# Evil eye on chefs...



## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

We were talking about Evil Eye on pets...
In Greece we believe that the evil eye affects a very good cook and suddenly with no particular reason the food he prepares is destroyed 
These stories are very common among ancient nations...

What is the Evil Eye?
People here belive that if a beautiful person walks on the street and people are admiring it , this energy of admiration is accumulated on the person who suddenly feels dizzy and ill...
Of course this happens if people admire you for certain reasons.
If you bake excellent cookies or if you make the best wedding cakes or the best kokoretsi. Just ordinary everyday things... hehehe

So if you want to prevent your self form the evil eye you have to wear a small blue bead...
They say that people with blue eyes can give you the worst kind of evil eye.

Housewives in Greece take certain simple precautions to avoid evil eye while they are cooking.

If they prepare a lemon sauce with egg they send two or three air kisses to the bowl while they are stirring the sauce: Mouts mouts mouts  So your lemon sauce is aways a hit!!

When they are baking cookies they have to stay silent and think continously of their loved ones. This is how they keep away the jealousy of the neighborhood.

The best is for backlava. In order to prepare a good backlava you have to have around your best friend and gossip continously! This is easy to explain why they say that. Backlava is so sweet that it can neutralize the bad words of gossip !!!

BUT if the damage is done. If you have the Evil Eye on you , someone must say the particular spell that removes the evil eye! Remember you must not sleep having the evil eye on you!!It's very dangerous!!

If you do not have anyone that knows the spell, send Athenaeus an email.
I know the magic words but I cannot tell you because I will lose my powers to remove the Evil Eye...
The spell must be trasfered to you in Easter by a man...

I am positive now of what you are thinking about Greeks...

:smoking:


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

When I was spending my summers in Greece as a kid I must of heard this story a hundred times along with the same old women reading my fortune in the coffee grounds. I have never been a superstious person, but my Greek aunts all belive very strongly in this. To this day I have never owned a blue eye, I prefer the owl for the symbol of wisdom.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

:lol:

Ok but if you ever feel dizzy with no reason drop me a line to start the ...ksematiasma ( remember ?  )


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Yes I remember but the belife of this was stronger with different areas of my family. For instance my relatives in Connecticut belive very strongly in this and do say the prayers when they get a headache. My other relatives here in Chicago don't belive in this but they are very strong in the Greek Orthdox church and put more faith in this than the prayers to remove the evil spirt. I always found that very interesting the difference between the two groups and their beliefs in the evil eye.

I will keep you in mind next time I get a headache Athenaus. :roll:


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Athenaeus,

I Cooked all day and I have a big headach

Should I be concerned with this evil eye ?:suprise: :crazy: 
cc


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Bond,

Like me you must get many headaches....


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Oh Bond, You got me 

TOUCHE

i KNEW i SHOULD OF LEFT THIS THREAD ALONE
CC


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

I was trying to be informative but Bond started AGAIN!!! 

You have headaches if someone is thinking of you too.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

But it isn't just headaches, it is any number of things. I don't like the idea of losing your cooking skills because someone is jealous of you or thinking of you.... If that was the case then Cape Chef would of lost his skills a long time ago.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

I love you Nicko:blush: 
cc


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks! I had a terrible headache and It's over after this!


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Ahh a such a fiesty and fun thread.... I think it would be interesting to hear the history of the evil eye and how it got its start? Athneaus please step up to the mike...


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

Athenaeus, I bought a blue "eye" bead while in New Orleans. I had wanted one since I was a kid and visited the Greek neighborhood of Chicago. Well, I lost it and ordered another! Is it okay to give them to loved ones as a gift?
I have a glass one over my front door, can you have too many??
Thanks!
Here is my source:

http://www.casacorazon.com/webstore/..._id=8530578_79


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## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

My mother taught me the secret of the hex...which must be the northern version of your evil eye.

The best thing I can do with it, of course, is to make a man's hair fall out!

mwah ha ha ha ha!


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Does it work, Nancya?


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## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

Just ask my balding brother......


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

:lol: Nancy you are really something!!

May I have this "recipe" please. I could use it on my rivals in courts...

Mbrown. I checked in the site you sent but I didn't see any blue eyed beads... Maybe I didn't search well the "Kitch" department!!

Seriously now. It's ok to give blue beads for gifts but to close ones. 
If you want to wear this bead on you then it must not been visible!!! In case you don't have a bead all you have to do in order to avoid evil eye is o wear a shock backwards, I mean all you have to do is not to be perfect!!So even if someone sends you his bad energy the energy won't harm you because it harms only perfection  ( That's why Nicko I was worried about cc's skills...  )

As for the door we do the same every Christmas and New Year 

The blue bead as decorative is never used alone!! You have to hand along a pomegranate (symbolizes abundance) and... a horseshoe because it symbolizes strength...

