Some famous Malaysian ones: Don't sing and cook at the same time or you will get an old husband. Don't walk under clothesline or you will get bad luck. Don't shout in strong wind or your mouth will be bent. If a butterfly is flying around in your house, someone will be making a visit. It is bad luck to sleep with your feet facing the door. Ok, I admit I am just looking for an answer - can't get it on of all places, the net. I kept biting my lips when I chew something since a day or two ago. What does it mean? As for the topic, keep adding - I kinda like to get to know other stories from other countries.
No wonder I'm still not a millionaire, no wonder I'm still a class d player, ........ I need to change the position of my bed. Thanks for the advice.
I don't believe in all this malarkey but the superstitious Chinese think of it as if a coffin placed in at home before being put to the funeral. The feet always faces the gate outwards. Here's another: Don't cut your nails at night or you will shave years off your life. Anyway, any input on the 'lip biting' thingy?
Maybe you should not eat so much chilly. Or maybe Durian season is over (if you are a fan of durian) and you want some more?
You are missing the point, coorer-san. There are rationales to all this tales. Don't sing and cook at the same time or you will get an old husband. - You'd probably forgot to add in salt or put in too much of it. Possible to cut your finger too. Don't walk under clothesline or you will get bad luck. - Fancy getting a free garotte on the neck? It's dangerous. Don't shout in strong wind or your mouth will be bent. -Not sure about this one but I think it's more of a 'don't waste your time/energy' thingy. If a butterfly is flying around in your house, someone will be making a visit. - Not sure about this one. It is bad luck to sleep with your feet facing the door. - Old Chinese superstition. As for lip biting, no I don't eat durian. Chilli? How does that affect lip biting?
wilfred, maybe you're heaty and need to drink more 'leung sui' - do not bring an open umbrella inside the house - do not sweep the floor during Chinese New Year - do not walk under a ladder - always finish all the rice on your plate - say a prayer before u take a wee into the bushes - if u draw on a person's face while they are sleeping, they might not wake up ..
lol... actually.. the Chinese believes spirits dwell in trees. Esp banana trees. I'd be pretty pist if someone came and wee at my house and bad things happen when spirits get pist. Hence why we say "excuse me" As for the "sleeping with your feet facing the door", the belief behind that is that it imitates how corpses are laid. And that's not good As for old wives tales about badminton....Maybe - don't sleep with your badminton racquet facing the door - say "excuse me" before hitting the shuttle into the bushes?
How about NOT eating durian and drinking alcohol at the same time? Otherwise, you would die of heart failure. Is that a myth?
Isn't the banana spirit thing more of a Malay superstition than a Chinese one? As for the 'don't sleep facing the door', I think it originates from olden days when they used to carry dead corpse out of the room on a stretcher... they certainly didn't carry the body on their backs.
I've heard that its bad to have your feet facing a mirror when you're sleeping or having something like your bed blocking your window.. something about blocking chi entering the room.. correct me if i'm wrong? hehe.. cheers..
Putting shoes on a table is bad luck Feed a cold, starve a fever "This saying evolved from medical advice from the 1500s. The source quoted here says that, unfortunately, the advice was garbled in the translation and that we have apparently gotten it wrong. The saying is actually more like 'If you stuff a cold, then you're going to have to feed a fever later.' " But Dutch scientists have found that eating a meal boosts the type of immune response that destroys the viruses responsible for colds, while fasting stimulates the response that tackles the bacterial infections responsible for most fevers. "To our knowledge, this is the first time that such a direct effect has been demonstrated," says Gijs van den Brink of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. ....New Scientist
I don't that's a myth though. I did read about how it will overload your liver. Dr Cheung could provide some explaination, perhaps? As for lip biting - the rationale to it is heatiness, the lips swell, so the biting happens. At least that's what some ladies in the office said. None of them were kind enough to help me with it though.