Touching the Feet of Elders

Title: Touching the feet of your elders

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Sarina Kothari
  • Date Collected: 11/12/18

Informant Data:

  • Sarina Kothari is a ‘21 attending Dartmouth College. She is a pre-med student studying Biology and Math. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but currently lives in Orlando, Florida. Her family is Hindu, and she speaks some Hindi at home, but can not read or write. Her parents are from Bombay (Mumbai).

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Elders are highly respected in Indian culture, so by touching their feet and putting your hands over your head, it is showing respect to them. If you don’t do this, then you are disrespecting them, and the will not give you their blessing so you will have bad luck.
  • Social Context: Sarina learned this superstition from her parents and grandparents. It is something people practice quite often today. She explained that if you meet and elder person, like a grandparent, you must touch their feet with your hands and put it over your head. She grew up practicing this and still does it today whenever she is with her elders.

Item:

  • This superstition is tied to social manners and respect for elders in the Indian culture.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript: “So whenever you see an older grandparent or like someone older than you, not like a parent but like a grandparent age, then you have to like in my culture like in Hindu culture, it probably different in North and South India, but for me, whenever I see someone at a grandparent’s age, I have to touch their feet with my hands and also put it over my head. It signifies that you respect them and if you like don’t do that then it means you don’t respect your elders. It’s a common theme of like whatever you respect in Indian culture, you have to put your hands to that then out it over your head like that. It just signifies that they’re like blessing you, so if you want blessing from older people, you have to do that to get blessings. And if you don’t do that then its considered disrespectful and then you’ll get bad luck.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This superstition is an example of a conversion superstition: If you meet and elder, then you will have not get their blessing and have bad luck, unless you must put your hands to their feet then over your head.

Collector’s Name: Marlee Montella

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Elders

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