I have lived and traveled in various countries in the last 15 years of my life. In some, I have spent years, and in some only months. I have been surrounded by many different cultures, traditions, religions, and nationalities. And nothing has surprised me more than things that we all do similarly just in different ways. The custom of putting things under your pillow, or under children’s pillows has been implemented since ancient history until now. But the various items used to either follow a religious motive or just a cultural meaning have been my point of interest.

People will always do unexpected things because they are following reasons they can not explain. But it can also be a part of a tradition, that even in these modern days we value and follow. There is nothing wrong with doing things that will leave us feeling better. Protected on a spiritual or a religious side. When you consider that we spend one-third of our life sleeping, then it’s quite clear that there will be things that can maybe safeguard us while we are most vulnerable. More on dreams and sleeping in Good Morning – Don’t Move.

Protecting the most precious

When you have a newborn baby in the house your mind will start to go into overprotective drive. Especially for the new mothers which is more a biological instinct. But also there is the influence of the community and religion. I have noticed that in various traditions there is a strong notion of putting certain items under the baby pillow that has a different but similar meaning. When I had my first child in a foreign country I was also advised on the importance of tradition. I do pride myself on being a modern and common sense person but sometimes you just have to respect the land where you are living and its history.

Putting a mirror, scissors, a comb, or even just a sprinkle of salt under the baby pillow has been advised by many different people. When asked about the reasoning behind it, the answer was vague. It was all down to tradition. Protecting the small baby from evil spirits, bad dreams, crying, or anything else that in the early stages of parenthood would be expected. In some countries, they would be replaced with a turtle shell, a small picture of a holy person, or a red thread around the baby’s hand. And it had all served to protect, to provide a sense of safety from all possible and impossible things.

The traditions would continue to other things around the baby’s routine. I was advised never to bathe the baby at night. Not to put babies’ clothes out in the dark. To sprinkle salt or holy water in the nursery and many more important things. And I think they were all well-meaning advice that I would always respect and value as such. It meant that people cared. It gave me a sense of being part of the community as a first-time parent and it made me feel more confident.

Under the pillow and into the real life

Placing certain items under your pillow is not only reserved for small children. Even we as adults give in sometimes to the more traditional ways of getting things that we long for. In some countries, young girls are motivated to take a piece of the wedding cake and place it under their pillows. It will cause them to dream of their future husbands. I was once told if you really miss a person who is alive or passed away you should keep their photograph or their letter under your pillow and you will dream of them. Or they will somehow feel that you think of them.

Is it just the power of self-suggestion? Something like drinking a placebo and making yourself believe it would happen? In some cultures, they would put coins under the pillow to make people more prosperous. When we look at it now it may seem frivolous or just naïve. But I have to admit that something is interesting and valuable about it. I look at it as a small part of our ancestors or the last signs of a culture we have evolved from. It gives me a sense of belonging. A sense that I am like you all, a part of the people that were here before me. And they have left us with this heritage. As small warning signs that were valuable enough and important enough to have survived the challenge of time.

Advices from the past

You may consider these things to be unnecessary relics of the past. Placing items under your pillow is not something many of us would do. Not now when for every problem, every cry, or disease there are doctors, emergency rooms, and instructions on Google. But I still see some benefits. I still value their effort to keep the culture and traditions alive. Not everything around us can be explained by science. Not for now anyway.

If you are a spiritual person at all then you will have to admit that there is some reasoning, some motive that these things have kept with us. I’m not talking about ghosts, witches, or evil spirits. But when I see around us nature comes in its splendor from a single cell organism to the largest trees and animals. And everything else you have in between. How are we not going to be curious about the various things that are still invisible to us? Things that we do not yet understand or are not even able to comprehend.

It makes me wonder what little advice and traditions we will leave to our offspring? What they will say about us when we share our own little superstitions 50 to 60 years from now? Will they laugh? Or will they understand the culture, the tradition, the sense of safety and comfort it will provide to be a part of something bigger and stronger than the passage of time?