If you ever wondered why they’re called “old wives tales” and not “old men’s tales”, you’re not alone. Short answer I came across: men don’t tell them nor do they care about it! It really seams to come down to that.
Since I don’t want this blog to be ‘women only’ kind of thing I asked a few men if they knew any “old wives tales” and I got a quick ‘NO’ from almost all of them. Even if their mothers, grandmothers or any other woman tried to tell them about it they didn’t care or listen to it. Women on the other hand had a few on top of their heads. I believe there’s also a difference between “old wives tales” and good old superstitious, though I’m not exactly an expert on that. In my limited experience on both subjects the first one comes with a solution or ‘cure’ and the latter is just a ‘warning’ or a ‘suggestion’ on what to do to gain luck, keep it or not to loose it.
Some I thought were very ‘Croatian’ turned out to be very common and some are even based on true stories. If you read the post on my favorite books (part one and only for now) then you’re already familiar with Croatians fear of draft! Big one, that is. According to everyone and their aunt in Croatia, draft will be the end of you (in one way or the other). As much as I’d like to pen this to old wives tales or folklore story, I have experienced full wrath of draft myself. Every time I’m standing in the draft for a longer period of time I have issues with my eyes, even though that’s not one of the things I was ‘warned’ it could do. According to, well everyone I know :the draft can cause all sorts of pains and misery. Ultimately it can be summed up with: illness of some kind. As I’m talking about it to my neighbor, she tells me one time she slept on the side of the bed by the (open) window she woke up next day with Bell’s palsy! When she went to see a chiropractor he asked if she was in the draft! Then there was ‘no sitting on the concrete’! It was mostly directed at girls, though I did hear it occasionally being told to the boys as well: every internal organ will catch cold and it will result in kidney failure or being unable to have children.
Then there were the universal ones: if you sit on the corner of the table you’ll never merry ( for men and women), if you leave a drink in the glass while a guest at somebody’s home you’ll leave the hosts in a fight, no chicken on New Years(you’ll scratch in the new year or things will go backwards), how you enter a New Year it’s how your whole next year will be ( my excuse to go out of country when I was younger so I’d travel and hopefully end up in a country that’s not the one of my origin), no eating for at least 30 min before going swimming (anything from debilitating cramps to drowning), plucking gray hairs will make two more grow in( actually it’s quite the opposite; if they’re in your eyebrows DON’T do it,just trim)…
Then there are some that mean one thing in one place and another elsewhere. Most cultures believe it’s bad luck if it rains on your wedding day, but the Italians have a positive twist on that situation. They have a saying : “sposa bagnata , sposa fortunata “, meaning she’ll be a lucky wife if it rains on her wedding day. The “Itchy Palms Mean Money’s Coming” or leaving. I was told if it’s your left ( in my case no dominant one) money will come your way and if it’s the right palm you’ll be giving money away. Then there are million and one about pregnancy: some say carrying it low it’s a boy, some other it’s a girl, some say if you “lose your beauty “ it’s a girl ( she took it from you!) and I’ve heard some say the opposite.
Well here you have it, misfits and friends! To sum it up ( in Wikipedia’s words): “An “old wives’ tale” is a colloquial expression referring to spurious or superstitious claims. They can be said sometimes to be a type of urban legend, said to be passed down by older women to a younger generation. Such tales are considered superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or inaccurate details. Old wives’ tales often centre on women’s traditional concerns, such as pregnancy, social relations, health and nutrition.”
I will write one about superstition, cause it leans onto this one, but rarely has a ‘remedy’ and don’t believe everything you’ve been told…by anyone!
*** ‘ I Told You So’ by Loverboy