We had two neighborhood parties recently and at one I listened intently to a few people discuss Italian superstitions like the Evil Eye. http://www.lifeinitaly.com/heritage/superstition.asp

Thought this was quite fascinating.

Cannot remember any German superstitions like this even though I will bet they have them?

[Donna]

Tal,

Thanks for the link..I did hear many time about the evil eye, growing up in an Italian household...My grandmother was from Messina,Italy and she believed in that very strongly..

The way to say it in Italian is mal occhio , it means bad eye...I always got headaches as a kid and my grandmother said I had the evil eye, she did the prayers and when she dropped the oil in the water, it separated..It was amazing to see...

Originally Posted by Donna

Tal,

Thanks for the link..I did hear many time about the evil eye, growing up in an Italian household...My grandmother was from Messina,Italy and she believed in that very strongly..

The way to say it in Italian is mal occhio , it means bad eye...I always got headaches as a kid and my grandmother said I had the evil eye, she did the prayers and when she dropped the oil in the water, it separated..It was amazing to see...

Yes, Donna, they did call it mal occhio at that party some of the time. http://pagan-wiccan-practice.suite10...m/the_evil_eye

Thought this was amusing. Taking a broom and salt into a new house seems like another one of these along with burying St. Joseph.

[Sidney Lanier]

To each his/her own, and in my mind I don't rule out the possibility of anything, but sorry, I can't take this too seriously.... I say this, of course, with fingers crossed! '-)

[chelsea24]

Hi Tal, I grew up in an Italian neighborhood too and the "evil eye" or malok (sp?) was taken very seriously. Everyone wore the gold hand with the last two fingers out to ward off the evil eye. Of course, coming from Cicero everything was 18k gold and fell off a truck somewhere. Also, wearing red, kept you from being "overlooked" So the women, if they were going to some event where they knew they would be seeing another woman they didn't particularly trust or care for, would wear red so as not to be "overlooked" which was just another form of the "evil eye". lol It was really a great childhood that didn't leave me with any neurosis of course. lol

[tony]

I can remember the street fights over the malok. (mah-LOK with the O long as in oh in my family.)

I'm not sure, but that truck in Chelsea's neighborhood? I think I used to drive one like it. It was hard to keep stuff from falling off.

(Wondering if Donna has a malok smiley?)

[nONIE]

Growing up in a Jewish household my family also believed in the evil eye very strongly. At least the older generation did. When I was born grandparents and aunts and uncles would not look at me for fear of giving me the evil eye thus putting some sort of curse on me. They couldnt look at me until I was 6 mos. old. Guess its a common european superstition but I cant : remember what the yiddish term for evil eye was.

Can anyone help me out with that term? I will lay awake nights until I can think of it!! :

[redwitch]

Think it's ayen-hore in Yiddish, but not positive. I know in German it's der bose blick (with umlauts over the o). I also remember that it was important to say, "poo, poo, poo," after you thought someone gave you the evil eye -- the Yiddish/German way to pretend spit 3 times.

Originally Posted by Nonie

Growing up in a Jewish household my family also believed in the evil eye very strongly. At least the older generation did. When I was born grandparents and aunts and uncles would not look at me for fear of giving me the evil eye thus putting some sort of curse on me. They couldnt look at me until I was 6 mos. old. Guess its a common european superstition but I cant : remember what the yiddish term for evil eye was.

Can anyone help me out with that term? I will lay awake nights until I can think of it!! :

"ayin hora" evil eye

[nONIE]

Red & Tal, Thankyou so much for the reminder. Ya know, I thought of it on the way to crispers today but I thought it was kena hora, mabe just my dads yiddish accent made it sound that way. He was born in Poland and didnt come to this country until his teens so he never lost that adorable accent.

Hey Red & Tal, Howd ya know that???? Anyway, Ill sleep good tonite. Thanks again!! :bigthumbsup:

Red, you are something else, yes, yes, yes, my dad always did the poo poo poo to keep bad things from happening! Is there anything you dont know???