It's funny, when I was a kid you'd play those games when walking down a footpath of avoiding cracks - "step on a crack, break your mother's back" - but I never actually thought if I stepped on a crack something would happen to my mum.
When I was a teenager, I read an interview about a band I liked, and it noted that the lead singer was very superstitious. Apparently whenever an ambulance went past, he compulsively had to touch a button on his clothing. I found that intriguing. Why on earth would you need to touch a button?
Well I didn't have the internet then, so I couldn't look it up. Now I can! Here you go, a long standing mystery in my mind is finally solved:
One of the most long-lasting of such superstitions is the belief that if you see an ambulance or a hearse, you must touch a button on your clothing immediately or you will be the next person getting a free ride in said vehicle. This superstition was first seen in Victorian times, and one variant was that you needed to grab and hold the button until you saw a bird fly by to be truly protected. (Source )How odd.
Another superstition around death for Chinese people is apparently white moths symbolising the soul of the departed person (is that just a Chinese thing? I don't know). My grandmother (Mama) was apparently very upset when my grandfather (Yeh Yeh) was laid out after he died, because she saw a white moth and thought it was him (she was quite superstitious). Oddly enough, at the funeral parlour when I arrived for her wake, I noticed a moth fluttering around the ceiling and I thought it was was appropriate! (but I didn't think it was her, just so we're clear!)
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