Foodways:
- Breakfast must include grits, & dinner must include rice.
- When eating crabs, you mustn’t eat the “dead man” (lungs) or you’ll get very sick.
- A popular one-pot meal is called a “perlo”. It’s a combo of rice with meat & often vegetables. Shrimp perlo, okra perlo & chicken perlo are favorites.
- Fried fish & Red Rice are a popular Friday meal. Red Rice is white rice cooked with tomatoes or tomato sauce and traditionally seasoned with green (bell) peppers, onion & pork (often bacon and/or sausage.)
Spiritual & Funerary Customs:
- Pass an infant over the casket of a family member at the gravesite so that the deceased’s Spirit does not haunt the child.
- Adult females must wear a hat to church, or other head covering, because the tops of their heads should be covered while in the Sanctuary.
- After leaving the Funeral, the procession should pass by the home of the deceased en route to the burial so that the deceased’s Spirit doesn’t return to the house.
- Trimming the windows & painting the doors on one’s house a particular shade of blue keeps away harmful spirits.
General Beliefs:
- After grooming, any hair left in the comb or brush must be burned or flushed down the commode so that birds or people with harmful intentions don’t get a hold of it.
- Put some Spanish Moss in your shoes to help keep your blood pressure down.
- If a bird gets in your house, someone will die soon.
- If a female keeps her purse on the floor, she’ll never have any money.