Very Superstitious...

(funky clav starts playing in the background)

Yes, we're coming into spooky season. The Autumnal Equinox has been crossed, and the balance is tipping toward the forces of winter and darkness (also known as "The Dead"...or "politicians"). Already the climate has changed from being hot and muggy all day and all night to just hot and muggy during the day and chilly at night, making wardrobe selection a far greater challenge (i.e. you actually have to wear clothes at night). The grating cacophony of the cicadas has finally given way to the gentle chirping of my kids fighting over their Nintendo DSes the crickets, which are considered good luck in Japan.

Speaking of luck, as we approach Halloween (which reportedly at least one community in Massachusetts is trying to reschedule for "safety reasons"), that most supernatural of seasons, superstition once again comes to the forefront. Images of black cats, broken mirrors, Sarah Palin, etc., remind us that spiritual powers are coming into full swing.

So what about here in Japan? Are there Japanese superstitions that differ from their Western counterparts? The answer is a very evil-sounding YES! Japan has a wealth of superstitions that date from ancient times (i.e. my students are still hard pressed to remember ANY of them, but anyway...).

• Back in ancient times it seemed like there were lucky and unlucky cycles for just about everything. Back in the Heian Era, often called Japan's golden age, there were even certain directions in which one couldn't go each day without suffering bad luck, or so it was believed. That made travel a tricky affair; you either had to time your trips so that you moved in a lucky direction or take a roundabout route to avoid the cursed direction (which sounds like trying to go somewhere making only left turns, but anyway...). That tradition has long since faded to zero, as well as the lucky times for eating certain foods, playing music in certain keys, or wearing one's clothing a certain way, but there are still lucky and unlucky days marked on the calendar. Major events are almost always timed so that they appear on a "taian" (大安 - means "great security") day, which is luckiest. "Butsumetsu" (仏滅 - means "Buddha's death") days, on the other hand, are strictly avoided.
• Speaking of death, there are many superstitions based on funeral traditions. For example, one never embeds his chopsticks in his rice fully upright. (That's a rite for the dead.) One never folds his garment right-over-left. (That's only done on the body of a deceased.) Two people should never hold the same piece of food with their chopsticks at the same time or hand something chopsticks-to-chopsticks directly. (That's only done after a funeral, when two people together pick up a single bone fragment of the deceased with chopsticks and place it in the burial urn. See my post on my mother-in-law's funeral.) When eating, one should keep his rice on the left and his soup on the right. (The opposite is apparently another funeral tradition, or so I'm told.)
  
• Funerals themselves have superstitions of their own. After a funeral it is customary to avoid taking a direct route home so as to throw off any spirits that might be trying to follow. Also, before entering one's house afterward, one should sprinkle salt over oneself so as to purge any spirits that might be hitching a ride and keep them from getting inside. (Packets of salt for that purpose are always included in the gift bags given to funeral guests.) Some people also sprinkle salt around the front door just in case the spirits try to sneak in on their own.
• Black cats have no significance in Japan, but crows do. In ancient times, crows were believed to be harbingers of death, and the sight of a murder of them (Yes, that's the correct term) gathering outside someone's house was a very bad sign. It was also not good if a crow perched outside someone's window and watched him intently (as seems to happen a lot at Ye Olde Academy whenever I give an exam).
• Life after dark can be a tricky affair. Whistling is out. (It's said to attract snakes and/or ghosts.) So is cutting your toenails. (It's said to attract burglars.)
• As in the West, certain numbers are believed to be unlucky. One of them is 4; one of its readings is "shi" [四], which sounds like the Japanese word for "death" [死]. The other is 9, whose reading "kyu" sounds like Japanese words meaning "suffer" [窮], "enmity" or "evil" [仇], "rot" [朽], as well as "weep" or "grieve" [泣] . (It also sounds like both "father-in-law" [舅] and "rescue" [救], but oh well.)

There are certainly others, but I'll end the list here.

If you think these superstitions sound odd, whoever came up with the idea that finding a four-leaf clover brings good luck, or that you should toss salt over your shoulder if you spill it? I've heard it said that there's a lot of common sense in superstition, but there isn't a whole lot of logic. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd better go light some incense to help prevent my MIL's ghost from haunting the place.