Superstitions

Moulting Snake Skin

Do you subscribe to superstitions? In this day and age, no one should and yet in our own way we do. It is irrational, some may think, but then again at the end of the day what is the harm.

Coming from a Catholic country, the Philippines, superstitions are aplenty; some are so strange, you would think no sane person would practice them and yet some do. But then again there is more to this world than meets the eye. We can never tell something for sure.

My favourite superstition is the skin from a snake which when left between pages of someone’s book would make that someone more intelligent. Oh yeah!!!

Anyway, sometimes when a snake sheds its skin it can come in one single piece. BTW shedding of skin is called molting or molting.

To explain the superstition a bit more.. well, one summer’s day during harvest time, my posh mother was tasked to go to the farm to see to the people harvesting our palay. Palay is what you call the rice before they are harvested and husked ready to cook.

While at the farm my mother spied this piece of snake-skin from a dark corner underneath our kubo (hut). Like the good mother that she is, she immediately picks this skin which unbeknownst to her was still just about attached to the snake. She said she had the fright of her life but she was not letting go of the skin, so with superhuman power, she ran for dear life with the snake after her. My mother said that she had never ever run that fast and she probably never will again. She did get the skin and apportioned it to us her four children. I dare say it worked as we did alright at school.

For weeks we were in stitches, laughing and just about rolling on the floor. It was so funny the way my mother told us the story. To these days I think she would say we owed our “intelligence” to her because of that snake-skin. She may be right!!!! hehehe

Did you know?

In Japan, inserting some snakeskin in wallets or purses will bring riches.