So just WHAT is a superstition? D
efinitions vary a bit but most indicate a credulity ( or readiness to accept or believe) regarding the super-natural.
An irrational fear of the unknown or unscientific; the mysterious induces “mis-directed reverence”.
When people, especially as large groups, collectively believe that a particular action, behaviour or circumstance will result in a consistent reaction, superstitions are born and sustained. Since those reactions or sustained consequences are not easily explained by natural (scientific) causes, beliefs and superstitions are nurtured.
One internet source tells us, further, that “Superstitions are beliefs or practices for which there appears to be not rational substance. It is a term designated to these beliefs that result from ignorance and fear of the unknown. Those who use the term imply that they have certain knowledge or superior evidence for their scientific, philosophical, or religious convictions.
An ambiguous word, it probably cannot be used except subjectively. Ignorance of natural causes leads to the belief that certain striking phenomena express the will or the anger of some invisible overruling power, and the objects in which such phenomena appear are forthwith deified, as example, in Nature-worship. Conversely, many superstitious practices are due to an exaggerated notion or a false interpretation of natural events, so that effects are sought which are beyond the efficiency of physical causes. With this qualification in mind, superstitions may be classified roughly as religious, cultural and personal”
GUYANESE BELIEVE THAT…
Against the fore-going background, let us look at just a SAMPLING of the superstitions that many (older) Guyanese, of various ethnic groups, adhere to.
You may try to recognise these examples as being in specific categories—like PREGANANCY/BABIES, WEDDINGS, FUNERALS(DEATH), NUMBERS(NUMEROLOGY), LUCK (CHARMS), PERSONAL SECURITY/TENURE, CLOTHES, RELIGION, SPECIAL DAYS and so on.
Older Guyanese believe that when two pregnant ladies are walking together, one should hold a stick, to safeguard BOTH their pregnancies; babies born with CAUL (the membrane which enclosed the foetus), will live to see all that others can’t. Guyanese mothers, especially Indo-Guyanese, put sacred marks on the baby’s foreheads, black/blue bands on little wrists, asafoetida etc; to ward off evil; (Blue nightgowns protects from Old Higue –vampires).
At weddings, the customs embrace those existing world-wide: the bride and groom must NOT meet on the day of the wedding, before meeting at the altar; “something borrowed, something blue, something old, something new” for the bride; the groom must arrive at the Church before the bride.
At funeral processions you must NOT point fingers to cars etc: don’t wear (muddied) shoes worn at funerals, in the house; certain persons should never bear the coffin and some ladies must not attend funerals if “it’s that time of the month”.
After funerals, my grandmother, like her-fellow Guyanese, would open all the windows of the house; would tell me if the perfume or cologne used on the dead was “smelling up the house”. Some new widows wear navy blue underwear to discourage deceased husbands from approaching them.
To ward off spirits (jumbies) she would curse violently if she suspected the spirit was around; would instruct me to come in the door “ by my back” and to turn all shoes “upside down” —- all to keep away the aggressive departed. (You’d know they were around if cobweb crossed your eyes whilst moving around at nights).
Guyanese too believe in lucky numbers, lucky colours and personal lucky charms. Many would wear indigenous GUARDS from childhood. There are even times when clothes are worn back-to-front (inside out) and they also believe in the extreme bad luck of “Black Friday the 13th” or the miracles of bleeding Physic nuts on Good Friday. They confront suspected house –thieves to stand in front of a BOOK-AND-KEY procedure, using the Holy Bible and a key, with a special chant.
In the wonderful(?), wide world of necromancy and witchcraft (Guyanese Obeah), superstitions abound! After all, Obeah is about healing, vengeance, security and a wide gamut of needs through the super-natural or the meta-physical. That will take another feature, but I’ll leave just two beliefs from Obeah for now: PSALM 53:55 must be read to rid oneself of persecution and pubic hair is a powerful item to be used in stopping the success of rivals. All done with the Obeah Spiritualist guidance, of course.
You must, as an older Guyanese, be wondering why so many other Guyanese superstitions are left out. Well those are for another time.
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