Current Superstitions
Fanny Dickerson Bergen
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
No matter how enlightened, chances are you've been raised around superstitious lore of one kind or another. Fanny Dickerson Bergen was one of the original researchers of North American oral traditions relating to such key life events and experiences as babyhood and childhood, marriage, wishes and dreams, luck, warts and cures, death omens and mortuary customs, and "such truck," as Huck Finn would say.
You'll be surprised at how many of these old saws you'll know. Here's a quote from Chapter One, Babyhood:
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is sour and sad,
Thursday’s child is merry and glad,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child must work for a living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonny, good and gay.
--Baldwinsville, N. Y.
All of these readings are as short as 5 minutes and no longer than 15 minutes, with plenty of pithy one-liners in the form of proverbs, always given with the locale they came from in Canada or the United States (with clear influences in British tradition). (summary by Denny Sayers) (4 hr 36 min)
Chapters
Babyhood | 14:08 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Childhood | 10:30 | Read by roolynninms |
Physical Characteristics | 10:34 | Read by Caitlin Kelly |
Projects | 34:06 | Read by Caitlin Kelly |
Halloween and Other Festivals | 7:36 | Read by Claire Goget |
Love and Marriage | 16:15 | Read by Caitlin Kelly |
Wishes | 6:11 | Read by Silver |
Dreams | 17:34 | Read by Silver |
Luck | 18:26 | Read by Andrew Lebrun |
Money | 4:12 | Read by Scherzando |
Visitors | 10:20 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Cures | 13:49 | Read by Kelli Robinson |
Warts | 10:42 | Read by Kelli Robinson |
Weather | 21:06 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Moon | 16:16 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Sun | 5:15 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Death | 15:37 | Read by Michael Corley |
Mortuary Customs | 7:27 | Read by Kelli Robinson |
Misc.: Actions | 13:54 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Misc.: Bodily Affections & Apparel | 9:37 | Read by Kelli Robinson |
Misc.: Customs, Days, Domestic Life & Various | 12:51 | Read by Kelli Robinson |
Reviews
Another gem from wonderful LibriVox volunteers
LibriVox populi
so there were superstition researchers who traveled and collected as did folksong researchers ? Check it out history and sociology buffs!!