Description: There is a saying that you should not turn around when you are walking at night, if you do, it becomes easier for ghosts to attack you.

Background: The informant is told this by her parents.

Transcript:

BL: When you walk at night, you can’t turn your neck around. Because there are two lights on your shoulders and they scare the ghosts away. If you turn your neck around, the light disappears and then you would be unprotected. So the ghosts will come and get you. I honestly don’t believe it but I hear about it a lot.

Me: Where did you hear it from?

BL: My parents. I think it’s from Singapore. Singapore superstitions are weird.

My thoughts:

It’s scary enough to turn around at night without any superstitions but this thing multiplies upon that fear. Looking at many other folklore, ghosts are always most active at night. This is likely due to the fact that vision is limited and anyone can become very vulnerable or see things like ghosts that may or may not be real. Also, this tale might be a way for people to avoid trouble such as becoming a witness to illegal activity. Of course, I wouldn’t believe in something like this, but it will be hard to not think about it.