Here’s our own Zurairi AR‘s column for KLue. This article originally appeared in the January 2010 issue of KLue.
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Exploring some of the beliefs that reassure us today
I hope it’s still not too late to wish everyone a Happy 2010! Although, with Malaysians’ propensity to celebrate festivities longer than they actually are – hey, Aidilfitri is all month long – some people probably still wish “Happy New Year” right until February.
Speaking of New Year, I just found out that making noise during the New Year is a very common superstition around the world. This practice supposedly chases evil spirits and demons away from your house, and will keep you with good luck all year long. The Irish bang on their doors and walls; in Iran they bang pots and pans; and, most familiar to us, the Chinese set off their boisterous firecrackers.
I also stumbled upon an interesting piece of news about the upcoming Chinese New Year. Spurred by superstitious parents, numerous Chinese youngsters are rushing to get married before 14th of February.
The reason is bizarre. Beliefs dictate that the next lunar year starts after a period when there is no Yang energy. No Yang energy means no masculine energy – which implies “no husband”. So, if you get married in the coming lunar year, the logic goes, you will end up a widow, among other disastrous consequences.
That’s the thing about superstitions: they transcend culture, age and class. You are as likely to find elite yuppies and youngsters subscribing to the same beliefs as orang tua-tua and makciks.
You know what? I’ve always wondered if “orang tua-tua” is some sort of organisation that regulates old wives’ tales, sort of like the National Fatwa Council for superstitions. All I hear is orang tua-tua says this, orang tua-tua says that …
Anyway.
It seems that as the world advances, so do superstitions. Back in the day, superstitions were mostly borne out of needs to appease gods, repel bad luck and keep the demons at bay.
Now they have evolved into something rather more practical. Instead of trivial no-nos like entering a room with your left leg, singing while cooking or mixing hot and cold food, today we have technological superstitions. We still do absurd things that do not actually work, but we do these things because we believe they will grant us advantages in practical applications.
Let me give you an example. I went to an all-boys boarding school, and – mobile phones being in their infancy back then – the only way to communicate with the outside world (read: girlfriends) was by public phone. So there I was, wasting coin after coin, finding out that it was not cheap calling mobile numbers!
When I grumbled, a knowing friend quickly suggested: “Did you know you can get longer minutes with the same credit by pressing the hash (#) and asterisk (*) keys together?”
Suffice to say, every single time I made a call out, I would furiously mash those buttons to get more minutes (or even seconds, I was that desperate). Still the credit ran out.My dad has this crazy idea of rocking his car up and down while filling up on petrol. This irks my mom to no end, and the experience is rather nauseating, much like being on a boat, offshore. When asked why he does this, he answered: “To get air bubbles in the petrol up and out, so I can fill more petrol into the tank.”
Here’s a modern one, which many of us might relate to: “You should take your battery out of your laptop if you keep it plugged in all the time, so the battery won’t get damaged.”
This might have been true ten years ago, when laptops first came out, but in this age of wonders, I’m sure engineers have figured to reroute the power away from the batteries when you’re plugged in.
Right?
Well, until telecommunication engineers, chemical engineers, automotive engineers, computer engineers, etc. come clean and debunk these superstitions (preferably Mythbusters-style, with explosions and all), common people like us will keep doing it.
Because we think they work – and sometimes, somehow, they do work! Most of the time, it’s just sheer dumb luck or coincidence, but there is no denying the assurance that superstitions grant upon their believers. Think of it as the Law of Attraction, minus the superfluous psychobabble.
Speaking of which, I need an expert to tell me if tapping cigarette boxes to compact ciggies actually work, or if it’s all bollocks. Anyone?
