Tag Archives: Superstition

Una Limpia

RITUAL DESCRIPTION: This ritual is called a “Limpia” which means a “Cleaning” in English. A woman will grab an egg and fill a glass with water. The person who is receiving the Limpia needs to be naked. Then the woman will rub the egg all over the person’s while chanting Hail Mary in Spanish over and over again. Once the egg has been rubbed all over the body she will crack the egg into the glass filled with water. Then you must wait and watch the glass. If the layer of white that comes up from the yolk comes up in little spikes then you are filled with the evil eye and it is being removed. If not, you did not have the evil eye on you.

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 42, Mexican

CONTEXT: This ritual is done when life is not going well for someone and they have reason to believe they are filled with the evil eye. I saw this ritual be preformed life onto another woman. The woman told me this ritual has been passed down through woman for centuries since its indigenous origin. It combined the indigenous shamanistic ritual with Catholicism in an effort to clean someone from evil spirits. She would have it done when her life seems to be filled unnaturally with bad luck and said that after doing a Limpia her life would always turn around for the better. It means a lot to her and she says that she prefers to only have it done by someone who is familiar with the ritual and believes in it the way she does.

THOUGHTS: I was very taken with the performance of the ritual. As it was happening I was apprehensive and was feeling doubt. But as the women looked into the glass and saw the white leaving the yolk, they were so joyful and relieved it made me happy to watch. I figure it doesn’t matter what it is but to change your energy or believe you have been cured from bad luck can only improve your life.

Knock on Wood

GESTURE: Knocking on wood when speaking of one’s good fortune

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 60, Mexican

CONTEXT: This woman was saying how happy she was and how lucky she felt and immediately knocked on a wood surface next to her. She says she learned this gesture from her family. Whenever you speak of something good in your life or something positive you want to happen you must knock on wood.

ANALYSIS: This traces back to Jesus who she says was the step son of a carpenter, Joseph. Also Jesus was crucified on a wooden cross, she says when we knock on wood we are saying “God help us” or “God willing.” It is an anti-jinx mechanism that is supposed to prevent you from bad luck.

THOUGHTS: I learned this when I was a baby and have always practiced this gesture. Every single time I am grateful out loud I knock on wood or anytime I say something that I want to happen/come true. For me the wood symbolism doesn’t really matter, but the act of doing it unconsciously makes me feel like I have anti-jinxed myself.

Turn Over a Glass

So Romanian tradition, if you uh lose something, you can not find it, umm you can turn a glass, an empty glass, you can turn it over on the table and think about what you lost. And then after that you will be able to think about it and find it. And I, I have experience that. The only time I wasn’t able to find something was when it was truly lost and wasn’t in the house. 

Background: This informant has grown up in Romania and has absorbed some of the folk superstitions from Romania. They only tend to believe these superstitions if they have already experienced their effects.

Interpretation: The flipping of the glass may signify that you are making a conscious effort to find something. Since you have to actively think about the object it almost reinforces that you will find it. The glass staying flipped over may also serve as a reminder to try and find it.

Don’t sit at the corner of a table

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/23/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: korean

Background: The informant (A) is the son of two Korean immigrants. He moved to a city on the west coast when he was two years old and grew up there, but he was born in Korea and spent many summers there with his family. 

J: When you eat dinner or eat anything I guess, you’re not supposed to sit in the corner. I don’t know exactly why but it’s like bad luck and they say you’ll die earlier. it’s along the lines of it being pointy and sharp and you’ll die

Me: of the table?

J: Yeah, we have like…a circle table I guess at home but when we went out for big group dinners with friends and stuff my parents would tell me not to sit in the corner of a table. And no one else would sit in the corner either.

Context: This was told to me during an in person interview.

No Early Birthday Wishes in Germany

Nationality: German/American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

The informant is the daughter of two German immigrants. She was born in Germany, spent time in France, and grew up in the US. She is a college student.

Informant: In Germany it’s a big no-no to say happy birthday to people early or celebrate early or anything. If you do that it’s supposed to like… give them a year of bad luck so we just…don’t do that. And if you do that to someone else they definitely won’t be happy.

Me: Ohh my god I definitely wished you a happy early birthday this year several times 

Informant: Haha it’s okay it doesn’t really matter. Oh also, for my birthday this year I wanted to come home the day before my birthday to see my parents and ‘cause they wanted to give me a gift too but they were like, “No that’s bad”. So I ended up driving home a few days after my birthday because they’d rather celebrate it late than early.

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.