Newly weds especially the groom should step on a horse shoe you know why... in order to be efficient as husband, I mean never to get tired... (I know, husbands are optimistic creatures, they think that what you wish most in your life is to exhaust them... ) 

I can talk about those things for hours. 

I Forgot the most important!!!! Plants are getting the evil eye too.
I have some blue beads on my gardenias and my beloved roses!!

And wine drinkers too!! 
Ancient Greeks used to have on their drinking cups that they were like bowls, two eyes that they were looking at you angrily...
I think I will scan a couple of pictures of ancient greek drinking cups to see what I mean.

Dear Nicko as you see, I took the mike and started karaoke AGAIN :lol:

As for the origins I really have to check and study I do not have every answer in my pocket 
You confuse me guys!!
I thought that were going to talk about cannibalism and I was searching about the origins of this interesting habbit


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

This is a scanned picture of Sir John Bordman's book, Athenaean Black Figured Vases.

This is a drinking cup, called kylix.


Look at those angry eyes...


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

And all of the time and energy I've spent working on cursed ground, believeing I had to have a green thumb.....:lol:


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

I'm getting a headache over all this talk about headaches


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Your eyes...
Ron, they don't look light...
Could they be.....
BLUE???

   



I always loved blue eyes. It's Athanaeus's fault that I now fear them!


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

No Pastachef, my eyes are not blue 

My eyes are green:lips: 

Ron


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## chefboy2160 (Oct 13, 2001)

I guess its good for me that I still have my hair . Yikes a curse .
Ill stick with the here and now thank you , but thats just my opinion ..............


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## anneke (Jan 5, 2001)

Call me crazy but I'm willing to bet money that a lot of these superstitions started with someone trying to explain away their obsessive compulsive disorder. Just think: if Jack Nicholson's character in 'As Good as it Gets' happened to have lived a few centuries earlier, he could have been a high priest! You have to admit, the 'remedies' described by Athenaeus have an uncanny resemblance to OCD symptoms.

Darn, burnt my toast AGAIN...


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

I am going to report you two very true incidents that have to do with evil eye.
I remember my self very young in the village of dad in Mani when a poor horse for no reason fell on the ground dizzy...
I remember that because I was very yound and this tall horse fell suddenly down with no reason.
They called the priest of the village who read the spell against Evil Eye and the horse got well!!!

When I first started working as a lawyer I use to have a collegue 10 years older who was from Cyrpus. When Turks invaded the island in 1974 he just had the time to escape ( his family was arrested and since then is lost) he arrived to Greece exhausted, hungry, with one shoe...

When I first told him that I am dizzy and I must have the Eviul Eye , he started having fun of me wondering how an educated person can believe in such crap... He ordered me to leave the office to go for a walk to get some fresh air and he was certain that I would feel much better...He was right

I must confess you. As long as I worked with Andreas, Evil Eye never affected me... I mean when I was feeling wierd I jumped up and tried to feel better... If I was at home and I was feeling as if I had the Evil Eye, I called him and he started laughting... This laught must have been the anti-evil eye spell 


I think that is phychological, is like self-hupnosis or self-suggestion I do not know the term in English...

I don't know but the horse got well. Do you think that got well because it was afraid of the priest?? 

The best reading about how magic functions- I am not talking about recipes and crap -but of how things work in human's brain is by far, Sir John's Frazen, The Golden Bough.

I think that people who deal with the public , like chefs...must read this book.
Before reading "Kitchen Confidential" I suggest you read this book first...
This book is a classic also for those who deal with stock market.
You can read it on line . I read classic books on line in barthleby.com 

As for the blue eyes... Look. In Greece and in mediterranean ,blues eyes are very rare , so since they are rare and impressive people started spreading rumours that blue eyes bring the evil...or they have some special identitities...

So, to avoid evil eye apart from the blue bead hand a garlic. 
Papa has written a very nice message in his message board about garlic against evil eye. I will look for it in the archives and post it here.

Papa's stories are the best anyway


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Even though lovely, your hat is too heavy, Ron. You might wanna take it off! :crazy: :lol:


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

I couldn't agree with you more! I hate hats! 

I just had to post that PIC for the benefit of the evil eye conversation. That pic is one of many looks from my portfoliofrom back in my stage acting days.

Here is a more recent PIC of me taken last winter outside my cabin in the woods.  

