Tag Archives: Superstition

Splitting the Pole

Age – 20
Language – English
Nationality – American
Occupation – Student
Primary Language – English
Residence – Syracuse, New York

Text: “My friend introduced me to a superstition about splitting the pole. It basically says if you two are walking together and you come to a pole and walk on different sides of it, you jinx your relationship and will have bad luck in it going forward. He taught me it last year and for a while after I followed it pretty strongly because he was so into it that I started to be, but I’ve cared less and less about it the longer it’s been.”

Context: The informant learned this superstition from a close friend who strongly believed in it. It became something they followed for a while because of the friend’s influence. The belief is that splitting a pole while walking with someone brings bad luck to your relationship. The informant said they first followed it closely, but stopped putting value on it as time went on.

Analysis: This is an example of a folk belief passed on through personal connection. The idea of “splitting the pole” reflects a break in unity, which is why it’s said to bring bad luck to relationships. These kinds of superstitions often act as small rituals people follow to feel more in control of the luck in their life. The fact that the belief faded over time shows how folklore can lose power when it’s not actively being practiced or reminded.

Walking Home Backwards After a Funeral

Nationality: American & Trinidadian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Glendale, AZ
Language: English

“A superstitious belief in my family and some of my friends have is that after a funeral, we will enter our homes backwards.It’s mainly so the spirit doesn’t follow you home, especially if you go to the graveyard site or cremation site.”

Can you please explain to me how they enter the house backwards?

“From what I’ve seen from my parents, they fully enter backwards, so they don’t start facing our house or like the front door if that makes sense.” She goes on to explain to me that “someone’s been there to let them in, or it just matters that they enter the first door frame facing backwards.”

Context: The informant identifies as a Hindu.

Analysis: In Hindu traditions, this superstition is common after funerals. It is believed to prevent the spirit from following the family home and getting stuck there, essentially aiding in their transition to the afterlife. This tradition is also a way to purify the home from any lingering negative energies after death that might have followed the family home. Spirits and ghosts in folklore tend to be tied to a property or area, so this practice prevents this from happening to their loved ones. This superstition has also shown up in other folk superstitions, and the consistency of walking backwards out of a cemetery seems to be the common trope. This practice shows how universal superstitions might be if you look beyond the religious contexts. 

Indian home rituals and customs related to luck

“The head of the bed should not face the north and neither should the front door. When you buy a house, you have to make sure neither face north: it’s bad luck. Also, if you see a grasshopper in your house, [it means that] you’ll probably be rich.”

My informant is an Indian-American immigrant who has lived in America for almost his whole life. These customs come from his parents, so he doesn’t know exactly where these beliefs come from. 

Analysis: These rituals and customs have to do with the ways in which Indians have brought superstitions related to luck into their homes. For the grasshopper superstition, it seems to be a simple superstition about a rare event signifying good luck. In the West, a comparable superstition would be that finding a four leaf clover will bring good luck. It’s a superstition that seems like it does not really impact daily life too much. However, the superstition regarding North-facing doors and beds has a much larger bearing on the ways in which my informant and his family live. As my informant alluded to, this superstition greatly impacts the ways in which his parents buy and arrange their houses. In America, a country where this superstition is not prevalent, they have to search for houses that do abide by this belief. I assume that this complicates the home search process greatly, adding another set of requirements in an already competitive market. While a super small detail my informant offhandedly mentioned as a dated belief from his parents, it represents a significant concern for his immigrant parents who have more direct ties to India. Something as small as the way the door faces has highlighted the generational divide between immigrant parent and American son. 

Celebrate 9’s but don’t celebrate 10’s

Text: “Many Chinese people, especially the older generations, won’t celebrate 10, 20, 30, etc because of the way the numbers are pronounced. [Ten] also sounds like the word ‘dead” and, in Chinese, twenty is ‘two-ten,’’ thirty is “three-ten,” and so on”

Context: My informant is Chinese and has grown up close to her relatives, especially as they aged. These are traditions that she remembered seeing in her childhood.

Analysis: This practice seems to be an age-related birthday ritual. As my informant described, “ten” in Chinese sounds like their word for “death.” Thus, it seems that to celebrate a “ten” birthday would be like inviting death. Chinese culture as a whole has many superstitions related to longevity. There seems to be a cultural fixation on living a long life, much more so than in American culture. I believe this is because, in Chinese culture, elders matter much more. For instance, in China, it is legally and culturally required for children to care for their aging parents to show respect and make up for the time their parents spent raising them. In America, it is much more common to see seniors taken care of by paid professionals in care facilities or living on their own. America, conversely, seems to place much more emphasis on youth. Proverbs like “Live fast, die young” and the idea of “peaking” early in life make old age not something to be revered, but tolerated in hopes of living vicariously through your kin. So, while the Chinese have many superstitions about avoiding death in old age, as is evidenced by my informant’s declaration that mostly old people subscribe to this superstition, Americans do not. 

Folk Belief: Sharing Food with a Pregnant Woman

Age: 24
Occupation: Paraprofessional

[Do you have anything you would like to share?]

‘I do remember this superstition my family had when I was younger. It was like we couldn’t share food with a pregnant woman. Like if they ate from a bowl and offered it to us, we could accept the bowl but we weren’t supposed it eat it.”

[Was it for the health of the mother? Or seen as bad luck?]

“It was like, you know how pregnant people get morning sickness? It was like you would get the morning sickness. I remember when I was younger, being with family, and my mother telling me not to eat from the same bowl as one of my aunts. I did anyway, and I actually ended up throwing up later that night.”

Analysis: I think that this superstition is unique in the sense that I think most folklore surrounding pregnancy has to do with the health of the mother or protecting/ promoting fertility, so having a folk belief surrounding how the health of a pregnant person could impact others is really interesting. Additionally, morning sickness here is treated less as a symptom and more as a contagious sickness, which I never really considered.