Today’s guest poster is Nikki. She is an online marketing professional and does PR for Bingo-reviewer.
Nikki has a two year old son and in her spare time loves cooking. You can find her on Twitter @bingoreviewer
Are you feeling lucky today?
Luck
It’s a big old summer of sport this year! World cup heartbreak, Wimbledon hopes, hot sun, barbeques and a Vuvuzela soundtrack. It comes to my attention that the nation becomes more superstitious at such times. Despite the lacklustre performance against Germany last weekend, we wonder if England’s luck had been different, had that second goal been allowed? We pin our hopes on Andy Murray; we cross our fingers, we may wear a lucky shirt or (in extreme cases), ban an “unlucky” family member from watching an event.
Luck for me however; is a full time consideration. If you already know me from Twitter, you may know that I work for a Bingo website. I work in the online gaming industry and year-round will speak to people and meet people who spend their lives chasing that lucky hand, or praying for that lucky number. In fact – the picture you see above; is of me and Doyle Brunson. Mr. Brunson is (pretty much) the inventor of Texas Hold’em Poker and I was lucky enough to meet him and get a signed copy of his book “My Fifty Greatest Hands” at a conference earlier this year!
Mine and colleagues’ signed books!
Needless to say, that book is now my lucky charm; but what I really wanted to find out, particularly given our summer of international sporting events – is how different countries and cultures have different lucky traditions, objects and superstitions. I decided to ask friends, family and colleagues of different cultures to tell me about luck in their country.
Mary Samuels, Jamaica
Mary was born in St. Elizabeth in the South West of the Island of Jamaica, and left with her parents at the age of thirteen, to make a new life in Britain. Now living in London, Mary travels back to Jamaica every year, and hopes to return to her girlhood home when she retires.
Mary told me so many superstitions and traditions from her Jamaican homeland that there are almost too many to mention, and (as we observed) – all of them are about bad luck and how to avoid it.
“A lot of our superstitions are about brooms, and sweeping” Mary told me,“For instance, you can’t sweep your home after 6 o’ clock, and you need to have a different broom for inside the house. You can’t sweep your kitchen with the same broom you use for the yard, or that will bring very bad luck.”
I was also intrigued by one particular superstition that I’d never heard of before, which is that it is considered the worst of luck, for a young boy to jump over a younger girl’s head. It is said that to do so stunts the growth and development of the young girl in every way; and the only way to reverse the bad luck is for the boy to jump back over the way he came!
Annabel Hodges, Malaysian Chinese
Annabel grew up in Malaysia and is of Chinese origin. Malaysia is a melting pot of Malay, Indian and Chinese people and cultures. So much so, that Annabel told me that you can often tell the heritage of the owner of a building in Malaysia as luck and superstition manifests in very culturally-specific ways. As an example Chinese people believe that the number four is very, very unlucky – whereas conversely the number eight brings the greatest luck.
We’ve all heard the anecdotes about a Chinese businessman paying millions for a license plate reading 888, and of course there is the well known poker brand 888, and 888 Ladies Bingo. Annabel tells me that such stories are not urban myths, but indeed these lucky and unlucky numbers are taken extremely seriously.
“I used to live in a Chinese owned building, and the floors and lift buttons went 1, 2, 3, 3a, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8a, 8b and so on!”
Liva Judic, Madagascar
Born in Madagascar and a true world wanderer – digital media professional Liva had some amazing insights and anecdotes about good and bad luck. Liva told me that a lot of Madagascan superstitions and beliefs are based on animist philosophies, which hold central the belief that the soul exists in both animals as well as humans. It is therefore considered very bad luck to kill a snake. It is also extremely bad luck to give a gift lightly or begrudgingly and in fact, the reluctant giver is said to be at risk of giving birth to snakes!
Liva also told me,
“It is forbidden for children to play with sticks and stones at sundown; as it is at this cooler time in the evening that the spirits of the departed come to wander the earth. Sticks and stones as natural, yet inanimate objects may transition the worlds and poke the spirits in the eye, thus raising their anger.”
In terms of good luck, many Madagascan families keep crystals in the home, which are thought to bring good luck; and children born under a certain moon are said to be lucky for the rest of their lives.
Kun Dang, China
Born in a town called Xining in Qinghai Province North of China, Kun Dang came to the UK in 1989 after his father (he’s a scientist) was invited to the UK to do “science stuff” with UCL.
“I come from a very traditional Chinese family. Mum is housewife and with my dad being a scientist (stereotypical Chinese occupation) I was brought up to study maths, chemistry, physics etc. Imagine his disappointment when I told him I chose a career in Marketing, (with my agency Red or Blue Digital) in hindsight I should of told him I was a parking warden.”
Kun echoed the importance of numerals in Chinese culture that Annabel highlighted previously, expanding on the origin of the lucky significance of the number 8.
“The basic reason for this is the pronunciation for 8 in chinese is “ba”, very similar to the pronunciation of get rich “fa”. Equally, the number 6 is also considered important due to the similarity of its pronunciation with the term used for when things go to plan. “
New Year is a particularly significant time in the Chinese calendar, and there are a number of lucky traditions upheld around this time, such as wearing new clothes, (new clothes, new you!)
“It’s also important to have red in your clothes as red is related to prosperity.”
One of the most significant cultural differences that Kun told me about, when comparing China to the UK, is that the giving of clocks and watches is very unlucky. Whilst we may mark a coming of age or a graduation with the gift of a classic wristwatch, in China,
“You should never give someone a clock or watch for their birthday. It’s considered the clock is like a death clock that ticks your life away!”
So there you have it! Your international guide to conjuring up a little good luck as we spur on our remaining hope for sporting glory! Or if you like to play games of chance, such as bingo – or have the occasional sporting flutter on the National. What have we learned?
Wear red, no housework of an evening, and put it all on number 8!
Above all… stay lucky!
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