The weather does NOT make you sick
I think one of my fellow Belgrade bloggers has touched on this topic before but, since it has been unseasonably rainy and cold lately, and I have been told far too many times that "this weather is making me sick", I feel that I must share this uniquely Serbian belief with my readers back home.It is a widely held belief in Serbia that one can get a vast array of ailments from the cold. I have been told the following by Serbian friends:
1. If you walk outside with wet hair, you will get a headache (even if it's 70 degrees).
2. If the skin on your back shows, even for a second, when it's cold outside, your ovaries will freeze and you won't be able to have children.
3. If you sit on a cold surface, you won't be able to have children (this only seems to apply to women - even though if you thought about it, it should more logically apply to men).
4. If there is a draft you will get generally sick - this is the most common belief.
5. When the barometric pressure changes, you feel sick.
6. Old people are especially vulnerable when winter turns to spring because of the drastic change in temperature.
Well, I hate to burst the bubble of every Serb mother's advice, but the weather doesn't make you sick - viruses and bacteria do. Now, I know, I know, you truly do feel sick when there is a draft and you're convinced that the cold you got this winter was directly related to the fact that some taxi driver kept his window cracked open when it was freezing one day. But I have to break it to you, you feel sick because your mother spent your entire childhood telling you that you would feel sick when there was a draft, hence, you now actually do "feel" it. The mind is an extremely powerful force and a mother's advice an even greater influence. So I understand why everyone here is convinced that somehow a bit of cold air will mean their demise.
But scientists have proven over and over again that viruses and bacteria are the actual cause of sickness. Therefore, if you can avoid those, then you won't get sick. And how do you avoid them? You wash your hands with soap. Yep, that simple. The vast majority of those nasty germs that make you sick enter into your body off your dirty hands, either when you eat your sandwich without washing, wipe your eyes, or even pick your nose.
Now I know you're next argument - you are going to tell me that the cold lowers your immune system and therefore makes you sick. This is true if you are so cold that it is actually starting to affect your body's functioning - like getting frostbite or hypothermia - but a little chill is not going to have any more effect on the operation of your immune system as it is on the fucntioning of your digestive system.
You might even be amazed to know that I have friends from Nordic regions who will run from their sauna to the snow and back again many times during the winter and they have yet to get sick from it. I know, truly amazing.
I don't expect any of the Serbs reading to change their views because a mother's advice stays with you forever (yes, mom, I am still sure to drink one glass of milk per day for strong bones), but I thought that maybe, just maybe, I can convince you to add handwashing to the list of things that you tell your children to do to prevent getting sick - along with closing the window to keep out the draft, of course.
posted by Brooke @ 4:17 PM
9 Comments:
This is very common knowledge among Serbs and is so ingrained into their heads that it's very hard to change their minds. For example, my mother in law has been living with me here in America for the past 7 months. We endured a very long and cold winter. She's amazed and quite mad with me for letting my daughter go to bed with wet hair and for allowing her to run bare foot around the house.
Also, we just started running the central air and my daughter happened to catch the sniffles. I haven't heard the end of it yet.
It's something that they'll never get over and they pass the same mindset down the generations. Thank you for the links though. I can try to run this info by the monster in laws.. don't think it will help though.
I love being able to blame feeling a bit yucky on changes in barometric pressure.
I've also been told that a draft can cause facial paralysis.
Well, as:
(1) a citizen of a Nordic country where people like to run back and forth between the sauna and a hole in the ice, and
(2) an employee of Europe's largest producer of paper towels and soap...
I certainly support everything in your article.
Actually I never used to be an obsessive hand washer but since I started I have barely been ill at all - this is completely true.
But sadly washing ones hands cant protect you when somebody coughs or sneezes over you whilst you are wedged next to them in a bus.
In such a situation my advice is to try to move your head away and then obsessively wash your hands, face (dont lick your mouth, in fact maintain a frozen facial posture) and part of your clothes that the man sneezed upon.
Then you have a fighting chance.
Do I sound obsessive?
I am afraid these notions are not specific to Serbia or even the Balkans. The bit about ovaries is known in German folk superstitions, too.
Facial paralysis is unknown, however.
That's all fine and compelling but how is it then that I always end up with severe migrene if I walk around with my hair wet? Always!
Egyptians also believe that changes in the weather make you sick. In their view, this is equally true if the weather turns warm as if it turns cold.
I have been living in US for 20 years. Every time I visit my parents in Warsaw Poland I have to obey wet hair and other mention by you rules (and I am 44 years old) otherwize they would ruin my vacation there by constant talking and reprimanding
And what about "promaja"!!! House wind is Serbian worst enemy.
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