[Talk] Touch wood!

[obiter (加油！)]

Western people have an interesting belief in touching wood to avoid being
jinxed when they say certain things. I've found it to be rather amusing at
first, but I've found that I've picked up the habit myself lately!

It's quite different to the Chinese tradition really. Because we all know that
we are not supposed to say bad things that might happen.

For example, if you say something like: "But what if I get hit by a car?"
You are sure to get told off by your parents. As a child, we didn't understand
what was so bad about giving these hypotheticals.

In Western culture, it seems to work quite the opposite way. You are meant to
touch something made out of wood if you say something good about yourself!

For example, this most typically happens when you say something like:
"Hey! I haven't been sick at all all year!"

At that point, you have to touch wood!

The superstitious belief seems to be that, by saying that, you are jinxing
yourself to get sick soon!

Whether that's true or not, is, of course, very questionable. I've simply
picked up the habit now, and I was even thinking of getting a wooden
decoration to hang in the car! Becasue I tend to say things like that on the
road a lot, and there is nothing made out of wood in a car! haha

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推 rednaw:haha...it's really interesting...I've also
→ rednaw:heard that some ppl will make some gestures
→ rednaw:after saying something like that to mean that
→ rednaw:what they have said doesn't count...
推 obiter:I haven't heard that one haha~ What gesture
推 obiter:is it?