Fan Death (opens in new tab)

I've been living in Vietnam for almost a year, and there is a crazy amount of superstitions here. Some of them are eastern Asian, and some were proudly invented here.

- Number 4 is an unlucky number. 6 and 8 are lucky numbers. In fact, most wifi passwords here are 66668888 or 88888888.

- Don't stick the chopsticks in rice in the middle.

- Don't flip the fish as it mimics the fisherman's boat flipping.

- Burn a ton of stuff to help the diseased at Tet holiday.

- Don't boil the same water more than once.

When I was a kid, my parents held the belief that if you keep lily flowers in a vase in a room with the windows closed overnight, and you sleep in that room, you will get a headache. The belief went on to state there is a small chance of death, for the presumed cause that the flowers somehow consume the oxygen in the room. As an adult, I never revisited this superstition; I don't buy flowers often, but my wife does. For some reason, neither one of us ever buys lilies. It could be that we both hold a remnant of this superstition deep inside our subconscious.

Italians have a similar superstition about being hit by gusts of wind, 'colpo d'aria'. Often sickness are attributed to it, but not death like this article.

I lived in an ashram for 3 months in south india. There were a lot of superstitions but the ones which were strangest to me was not being allowed to cut your nails after sundown and to never step over a sleeping dog.