A curse is a wish that is intended to cause a misfortune, doom or evil to befall a group or a person. When someone has invoked an abomination, trouble, injury, calamity or a destruction occurs the individual (Giuliani, M. 2015). A curse is usually of a supernatural power and spiritual powers such as natural forces, gods, and spirits. A curse is also known as a jinx or hex. A curse can be reversed, removed or broken by carrying out rituals and some prayers. A curse is also known as Allison, anathema, malediction, execration, imprecation or combination.
There are different types of curses in the different cultures. The African American hoodoo is a hex that has some specific conditions. They place the cursed objects on the road the victims would pass through, and they believed the cursed objects are activated when the victims walk over them. The evil eye is a type of curse originating from the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean culture. It results from envy. In order one to be protected from the evil eye; one has to be given a charm, usually a protective item. It is made up of dark blue circular glass surrounded by a white circle which is similar to the human eye. The German people also curse and use some words of witchcraft.
There are different types of cursing according to 101 series. First, there is a quick curse. They are used by beginners or in the day to day situations and made when there is a need for a fast curse. The second curse is known as the spiting cursing and is a powerful curse. It is associated with spitting saliva on objects or someone which is direct cursing but considered to be illegal. One can spit in front or behind something that one is trying to curse, spitting on something that the victim has to make direct contact with it such as the door and chair is recommendable. The third type of cursing is known as the evil eye and is cursed out of jealousy (Elliott, J. H. 2016). The curse is intended to cause harm, injury, misfortune and bad luck to the victim.
Curses are of importance in our society today. They are used in theater and literature as plot devices. This involves the act of an actor placing a curse on another character. They are used in sports activities to understand the misfortunes and failures of a specific team (Martin, M. 2013). Curses tell why the players, certain cities are failing in sports. A stolen object from a rightful owner is usually cursed and brings misfortune to the person owning the item. The stolen item is sworn to bring back the subject, to impose lousy luck to the possessor or to cause unusual phenomena in their presence.
Curses can be done verbally conducted and can be in a written form. A curse may work or not, if it doesn’t, it is said to be ineffective. Cursing gives people ideas on how to protect themselves and make well-defined decisions in live. A curse is said in anger and surprise by swearing, oath-taking, use of swearword and irreverent speech. Cursing was used in traditional society, in the holy books and is used in the society today (Bonar, C. 2016).
- Bonar, C. (2016). Review of Brian Britt, Biblical Curses and the Displacement of Tradition. Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, 5(2), 113-119.
- Elliott, J. H. (2016). Beware the Evil Eye Volume 3: The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World (Vol. 3). Wipf and Stock Publishers.
- Giuliani, M., Castelletti, A., Pianosi, F., Mason, E., & Reed, P. M. (2015). Curses, tradeoffs, and scalable management: Advancing evolutionary multiobjective direct policy search to improve water reservoir operations. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 142(2), 04015050.
- Martin, M. (2013). The blessings and curses of big time football: One perspective. Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, 6(1), 52-56.