Tag Archives: bad luck

Japanese Customs of Good Luck, Bad Fortune, and Protection

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 5, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

I collected this from a friend who happened to be studying this for another part of a Japanese cultural festival. He learned them from his parents, who had learned it from their parents as well. To him, they originally sounded very foolish and nonsensical. However, after looking into the context of what they were based on, he said that he understood why the people acted that way. To him, words have a lot of power, especially in the Japanese language. By not being careful with what you say, then it could have truly harmful effects on other people. It is very traditional and a part of his culture, so he was glad to share it. It was collected prior to the cultural festival, but it was at nighttime. The lights were on in the room we were in, but they were dim and the air was stale because the windows were closed.

You are not supposed to clip your toenails at night. By doing so, you will be cursed by spirits so that you will not be with your parents when they die. A variant of this is that you are not supposed to clip your fingernails at night. It will have the same effect of cursing you so that you will not be able to be with your parents in the event that they die. This is because it sounds like “yo o tsumeru,” and that sounds awfully like “to cut short a life.”

You are not supposed to do anything related to the number 4, which sounds like the word for “death.” One application of this is that you are supposed to avoid sleeping in a room that has 4 somewhere in the room number. Another is that when giving gifts, you don’t want it to have 4 parts to it, or else it will bring bad luck.

You are not supposed to sleep facing north. Dead bodies are placed so that their head orients to the north. By sleeping in the same way, it invites you to die because you are now in a similar position to the dead bodies. Malicious spirits might attempt to take advantage of that.

When a funeral car passes by, you must hide your thumb. In Japan, the thumb is called the “Oya yubi,” which means “parent finger.” By not hiding your thumb, it means that your parents will be taken away by a funeral car very soon.

You are not supposed to step on the cloth border of tatami mats, because that will bring misfortune to you.

You do not stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice. That is symbolically done when you are offering food to the spirits of your ancestors. In particular, this tends to happen more at funerals. However, by doing that elsewhere, it is disrespectful and you are inviting ghosts into your home, which may have a catastrophic effect on your life.

You are not supposed to give potted plants to ill people at the hospital. That will curse them, because it means that they will be rooted to the hospital, extending their illness. As a result, they can be given cut flowers, but not potted plants.

After attending a funeral, you must be sprinkled with salt so as to purify the spirit of the dead that may have followed you home.

Mirrors must be covered in a home, and must not be placed in front of a window. At night, it is possible that a ghostly woman will come out of the mirror to steal your soul or to eat away at your life. By placing mirrors in front of a window, the good energy that is coming in from the sun will be reflected back out, leaving you with no good energy at all.

You are not supposed to be able to see stairs that go up to the second floor when you look through the front door. It means that good luck will fall down the stairs and will continue to stumble right out the door, leaving you behind with absolutely no good luck

By going to a shrine, it is possible to acquire charms that are blessed in specific ways, such as “getting into a good university” or “always having good friends.” They are blessed by the priests, and usually have a lasting power of 1 year before they must be renewed again.

A branch of a peach tree is known to have purification effects. Keeping one with you is said to help ward away evil spirits so that they cannot get close enough to you to harm you.

There is a game called shiritori which requires two people. The last syllable of the word the first person says has to become the first syllable of the word the second person says. The cycle continues as each person takes the previous last syllable and makes that their first. That is supposed to actually be a charm to keep away evil spirits in the night if you are walking with a friend and there is no one else there.

Sea salt is actually a very strong purifying item. Throwing it at evil spirits will make them flee from you or be exorcised.

Some of these traditions are shared with the other Asian countries, so they felt very familiar and understandable to me. They are also part of my own culture as well, which is why they have significance to me. I understand that people act this way, and I understand why. These superstitions do sound silly at times, but they also have good intent. They are warnings to ensure that a positive future can be acquired. Either that or they are ways of gaining good fortune and keeping away evil spirits.

Biker Lore: Do not Paint Your Motorcycle Green

Nationality: Mexican, Scandinavian, French Canadian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Beaumont, California
Performance Date: March 28, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant: “Its bad luck to paint your bike green”

 

The informant is a female student at USC. She is from Beaumont, California and lives in a family where motorcycles are very common, “everybody in my family, especially my dad and my grandfather, are bikers.” Moreover, the informant said, “I like grew up in a garage pretty much. That’s what my dad does and my dad’s dad. My dad, he’s a welder, and he builds and rides his own bikes and he has a lot, I don’t know how many he has. He does old ones though, like the ones from the 30s and 40s, and then my grandpa was the leader of the Vagos when biker gangs were huge.”

She remembers this belief because she said “I remember when he built his 1936 Knucklehead, which is just like a really rare motorcycle. It was the first uh motorcycle that the Harley Davidson’s built out. It was like the premise of the engine that they use now in V-twins and whatnot. But um he painted it green and he was like I know you are not supposed to do this but I’m going to do it anyways. He like acknowledged that you are not supposed to do that, and if you pay attention most motorcycles aren’t green unless there’s like a yuppie riding it.” The informant is not sure why painting a motorcycle green is bad luck, but “among bikers that is just something you don’t do.”

To answer this question, I conducted research on several sites and people responded that “legend has it that the Harleys used in World War II were painted an olive color. The story goes that the bikes with this color were targets for snipers on the front as they were generally carrying important dissipates for the U.S. and others high command. Since then, it eventually translated into modern folklore and is now bad luck to ride a green painted bike.” There also seems to be a strong superstition in the race car industry that cars painted green are bad luck. Apparently, no one who ever drove a green painted car won until Jim Clark with his British Green race cars.

