“This video will offend you, but …”
Kaleigh Hendershot moved from Seattle to Zagreb more than a year ago and has decided to launch her YouTube channel This Croatian Life, where she often talks about her new country and everything beautiful and less beautiful happened in it, reports Index.hr on October 22, 2018.
Having complained about eight issues that bother her with her Croatian husband and having listed five biggest differences between Croatia and the United States, Kaleigh has now focused on Croatian superstitions she believes are not true.
“Where should I start? There are some common superstitions in Croatia, which are directly connected with health. If you are not from Croatia, I will try to explain to you that these superstitions are deeply rooted in Croatian culture. There are six major superstitions that I have noticed during my time in Croatia, I have to warn you, this video will probably offend you, but I have to get it out of myself because I am going to go mad or explode otherwise,” she said at the beginning.
The first superstition which is discussed is that you will get a cold if you do not wear a jacket or a sweater while it is cold. “People used to believe that before, my grandma told me that, if someone sees me without a sweater, she would go crazy,” she said.
The second superstition she mentioned she did not even hear about until she came to Croatia. “Sitting on the concrete is a taboo here. It seems that, if you sit on a bare concrete, you will get sick and hurt your back. I once sat on the concrete, and Dominic’s grandmother looked at me as if I was crazy. She ran in and brought me something to sit on,” she described.
The third issue is walking with your feet bare. “Here you can never walk barefoot on a cold floor. I do not know what the problem is, but it is a problem,” she added.
She continued her list, and the next point is going out with wet hair. “A good friend went ballistic because I came out with wet hair to come to see her. She started to say, ‘What the hell are you doing, you will feel the consequences when you get old.’ It does not make any sense to me. They told me that it takes eight hours for the hair to dry before I can get out. In America, I used to go to lectures with wet hair. Here you cannot do it. I have sent an email to my doctor asking her about it and she told me it is not true,” she said.
Then she discussed the Croatian hatred towards the air conditioning units. “Croatian culture hates air-conditioning devices. Everybody around you uses fans, complaining that they are hot, opening their windows, while I am sweating, not allowed to turn on the air conditioning in the room because everyone believes you will die from it, get sick and suffer from a headache. That does not make any sense,” she said.
Finally, she spoke about the greatest Croatian superstition – wind draft. “When you open a window and a door in the same room, the air flows between them, and I agree with that. This air is considered deadly. People told me that it was a wind draft and looked at me like I was crazy. The draft can do anything to you, you will get sick, your sinuses, head, throat, back will hurt. I cannot figure out why people do not think the allergies are the culprit but think that draft is responsible,” she said.
You can see the whole video here:
Translated from Index.hr.
