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Becky
The festivity of imbuing discarded DNA
by Becky - November 26, 2007 - 5:14 PM

A friend of mine is studying in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and she recently participated in Loi Kratong, an all-out lantern lighting festival that falls on the full moon of the 12th lunar month (usually November) images12.jpgin which one places some money, a strand of one’s hair and a fingernail clipping on a handmade raft (i.e. kratong) to expiate bad luck and incur some good. The kratong is then set afloat in the river with thousands of others, while paper lanterns and fireworks take over the sky.

That got me thinking about rituals, ceremonies, and superstitions involving the application or appropriation of one’s DNA…For instance:

  • Superstitions in many Eastern cultures warn against clipping one’s nails at night
  • Many spells (of a contested variety) are purportedly enhanced by affixing the hair or fingernail clippings of the spell’s subject into the candle; voodoo dolls are similarly manufactured.
  • On the Cook Islands, firstborn sons undergo a “hair cutting ceremony” in which up to 400 friends and relatives attend, each receiving a strand of the boy’s hair; the ceremony is a demonstration that the son is not afraid of giving his mana/power over to others, as perpetually long-haired ancestors believed
  • During a Danpatsu Ceremony, a retiring rikishi (i.e. sumo wrestler) will have strands of his chonmage cut by paying fans (chonmages were originally worn for pure function: to keep the samurai helmet in place; finally, a Sumo elder called an okakata will snip the remaining topknot.

And of course there are those who’ll analyze your fingernails or hair (or, my favorite, your irises!) for nutritional deficiencies

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Comments (7)

  1. My mom and step-dad (both now deceased) went to an iridologist for years because they didn’t trust doctors. Ah, the irony.

    posted by Larriann on 11-26-2007 at 6:15 pm

  2. I would dispute the Wiccan hair/fingernail thing. Perhaps a better word would be “Pagan” as Wicca is a religion, and has many variations, while Paganism is more encompassing. I would equate your example with saying that Christians handle venomous snakes to prove their piety… That may be true for certain denominations of Christians, but certainly does not hold true as a generalization.

    Thanks.

    posted by Tim on 11-27-2007 at 6:12 am

  3. I’d concur with Tim in disputing the Wiccan hair/fingernail point. Wicca is a 60 odd year old religion – the practices you mention are more occult based, and witchcraft and pagan related.

    posted by Gill on 11-27-2007 at 8:49 am

  4. Of course–and didn’t mean to imply any shade toward any Wiccans; I have many friends who are Wiccan, and then some who are more vaguely Pagan. Using hair and fingernail clippings isn’t an indictment of any kind; it’s just a practice, and one that Wiccans certainly use. And I’m sure there are Wiccans who prefer not to deal with hair or fingernails. All this is certainly not to say that Buddhists, Christians, Scientologists et al. are not incorporating DNA into their rituals…

    posted by Becky on 11-27-2007 at 2:28 pm

  5. Becky,
    I agree with Tim and the others about the Wiccan thing.
    That said, nothing new under the sun is there? Modern DNA analysis in determining an identity is ancient. They didn’t call it DNA then, of course, but the practice of using something that contains a person’s “essence” or identity for a purpose is so old that…well, it must be in our DNA.

    posted by Brian on 11-27-2007 at 3:29 pm

  6. I have never read in any book about Wicca where it instructs one to use hair or fingernails in spellwork. It is possible that a Wiccan may practice Witchcraft and use this technique but to my knowledge that practice is not Wicca-based, so it wouldn’t be termed a ‘Wiccan Spell’. No offense taken with your post here but just thought I’d clarify.

    posted by Mel on 11-27-2007 at 4:03 pm

  7. Yeah, sorry to disappoint you Becky, but having been a ‘non Wiccan’ witch for the last 20+ years, and having studied many different religions and pagan practices…
    I can assure you that you are quite mistaken.

    Many pagan practices (including Voudon) involve energy working, and some of them will include hair or nail clippings- and many also work just with energy.

    I believe you have confused witches and Wiccans, which are two very different things.

    All Wiccans are Pagan.
    Not all Pagans are Wiccan.
    Not all witches are Wiccan.
    Not all Wiccans are witches.
    Not all Pagans are witches.

    posted by Ann on 11-27-2007 at 7:00 pm

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