Butterflies... More than Just a Bug

Nadeshiko ni

Chocho shiroshi --

Tare no kon?

"On the pink flower there is a white butterfly: who's spirit, I wonder?"

I remember when I was little and living in Modesto there was a patch of purple flowers down the street that was always teaming with butterflies. I spent a lot of time there for awhile, perfecting my art of hunting the little boogers. There was something about catching them and holding them in my hand that verged on simple pleasure and developing a god-like complex; holding some poor little life in the palm of my hand, literally, and being able to choose its fate.

Lucky for the little butterflies, there was never a thought in my mind about squishing them.  All I really wanted to do was look at them up close and then watch them fly away into the sky again.

And now, after reading excerpts from my book for the month, Kwaidan, a book of Japanese ghost stories, I'm really glad I never did squish any of those poor helpless butterflies. Besides the super creepy tales of zombie creatures that feast on a villages' dead in the night and the even creepier stories of creatures that disguise themselves as people, but can detach their heads and float around, there was a little description by the translator about what butterflies mean to the Japanese.

And here I'm going into research paper mode, but at least whoever reads this can have a random conversation starter at a cocktail party in the future. Kudos to me, thank you very much!

According to the translator of Kwaidan (otherwise known as "stories and studies of strange things"), many of the Japanese beliefs about butterflies had origins in China. For example, the practice of artists naming themselves after butterflies like "Solitary Butterfly" or "Butterfly-Luck". There was also the practice of naming women after butterfles because butterflies were considered creatures of great beauty and grace.

While all this sounds nice and wonderful, there was another belief about butterflies that connects my posting with the upcoming holiday.

And I quote....

The belief was that "the soul of a living person may wander about in the form of a butterfly".

Now I'm REALLY glad I never killed any of those butterflies!

In fact, it was commonly believed that if a butterfly came floating softly into your guestroom, the person you loved the absolute most (perhaps that person you were crushing on... :) ) was coming to visit you soon.

While one butterfly was all fine and dandy, LOTS of butterflies were considered bad... an omen, if you will, or a forbarer of bad news. When butterflies showed up in swarms, people in the villages would wonder if they were the souls/spirits of the people who were doomed to perish.

Hmmmmmm....

That's why I love old cultures and their stories. Everything is magical, spiritual, and supernaturally connected.

Perhaps the best concept that was mentioned was a Japanese belief... that a butterfly is a dead person's soul and that you could always tell the moment a soul left a body, because it would take the form of a butterfly.

The moral of this story? If you are out celebrating Halloween tomorrow night... just don't squish any butterflies. As a matter of fact, don't squish butterflies period... because you never know....

Of course, now that I think about it, I'm not certain those little creatures that I loved to catch as a little kid were actually butterflies.... they might have been moths.

Oh, well.