July 28, 2014

Unique Pineapple : Superstitions of Yonder Years

When we were kids we were exposed to Old Wives' Tales. One of them concerned our habits of eating and selection of food.

Some aunties would tell us not to eat bananas which are joined together. We girls must choose bananas which are whole, as one. Otherwise in the future we would give birth to deformed babies, like Siamese twins.


Image may contain: fruit and food
We were also told tales of unusual foods which we must never eat like a duck with a strange web feet, or a chicken egg with two egg yolks.

Recently a friend Aminah Wong gave me a photo of this strange pineapple...We had a good laugh. Shall we tell our young unmarried friends they must not eat this pineapple? They may have kids with  6 legs!! Or may be SIX toes?

 Chrysalids first edition 1955.jpg

Now this brings me back to my English Literature book called " The Chrysalids". Lots of interesting tales there too.

Of course my aunts never read the book, but they were similar to those characters in the book, but the punishment was never dealt to us or to them.

What kinds of superstitions did you grow up with?













2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a kid we were told nt to say anything when a coffin passed by, as the dead will be listening!

Ensurai said...

That's a caring way our elders want to protect us from anything bad...Good advice.

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