why are JAPANESE superstitious about 4?
youngEINSTEIN
2,443 Posts
can someone accustomed to japanese culture plaese explain. thanks, stein. . .
Comments
Dunno about japanese, but
4 = si (hard sound) = sort of sounds like the word for "death" in mandarin chinese (si 3rd aka inflected sound)
probably similar in japanese, hence the supersition
Yup. When you count things like people, there's even a different pronunciation for 4; "yon" instead of "shi". Same for 7; instead of "shichi", its something like "nana".
Crazy Japanese!!
Wouldn't wanna granny to think you're shipping her to the morgue prematurely.
Maybe that's why they gave me a braek on my rent here... I'm on the 4th floor!
Many new residential buildings in this neck of the wood do not have any of the following:
4th, 14th, 24th etc (4 sounds like "Death" in Mandarin and Cantonese);
7th, 17th, 27th etc (Chinese mourning period goes in cycles of 7 days); and
13th floor (something for the westerner).
It often fucks me up when I receive a building schematic at work with them taking out all those numbers. it makes the building sounds much higher than it should.
the sound of it in Chinese is very similar to the word 'death'.
DAI LU MAO ZHI? SAYING, manny americans do!
never that SON!
Now that's a coincidence that officially creeps me out. Perhaps it's Friday afternoon here...
Cosign with Kenny. Never that.
Never wear a green hat in China/Taiwan
But I see a lot of red/crimson suede 575s here. Oh well, it's just the old man inside me doing the talking.
i mean ANYTHING from plastic bags and raincoast , ALL YELLOW...
crazy shit!
Was she wearing the yellow wig as well? Yellow nail varnish and all? That yellow lady was something of an urban legend back in the 90s. Damn I thought that crazy yellow lady passed away ages ago...
long time ago though, back when i used to live around that area...
then there's this dredlocked hobo who just like to take a dump in the middle of the walkway from time to time, along King's Rd....what a hero !
no shit. yellow lady Ver 2.0 perhaps? 'cos last time I saw her I was in Form 5, that was about 15 or 16 odd years ago...
Dreadlocked hobo? there was one at fortress Hill since early 2000. And I haven't seen that guy since like late last year. But if the fortress hill guy is the same one we talk about, damn me because one time my Airwalk was ruined by stepping on some abnormaly long and huge turd. And I remember saying to myself, "damn that's some huge turd for some dogs).
PS. Apologies for thread hijack.
1
T.N.
maybe they should put the morgue on the fourth floor then. makes sense to me.
8 is a good number.
Japanese Superstitions
* Sleeping towards the North:
Do not sleep towards the North beacause bodies are laid down like that.
* Funeral Car:
If a funeral car passes you should hide your thumb.
* Cut nails at night:
If you cut your nails at night, you will not be with your parents when they die.
* Lie down after eating:
If you lie down immedeately after eating, you will become a cow.
* Whistle in the night:
If you whistle in the night, a snake will come to you.