After being here for almost seven months, I know that there isn’t much that raki and/or coffee cannot cure, but after hearing my boyfriend say that sea water was a good remedy towards migraines (I am a sufferer) I was intrigued to find out more.
I asked on Facebook for examples of remedies/cures/traditions and superstitions relating to health, and these are the responses I got!
- Being cold causes cold but drinking bay leaf tea will fix it.
- If you put your handbag on the ground it is bad luck and you will lose money.
- Smearing yoghurt onto the affected area will cure sunburn.
- If you are pregnant and you crave a particular kind of food and then touch your body, your baby will then have a birthmark the colour of that food in the place that you touched your body.
- If a baby is born with two crowns, it means their spouse will die. Alternative version- they will have two spouses.
- Caj Mali is a cure for everything.
- You must enter every room with your right foot.
- A good cure for cuts and bruises is to treat it with raw onion and salt.
- Sugared water is a cure for stomach upsets.
- Put a poultice of onion, soap, and olive oil onto the bruising.
- Hang garlic in the doorway of your house to ward off the evil eye.
- If your toddler is prone to dribbling, wipe the dribble with a piece of bread and then feed it (the bread, not the toddler) to a dog or cat to reduce the problem.
- Put on a babies clothes inside out to protect them from evil.
- Use hot sand to cover joints to cure rheumatic or arthritic issues.
- Sage/ sherebela- for everything.
- If a bolla/bullar (non venemous snake) lives near or in the foundations of a house, it is believed to be the houses protector.
- Oregano tea for an upset stomach.
- Hanging dolls or teddy bears from the front of a house to ward off the evil eye/ general evil.
- Smelling or eating a lemon to combat motion sickness.
- A mixture of freezing cold water and white vinegar to bring down a fever.
- Spitting behind someone to ward off the evil eye.
- If you think you are cursed by the evil eye, you must take a piece of burnt wood from a fire, drop it in water and if it floats you are ok. If it sinks you are not and you need to do a ceremony to remove the bad energy.
- Being barefoot will cause you to get sick.
- Take St Johns Wort (Lule Balsami)and mix with olive oil and seal in a glass bottle. Put somewhere warm or in contact with sunlight and leave for a couple of months until the oil goes red. Use for everything related to scars, cuts, injuries etc
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