Dr. James T. Callow publications
Browse by
Questions or comments on this site? Please email davidsor@udmercy.edu.
The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for P642 returned 558 results.
Wishing
When eating Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, cut out the
wishbone carefully without breaking it. Let the bone dry
overnight so it will snap easily. When the bone is dry, two
people take ahold of opposite ends of the wishbone. Then you
count to three, "one, two, three, go..." and each person pulls on
the bone at the same time until the bone breaks. Whoever gets the
larger segment of the bone has their wish granted. To cheat place
your thumb on the bone which connects the two bones together and
you push forward while they pull. This snaps the bone below the
connecting piece, making the other person's bone shorter.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; Frankenmuth
Date learned: 00-00-1976
Make a Wish
When driving over railroad tracks, pick up your feet and touch a
screw. While you are in that position, make a wish. If the tracks are
cleared, and you have remained with your feet up and in contact with
the screw, your wish will come true.
Submitter comment: I practiced this in high school with friends.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; SAGINAW
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Prayer SPEECH -- Gesture |
Date learned: 00001985ca
Cake candles resisting "blow out" are years until wish comes
true.
Where learned: OHIO ; CLEVELAND
James Callow Keyword(s): COUNTING
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Private birthday or anniversary BELIEF -- Measure of time Year BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Number Counting beliefs |
Date learned: 00-00-1991
Always say a prayer in a new car before you drive it. Also
hang a cross from the rear view mirror. This will assure you of
the longest and the most careful, safe ride.
Submitter comment:
My father told this to me when he bought my first car and I
have done it to every car that I have owned since.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; BIRMINGHAM
| Subject headings: | 686 Properties attributed to specific numbers or numerals individually. BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Sign Geometric figure Cross and its various modifications |
Date learned: 00-00-1968
While praying, be careful of what you pray for because what
you ask for just might be that very thing that you do not need.
For not everything we want may be what we need.
Submitter comment:
My mother always told me that before I asked God for a
blessing: think about it very carefully because those things that
we want are not always good for us to have.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00-00-1980
When the first child is born in the family hold it up to the
moon the first night of its birth for blessing from God.
Submitter comment:
My cousin was born on New Year's Day and my grandfather held
him up to the midnight moon and said a prayer.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; Linden
| Subject headings: | 686 Properties attributed to specific numbers or numerals individually. BELIEF -- Moon BELIEF -- Birth BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour BELIEF -- Prayer |
Always pray at night so that God will continue to give you
his blessings.
Submitter comment:
My mother always told me to say my prayers before I went to
bed.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Gods BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00-00-1987
Always wear a cross around your neck or put your prayers in
your shoe.
Submitter comment:
I was always told to keep my prayers in my shoe to keep evil
spirits away.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | ART CRAFT ARCHITECTURE -- Dress HandsFeet BELIEF -- Devil Demon BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Sign Geometric figure Cross and its various modifications |
Date learned: 00-00-1978
Toast
Sto Lat. This is a toast for special occasions, meaning "May
you live 100 years."
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; HAMTRAMCK
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Prayer SPEECH -- Formula |
Date learned: 03-00-1992
In grade school while eating lunch in the cafeteria, I would
see children drop food on the floor. But to be sure the food
wouldn't harm them when they picked it up to eat it, they would say
a little prayer;
God made dirt so it won't hurt
Put it in your mouth and it won't work.
Where learned: MISSISSIPPI ; Louise
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Belief CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- School BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Means of Causing or Avoiding Illness |
Date learned: 00-00-1970
Every year in March at Gabriel Richard High School in
Riverview, Michigan the Junior class receives their class rings.
It is traditional (since 1964) for the entire class to attend a
special mass in order to bless each student's ring and celebrate
the coming of their Senior year.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; RIVERVIEW
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- March CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- School CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Church BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00-00-1983
"Ojo" Remedy (Pink-eye)
A remedy for Pink eye (Conjunctivitis) is the breaking of an
egg and saying a pray over the egg three times. Place egg in a
shallow dish whole at the head of the bed of the infected person.
The "eye" under will remove the infection from the eye above.
Submitter comment: The informant was unsure of the spelling of this custom.
Where learned: DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): PRAYER
| Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Animal BELIEF -- Method of Curing |
Date learned: 00-00-1968
After eating a turkey and coming across a wishbone (a bone
similarly shaped to a horseshoe, but not as round) two people
should each hold an end, make a silent wish, then pull to break.
The person who gets the biggest half will have his/her wish come
true.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Measure of space: distance, height, depth BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 01-00-1979
If you don't say "in Jesus' name" at the end of a prayer it
won't be answered.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Prayer SPEECH -- Formula |
Date learned: 01-00-1977
Necklace Wish
If the locket on your necklace touches the clasp on the chain,
you must hold them together with your forefinger and thumb and make
a wish. Your wish will come true.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DEARBORN ; friends
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Prayer BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 00001960S
Many jobs around the house that I helped or watched my father
do required a time of one minute to be clocked and he could do it
without a watch or clock. He would just say ten Hail Marys and the
time had passed. This is a good way to let a minute pass by.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | Favorites CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Measure of time BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00-00-1980
Ring Day
There is a tradition at Dominican High School called Ring Day.
This is the day of the Ring Day Mass of the graduating seniors.
Seniors, traditionally, purchase "senior rings" which are blessed
at this Mass. It is a very sentimental event, because it means the
seniors are one step closer to leaving the place they have called
"home" for four years.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- School BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 00-00-1988
The Blessing
It amazes me how so many people can sit before a meal and not
say their grace. I was taught to begin each meal with a special
prayer of thanks. The prayer starts like this: Gracious Lord,
thank you for the food we are about to receive for the nourishment
of our bodies for Christ's sake. Amen.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 01-01-1970
Holiday
On Christmas Eve my family exchanges gifts after enjoying a
dinner with every one present. We give our thanks to God and
remember all of our family members who have passed before us.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- December 24 Christmas Eve CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial BELIEF -- Ghost Spirit Phantom Specter BELIEF -- Prayer |
ON A BIRTHDAY CAKE, A CANDLE IS PLACED AND LIT FOR EACH
YEAR OF THE PERSON'S LIFE. IF IN ONE BREATH THE
PERSON WHO HAS THE BIRTHDAY CAN BLOW OUT ALL OF THE
CANDLES, HIS WISH WILL COME TRUE.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; GROSSE POINTE
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Private birthday or anniversary BELIEF -- Prayer |
Date learned: 04-26-1972