Tag Archives: Superstition

Aloe Vera Plants to Ward Off Evil

Nationality: Half Irish half Guatemalan
Age: 20
Occupation: Biology student at University of California Santa Barbara
Residence: Southern California
Performance Date: 4/21/20
Primary Language: English

AB: Aloe Vera plants in the front of your house to protect you from evil. I didn’t know that was why we had Aloe plants in the front of our house. I have never heard of that before. 

Context

AB is a 20 year old biology student at UCSB from southern California that is half Guatemalan and half Irish. She is describing a conversation she had with her mother asking her about the aloe plants they had in front of their house. Her mother is a nurse that is originally from Guatemala and lived there until her teenage years. This information was taken from a casual interview over Facetime. Earlier in the interview she talked about how her mother believed people practiced witchcraft and AB thought it was somewhat weird. 

Analysis

It is interested that there had been aloe plants in front of her house and AB had not realized until recently why they were there. However, it seemed that she felt it was more of a superstitious practice than something that really worked. The belief in magic seems to be related to the practice of using magic to protect yourself from people who may use it in a way to harm you. The aloe plant is considered to have many healing qualities both in the field of medicine and folk medicine. This seems to be somewhat of a spiritual extension of this belief. Not only can the plant heal you physically, but heal your spirit from evil energy that is trying to enter your space. Thus, making it the perfect plant to have in front of your house.

A Filipino Proverb

Original Text: Kung hindi ukol hindi bubukol.

Transliteration: If it is not then it won’t lump.

Full translation: If you weren’t meant to have something then you won’t have it

This proverb is used to pacify others. If someone got out of a relationship and were to be mad, they would say this to justify that it was not meant to be. The saying comes from the word bukol which is a lump of the head normally from a hit. So if someone were to hit their head and get a lump, then it was meant to be but if they hit their head and didn’t get a lump, then that bukol wasn’t meant to be.

Context: The informant lived the majority of her life in the Philippines. She then immigrated to the United States when she was 24. She learned about this saying from her family and classmates.

Thoughts: I personally find the relationship between the translation and the meaning behind the proverb to be obscure yet funny. It establishes the values of superstition and luck while being used as a way to make peace.

Tao Po– Filipino Superstition

Nationality: Filipino American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: April 27 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Piece:

Informant: I heard another one, I don’t know if this, like, is a Tagalog thing, but like, um, if you have someone come into your house, and you say, oh, um, you knock on the door and you say, like, tao po, like, oh, I’m a person. So, like, like–

Informant’s mother: Tao Po, Tao Po

Informant: Yeah, cuz it’s like, the whole thing is like, you’re not supposed to let spirits in, so it’s like, “Hey, I’m a person, let me in!” 

Informant’s mother: Yeah, that’s right, so y’know, normally you just knock or doorbell, right, so when you’re entering a house, you will knock and you will say tao po.

Collector: To make sure you’re not letting in a spirit? 

Informant’s mother: Yeah, yeah.

Context: The informant is a close friend of mine, and is a Filipino-American young woman. Though she does not herself speak Tagalog, she can understand much of it. Her mother, a Filipino immigrant who has lived in Southern California for roughly 40 years, also joined the conversation. 

Analysis: This belief assumes that there are other entities wandering about knocking on doors, which makes it necessary to declare your personhood at the front door. Once I did some online research, I found that this is now used as a general greeting, and seems to have left behind its supernatural origin. I believe it speaks volumes about the number of superstitious folk beliefs that still permeate everyday living, despite the Philippines now being primarily Catholic or Muslim. When I asked other Filipino friends about this, many reported back that it was mostly a Tagalog thing, and that Ilocano people generally did not say it.

Holding Your Breath As You Pass A Cemetery

Nationality: American
Age: 17
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Charleston, South Carolina
Performance Date: 3/20/20
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Subject: Well. Whenever I pass cemetery, I hold my breath because I don’t want to disrespect the spirits who aren’t as lucky as I am to breathe. Because then they might come and haunt me.

Interviewer: Where did you hear that?

Subject: Um… from my older sister. Yeah you do it because you don’t want to disrespect the ghosts as you pass by. They’ll literally haunt you. Because they’re like, “Fuck you. You can breathe and I can’t.” You’ll piss off the spirits. I also used to think that you could like literally breathe them into your lungs. Like if you inhaled when you went past a cemetery, then they would enter you through your lungs.

Context: The subject is my 17-year-old younger brother in his senior year of high school. He is supposed to attend Yale in Fall of 2020. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish and Russian descent. We have been quarantined together due to the Coronavirus pandemic and staying at our home in Charleston, South Carolina. After dinner, we were sitting in the dark in the living room and I asked him to tell me any folklore he could think of off the top of his head.

Interpretation: I remember being taught this superstition from my older sister as well. It was a very appealing superstition as a kid because it felt like a game. Whenever I would pass a particularly large cemetery, it was a great challenge between my siblings and I of who could hold our breath the longest. Related to this superstition is the act of covering your mouth when we yawn. Breath has always been associated with life and spirit, so it makes perfect sense that breathing when you passed the dead would be offensive. I thought it was interesting how this superstition seems to specifically in the context of driving in a car. It’s not realistic for a person to hold their breath as they walk past a cemetery, so it suggests that this superstition practice is modern. The old version of the superstition seems to go back to The Black Plague, when it was believed that the illness could be transmitted from dead bodies because of people inhaling as they passed by. The “spirit” that possessed people was actually the plague.

The Menehune Men – Hawaiian Folklore

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Irvine, California
Performance Date: 4/3/20
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Subject: In Oahu there’s the Pali Road- or the Pali lookout- and I don’t know the specifics. But when King Kamehameha was unifying all the islands of Hawaii, one of the battles took place on this Pali lookout. So it’s known for this gruesome rich history. Along that road- I’m not sure what the relation is- but there’s folklore of “menehune” which are little tiki men. It’s been popularized and like… put everywhere… so they’re kind of ridiculous when you see photos of them. But… it’s like the lore of little menehune. If you’re driving to Pali lookout and you’re taking the drive on Pali Road… If you have red meat in the car, you have to throw it out of the car as an offering to the menehune or else your car is going to break down. And there was never any follow up to what the menehune would do to you but it was terrifying as a kid if we had red meat.

Interviewer: Who told you that?

Subject: My dad. So the menehune men, you always have to look out for on Pali Road or they’d stop your car.

Context: The subject is a Sophomore at studying Law, History, and Culture at USC. She is of Japanese and Ashkenazi descent, and a third generation resident of Hawaii.  She is a very close friend of mine, and is currently quarantined at her home in Irvine due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The following conversation happened over a facetime call when I asked her to tell me some traditional folklore connected to her heritage. 

Interpretation: I have seen how commercialized and popularized the tiki man has become, so it was interesting to hear the culture significance of the symbol. Upon more research, I found that Menehune men reside in the depths of the forest in Hawaii. They are said to be excellent builders, and Hawaiian myth suggests that they were responsible for building the Alekeko Fishpond in one night more than a thousand years ago. This legend was also interesting to me because it had the modern element of the car breaking down in. It makes sense this particular legend was so scary to the subject, because there is something specifically terrifying about beings hidden in a forests, lurking and waiting.