Pregnancy is a time of excitement and anticipation, and mothers-to-be are often brimming with questions, many of them, unfortunately, based on myth and superstition. If I drink coffee during my pregnancy, will my baby be born with brown spots? Can looking at a lunar eclipse really cause a deformity in my child? Nine remarkable ones are presented and debunked here.
Superstitions About Death and Dying
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How to Understand and Respect Chinese Superstitions: 14 Steps
To enjoy our content, please include The Japan Times on your ad-blocker's list of approved sites. Most people are like this, and most superstitions are harmless. It comes around once every 60 years and last happened in ; the next time will be It is the superstition centered around the year of hinoeuma : the fire horse. Superstition is everywhere.
A Grave Day–the Culture of Death!
From keeping a dagger under your bed to avoiding a full moon, we look at pregnancy beliefs from across the globe. It's believed evils spirits can steal a baby from the womb, so she should only ever let close family members near her, guarding her bump fiercely from strangers. One strange tradition relates to the humble bed, which is an important symbol of fertility in China - sharp objects, such as needles or scissors, are forbidden on or near the bed, as it signals the cutting of the umbilical cord or could lead to birth defects. On the flipside, a dagger is permitted under the bed - that's used to ward off evil spirits who may linger around an unborn child.
While Westerners tend to make a big deal of birthdays, celebrating each year of a person's life with parties, cake, and gifts, the Chinese traditionally reserve birthday bashes for infants and the elderly. While they acknowledge most passing years, they don't consider most birthdays worthy of festivities. In the West, a child turns one on the first anniversary of his or her birth. In Chinese culture, however, newborn babies are already considered to be one year old.
