Like Spitting in a Baby's Mouth
I've just heard that it's a Turkish custom for relatives to spit in a new-born baby's mouth, to convey some of their characteristics to the young fellow. Anyone know whether this is true?
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I've just heard that it's a Turkish custom for relatives to spit in a new-born baby's mouth, to convey some of their characteristics to the young fellow. Anyone know whether this is true?
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Zbigniew Herbert: Barbarian In The Garden
The Polish poet travels through Western Europe in the early 1960s. He's got no money, no guarantee he'll be let back into his country, and a prodigious knowledge of European history. "If the gods protect one from organized tours (through insufficient funds or strong character), one should spend the first few hours in a new city following a simple rule: straight ahead, third left, straight ahead, third right. One can follow the curve of a sickle.... I have been walking for over an hour without coming across an historical monument."
I know that in some regions in Italy spitting is regarded as a good way to ward off evil spirits or to bring good luck. However, it is rather a sort of dry spitting that is practised. So it is not as unhygenic as it may sound - but still rather strange.
Posted by: planetologist | January 21, 2008 at 01:33 PM
I never heard about it.
Posted by: baby boy | January 19, 2008 at 01:38 PM
i've grown up in turkey, and never heard of such a tradition. but i was always astonished by the different traditions in different regions in turkey, so it might be commonplace in some areas to which i haven't been, but it is certainly not widespread.
Posted by: ulas | January 18, 2008 at 06:17 PM
Without having checked the validity of this claim either, I have read somewhere that at some point in history it was a practice of Scottish midwives to place whisky (certainly not whiskey!) in a new born baby's mouth to ward off the evil eye.
Posted by: Norbert | January 18, 2008 at 04:30 PM