Tag Archives: Superstitions

The Lake Arrowhead Hand

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 3/19/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: n/a

The following conversation is transcribed from a conversation between me (HS) and my friend/informant (DS).

HS: So what’s your take on The Hand?

DS: Alright so first of all we’ve gotta explain how this lake story came to be. In water skiing, there are different ways of holding the cable that are more efficient than other ways. In some cases, some ways of holding the cable are more dangerous than others. So there’s this way of holding it where you kind of wrap it around your back, but it’s really risky because there’s a risk of you losing your hand if things go wrong. So back in the 1980s, there was this girl who was water skiing in that risky position, right. And she messed up and her hand came right off. My parents talk about this story all the time and I’m pretty sure that it is a true story. The girl even lost her wedding ring because she was wearing it on the hand that she had lost.

HS: So what stories did people start to tell after she lost her hand?

DS: It kind of turned into a ghost story. People around the lake have reported seeing walking hands and all that kind of crazy stuff. They see the old, rusted wedding ring on the hand. They say the hand is still trying to find the body that it used to be a part of. It haunts all night swimmers at Lake Arrowhead and whenever you’re out on the lake at night, and you see a sparkle off in the distance, people wonder if it’s the shine of the ring on the walking hand.

Background:

My informant is a friend that I went to high school and now college with. He spends a lot of his summer in Lake Arrowhead and has a lot of folk stories and traditions that he has gotten from the area.

Context:

So I was visiting my informant up in Arrowhead last summer and I was with him and seven or eight other people. It was late at night and we were all on a boat in the middle of the lake. Besides us, there was no sound coming from anywhere- complete silence out on the water. It was also almost pitch black, with only small amounts of light coming from the surrounding docks. We were all winding down for the night, kind of relaxed sort of vibe. We all started telling ghost stories and legends that we knew in an attempt to scare one another. Amongst the stories was that of the Lake Arrowhead hand. A year later, I was in need of folklore stories and so I asked my friend to act as an informant for me.

Thoughts:

This is the second collection that I have done regarding ghost stories that involve hands, which is an interesting coincidence. I’ve gotten the chance to do a decent amount of reading on the subject of ghost hands in the process and found this example to be compelling for a few reasons. First, this folklore is unique to a small, concentrated population that lives on the crest of Lake Arrowhead. But even though it is local folklore, it still had properties of similar legends from around the world. It is almost as if we take stories from a predisposed list and then augment them to fit our local context, which is a trend that I found to be extremely interesting. I also found it interesting that these folk stories can be generated from true events. The fact that a woman lost her hand in Lake Arrowhead was true, but for some reason, we as humans find it fascinating to add all of this superstition to scary events. Why is that?

No Bananas on Board

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Newport Beach
Performance Date: 4/17/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: n/a

Main Piece:

The following conversation is transcribed from a conversation between me (HS) and my friend/informant (LW).

HS: You have a very particular superstition regarding bananas on your sailboat is that true?

LW: Yeah. Ever since I started sailing when I was young my instructors have told me to never bring a banana with me when I sail.

HS: And why is that?

LW: They would always say that it was bad luck. Like for instance one time I remember my mom packed a banana in my lunch as a snack at one of my regattas and I took it out to eat. My instructor, although somewhat jokingly, told me to make sure I didn’t take it on my sabot because it was bad luck. Just small situations like that.

Background:

My informant is a friend from high school. He has been sailing sabots and CFJs since his childhood and is a member of one of the local yacht clubs in his area. He sailed for both his high school and his local yacht club.

Context:

My informant’s little brother had his coach and team over for a team dinner. The team coach told me about the superstition and my informant elaborated upon it.

Thoughts:

My immediate question to the superstition of bananas in boats was, why does this superstition exist? I found that there are a variety of proposed explanations for the superstition surround bananas. For instance, bananas give off a certain gas that causes other fruits to ripen and thus spoil faster. Perhaps these negative traits of bananas are what caused this superstition of bad luck to become commonplace amongst sailors. There are other explanations also, such as the fact that boats had to travel a lot faster in order to get their banana-filled payloads to their destinations before they spoiled, which prevented fishermen from being able to land the catches they were waiting for. I think that this superstition goes to show how reasonable grievances towards bananas that are now outdated have evolved into the superstitions that we still carry to this day.

Halley’s Comet Superstition

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Nationality: American
Age: 80
Occupation: Retired, Former Museum Curator
Residence: Kelseyville, California
Performance Date: May 1, 2021
Primary Language: English

Background:

My informant is fond of this superstition because of his love of astronomy. It was passed to him by a friend, who received it from his mother. They lived in Denver, Colorado, at the time.

Context:

This superstition originated and probably only existed during the passage of Halley’s comet in 1910. The mother of my informant’s friend was around 5 or 6 years old when the superstition was being practiced.

Main Piece:

“It was believed throughout history that comets were a sign of doom and destruction. Halley’s comet was pretty spectacular in 1910–it was really impressive. And scientifically they knew at the time that the comet’s tail was releasing cyanide gas. But people were afraid of being gassed by cyanide from the comet’s tail, so at night they would put wet towels under their doors and windows to protect themselves from it.

Analysis:

This superstition around the passage of Halley’s comet gives us an interesting look into how the American public uses scientific information. My informant tells me that in 1910, during the passing of the comet, scientists had already figured out that its tail was releasing cyanide gas and that the release of this gas would have no effect on us. Instead of using the information they were given to make an informed choice, the people of Denver started the practice of protecting themselves with wet towels because it gave them a false sense of security. I find this interesting because it relates to issues we face in present times, with people who publicly argue against the COVID-19 vaccine. These people are given the same information as everyone else but refuse to acknowledge the science behind vaccines and take cover behind the illusion that they’re safer without it. The most comical thing, however, is that if Halley’s comet were to poison people with its cyanide release, they would have all died anyway. After all, the comet was present in the daytime during its passage, too.

