Dr. James T. Callow publications
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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for P533 returned 1136 results.
WHEN SOMEBODY RECEIVES A SNIP OFF A PLANT TO
TRANSPLANT, NEVER SAY "THANK YOU" OR
THE PLANT WILL DIE.
Where learned: MONTANA ; FROMBERG
Keyword(s): GIFT, PRESENT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Plant BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
When setting the table for dinner,
if you drop a piece of silverware on the floor
you will get unexpected company stopping at your house for a visit.
Informant really believes in this superstition. She
said it has happened to her on several occasions.
Informant says her mother brought this belief with
her when she came to the United States from Germany.
Where learned: GERMANY
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Use of Object |
Date learned: 00001900s
If a black cat walks across your path, you
will have bad luck.
Submitter comment:
Informant said her family strongly believed in
superstitions.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Mammal BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Color BELIEF -- Bad luck Animals |
Date learned: 00001950S
When leaving a house you should use the same door
that you used to enter the house, for good luck.
Submitter comment:
Informant says that she believes this; however, she
does not always practice it.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Good luck |
Date learned: 00001950S
You should always walk on the same side of the post
as your partner or you will have a fight.
Submitter comment:
Informant says that she believes this and tries
to practice it because it has happened to her on
several occasions.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): quarrel
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Date learned: 00001950S
WHEN SOMEBODY DROPS SILVERWARE ON THE KITCHEN
FLOOR, IT USUALLY MEANS COMPANY IS COMING OVER.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; SAGINAW
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Date learned: 00001970S
Always hold your breath when passing a cemetery. If
you do not you will "inhale" death.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; Carbon Hill
Date learned: 00001950S
Never step on a grave. Because if you do, you will make
a dead person angry because you are showing disrespect.
Where learned: ALABAMA ; Carbon Hill
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001950S
You are never to look at your shoes when you walk
or you will be considered poor. Kids are punished
for this because strangers would automatically
pity them, thinking this was the first pair of
shoes they ever wore.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Date learned: 00001950S
You should never point at a rainbow or you or
your child could lose a hand.
Where learned: THAILAND
Date learned: 00001960S
On Christmas Eve day, it is good luck if the
first person to enter your house is a man and
bad luck if it is a woman.
Where learned: KANSAS ; Manhattan
James Callow Keyword(s): FIRST FOOTING ; SEXISM
Date learned: 00001920S
You should never give anyone a religious gift.
It is a sign of bad luck. A friend had died
and left her relative a beautiful rosary that
had come from a monastery. The relative thought
that this was a sign of bad luck so she tried to
give it to another woman. She didn't want it
either because she was afraid that something
would happen to her. She was forced to keep it
and she said she didn't think anything came from
it but she still refuses to give any religious
gifts to anyone.
Where learned: KANSAS ; Manhattan
| Subject headings: | Favorites BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00001920S
When you go and visit friends you should
always leave by the same door that you entered.
If you don't it means that you will fight with
them soon.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Date learned: 00001930S
Before my grandmother got married she was
told that she should never love her husband
or her children more than she loved God. If
she did God might decide to take them to heaven
for himself.
Submitter comment: My grandmother is very religious.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Gods BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Birth BELIEF -- Marriage BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Date learned: 00001940S
Only Child
At dinner times a person can tell who an only
child is because they eat the slowest. I am an
only child and always the last to leave the table.
This was told to me by another only child.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UTICA
Date learned: 11-16-1990
IF ONE DROPS SILVERWARE THEY WILL RECEIVE A VISIT SHORTLY.
DROPPING A KNIFE INDICATES A MALE VISITOR, A FORK
INDICATES A FEMALE AND A SPOON INDICATES A CHILD.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | Observation BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Date learned: 00001930ca
Wearing a vibrant color such as red, yellow or pink on Good
Friday is setting yourself up for bad encounters all
throughout the day.
Submitter comment:
Bright colors represent happy times and these colors would
hardly be appropriate to be worn on Good Friday.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): Clothes, Jacket.
| Subject headings: | 663 Good Friday BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Measure of time WeekDayHour BELIEF -- Bad luck |
Date learned: 00-00-1989
There is a saying we used to do on the way
home from school. "Step on a crack, break your
mother's back. Step on a line, break your
father's spine." We would try not to step on
any cracks or lines. If we did, we were always
afraid that it would come true.
Where learned: NEW JERSEY ; Tuckerton
Date learned: 00001970S
It is the custom in Christian families to put
one lighted candle in the window on Christmas Eve
to symbolize that Mary and Joseph would be welcome
in your home if they were searching
for a place to stay like they were so long ago.
Where learned: NEW JERSEY ; Penns Grove
James Callow Keyword(s): HOSPITALITY
Date learned: 00001980S
If you leave a hat rack empty then you
will never have visitors again. You may
lose all your friends.
Where learned: ILLINOIS ; CHICAGO
James Callow Keyword(s): hat rack
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank BELIEF -- Number Emptiness, nothingness, zero |
Date learned: 00001982CA