Superstitious or just plain crazy?

Try to go to the 4th floor in a hospital here. Not sure if it’s all hospitals, but I seem to recall one in Zhongli that was sans 4th floor. Kinda like hotels in Vegas not having a 13th floor.

Burning the money in those barrels outside is also a super retarded superstitious tradition.

They are so fucking lazy they just get their staff to do it, and so fucking cheap they buy the worst quality food from want want in boxes and stack it up in cheap tables under cheap tin roofs.

Superstitions aren’t unique to any culture. Transubstantiation has been viewed as plain crazy for 500 years, but people still get accused of blasphemy if they point this out.

I struggle to think of anything in Taiwan as batshit as believing that wafers turn into flesh in one’s mouth.

What’s batshit crazy is how many people died for the details of the Eucharist.

The whole “Catholic girls are easy” deal turned out to be pretty much bullshit, too.:grimacing:

triggered lol

All the new buildings that went up in Yaletown in Vancouver in the early 90s with HK investors skipped the 4th floor as well.

The house on 4th floor is cheaper.

Go on…

Even Taiwanese people wouldn’t eat that.

Does the definition include religions? How about the “superstitious routine” athlete uses to calm themselves? I mean the purpose is the same here.

It is true that there are many superstitions foreign to me in Taiwan but I do not think Taiwanese are more superstitious than other people in the world.

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“Superstition” is the word that (ignorant, poorly raised) people use to describe religions/belief systems in which they don’t believe and of which they are contemptuous…
Historically it was used a lot by white Europeans to describe religious and cultural practices with which they were unfamiliar when they visited other (non-white) countries.

And yeah, I don’t find TW to be any more superstitious than most Western countries.
As noted, Christian, and especially Roman Catholic, practices can include stuff that, observed objectively, seems more kookoo bananas than anything you’d find among the natives of Papua New Guinea.

That why I mentioned from our own points view, some superstitions can be odder than others. I’m sure it would weird exlpain the concept of Eucharist. Even as a Protestant, the idea is weird.

And I’m sure people would find many baseball superstitions weird to them. Like I can’t play in the field unless I have my batting glove in each of my pockets. Once I was throwing a no hitter into the 5th inning out of 7. I knew it and so did everyone on the team and left me alone and didn’t talk to me as I walked into the dugout. One kid on my team looked at the stats and said something about it like oh man he hasn’t given up a hit! Everyone including me lost it but tried to stay calm. And the next inning I gave up a hit. Even though I walked like 5 guys or something so it wasn’t like I was a amazing. But still, everyone pretty much just crucified him about it. Even the coach lol. I’m sure many wouldn’t get it. It’s completely silly but it’s what makes the game fun. Lots of guys had weird superstitions that i played with.

I DO find Taiwanese extremely superstitious and I come from a supposedly religious superstitious country.
It was once but now it’s a bastion of rationality compared to Taiwan.

Northern Europe has low levels of religious belief so it’s very very different than Africa, much of Asia and North America.

Its super common here for grown ups to make decisions about marriage and money just from talking to some random soothsayer or what day of the week it is (well I expect it is a justification used in many cases to do something).

Business people and sales people visiting temples regulatory praying for fortune .I knew a sales guy who just to stop off randomly to do this, (I really wanted to tell him you are wasting your time but it was his business , I guess whatever jazzed him up).

Also superstition interferes with child birth and also with medical treatment here (now one could say official Catholic doctrine opposition to abortion and divorce is superstition but again it is ignored by many worshippers and is more local culture dependent).

The thing I don’t like is when they DONT tell you the reason they made some decision.
If they admit it was because of some superstition then you can get a better idea on what is going on.

My in laws are really superstitious and go to the local temple, but much of that is a social pursuit similar to going to church on Sunday (but more like the exorcist got drunk and started telling you don’t marry that guy ) and also go on temple trips with their buddies so it gets them out and about.

Now as superstitions and religions go Taiwan’s aren’t forced on others WHICH IS REALLY GREAT just wish they would be more considerate in terms of burning shit everywhere and not letting off fireworks at midnight.

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I don’t like it when people profit off superstitions for no reason. I know there’s temples that my cousins go to and give money to for good luck on grades and testing.

You know someone made that shit up to profit from the nature of schools and testing in taiwan.

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Yeah temples are a huge business in Taiwan and there a lot of charlatans wearing robes and hanging around them trying to get money. I don’t like that there are so many illegal temples built on mountains here.
I do like and admire some of the ancient temples of course and even some of the new ones can have a pleasant environment (although would not live beside them).

Religions are big business not only in Taiwan, but everywhere. See big churches too.

Yeah but there are not so many illegal ones in developed countries and gangster affiliation…something fairly unique to Taiwan and Chinese perhaps.

The local temple culture with the gangs is pretty interesting I think it comes from hundreds of years ago when they had factional wars here.

Well, the millionaire megachurches are affiliated with politicians. Same difference.

Those guys even hell finds disgusting.

Prosperity gospel, divine healing, prphecies of the end of the world, all milking the sheep. More money to buy satellites to pray the gospel because the Lord is coming, if we reach all the ends of the earth then He will come. People have nothing to eat yet they have satellites to preach…poverty.

In the ol country we have the Catholic church milking obedience through worship of stones fallen from the sky and apparitions, and promoting division of class by color of the skin. The only thing it agrees with the Evangelicals and their mega churches is to keep people poor by taking their money, telling them to behave within their class, and not allowing women to work because women are sinners who only reach salvation through bearing children and carrying the guilt of all their black heart desires.

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The floor is there, just not numbered. :rofl: