and remembered that I thought it looked a lot like my grandma’s house, and I am standing near the table with my hands by my side. I wasn’t the only kid on the tour, and so I am just standing there and I feel this other little kid grab my hand. 

I didn’t think anything of it because there were other little kids and I was a really cuddly child. So I feel this little hand, and I remember its smaller than mine and I have small hands, and literally there was nothing there.

My mom said I shot my hands back into my pocket and I was really spooked about it because it felt like holding my mom’s hand, like it was real. 

And I really wasn’t the sort of kid to make a big deal of things so we finished the tour and my mom just kept asking what happened and eventually I told her that, like, I don’t want to sound crazy, but I really felt a hand holding mine.

My mom tells me that in that room, what the guy was talking about was that the youngest daughter who was part of the whaley family, I don’t remember her name, contracted something, maybe TB? And died when she was still really little.

The thing was that people would say especially little girls or moms would feel a girl grabbing onto them if they were taller or holding their hands. They say it’s because she was really close with her mom. 

But when I told her that and I told her that I wasn’t even listening, she agreed that it was really weird even though she knew it was a hoax. 

Everything I was wearing and stuff was more from her perspective,  but what I remember is looking to my right and expecting to see a person holding my hand, and even after I looked over I could still feel the hand holding mine but there was nothing there. 

Context: This story was told by the informant, who got most of the story and the context of the Whaley family from her mom, and her perspective on the informant’s physical reaction. The actual reaction to the ghosts was all from her perspective. The informant has always believed in ghosts, but the part that made it feel like a gimmick to her was the way that she thought ghosts should have appeared to her, versus how they did (alone like her room, vs. in a museum). She has since been back to the Whaley house twice, and nothing has happened to her since. This story was told to me alone.

Analysis: The informant believes that it was truly a ghost, 100%. She thinks it’s an interesting house, and that when she was little, she didn’t fully see it as a scary place, but as she got older, the energy felt heavier. At first I really believed that the story was a hoax, but as my friend explained more about the story and the way that it genuinely moved her and changed the way she thought about ghosts, and even that visceral story that has stuck with her for so many years, I feel like it has to be a true story, or at least have some sort of truth behind it.