While looking online, I found that a popular race motorbike called the Kawisaki is painted a bright green. There is a legend circulating that the curse (of painting a motorcycle green) is the very reason that the Kawisaki race bikes were painted green. The engineers wanted to prove that their designs were superior to any possible curse, and they chose lime green, since it was the most green in their opinion.

Clearly, this belief is not central to where the informant lives and many people have heard of this belief to the point that new legends are circulating that a major motorcycle racing company chose to paint their motorcycles green to disprove the curse.

Chinese Eye Twitching Superstition

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 22, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Interview Extraction:

Informant: “There’s a belief that if your left eye is twitching, then that’s good, like good luck, and if your right eye is twitching, then that’s bad. I think in other cultures, like in India, it depends if you’re a boy or a girl, like for guys, if your left eye twitches, then its good, and if you’re a girl and your right eye twitches, then that’s good, but in China, it’s just the left eye that brings good luck if it twitches, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or boy. I think it’s because the word for ‘money’ is similar to the word for ‘left’ in Chinese, and the word for ‘disaster’ is similar to the word for ‘right.’”

Me: “Do you believe in it?”

Informant: “Me? No, I don’t. It’s just a saying. I mean, when my eye twitches, I think about it, but I don’t worry if the wrong eye twitches.

Me: When did you hear about it?

Informant: “In middle school I think. I just hear it from around I guess, and when I was older I got what it means, but when I was younger I just sort of heard it, you know? I still don’t really believe it though.

Analysis:

There are indeed many different superstitions regarding eye twitching around the world, and they come with different explanations or remedies, depending on what each culture believes. Eye twitching is a natural and common enough phenomenon, and yet it can be unusual enough to merit its own series of legends and superstitions, just as other bodily functions can be used ways to predict fortune or events. The eye itself is, of course, universally an important symbol, so there would presumably be much folklore surrounding every aspect of it, from twitching to shape to color. My informant was correct about Indian culture centering the auspiciousness of eye twitching around gender. In Africa, some people have different predictions of good and bad luck depending on which part of your eye twitches, while in Hawaii, eye twitching can foretell the coming of a stranger.

I found it interesting that in Chinese culture, the good and bad luck are designated based on their proximity to fortunate or unfortunate words, thus emphasizing the importance of language and word significance. This is similar to the number four being a very unlucky number in Chinese culture, again because the word for “four” is homogonous with the word for “death.”

Perhaps because my informant speaks other languages besides Chinese, the value and significance of each word in her native tongue are somewhat decreased. Therefore, although she consciously thinks about the superstition every time her eye twitches, she doesn’t necessarily feel either elated or frightened, depending on her luck. Additionally, my informant doesn’t live inChinaanymore either, so she wouldn’t be surrounded by people who believe the superstition, and this could also lessen her own belief.

Folk Belief: Spiders

Nationality: American- German, Austrian, Irish
Age: 45
Occupation: Business administrator
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 21, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Killing spiders is bad luck.

My informant says that when he finds spiders in the house he takes them and relocates them outside instead of killing them. He learned this folk belief from a nun in grade school. The nun didn’t them why it was bad luck but he rationalized it as if you relocate the spiders you’ll get fewer spiders. He figured that if you smash them they’ll multiply and come after you. He also states them relocating them isn’t necessary; you just have to avoid killing them. The reason he relocates them is because the people he lives with are afraid of spiders. He doesn’t still believe that spiders will come after him but he still relocates them anyway.

I’ve heard this folk belief before but I never associated it with Catholic nuns. The version I’ve heard focused on the fact that spiders kill pests so it is not a good idea to kill them. Maybe this belief is related to a “you should value life in general” dimension to this belief.  The “killing insects” is bad luck folk belief is something I’ve heard before but generally the one I was taught was that its bad luck to kill ladybugs. I understand why killing either would be bad luck, ladybugs and spiders kill pests so their good to have around. In my house whenever someone sees a spider they want it dead. Maybe its because ladybugs are rarer or maybe its because spiders aren’t cute. For some reason spiders aren’t generally given the same amount of reverence other bugs get.

Folk Object: Spirit Stick

Nationality: American-black, African-American
Age: 45
Occupation: Pharmicist
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 21, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Spirit Stick

My informant was a member of the Drill team in high school. In high school the drill team would go to drill camps with teams from other schools. There would be mini-competitions between the schools. Whichever school had the most school spirit was given the Spirit Stick. According to my informant the Spirit Stick was 1 and half to 2 foot long cylindrical stick with a 1 and a half to two inch diameter, just big enough to keep a grip on. She says it was decorated but she can’t remember exactly what it looked like. The Spirit Stick cannot touch the ground. Dropping the Spirit stick on the ground is bad luck. She wasn’t told what type of bad luck would occur but she says it was bad luck for the drill team not the football team. It would probably result in the drill team doing poorly at a competition.

This item shows how the drill team is a distinct community from the football team. The two groups may interact because its the drill teams jobs to perform at games. However, the drill team have separate camps and the meet with opposing teams in a different setting a, at a camp and on the field. Also any bad luck caused by dropping the spirit stick reflects negatively on the drill team not the football team.