It’s amazing how many little traditions are tied to centuries of folklore, and fall is full of them.
Those cinnamon brooms that smell so nice? Traditional energy cleansers. Brooms were thought to sweep away bad spirits (not so different from “dirt and contaminants”) which leaves room for abundance. Cinnamon has long been associated with positive things like warmth and fortune.
VERY SUPERSTITIOUS
“Southern Superstition,” a folk art exhibit at the Art Station in Kennesaw, explores the South’s fascinating and haunting mix of traditions.
The boo hag
- Take, for instance, the boo hag, a being in Gullah Geechee folklore. Initially taking the form of a beautiful woman, the boo hag slips out of her skin at night and rides the chests of sleeping men until they wake up terrified. (We all know a boo hag, don’t we.)
- One way to keep out a boo hag? Keep a broom by the door, and she’ll be tricked into counting the bristles. Bet a cinnamon one would work even better.
I love what recreation program coordinator Ellen Roberts said about the spirit of the exhibit:
“If you further investigate that piece of folklore, you may learn more about history, why that specifically came about, what set of circumstances prompted people to feel that way, or what history, even further back, that they brought with them. So I think it actually comes down to learning more about history. I think through learning history, we can have better context for our present biases and feelings.”
🔮 READ MORE: What else we learn from Southern folklore
GREAT MOMENTS IN DENIM HISTORY
You can’t get more American than denim, and in Georgia, we have the last mill in the country to produce selvedge denim, a special type of denim prized for its old-school craftsmanship.
The AJC video team visited Mount Vernon Mills in Trion to see old-fashioned shuttle mills in action as they wove yards of this unique fabric. You can watch their whole series on YouTube here.
When I talked to video producer Jordan Pettiford about the experience, she shared something really charming: These machines, lovingly kept in working order, all have names. So they aren’t calling them “Machine 1″ or “Machine 2,” but rather “Elvis” or “Willie” or whatever.
In an age of mass production, it’s refreshing — and oddly emotional — to see the care and, yes, human touch, that goes into a beloved craft.
SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH
🛟 London, KY: It took a village to save a 15-month old girl when she nearly drowned last month. After she recovered, her grateful parents took her to reunite with the paramedics, flight nurses and other emergency responders who revived her. More from EMS1
🐈 Crossville, TN: The Helping Animals Rescue Team has a genius program for getting stray cats adopted. The team places stray cats with farmers, where they then evolve to an even cooler kind of cat: barn cat. Barn cats, of course, are an excellent form of pest control and require very little of their human employers. More from HART Rescue
⚖️ Austin, TX: You may have heard about the lawsuit that will require every prison in the state of Texas to have air conditioning. (That such things need to be won in a court of law is an unforgivable moral failure.) However, you may not have heard of the Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, a small group of formerly incarcerated women that fights for improvements to the prison system. They were one of three groups that filed the suit. More from Lioness JIWA
TELL US SOMETHING GOOD
Is there a cool event we need to know about? Something great happening in your town? Let us know. This is your space, too. SweetTea@ajc.com.
SOUTHERN WISDOM
I became part of a sisterhood. It was not a sisterhood that I necessarily had hoped to become part of, but I knew that there were women that helped me. I knew the importance of reaching back or using my own experience to help others going through it.
Today, thousands will strap on their running shoes for Atlanta’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The oldest charity 5K is in its 44th year. Area survivors told the AJC what it means to fight, to help others and to sometimes do both at the same time. More from the AJC
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