Japanese Superstitions - Death and The Supernatural

Death and The Supernatural

• If you go to a funeral, you should throw salt over yourself before entering your home. This is believed to be cleansing.
• You should never sleep with your head in North position or you will have a short life (this is the way a body is laid out at funeral).
• Chopsticks should not be stuck upright into food, especially rice. Chopsticks are only stuck upright into rice in the bowl on the altar at a funeral. Likewise, food should never be passed chopstick-to-chopstick as this is done in a ceremony where bone fragments from cremated remains are placed in an urn. This is called "hotokebashi."
• Cutting your fingernails or toenails at night is bad luck. If you do so, it is believed that you will not be with your parents at their deathbed.
• You should never write a person's name in red ink. This is due to names on graves being red.