Anyway, I thought I'd post a list of the superstitions that our household observed this year as well as the ones that I heard of from friends and plan to add to our list next year. This is really a combination of Chinese and Filipino superstitions, I don't even know which one goes with which culture.
Please feel free to leave me a comment if you have any more :)
Things to prepare:
- 12 kinds of round fruits and place them on your dining table. 12 kinds of fruit = 12 months of the year. This symbolizes having plenty of food for the incoming year.
- 3 cups and place on your dining table. One should be filled with rice, another with salt and the last one with water. The containers should be filled to the brim. Another version of this superstition calls for filling the last cup with cooking oil instead of water.
- Before midnight on New Year's eve, a coin should be placed on each drawer and cabinet in the house. A coin should also be placed on each step of the stairs and on the windowsills and doorsteps.
- Pay off your debts and collect anything that you're owed.
- Just before midnight, all doors and windows should be open. Of course, keep in mind that care should be taken if you choose to do this as this might be viewed as an open invitation to burglers.
- Turn on all the lights in your house - I do this 10 minutes or so before midnight so I don't use up too much electricity.
- Coins (money) should be placed on the floor in the main hallway of the house - the one the main doors open to. Keep a broom handy nearby, you'll need this on the strike of 12.
- Keep money in your pockets, your pockets shouldn't be empty when the new year arrives.
- Prepare a comb and keep it handy.
- Throw away all your trash, if possible. It's considered bad luck to throw anything out on New Year's day so if you have anything that can possibly go bad (or go rotten), get rid of it before the new year.
Upon the stroke of midnight:
- Hold and jingle the money in your pockets.
- Comb through your hair, this is supposed to comb away all the bad luck - you don't have to fix your entire hair, a few strokes will do.
- In your entrance hallway where you scattered the coins, get the broom and sweep the coins INTO your house. This will invite fortune into your household for the new year.
On new year's day:
- It is considered bad luck to throw anything out.
- We try to refrain from spending any money on the first day of the year.
Needless to say, fireworks are illegal where we live so we only got to watch them on TV.
How about you ? Did you observe any of these on new year's eve ?
No comments:
Post a Comment