Did you realize it’s Friday the 13th? If you’re as superstitious as some of these nonprofit folks, you probably did.
In honor of this special day, we asked our community about the weird traditions and superstitions they uphold. Check out these three fun responses:
The Minnesota-based Global Citizens Network seeks to promote peace and tolerance through cultural exchange with indigenous peoples. And apparently also by warding off evil eyes.
One staffer reported to us: “We watch out for El Mal Ojo and have a glass eye bead hanging in many of our cubes.”
Kanuga Conferences hosts 25,000 groups and families every year on 1,400 acres in the mountains of Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Says one staff member: “Kanuga has a TON of weird traditions. My favorite is ‘Kanuga Toast,’ which is this buttered, double-baked, melba-style toast. It’s like a large, hard crouton. People LOVE it, and eat it at every breakfast.
In some cases where repeat guests who love the toast aren’t able to join us for breakfasts during their stay, I have taken to mailing them a Tupperware container full of it. Some deployed servicemen have even been shipped Kanuga Toast—all the way to Iraq and Afghanistan!”
p.s. Kanuga Toast has its own Facebook page. For real.
Our own Idealists in Action blog editor Celeste Hamilton Dennis and her husband Craig Dennis (also of Idealist) met as Peace Corps volunteers in Guyana.
She divulges: “Our Guyanese friends would always tell us that we were bound to come back to their country if we drank the black water and ate labba, a local delicacy. And we did it. Whenever we would swim in black water, we’d make sure to take a sip. If labba was placed in front of us at the local karaoke joint, we’d eat it without question.”
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Does your nonprofit entertain any superstitions? Tell us before the witching hour.