Comments on: Malocchio: Conquering the Italian Evil Eye One Plastic Red Horn at a Time

By: Tamasin

Tamasin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:08:06 +0000

im so glad i came upon this site, my Nonna has performed this on me and my family since we were kids, but not with sissors, with a knife, butter knife usualy, and then rubs the water and oil on our forheads, wrists in the sign of the cross, and then splashes it a liitle over
im going to ask her to teach me the prayers

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:38:58 +0000

Prego!

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:38:51 +0000

Trish, they actually vary from place to place — and to be honest, I never committed them to memory (wrote them down, somewhere). The best resource I’ve found is Italian-American Folklore, which has a few different versions to choose from. P.S. This doesn’t happen to be genealogist Trish by chance? If so, we corresponded years ago about Isca, etc. Shoot me an email

By: Trish

Trish — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:33:00 +0000

I have been searching for someone who knows the prayers for EVER! My godmother told me them on Christmas eve many, MANY, years ago as a young girl. So of course I totally forget them. Any chance I can bribe you to send them to me? They’ve already been passed down to me, it’s just that I’ve gone and grown up and forgotten all of them.

By: Evil Eye Jewelry by AlfredAndVincent.com

Evil Eye Jewelry by AlfredAndVincent.com — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:12:10 +0000

Thanks for the free education. ) Just doing some research because I’m thinking of having some Italian horn pendants and charms in my store. Very informative. )

By: Saturday Show & Tell – First Edition

Saturday Show & Tell – First Edition — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 01:55:47 +0000

[...] Fabio, another American expat who lives in Italy. Luckily, she included a wonderful intro: “Malocchio: Conquering Evil One Plastic Red Horn at a Time — Living in southern Italy, I simply can’t escape malocchio, the Evil Eye, i.e., the belief that others can cause you [...]

By: Kay

Kay — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:16:01 +0000

I think I have mal’occhio on me and I need help! I need to get rid of it, and I dont know anyone who has the gift to remove these sort of things.

Can someone please help me? I do not have the ability to remove it myself. I would prefer to go to someone who does, and I can even pay them if they’d like.

I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, but I can travel to Montreal or Toronto or upstate New York, Boston, New Jersey or any distance around that, to get cured in person.

I do not want to suffer anymore. I have had unexplained health problems (headaches, dizziness, fatigue, lethargy) and I have seen many doctors and specialists, but none of them can find anything. Also, my luck is not that good, and I have had many problems with school, and work, and I think it could also be fatture/jettature.

I am reaching out to you to ask you to help me. If you have the gift to cure mal’occhio, please please please contact me and help me. Or if you can refer me to someone who has the gift please.

I hope you can help me. God Bless you for helping a person in need.

Kay, I’m sorry I can’t help you, but have you thought about placing an advertisement in an Italian-American/Italian-Canadian newspaper or posting a flyer in an Italian-American neighborhood? Good luck!

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:39:09 +0000

My sister and I are both married to native Italians and both our mother-in-laws made us keep a plastic horn man that had a pepper bottom in our babies carriages when they were born

PS: Ronnie Dio, who was the band Black Sabbath, remembered his Italian grandmother used to do the horns all the time. He began to do the horns on stage and the audience thought it was a sign for heavt metal music and began to immitate it. So that hand sign also means that to some people

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Pat; it’s definitely one that many Italians and Italian-Americans (and other hyphenated Italians) have in common!

By: Kristin Flickinger

Kristin Flickinger — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:33:38 +0000

My grandmother tells stories of being cured of the evil eye when she was a girl. She was particularly vexed and had to call in someone to say the prayers. She’s always been vague about the experience, either because she was so young, or because it’s not Christmas Eve.

In my family we were taught at a young age how to fix our hands in a way that would ward off the evil eye. For us it is the thumb placed between the index and middle finger of a fist – the classic, “I’ve got your nose” position.

And, because my family is also Greek, we wear eyeball necklaces designed for the same purpose. At any time, you can find at least one member of my family wearing their pendant and aiming their warding-off hands around covertly.

Good times. Good post. Thanks for reminding me that my family isn’t completely insane.

Hahaha…so happy to oblige, Kristin! Love your family’s story

By: marydtp

marydtp — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:02:02 +0000

I have many fond memories of my Italian grandmother — still going strong at 97 — trying to explain malocchio to my Irish mother. She would even tie a red ribbon to the steering wheel of a new car to ward it off. Not lots of prayers said over olive oil at her house, but heavy usage of the evil eye hand gesture. One of my favorite stories is how she put an open scissors under the mattress of my dad’s carriage when he was a baby to help protect him. Sounds very safe. Who am I to question? She’s 97 and still living on her own, so she must know something we don’t.

Love it, Mary; thanks so much for sharing