Is there a new moon tonight? Can’t really see the moon as it is cloudy and misty.
Anyway for those still looking for a lover here is a little incantation.
But please folks, I have to add a small print: if lover had not turn up, we would like you to know that our site must not be held responsible for it. LOL
This should be recited on seeing the first new moon after midsummer
Charming a Lover – The Incantation
All hail new moon, all hail to thee
I prithee, good moon, reveal to me
This night who shall my true lover be;
Who he is and what he wears
And what he does all months and years.
When Marilou, Jon and I went back home to Marag in 2006, my son, James, came with us. It was the first time for him to see the place where I grew up.
Marag was so different from how I remembered it but luckily there were plenty of familiar friendly faces still living there, people who knew my father and my family. They seemed to be happy to see us after all the years and situations that have gone by.
Anyway, the people treated us like royals. They can’t seem to do enough for us.
Unfortunately for my son, he missed most of the fun because he developed a fever and he was in bed for a day. Despite giving him paracetamol, his fever would not go down. He was really hot and lethargic.
Although Marag have evolved a bit from when I was a child there 35 years ago, one thing remained the same, no doctor in sight or any medical facilities in existence.
I was so worried about my son. My Manang Linda, my cousin who was our host for our visit, took one look at my son and said that James looked like he was “naanannongan“. She reckoned that the spirit of my dead father was overjoyed to see my son in Marag. The spirit meant no harm.
To make my son feel better, Manang Linda advised to scrub James’s feet with young leaves from the Dugmon tree (Pomelo tree), which, thank goodness, grow profusely in Marag.
I am not particularly superstitious but since paracetamol was not working then I certainly had no problem with the dugmon leaves scrubbed on the soles of my son’s feet.
Just an hour after the ritual, my son was up and about and accompanied us to Alitag-gan, our old farm. I think he was pretty surprised at the place where we grew up. Certainly different from London!!!
Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.
– F. Scott Fitzgerald.
He is right of course, especially when you are in a bit of a competition with the Joneses. Watching them having all the luck is like a kick in the gut. Hahaha, I am not bitter!
Did you know that there are plenty of superstitions that can bring you good luck?!!!
Superstition: Luck
Here are a few:
– Find a four-leafed clover.
– Carrying a rabbit’s foot.
– Finding a horseshoe.
– Nailing a horseshoe to a door.
– Ladybird landing on you.
– See a shooting star.
– A petal from a cherry blossom landing on you.
– Finding a penny.
– Finding the end of the rainbow, which has a pot of gold.
– Clothes worn inside out brings you good luck. (I know of one lucky fellow! Well he is married to me, how much more luck can he get!)
– Wearing new clothes on Easter!
– Putting money on pocket/s of new clothes.
– Wearing your birthstone will bring you good luck. Mine is garnet – my birthstone.
-Wishing on a chicken wishbone. Each of the two persons hold on to the wishbone and then pull it apart; the person with the bigger part from the wreck wishbone, will have to wish which will come true.
– Goldfish in the pond bring good luck.
– Receive a new purse with money on it will bring you bounty and luck.
I am not very superstitious but I would like to have some luck right now.
Apparently any of the following below will bring you luck. One can only hope.
What they say about luck:
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
– E.B. White
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People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.
– Anne Tyler
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Some folk want their luck buttered.
– Thomas Hardy
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Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
– Earl Wilson
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The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.
– Bret Harte
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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.