Ron


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

I would love to read Papa's story. I hope you can find it. Whatever the 'evil eye' is, my grandfather surely believed in it. He used to make a hand gesture behind his back whenever he met up with certain people. I asked my mom why he did it, and she told me he was warding off the evil eye. I couldn't ask him, because he didn't speak English


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

We've got the evil eye legend in Jewish culture, too. For instance, one shouldn't compliment someone's looks too much (especially a baby's) lest the evil eye notice and cause misfortune. My grandmother used to do a symbolic spit and say "Ptooh!) to keep the evil eye away. My Greek "Yaya" next door did a similar ritual (I believe it was "Ptooh-ptooh ptoosooh!") or something like that. I recall seeing large eyes painted on the bows of boats in Greece when I visited there. We share that belief, I guess. Yet another example of why I feel so at-home among my Greek friends.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

From: Constantine Alexander <[email protected]> 
Date: Wed Aug 29, 2001 9:12 pm
Subject: Speaking of the evil eye ...

Dear Suzan:

Thank you for that informative posting on Arcadia!
Vivian stirred a lot of memories for us with her
wonderful article!

In reference to the evil eye, I would like to say that
during the 15th century, in the Ionian Islands, people
came to believe that hanging whole wreaths of garlic
on the windows during the early days of summer would
prevent bad spirits from entering their house at
night. According to the Greek Orthodox Church, this
was an acceptable practice because garlic was one of
the favorite seasonings of Jesus, and the evil spirits
were deterred by this connection.

Even today, in Zakynthos and other islands, people
hang garlic in their windows. The truth of the matter
is that on many of these Greek islands, it is during
these months that scorpions, spiders and other
poisonous insects come to life and tend to enter
people's homes. Hanging garlic in the windows (or
rubbing the sills with cut cloves of garlic) releases
a series of odors actually repel these insects.

As a true grandson of Zakynthos, I too keep garlic
hanging in our house. Just in case ...!

Thank you once again for your posting.

Best regards,

Constantine

=====
Constantine Alexander
"La Terre est Vivante"

Visit our web site
http://www.OliveTree.cc
Visit our Parea*
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OliveTreeWorld


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Now I miss Papa I hope he will check in to cheftalk soon. I found some good stuff on the web about the evil eye. It's on Discovery.com - titled The skinny on the evil eye.


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

Athenaeus,


Now here's an evil eye! 

hehehe, Ron


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

:lol: :lol:

THAT was funny!!!!


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

EVIL EYE


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## olive branch (Oct 2, 2001)

Hey Ron, are you a Randy Newman fan?

"Suspicious minds are talking, ..." (They probably think you're giving them the evil eye!)


"You can leave your hat on,
You can leave your hat on,
You can DEFINITELY leave your hat on."

Great picture!

Love ~ Debbie


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

Hi Debbie!

Yes I like Randy Newman. Glad you like the hat 

Thanks!

Ron


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

Anneka,
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders are an American (and the rest of us are following suit) way of explaining the evil eye which leads to need to for mney to be spent on therapists. The evil eye is a lot cheaper!! Jack Nicholson's character in 'As Good As It gets' in the mediterranean or in Africa would simply have gone through a very short ceremony to rid him of the curse. . .a lot cheaper, easier and more eficient!
Abandoning the belief in curses and evil eyes has proved to be very expensive!!!


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## wolfgang4711 (Nov 10, 2001)

Sadly enough, many Americans think they can buy their way out of anything. As a result there are many other Americans that see an oportunity to make money off of the ones gullible enough to spend money and develop methods by which to take it. Unfortunately this is true in the once sacred practice of medicine and psychiatry.

I could begin with a diatribe of personal experience, but it wouldn't do any good and I don't need to get riled up over it any more. 

Ron


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## anneke (Jan 5, 2001)

[No message]


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Hey Bond,

I just had to let you know that I have been having MIGRAINES.
I can't tell if they are from the blue contacts or the horse shoes nailed to the soles of my shoes.:smoking:


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Hey, Ron. Heavy hats will give you a headache. But don't be too disturbed. It means someone is thinking about you.


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

There was also a strong belief that bread blessed by the church brought blessing upon the house. When they took it home after vespers, they kept it and ate a piece every day before eating anything else. This was considered good. In popular lore it was particularly good for headaches.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

It is also said that spreading a ring of salt around your house will protect the family members from evil spirits. I'd rather have the blessed bread.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Yes, this is true Pastachef.

salt keeps Evil away and you have to sprinkle salt outside the house and sugar inside. Your family members should walk on the sugar in order never to fight 

Apart form the liturgy breads the Holly Water that you take home in January 6 is the strongest protection.

You won't belive it guys but this Water can last decades and still be drinkable.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Thank you for giving me the rest of the 'insurance' Athanaeus. I'm bringing home sugar today!


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