All over Turkey you will see these blue wall eyes, called Nazar Boncugu. In Arabic, Nazar means view or look. This word has the same meaning in the Turkish language. There is a strange belief held by people that there are sometimes negative, bad, and even destructive forces at work. This is what they call the evil eye.
The superstition of the evil eye
In lots of different countries all over the world people believe in this superstition of the evil eye and the clever ones try to protect themselves by using pearls or various other things. Pearls were particularly used as protection against the evil eye in Old Egypt and among the Hethiter people. Among the jewels of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun to be seen at the British Museum in London and in the Museum of Cairo, there are lots of beautiful examples of things used to protect people against the evil eye. But sometimes it does not really help: in fact the Pharaoh was murdered at the age of 18.Evil Eye
In Europe these pearls are called "Evil Eye". Nazar Boncugu, the blue wall eye is very famous all along the Turkish Riviera, but also in some other regions of Turkey. Because people believe that human beings with blue eyes have the power to protect themselves against evil, the superstition arose that the best help against all evil things is to use something blue within your immediate surroundings. Instead of using pearls, which are not available in blue and are also quite expensive, these blue Wall Eyes have been introduced.To be certain to get as much protection as possible, you need to put these wall eyes everywhere it could be helpful: at the door of your home, on the baby's pram, on the clothes of children, as a necklace or as a piece of jewellery. If, one day, the wall eye breaks, that means is has fulfilled its duty and protected the owner against some evil which could have caused problems for them. Now a new wall eye needs to be bought.
Apart from the blue wall eye or pearls, some other materials are also used to protect people against the evil eye, for example green coffee beans, old coins, pieces of lead, horseshoes, wearing blue and much more. There are other traditional methods which can be used for protection and also for healing people who are under attack from the evil eye. One quite common method is to cover the head of the patient with a blanket, hold a cup of water above his head and let hot lead drop into the cup. The patterns which occur are said to tell the story behind the problem.