Whistling and Spirits

Nationality: Singaporean
Age: 83
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Singapore
Performance Date: 04/22/2021
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: Malay, Hokkein

Context

The following collection of this Singapore superstition came about during a routine phone call between me and my grandfather.

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Performance

The following is translated and transcribed from a story told by the interviewee.

“You cannot whistle at night because you will attract spirit into your home. My father used to tell me that a lot. I liked to whistle a lot and he would smack me on the lips. If we invite the spirits into our home bad things happen. Especially on days that he went to buy TOTO, if I whistled he would get extra angry. So you cannot whistle at night.”

TOTO (pronounced as toe-toe) refers to a form of gambling activity provided by the Singapore Lottery Pool. The lottery game is played by purchasing a card and picking six numbers, the closers the numbers match the winning set, the more money one wins.

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Analysis

This is a common superstition amongst the older generation in Singapore. To attract spirits in your home is a very bad thing. Spirits are known to be ghosts with the agenda to haunt people and bring about bad luck. I believe that this superstition comes from Singapore in the early 1900s where the poverty rate was high and security in homes was low. And whistling would attract attention and thus it was advised not to whistle in order to keep a low profile at night. And as time went on, this evolved into not whistling in order to keep spirits away. What I found interesting was that not whistling at night was especially important when my grandfather’s father bought a lottery ticket. Gambling was very common in Singapore, and there weren’t many ways to climb up the economic ladder when my grandfather was younger. And thus, many people would put hopes on gambling and lotteries as a means to earn wealth. It thus makes sense that with that much hope placed on these lottery tickets that a lot of superstition comes about.

Haunted Theaters and Ghost Lights

Nationality: Afro-Latinx
Age: 20
Occupation: FIDM Student Studying Fashion Design, Food Service
Residence: 2715 Portland St Los Angeles CA 90007
Performance Date: 4/13/21
Primary Language: English

My friend shared this story with me and another female friend one night in the kitchen after work. I asked this friend about her haunted house and she later shared that her classmates always left a ‘ghost light’ in the school theater. It was bad luck not to leave a ghost light. This friend also said that she believed her theater may have housed some recent ghosts.

This speaker went to an arts school in Tampa, Florida. She took classes in the drama department and was in school theater productions. Here is her story.

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“Theaters are traditionally haunted all the time… they’re just traditionally haunted,” the speaker said. “After you’re done striking a set or cleaning up or after you’re done rehearsing. You’re always supposed to leave a ghost light, or the ghost, or else that was bad luck.” I asked whether the light was meant to guide the ghosts, but she said that it existed to appease them/ She said ghosts do not like the dark, and that this was ironic.

One day after practice “a student forgot to put the ghost light on, you know, it’s not anything, not a very big deal. It’s literally like a stick and a light ball. And you roll it out onto theaters, like, but we just forgot about it. And then the next day, like a spotlight fell, and that was really bad.”

The speaker said that there were some specific ghosts she thought haunted the theater. “There were a couple of tragedies that did happen at our theater. And there was actually some of them were actually pretty recent. So I’d like to think there were good spirits rather than bad spirits,” she said. The drama director’s brother had passed away that year, and the speaker said that she would like to think that he came to see the productions at the theater. The speaker also added that a young actress had died of a disease in the past, and that there was a plaque in front of the theater honoring her memory. The speaker said that she would like to think that the actress’ ghost visited the theater as well.

When I asked what this meant to the speaker, she said that the young actress had “put so much of her craft into theater.” I suspect that knowing that deceased guests might visit the theater is comforting to the speaker, and that these two particular ghosts help future productions.

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The speaker has shared other ghost stories and believes that these stories are real, so it makes sense that she would believe these ghosts could be real as well. She began telling this story discussing ghost lights and bad luck, but the story ended on a note of good luck. I was taught to act as if a god was always watching, and I know many people feel comforted to know that someone else is guiding them during stressful parts of their life. It might be comforting to know that ghosts are watching over stage productions as well, since the ‘good’ ghosts the speaker mentioned had theater or theater-adjacent backgrounds.

I did not know that movie theaters and stages are supposed to be haunted or that actors would leave a ghost light. My school had a small theater that we used for small class meetings when the drama department was not at practice. I can’t remember a specific light that was left on the stage, but the room was never completely dark. This was likely for security reasons.

The haunted theater trope may be due to the fact that theaters serve as a sort of liminal space when not in use. Theaters are such specific buildings, and sticking around after the show is not an expected reaction. Only janitors and stage crew might remain after a show is over.

Additionally, members who know about the ghost light are ‘real’ members of the theater community. They understand the traditions of other actors and stage crew, and they are part of an in-group.

This story also draws upon similar ideas as the article ‘Ghostly Possession of Real Estate: The Dead in Contemporary Estonian Folklore’ by Ulo Valk. Actors and other community members who believe in ghosts come to terms with tragedy by carrying out traditions in the hope that loved ones continue to exist in the ‘haunted theater.’ The ghost does not necessarily need to be buried near the theater, rather the theater belongs to them because their devotion to acting tied these ghosts to this particular spot.

For another ghost legend by the same speaker, see ” Haunted House in Indiana- The Funny Man and the Woman with the Red Eyes: Sleep Paralysis and Two Traveling Ghosts” in the USC digital Folklore Archive.