The Malocchio part one: My Evil Eye bracelet

So, I think someone has put the Evil Eye on me! What kind of monster would do something like that, you might be wondering? I know, I thought the same thing. Thankfully, my Evil Eye bracelet is a nifty preventative measure to ward off any malevolent glares going forward. However, there’s a chance that the malocchio was cast on my prior to obtaining this talisman.

To Italians (and many Mediterranean cultures in fact!), the malocchio is a curse that someone can put on you simply by sending an evil glare and/or bad intention your way. In addition to taking many preventive measures to ward it off (one of which is the bracelet), there are also rituals and traditions, particularly in southern Italy, to test for it and then, if necessary, remove it. (More on this to come in a future post!)

Evil Eye Bracelet
My nifty Evil Eye bracelet

So, anyway, let me rewind because there’s a bit of a history between myself and this particular piece of wrist candy. I started coveting one about a decade ago (if not longer) while watching some MTV show that followed Tara Reid to Mykonos where she was on the prowl for an Evil Eye bracelet. For no reason at all, I wanted one! I knew nothing about it but was drawn to the colorful beads bedecked with the eye.

I never wound up finding one and kind of just let it go until I visited Tel Aviv this past March.  Jaffa’s adorable Old Town is characterized by street signs, house numbers, doors, shutters and more adornments in a distinct blue color for a reason: To ward off the evil eye. Suddenly, that MTV show, Tara Reid and the Evil Eye bracelet came back to me, and I went on the prowl for one in Jaffa. While market stalls were flooded with all sorts of Evil Eye everything, I didn’t see a bracelet that tickled me fancy so I didn’t get one. However, when I went to Athens in April, I found Evil Eye bracelets to suit every taste and fancy, and I got my nifty blue bracelet (along with two others) there. I pretty much  wear the blue one daily on my wrist to ward off any future possibility of the malocchio. The bracelet is believed to thwart any malevolent glares right back onto any ill intended onlookers.

However, I know that I’ve been covered from April onwards and am now covered for the future, but I still need to get  tested because I think the malocchio was placed on me before April.  And if it was, I need to have it removed. To be continued…

Cover photo: Adam Jones, Ph.D. – Global Photo Archive via Visualhunt / CC BY-SA

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