Text:
“Ok it’s a very common one, it’s like, don’t cut your hair after the new year, and I guess just hearing that growing up definitely made me have more of an attachment to my hair. I think like it definitely like–I’m like oh maybe that’s why oh big hair changes can be big changes in your life, or something, because of like hearing my grandma being like ‘oh you need to time your hair cut because you can’t wash away or cut off your good luck.’ So I think that’s why I attribute hair cutting or hair changes to luck or change in life.”
Context:
Informant (WP) is a student aged 19 from Chino Hills, California. Her parents are from Thailand and Laos. She currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview in the informant’s apartment. She heard this particular folk belief from her grandmother who is Lao-Chinese. She thinks people want to attribute meaning to hair since it’s something that’s always with them, so they attribute luck to it.
Interpretation:
Although many cultures emphasize looking forward in the new year, this could be an attempt to encourage some to hold on to elements of the past. In this case, their hair. Remembering the past is important when stepping towards the future.
Tag Archives: Superstition
Stepping on the High School Emblem
Background information: My younger brother is currently a high school sophomore in Alameda, CA. He knows a lot about the school’s culture now that classes are in person.
Brother: Do you know about this one? Do you know, like the, school emblem thing on the floor in front of the office at school?
Me: No, I’ve never heard this one.
Brother: Oh, you know how there’s like an emblem thing for our school on the floor right outside of the office…well you’re not supposed to step on it because it gives you bad luck or something if you do. If you step on it, you might not graduate or something like that. I heard about it because my friends would remind me not to step on it when we would walk by. I’m scared now so I never do. I though everyone knew about it, but if you don’t maybe it’s a new thing or not that many people actually do it. Maybe people are making up new things since we’re back at school, and it’s kinda fun to spread stuff like that.
Initially, I was shocked that my brother knew about a folklore practice at school that I had never heard of. I wondered if this rumor had re-emerged more for his year since I’ve graduated, or if I had just never been told about it. I think that this speaks to the fact that, because folklore like this is unspoken, everyone who is part of the group it is related to assumes that everyone else in that group knows about it.
12 Round Fruits on New Year’s Eve
Background information: My dad is My mom is a second-generation Filipino-American, meaning he was born here in the US. His parents immigrated from the Philippines when they were both relatively young, and he grew spending a good amount of time with his family and distant relatives.
Dad: Yeah, every year, before New Year’s Eve, we buy twelve round fruits and make them the center piece at the table at the start of the new year.
Me: Why do we do this? Where did you learn this from?
Dad: Growing up we did this, I think. The fruits represent abundance and help us make sure that the coming year will be hearty and happy for everyone in the household. You have to have a fruit for each month, and they all have to be round.
Me: Why should the fruits all be round?
Dad: Uh…I don’t know, probably to represent the cycle of a full year? It’s hard to find 12 round ones because that’s more than they usually have at one grocery store. We always go to the asian market to get a good variety of fruits. So we end up with ones you wouldn’t eat any other time of the year, and the table looks really nice with all the fruits there.
I remember this tradition really well, as my dad has always been adamant about making sure we start the New Year with 12 round fruits on our table. I have many memories of us going to multiple markets to find fruits that were round enough, and all different enough. I myself am not sure how much my dad believes in this tradition, or if he just feels so strongly about it because it has always been a practice for him and his family, but either way, it has made me feel strongly about it too. I think this is a good example of showing how folklore can endure many generations, because even though it is not a very popular or well-known practice, I want to keep doing it for all the years to come, and I’m sure my dad does, too.
Elfin Forest Ghost
Context: The respondent was told this story by her mother, who had supposedly encountered the ghost while driving along the road to Elfin Forest (San Diego, California).
M.A. : Oh, you know, my mom, actually I do have one that my mom told me. Like a real one, you know?
P.Z. : Yeah, pop off.
M.A. : It’s in Elfin Forest, ghost. I don’t know too much, but I know it is a lady and she uh walks around, always a white dress, she always walks around the Elfin Forest road, um, in a white dress. I guess she just haunts that area. I don’t know her history, but I know my mom told me she saw her once.
