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Superstition 1:

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Item: “Don’t drink milk after eating fish, otherwise you will be ugly.”

General Information:

• Customary Folklore, Magic Superstition
• English
• Pakistan

Informant Data:

• Ahsan Azim is from Lahore, Pakistan. He has spent roughly 10 years of his life there and considers himself Punjabi. 

Contextual Data:

• Ahsan believes that superstitions are “definitely” prevalent in Pakistan and stated that growing up, he believed in a lot of them. However, he thinks that belief in superstition varies with social class and quality of education. Socially, Ahsan states that this superstition is commonly stated during meal time, like during lunch or dinner, or whenever milk and fish may be consumed together. 

Ahsan Azim Interview Transcript

Informant’s Comments:

• Ahsan truly believes in these superstitions and that they are common in Pakistani culture. However, he also believes that belief in various superstitions often depend on social class and education.

Collector’s Comments: I remember this superstition, while I was growing up in Pakistan, and that it was one of the ones that I truly believed at the time.

Collector’s Name: Sheherzad Mohydin

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore, Magic Superstition, Pakistani Superstitions

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Superstition 2:

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Item: “If you want good luck before a big event, eat sweet yoghurt before leaving the house.”

General Information:

• Magic superstition, Law of Similarity
• English
• Pakistan

Informant Data:

• Sheherzad is from Lahore, Pakistan. She spent the first 18 years of her life there before coming to Dartmouth College. She identifies as Punjabi.

Contextual Data:

• This superstition is followed any time someone has an important event to attend. To this day before a big event such as a presentation or interview, Sheherzad continues to eat sweet yogurt before she leaves her home.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

• “If you have a big event coming up and you want it to go well then you should probably eat like sweet yogurt or something sweet, I don’t know if it has to be yogurt but you should eat something sweet before leaving the house and good things will happen to you”

Informant’s Comments:

• Sheherzad believed in this superstition growing up, as her family followed its beliefs. They always ate something sweet, although not always yoghurt, before a big event.

Collector’s Comments:

• This is similar to what my mom told me about Chinese culture, where you eat certain sweet foods before big events, or even small ones, so that some of the “sweetness” of the food rubs off onto the result of your event.

Collector’s Name: Edric Wung

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore, Food Superstition, Pakistani Superstitions