Saturday, September 14, 2013

Are You Superstitious?

I didn’t realize yesterday was Friday the 13th, until I started reading my email. I don’t consider myself superstitious, but sometimes I do feel lucky.  Rocket News 24 had an interesting post on Japanese Superstitions yesterday.  Some I had heard of before, like the one about cutting your nails after dark and you won’t be able to see your parents before they die.  One that I did not know about is  Fukumimi -  those with large earlobes will come into great fortunes. This is the explanation for that one: “The original belief is that one who has body parts similar to Buddha’s will receive great fortune. Among those body parts, the ears are said to be the luckiest to have in common with him. Apparently, Buddha’s ears weren’t actually big, but more curved towards the mouth and able to support a single grain of rice.” Now I’ll probably be staring at people’s ears to see if they are rich.

I’ve made a small amount of progress on the garden. I’m using two strands of red floss to make knots. I don’t know if these are bushes or flowers or what. I’m going to call them flowers. They are getting a little unruly. The gardener must not be doing a very good job.


2 comments:

Margaret said...

I hadn't remembered about fukumimi - now I'm peering t the mirror wondering if my ear lobes agree with my bank balance!

Queeniepatch said...

Now I can see the crayon marks. I think you can stitch along happily, the gardener can stay on holiday!

I am sure you know that 4 and 9 are considered unlucky numbers, as their pronounciation also can mean 'death' and 'hardship'. This is why crockery is not sold in sets of four, why you should not give 4000 or 40000 yen as a gift (at weddings etc) and why hotel and hospital lrooms with these numbers are missing.