Folk Wisdom
- If you play with fire, you will wet your bed. (It makes children become aware of the danger of fire.)
- If you rest just after eating, you will become a cow/pig/elephant. (This means not to be lazy.)
- If you whistle or play a flute at night, snakes will come to you. (This means not to bother your neighbors.) (When they say snake, it means a thief.)
- A cold midsection will cause diarrhea
- The first dream of a new year will come true
- Breaking a comb or the cloth strap of a "geta" wooden sandal is an omen of misfortune.
- Stepping on the cloth border of a tatami mat brings bad luck.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Superstitions
Famous quotes containing the words folk and/or wisdom:
“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have “really happened,” or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)
“And more I may not write of, for they that cleave
The waters of sleep can make a chattering tongue
Heavy like stone, their wisdom being half silence.
How shall I name you, immortal, mild, proud shadows?
I only know that all we know comes from you,
And that you come from Eden on flying feet.
”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)