Counting the corners in a new (to you) room
February 6, 2011 6:41 AM Subscribe
I'm curious if this is something my mother made up, or if it's actually a cultural practice/superstition from somewhere? Counting the corners in a room that you've never slept in before the first night you sleep in it.
I was doing this on and off for years before I realized it's probably just a pretty smart thing to give a kid to do so they have a ritual that helps them feel more familiar and secure in a new place. Did my mom make it up? (Can't ask her). Did other people learn this too? Also, I was always unsure if it's sort of a basic eight corner room check or how detailed to really go on all the moldings, windows, etc, and I'm curious if there's a standard practice :)
I was doing this on and off for years before I realized it's probably just a pretty smart thing to give a kid to do so they have a ritual that helps them feel more familiar and secure in a new place. Did my mom make it up? (Can't ask her). Did other people learn this too? Also, I was always unsure if it's sort of a basic eight corner room check or how detailed to really go on all the moldings, windows, etc, and I'm curious if there's a standard practice :)
I've heard of it. Not sure where/why/how though. I'm American but my parents were raised in India.
posted by sweetkid at 7:34 AM on February 6, 2011
posted by sweetkid at 7:34 AM on February 6, 2011
Response by poster: Oops, right, my mother was Hungarian and Jewish.
posted by Salamandrous at 8:06 AM on February 6, 2011
posted by Salamandrous at 8:06 AM on February 6, 2011
I have never heard of it. I can see where it might be a way to make someone comfortable, or vigilant if there were goblins in the corners.
My grandmother taught me not to drink orange juice before bed or it will give me nightmares. Sometimes people say crazy things.
But more likely, someone in your family was an anxiety counter. Unfamiliar = anxiety = counting things. I have a family member that can tell you how many of EVERYTHING there is in their house.
posted by gjc at 8:17 AM on February 6, 2011
My grandmother taught me not to drink orange juice before bed or it will give me nightmares. Sometimes people say crazy things.
But more likely, someone in your family was an anxiety counter. Unfamiliar = anxiety = counting things. I have a family member that can tell you how many of EVERYTHING there is in their house.
posted by gjc at 8:17 AM on February 6, 2011
There are a lot of different methods for going to sleep when you can't sleep, and in unfamiliar places it's often harder to sleep. I've heard such things as trying to remember every bed you've ever slept in, identifying each item in the room and mentally describing it, etc. These are not superstitions but just methods of distracting the overly alert mind so sleep can come.
I suppose this is most likely just a variation on that. I've never heard of it specifically or seen it as a superstition. I did a cursory search of this book and didn't come across anything.
posted by Miko at 8:54 AM on February 6, 2011
I suppose this is most likely just a variation on that. I've never heard of it specifically or seen it as a superstition. I did a cursory search of this book and didn't come across anything.
posted by Miko at 8:54 AM on February 6, 2011
I've heard of this being done as a method for falling asleep, along the lines of vividly picturing all eight corners of a room, then imagining them converge. It's possible your mother (and others) modified this into a mental trick for new environments, when one might not fall asleep as easily.
posted by therewolf at 9:39 AM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by therewolf at 9:39 AM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
I've heard of this, but I can't remember where I heard it from. Likely, it was a book I read as a kid. Maybe your mom read the same book?
posted by Fuego at 10:15 AM on February 6, 2011
posted by Fuego at 10:15 AM on February 6, 2011
So so strangely, this came up on a folklore ListServ I read, though it was about "naming corners." One person replied:
This excerpt from what appears to be a serialized story, titled "Thinking Parts," published in the May 21, 1891, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. 2, seems to have a good explanation of "naming the corners."posted by Miko at 2:03 PM on February 11, 2011
"I never had two girls in my charge whose company was more pleasant. Both of the girls are as nice as they can be, but they are giddy and stage-struck and that is the worst that anyone can say against them. They don't like it very much that they have come to St. Louis and must go away again without seeing any of the sights, but withal, they seem to have had a good time. All last evening they read to one another from a book of biographies of leading actors and actresses which they found in my library. When I retired they were still awake and I heard them naming the corners of the room, but for what purpose I really don't know."
"Oh, I'll tell you about that," interrupted Miss Ferguson. "You see, when you sleep for the first time in a strange room, you must name the four corners before you go to sleep. Then when you awake in the morning, the person whose name you have given to the corner at which you are looking is the one to whom you will be married."
Response by poster: Thanks everybody! It sounds like chances are this is something my mom (or someone further along the line) came up with as a getting-the-kids-to-sleep strategy. The stories and cultural parallels are really interesting though. 'There's nothing new under the sun' indeed.
posted by Salamandrous at 9:12 AM on February 27, 2011
posted by Salamandrous at 9:12 AM on February 27, 2011
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posted by Meatbomb at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2011