Saturday, March 3, 2007

Sunday Scribblings: Superstition


This Sunday Scribbling prompt brought me back to some childhood memories in the Philippines (especially my grandma)...

Growing up, I have heard many superstitious beliefs from my grandparents..even my parents. They sound silly now but we kept many of them until I was old enough to know it's not true...like "don't do to bed and sleep when your hair is wet or else you'd get blind" or "don't sweep the floor with the direction going out of your house to your door because you'd sweep your luck out - so sweep going in and just use a dust pan to pick up the dust"

I can think of several more...but one thing that is funny now, but not funny then...are the myths about the "aswangs" (ghouls and vampires). And one superstitious belief I clearly remember is that "aswangs are afraid of garlics. They cannot stand garlic" so you can just imagine how much garlic I keep in my room at night when I was a child :).

I found one entertaining article about Filipina wives and supestition...and how western husbands should deal with it :)

For a more interesting take on Superstition, go to Sunday Scribblings. The garlic photo above is taken from Wikipedia, where Aswangs are discussed in detail.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could the ghouls have been vampires too? Apparently, the don't like garlic either. :-)

Liza on Maui said...

hundred and one, good question. I think we only have one word for both ghouls and vampires, that's the "aswangs" - so I revised my post and added vampires :)

Tammy Brierly said...

Wet hair and sweeping in a certain direction are new ones for me. How funny humans can be ;)

bonggamom said...

My dad's hometown is Roxas City (Capiz), the "vampire" capital of the Philippines. You can imagine what my friends thought of that --- wow, COOOOL, have you seen a vampire? No actually I haven't, but there were rumors that a neighbor of one of my cousins WAS a vampire. You can imagine how musch we spied on her. Thanks for bringing up those childhood memories!!

Unknown said...

I once stepped on a crack...and broke my mother's back.

I still can't step on those darn things!

Happy partying!!!!

Regina said...

It's interesting how every culture has their superstitions! Thanks for sharing!

Kamsin said...

I can't help thinking it's bad luck to sleep with wet hair cause if you do you'll wake up with hair sticking all over the place! So many of these superstition stories seem to involve grandmothers!

paris parfait said...

Interesting how each culture has its own unique superstitions - which are understood and followed in different parts of the world. Globalisation is responsible, I think - all the travel, migration and immigration spreading customs around.

Becca said...

Fascinating! I've loved reading all the global superstitions!

gautami tripathy said...

Ghouls and vampires? Do they exist?