Photo by Kittenpuff1

Every culture has it’s superstitions (even the ones that balk at such things). Some of them can be really fun, and others… not so much. With number thirteen for example, you could match it with a low birth rate that year.

And why thirteen? Just because it’s an unlucky number

1. If you sneeze and you don’t have a cold, someone’s talking about you.
2. If you sleep with something heavy on your chest (like a great big cat), you’ll have bad dreams.
3. If you cut your toenails at night, you won’t be with your parents when they die. But don’t think you’re safe if your parents have already passed away (if you’ve ever watched the anime of xxxHolic, you’ll know why).
4. If you visit a hospital, you may not find any hospital rooms with the number 4 (“shi”). 4 (“shi”) is a terribly bad luck number, since “shi” also means death. That’s why there’s two words for the number 4, “shi” and “yon”. (Although, in Chinese Numerology, you can pair 5 with a 4 to mean “never die”).
5. If you sleep after eating, you’ll become a cow.
6. Don’t stab your chopsticks into rice, as it’s part of a funeral ritual.
7. If you toss a shoe and it falls on its sole, it’ll be a nice day out. If it doesn’t, it will be terrible.
8. If you whistle in the dark, you’ll attract a snake or a ghost. Or you may just annoy everyone around you.
9. If you don’t finish your rice at every meal, you’ll go blind. (Wow… sounds like some other superstitions…)
10. The first dream you have in the new year will come true. Hope that it’s not one in which someone clones dinosaurs, and then decides it’s a good idea to bring a tyrannosaurus rex to your city.
11. If a picture is taken of a group of three, the person in the middle is doomed to suffer.
12. If a green tea’s stalk floats vertically in your cup, it’s good luck.
13. If a woman is born in the year of Hinoe-Uma (or fire-horse, according to the Chinese zodiac), she will be evil. Or just too fiery to be controlled by a husband. (If you were born in 1966 — that’s you!)

What your favorite superstitions, Japanese or not?