“Foretelling evil” as an example of breaking language taboo
The article describes a phenomenon of prophesying that something bad might happen, or, in other words, a phenomenon of always looking on the bad side, called in Polish “krakanie”. In Poland people believe to a certain extent that if they say out loud their concerns about something, those foretold bad things might really happen in the future. People who hear somebody else prophesying that something bad might happen often react to it and say: “Don’t say that or it might come true” in Polish: “Nie kracz”. Because “krakanie” is present in Poles’ everyday life, they might be perceived as people who often complain and have quite a pessimistic attitude towards the world and life.