MONGOLIAN SUPERSTITIONS

*Men can't take out the garbage, and yet I've never seen a woman drive a garbage truck here

*Don't sing in bed

*Don't eat in bed

*Never place any drink on a piece of furniture

*Cover all mirrors in your house when someone dies or their soul will be trapped.

*Don't whistle indoors, or, as my 7-year old ABC student put it oh so innocently, your money go bye bye!

*Don't ever place a bag on the floor, seriously my students get angry with me when I do!

*If you stretch your arms above your head, all your education will escape….stretch carefully! Oh man, I never laughed so hard when my well-educated grown pilots went ballistic on their co-worker when he stretched before the test I was about to give them. He actually tried to scoop the air around his arms back in.

*Don't bite the collar of your shit or your mother will die.

*If two pregnant women meet and shake each other's hands the sex of their babies will switch. I've heard actual stories from students about a sister who's a tomboy or a brother who likes dresses…and it's all their mothers' fault.

*If the light of the moon comes through your window while you're sleeping and falls on your heart, someone can ask you any question and you will have to tell the truth in your sleep.

*Mongolian men are only allowed to grow a mustache after their father dies….it doesn't say anything about women though…I've seen a few women sportin' a doozy ! Uggghh.

*Men must always be served first…ha ha

*No sex on the 15th of the lunar month (my pilots jokingly told me their wives have a special calendar for those no-sex days!)

*Before the fall of communism, men couldn't drink vodka before their 40th birthday. After this birthday, vodka consumption was still strictly allocated every 10 years until the man reached 60, and then he could drink as much as he wanted….if they lived to 60???? hmmmm

*Must shake another's hand if you accidentally kick them with your feet. (sitting at a table etc.)

*Can't cut off anything from your body after dark. Hair, toenails, fingernails…god, I don't know what else. Except on special days of the lunar calendar. It's bad luck. Not such good business for salons in the winter when it gets dark by 4:30, now is it?

*Before taking a shot of vodka, you must put your ring finger in the glass and flick vodka to the spirits of the 4 directions. Thanks to Steve for the Shaman lesson.

*After a close family member dies there can be no celebrations of any kind for 49 days

*You can't have someone take off your ring for you or they'll take your happiness along with the ring.

*You can't travel long distances on Tuesdays, except to go see a monk (they call them llamas here and I always have this mental picture of a group of Mongolians chiilin' outside a barn asking an actual animal-like llama for advice.)

2 Korean Superstitions:

Fan Death: When operating an oscillating fan, it is imperative to leave a door or a window open in the room. If you fall asleep with the fan on and the doors and windows closed…you'll die. Now this is not just Korean folklore. Every Korean, young and old, that I spoke to about this believed it without equivocation. There are websites devoted to this problem. If ever I wanted to instill fear into the hearts of my students I told them that I slept with the fan on the night before. Their faces would just drop and go pale.

The other Korean superstition is Lily Death. Same as Fan Death, just replace the fan with a thousand lilies and you'll be, well, pushing up daisies.