I’ve heard more Chinese superstitions in the past few months than in my previous 10 years here.
It all starts with the pregnant mother regulars:
don’t use a hammer
don’t go up a ladder
don’t use scissors
don’t drink anything iced
Then gets a little weirder:
don’t let anyone touch your shoulder
Then after the baby is born it gets even more bizzare:
don’t tickle his feet or he’ll grow up being scared to cross over bridges!
*This last one was directed at my wife’s sister (Who is 3 months pregnant) by her mother-in-law.
As soon as they left my wife said to me “I feel so sorry for my sister; she’s actually gonna have to take all that crap seriously!”
The latest was being told that because my baby had 2 crowns he would grow up to have a bad temper.
(As if the red hair wasn’t the give-away on that)
Whatever happened to the old saying: “If you don’t have anything nice to say then keep your fool mouth shut!”
I heard this one a lot too when my daughter was born. She is almost four now and it hasn’t shown yet.
A few more I can add…
During pregnancy don’t eat papaya or mango. It will cause the baby to be born with jaundice. (How else would the baby’s skin get yellow?)
Don’t let the baby look into a mirror because they may see a ghost.
Don’t bring the baby near a temple because spirits like to hang out there and, as everyone knows, babies are more easily possessed by ghosts.
EDIT: I’ve also heard the hammer one, also goes for drills and any rennovations to the house. The baby may be born with a cleft lip or palate.
Don’t move to a new home. We did, and even a doctor friend of ours said it was bad luck.
After the baby’s born, the mother shouldn’t wash her hair…I forgot to ask for how long…
Don’t go near the tombs during tomb-sweeping festival, the baby might get possessed.
Don’t have too much soya sauce or sesame oil, the baby will be dark.
Don’t have anything ice-cold, it will upset the baby in the womb.
Don’t watch scary movies or anything with ghosts in them, it will upset the baby and you never know…
And whoever made up the rules for the month of rest (no hairwashing, no touching ice-cold things, no touching cold water, no being in front of a fan or air conditioner…) wasn’t a just-given-birth size mother nursing a newborn in August in a Taipei apartment.
If your baby’s bellybutton is not covered, your baby will get sick.
“Babies have no seasons” - so you have to dress them up like it’s winter all year long…
However, there are also some nice ones for babies, I like this one,i it’s calming:
If your baby cannot sleep well, is kind of fitful, put your hand gently on his/her chest and whisper his/her name three times just as the baby drifts off to sleep. (The idea is that some spirits will hear, I just think the whole ritual is calming for parent and child.)
I am guessing the superstitions that stipulate no cold anything for pregnant women or mothers who just gave birth are to prevent uterus from contractions, right?
But a lot of people here are anti-cold drinks to begin with. I remember being at Costco with my then almost one year old, feeding her yogurt. People walked by in horror. How could I have just taken that yogurt from the fridge ten minutes ago and now be feeding it to a child?
The wife went to a Chinese medicine doctor once and this guy told her if she continued to drink iced beverages she would eventually lose her mind. (hmm…, second thought, maybe there is something to it)
Same thing when people have any kind of ailment, even a cold or flu. Avoid anything cold is on the top of the list of things to do to recover. Where I’m from we’d be pumping cold drinks into our bodies as fast as we could tolerate.
They just hope you wont be shocked by the sudden touch and affect your baby.
My sister’s neighbour went to night market,and someone touch her shoulder and say hi.She was shocked by the sudden touch.Later,she felt bad and didn’t keep her bady.
Related to that one, when my wife was pregnant we bought a new mattress and my inlaws just happened to be visiting us when it was delivered, so when the guys showed up at the door with it my mother-in-law was shocked and quickly hurried my wife outside to avoid the bad vibes while they delivered it.
Babies are not allowed to non-baby hospitals… same reason as the temple… bad spirits of dead folk hanging out~
Don’t let your baby walk between your legs (like a tunnel, which they enjoy thoroughly) else they will never be tall… could be some truth in that one~ my daughter is considered short (and underweight according to the doctor - has a very high metabolism like myself when I was young) for her age~
Red envelopes with lucky-money go under the babies matress… brings good luck and fortune for the baby in future…
Don’t do the throw-up and catch thing… supposedly can damage the babies brain… if that’s the case… well, I must’ve been a genius when I was born, cos I sure got thrown a lot (loved it) and yet my IQ was 143 (dunno if it still is… isn’t your IQ supposed to go down as you get older or something?)
If you are feeding your baby/small child a boiled egg (not really a superstition, but…) add a little salt to help stop the baby from getting indigestion from air in the egg~
I’ve also been told the one about tickling the baby’s feet as i got caught doing it by both my wife and her mum. they both said that the child would not be able to cross a bridge when he gets older. i asked them to explain the reason to me but neither could - oh well.
i still tickle his feet when no-one is around and he loves it.
I’ve heard heaps of other so called facts as well:
always cover the belly button up
don’t let the baby look into the mirror because of ghosts
don’t take the baby out when he is too young as a ghost or spirit will take his soul
etc etc etc
then there is the sitting period. this isn’t just for taiwan as i know they also do it in vietnam, cambodia and laos - and off course china. i cannot imagine not having a shower or not washing your hair for 30 days would be like. i wonder how this began?
the cold drink issue is a whole separate discussion and i think it is worthy of a whole new thread. where i come from, a cold drink is a standard way to cool down. i had never heard of having a warm or hot drink to cool down before i came here and i get rather annoyed having to justify why i want a cold drink all the time. they would say “no don’t drink cold water as it is not good for your stomach”. i get this again, again and again.
but it is their culture and their belief and who am i to argue (but it is my body and my desire to have a cold drink though)…
Yeah,I think if you can have cold drink or not.It is very different between countries.
Taiwanese are told we cant have cold drinks when we are on our period,or pregant.
It said it is bad for our blood circulate and womb.
I also heard a superstitions about baby.
Put a stone under your (or baby’s bed),then he/she will be a brave kid when he/she grow up.
[quote=“gg1965”]i cannot imagine not having a shower or not washing your hair for 30 days would be like. I wonder how this began?[/quote]Probably has something to do with women being worked like farm animals their whole lives. Pretty smart way of getting a month off work per year during your child-bearing years, no? Nothing is more logic-proof than superstition!