WORRY DOLLS

In December when I was in Birmingham, I went to this shop in Pallasades in City Centre where they sold decorative articles, talismans, wall hangings, jewelry, show pieces, mugs, gift items...they had so many beautiful and interesting things. I forgot the name of the shop. Something interesting that caught my attention and evoked my curiosity was 'Worry Dolls'. They were simple handmade fabric dolls. Outside the packing, it said, "you can tell your worry to the doll and it would take the worry away". Although I wouldn't buy worry dolls, I have been wanting to write a post on it. 

Let me share with you, what Worry Dolls are about. Usually people have trouble sleeping at night if they are worried about something. Worry keeps them awake. In Mayan tradition, worry dolls were used to 'take away' a person's worry so he could sleep well at night. Worry dolls originated and are made in Guatemala. The dolls  are about 1 inch or less, made with little sticks of wood with short wires to create torso, legs, arms and head. Colorful little pieces of cloth and yarn are wound around the frame to create the doll.  Scraps of woven fabric are used to the doll costumes. They come in a set of six or more in a box or bag. 

As the tradition goes, if a person can't sleep due to worry, he takes out a worry doll from the bag or box and places it in his palm and tells his worry to the doll. The doll is then placed back in the box or bag and kept under the pillow or on a nightstand  near by.  And he goes to sleep peacefully !. If he has several worries, he tells the next worry to another doll and so on. Legend says, while the person sleeps, his worries are taken care of by the dolls!

This post is not meant to encourage anyone to buy Worry Dolls or  think this could take care or solve their worries.