Tag Archives: Left Hand

Accepting Gifts with Left Hand

Title: Accepting gifts with left hand

General Information about Item:

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

Informant Data:

  • Priya Shukla is a ‘21 attending Dartmouth College. She is pre-med, majoring in English. She was born in London but currently lives in Boston, MA. Her parents are both Hindu. Her mother is from Jaipur and her father is from Agra. Both of her parents speak Hindi, and Priya and her younger brother, Chetan can both read and write Hindi.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Indian culture, the left hand is considered unclean, so if you accept a gift or money with your left hand, you will have bad luck. Another similar superstition is that people believe if your left palm starts itching, you will soon lose the money from your hands.
  • Social Context: This superstition is the most commonly seen out of the three that this informant told us about. She said that people must use their right hand for doing many specific actions, such as accepting a gift or money and during puja.

Item:

  • This superstition is the belief that the left hand is unclean.

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

Transcript: “So its inauspicious to use your left hand for anything, so if you’re holding food or like you’re doing a prayer, you always have to use your right hand. Um, or if you’re taking money or gifts anything like that on a holiday, you always have to use your right hand to hold it.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This superstition is an example of a magic superstition: If you accept a gift or money with your left hand, then you will have bad luck.

Collector’s Name: Marlee Montella

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Left hand