What Superstitions does NIC Hold?

 The International Club collected students’ cultural and personal superstitions during Halloween week. The club promoted the kickoff of their event last Monday in the new American Indian Student Center. The club provided papers for students to anonymously write down their superstitions and leave them in a box. The box was left out all week to gather more submissions and the International Club read all the entries out loud last Friday for those in attendance. 

One superstition from Eastern European countries like Poland or Romania, is that if you see a dog pooping it means that good fortune in terms of money is coming soon.  Similar to this is a French superstition where stepping in the dog excrement with your left foot brings good luck, but stepping with the right foot brings bad luck. 

A superstition from Japan was that if you cut your toenails at night you won’t be around your family when they die. While this may sound like a strange connection to make, it is easier to understand in Japanese. The word for “night nails” 夜爪 (Yozume) sound similar to 世詰 (Yo-zume, a word meaning something like “shortening one’s life”. This word is not commonly used in conversation though being only associated with superstition.  Another meaning is the word being associated with night guard duty where one cannot leave even if their parents are dying.  

Another superstition mentioned was that having your feet swept by someone will mean that you will marry someone old. This superstition is commonly held in Latin America and the south. Other variations of it result in the victim of the foot-sweeping never marrying or having bad luck. There does not appear to be any connection between this and the idiom of being “swept off their feet”. 

A superstition from the Philippines was putting cabbage in an envelope for good luck. This could be connected to the Chinese association of good fortune with cabbage. The superstition originates from word 白菜 which sounds the same as 百财 which means ‘100 wealth’.  

This superstition around tears was cited as being from Italy though it also has parallels in Latin American and Caribbean cultures.