Woah,
easy there tiger! Don’t get too close to the screen whilst you’re reading this
article, you’ll strain your eyesight and get square eyes if you do. How dare
you pull that face at me, I’m only trying to help! Be careful though, if you go
outside with that scrunched up expression and the wind changes, your face will
stay like that!
Wondering
what the hell I’m talking about? Me too. However, as ridiculous as they sound
now each and every one of us was a sucker for them when we were kids. Some are
so inconceivable they’re laughable and others are just there to shake you out
of a certain behaviour. One thing they had in common though was that old wives
tales always did the trick.
Old
wives tales have been around since the first century, where ever since they
have been employed as some sort of tool to discourage needless behaviour. It’s
been an effective one at that, especially when you think nearly all old wives
tales are entirely fictional, or hugely exaggerated. The main aim of these
sorts of fables was to either plain scare you out of doing something, or to
teach you a lesson where it has a moral message behind it. Either way, after
two thousand years it still has the power to be utterly believable, no matter
how false and absurd the claim is.
I
was genuinely convinced that eating your crusts gave you hairs on your chest,
although I can’t understand why at nine years old I thought that was ever a
good thing. As for my sister, or any other female for that matter, wouldn’t
that send them running in the opposite direction to a pile of crusts?!
Carrots
were another one. My grandparents used to religiously tell me that eating lots
of them would help me see in the dark, obviously in order to encourage me to
eat my vegetables. I however, saw it as a golden opportunity to become my very
own superhero. I stupidly thought that if I ate a shedload of the orange stuff
I would have permanent night vision, having the power to being able to see as
well in the dark as I do in the daytime. I’m glad I didn’t pursue this Marvel
comic strip hero pipedream any longer though. I mean, how bad does “Carrotman!”
sound for a tough superhero?
The
list goes on. There are hundreds of little white lies that our parents and our
grandparents used to tell us when we were younger, more than likely passed down
from their own grandparents over years gone by. Swimming less than one hour
after eating food will lead to life threatening stomach cramps; an apple a day
keeps the doctor away; you’ll catch a cold if you go outside with wet hair; if
your ears are burning someone is talking about you; chocolate causes acne. The catalogue
of old wives tales is virtually endless. I could go on forever listing them,
which just shows the extent over generations and generations.
A
question I always seem to be stuck on however is, why do we continue to feed
these fabricated statements to our children and grandchildren, and in some
instances believe them ourselves deep into adulthood? We have a wealth of health
knowledge at our disposal, whilst medical science is advancing quicker than
lightning striking twice in the same place. This is in an age where we all
rush to our friend Google to research answers concerning our welfare, more
often or not looking for the worst possible outcomes. Do we then sometimes just
take what our mum tells us as a given, just to stop ourselves from logging on
and consequently avoiding hours on search engines scaring ourselves stupid?
You’d
think that by now we would believe doctors or dieticians over our worries
rather than some superstitious fables, but I somehow think that old wives tales
belong as a part of growing up. I would even go as far to say that they are
white lies similar to that of Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Yes, we grow out
of those two far quicker but I think looking back old wives tales were quite a
fun and simple way of keeping their children in check, even if the majority are
completely falsified.
So,
old wives tales range from the downright bizarre to the somewhat believable,
but we all fall for them as a kid. They have become something of a tradition
these days, going hand in hand with growing up, as parents and grandparents
alike use them to level a child’s behaviour. The scary thing is, we all know
that we’ll use them ourselves with our future children, even though we know
there isn’t an ounce of truth to be seen.
I
know this might sound a bit evil, but I am quite looking forward to tricking my
son or daughter into thinking that a sneezing cat is a sign of impending
wealth, or that breaking a mirror results in seven years bad luck. Anyway my
nose is itching so I must go, I’m expecting someone...
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