SALT SUGAR RICE AND WATER

• Don't get injured during Good Fridays, or it won't get healed.
• Don't have sex during Good Fridays, the penis will get stuck inside the vagina forever.
• Don't sleep with your feet directly facing the door or else you will die.
• When you are pregnant, you should not eat a Siamese banana or else you will also have a Siamese twin.
• On the very first menstruation, girls should jump three steps in a stair way. Not sure what the reason was for this.
• They should also wipe their bloodied knickers on their faces to prevent pimples from appearing.
• When you get lost, turn your shirt back to front, then you will find the way.
• You are inviting bad luck if you sweep the floor at night time.
• Don't cut your finger nails at night time or you'll constantly fight with your parents.
• If you dream of someone dying, go bite a tree to prevent it from happening.
• When you go past a big tree or a dark place, you have to say "Tabi Apo" to warn spirits you are going through their territory, thus avoid bumping into them and making them angry.
• When you hear someone gritting their teeth while asleep, smack their face with a rubber thong to prevent bad luck then chuck that thong out through a window...Geees, I wish there is a Scientific explanation to this. Would give me lots of excuses to smack my hubby's face!

These are just a few of the many superstitions I've grown to hear during my younger years. Some Filipinos bring these weird and funny beliefs even here in Australia. Some superstitions have gone up to a different and 'higher' level...the Feng Shui.

My friend, Mona and her family moved into their newly bought house today. Advices came flocking in with regards to when/how they should move in. The one that probably reverberated the most was about what they should first bring into the house. Salt, sugar, rice and water. Apparently, this is also supported by the Feng Shui studies(is it even a study or an art?)

These four items signify the most basic needs in living, and should therefore be taken into the house before anything else so the household will have abundant supply of the basic commodities. I admit, I have also fallen victim into this folklore when we first moved in our house. With the number of people telling me this is what we should do, then I thought it might be disrespectful to those who wished us good. So I dutifully brought all these items in before anything else. I laid them to their respective spots because that's where they're meant to multiply.

Surprisingly, only after that was dramatised did I truly appreciate and vanquished on the realisation that we have finally bought our first home. I could easily compare the feeling when I first conquered the top of Musuan Peak. Then I had calls from friends asking whether we have brought the salt, sugar, rice and water in...I felt I wanted to say, "THE EAGLE HAS LANDED" to be even more dramatic. When I went back to the kitchen, I got the shock of my life when I saw it was raining with rice inside the freaking house! My husband was throwing the rice by a handful (each time) in all corners of the house like a priest blessing the bloody house!!!

I screamed like a wounded witch who was about to pounce on a trespasser in my domain! I think my husband wished he said 'Tabi Apo' right that minute. I asked him what the hell was he doing...He said, "Isn't that what we're supposed to do to have a prosperous life?"...Then I saw bunch of coins spread out in the four main corners of the damned house!

Oh My Lord. A variation of the superstition I've been told. Well, apparently these superstitions vary in all the different regions in the Philippines, and from the sounds of it, it also evolves.

Well, when my friend, Mona, moved into their new house this afternoon, she's done the same thing I did, but the Monaliza way. Her timing is apparently better because the full moon is up today (or tomorrow?), which is said to be another magnet for good luck and prosperity.

I know there is no scientific truths to any of these, but what's our loss if we follow? I did it to make everyone happy, and because of the fact that it's already part of our custom. I've always believed in preserving customs and traditions (only the good ones)we have inherited from our forefathers. Besides, it's fun having to do some kind of ritual during big occasions in your life, such us moving to your newly bought house.

What the hell...I need all the lucks in the world I can get in paying back the mortgage, I might as well do all the rituals even if it means I need to chop off a chicken's head!

The salt, sugar, rice and water ? We still run out of them from time to time. Could it be because I vacuumed all the rice from the floor? When you throw away food, you're meant to say "Porya Gaba"...Oh my...I didn't say that. I'm cursed! That's probably why they don't get automatically replenished...