P.Z. : The road, is it like a, a foot path, is it a street?
M.A. : I believe it’s a street. Yeah, the road that you drive to get to, the little like swervy one.
P.Z. : Okay I’ve never like been up that way, I just know of it.
M.A. : Yeah, it’s it’s like a little swervy road, kind of isolated. And the lady walks around it, I heard. Yeah. And I think also the ghost has been seen on the trail as well, like on the path.
P.Z. : Um, woman in white, just wandering Elfin Forest. Sounds soothing.
M.A. : Yeah, it’s like a whole thing that Elfin Forest is haunted.
P.Z. : Did, your mom just saw her? Did she get attacked, or —
M.A. : No yeah she just saw her. And then she like turned around and drove the other way.
Thoughts: Elfin Forest is a picturesque trail area in northeast San Diego. I’ve had many friends visit this place for photos or day trips, but I had never heard of this particular ghost. It seems fairly traditional, a woman in white haunting some area, but there were not extensive details on the origin of this ghost story.
Donkey Lady Bridge
Context: Donkey Lady Bridge is located on the east side of San Antonio, and is a popular story amongst children that often becomes an inspiration for dares. The bridge passes over a creek.
G.G. : So, my story, it like comes from San Antonio, where I live. It’s basically um it started in the like the 1800s, some people say 1900s, like 1950s, but a lot of town folk say it’s like 1800. Basically, um, a farming family lived outside of San Antonio back then which is now on the east side of San Antonio.
P.Z. : Alright, so older, it was more spread out.
G.G. : Yeah. So like basically the farmer set fire to his home, murdered his children and left his wife horribly disfigured. And so and the wife, she survived, but her fingers were melted down to stumps creating hoof-like appendages, leaving the skin on her face charred and gave her an elongated, donkey-like appearance. And so, grieving the loss of her children and betrayal of her husband, she haunts Elm Creek and those who try to cross ‘cause like there’s a bridge. So that’s why we call it Donkey Lady Bridge.
P.Z. : Okay so it’s like a particular bridge in your hometown?
G.G. : Yeah I actually took my sister out to it.
P.Z. : Is there like, are there supposed to be noises when you’re here? Are you supposed to see something…?
G.G. : Uh okay uh, okay so —
P.Z. : Or is it just, sort of like, you said you brought your sister there..?
G.G. : Like, you’re supposed to hear her, you know? And I feel like I heard a different story of it like the story that i heard whenever I was like a kid. And like everyone hears it because it’s like it’s from our town. And so it was kind of like um, it was kind of like this love affair and the family, I guess the man tried to get rid of his family by setting the house on fire or something like that…
P.Z. : Some sort of affair —
G.G. : Yeah and so that’s why he killed his whole family but then like she obviously came back and like haunted him and she killed him and stuff. And um oh there’s also this, no, no I’m getting that confused with something else. Anyway yeah so now she like kind of protects that area by Donkey Lady Bridge. She doesn’t want anyone coming onto her land because that’s like where her children and her house was, you know? She doesn’t want any of the other farmers because I guess he was a big man in the community so that’s why she haunts that area, guards that area. So Donkey Lady Bridge, you’re supposed to go there and park. And then she’s also because there was also something about her that she ran out and drowned in the river too. That was another story of her and so like you’re really supposed to go out on a rainy night and then um park your car at the bridge and you’re supposed to hear her, just hear donkey noises, hear like the hooves or something, you know or something that’s just there. And that’s pretty much it, I don’t think there’s ever been any reported sightings or anything like that.
Thoughts: I grew up in a fairly urban area, so to hear of a story relating to a specific creek or bridge was a new experience. I thought that it was interesting that just one storyteller could personally recall multiple versions of a singular legend. Also, it was interesting that this has become a sort of story to bond the community, like when she mentioned that she brought her sister to the bridge to show her where the popular urban legend took place.