“Mirrors cannot be in your bedroom, because it is bad luck.”

She is unsure why one cannot put mirrors in your bedroom, other than that evil spirits might be reflected back on you while you sleep and they might cause you harm. She says that being Chinese-American means that the positioning of furniture in the house is very important, and that the saying above might have to do with Feng Shui.

According to Feng Shui, a mirror facing the bed depletes the body of the energy it needs to recharge at night. Your body repairs itself at night, and by having a mirror there, your body is reflected and it cannot absorb the energy it needs to recover. Feng Shui also dictates that having a mirror near your bed could reflect the energy of a third, unwanted, party into your marital bed.

Feng Shui and the quote above are superstitions and folklore, because the traditions and rituals have been passed down for centuries. Kristi says that following Feng Shui in her house makes her happy not only because her energy is calm, but also because she feels connected to her Asian heritage.

“Suitcases and hats cannot be put on your bed, otherwise it is bad luck.”

Kristi claims she does not know why her mother told her this superstition, or why she follows it. She claims that once she disobeyed her mother and put a hat on her bed, and then the next day she had bad luck and failed a test. Although not particularly superstitious, she says that she now thinks it is best to follow her mother’s advice and adhere to her superstitions.

This superstition probably came about long ago when head lice or bed bugs were common. Putting traveling gear or hats on your bed would dirty your bed and would cause it to potentially become infested. In 1994’s “Hats And The Cowboys Who Wear Them,” Bender claims that evil spirits are in the head, and so putting anything that you wear on your head on your bed would cause these evil spirits to release and wreak havoc on your life.

She remembers that when we was little her mother would tell her that:

“If you do not finish all the rice in your bowl, then you will get one pimple for every grain of rice left in the bowl. Because my parents are Chinese-American, my mother thought that it was very bad to waste food. Because they [her parents] were immigrants, they did not want to waste food and were very adamant about me clearing my plate.”

This proverb is a common Chinese-American story. In some variations it is the child who does not finish their food who gets pimples (as in Kristi’s version), but previously it was the future spouse who would have pimples. Most likely the shift of who has pimples from spouse to the child eating has to do with modern day. Today, children do not necessarily see marriage as an inevitable, or may not look forward to it as they did before. As such, the changing of this saying would more closely fit in with Kristi’s mentality. Kristi says that her parents have strong morals they wish her to adhere to and that wasting food was not acceptable. This story was used to try to get her to stay in line.