Old Wives' (wive's) Tales / Funny Thai Ones

[2long]

The title explains it. Thai ideas of how to protect and raise their/our kids.

Have a shower but don't go out in the rain?

The wind on a baby's head (without wearing a hat) can cause all sorts of untold injuries.

Black pen/mascara on eyebrows and scalp to help the hair grow.

Come on, guys n gals, let rip!

[coventry]

Pregnant ladies not to eat spicey food or the baby will be born bald.

Shave the baby's head, it grows back thicker.

Pregnant women don't drink dark fluids as this will cause baby to have dark skin.

After giving birth woman cannot eat fish or it will kill her.

Give the child a nick name to confuse the ghosts.

Post birth woman does not shower for ? days.

[wileycoyote]

Never completely clear a plate ,leave a little for the "spirits"

[coventry]

Bad luck to have your hair cut on a Wednesday.

[Farma]

I’ve heard the haircut one too.

For bigger kids

Don’t wear socks with holes in them as you’ll lose money

Never build your house with the front and rear doors in line as money will come in the front and go straight out the back.

[Frosty]

I’ve heard the haircut one too.

For bigger kids

Don’t wear socks with holes in them as you’ll lose money

Never build your house with the front and rear doors in line as money will come in the front and go straight out the back.

Front door in line w/ the back door is a Feng Shui thing ,like leaving the bathroom door open and/or the toilet seat uncovered your money will go down the drain. Anything with a hole in it ,sock , shoe,pot ,pan all loose money! Except bar girls!

[Igor]

Don't know if it qualifies as an old wives' tale as my girlfriend was not married nor particularly old but here you are:

She refused to sleep naked. Topless was okay but she had to wear panties. She said if she became uncovered at night and didn't have panties on, she might catch a serious cold.

Also, no open windows in the bedroom at night, no matter how stuffy the room was because the night air would make you sick.

This woman was no superstitious Isaan farmgirl. She had a master's degree in Oceanography from Texas A&M before coming back to Thailand.

[thetravellingcat]

sleep next to a diced / pealed onion to cure a cold

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oh wait that's a wives tale that actually works

[johnnynmonic]

Bad luck to go to the dentist on Tuesdays.

You shouldn't eat eggs if you have a wound that is healing - or risk more pronounced scars.

Snakes are scared of pregnant women.

Cover young children's heads if outside in the evening, or the dew will make them sick.

[Castor83]

As i'm layin on my bed typin this, I've got a sheet of metal with Thai writing on it digging into my neck from inside the pillowcase... I don't feel any luckier.

[coventry]

If a pregnant woman gets stomach pains when eating the baby is telling her it's hungry.

If a pregnant womans belly is itchy(natural occurance, caused by the skin being stretched) the baby's head has too much hair. This is the cause of the itching.

[chalvy]

Burnt toast gives you cancer.

Leaving toaster plugged in wastes power.

[coventry]

Don't know if it qualifies as an old wives' tale as my girlfriend was not married nor particularly old but here you are:

She refused to sleep naked. Topless was okay but she had to wear panties. She said if she became uncovered at night and didn't have panties on, she might catch a serious cold.

Also, no open windows in the bedroom at night, no matter how stuffy the room was because the night air would make you sick.

This woman was no superstitious Isaan farmgirl. She had a master's degree in Oceanography from Texas A&M before coming back to Thailand.

Didn't Mr Thaksin admit that be believes in 'Black Magic' ? And we all know what position he held.

[katana]

The title explains it. Thai ideas of how to protect and raise their/our kids.

Have a shower but don't go out in the rain?

The wind on a baby's head (without wearing a hat) can cause all sorts of untold injuries.

Black pen/mascara on eyebrows and scalp to help the hair grow.

Come on, guys n gals, let rip!

Somewhat related, came across this old BKK Post article on UBAI อุบาย - trick teachings. In the past, apparently UBAI were used to steer Thai children towards good behaviour (although they do seem a little hard to believe):

Bangkok Post

22 July 1999

By Suthon Sukphisit

"Thai tradition is full of tricks and stratagems used to teach the rules of daily living," said Sujit Buaphim, of the public relations department of the Office of the National Culture Commission, "but what is interesting is that their real intention is kept hidden so they achieve the desired effect." Mr Sujit, who has researched these tricks for years, compiled them into two books, Jao Nok Krawao and Banthuek jaak thaai rai. Both became big sellers immediately upon publication, because, for perhaps the first time the meanings behind many well-known sayings were there in print! Even though the trick teachings (ubai in Thai) are rarely used today, they shed light on traditional ways of thinking, and on the currently fashionable notion of Thai folk wisdom. Mr Sujit said these ubai are intended as warnings against harmful behaviour. Their actual intention is kept hidden, however, to disarm the Thai tendency to do exactly the opposite of what one is told.

"The more you forbid Thais to do something, the more determined they are to do exactly that," he said. "In this respect, they are like cats. If you pull a cat's tail, it will try its hardest to go forward. Then, if you pull its head forward, it will do its best to back up. If you try to lift its back, it will try to crouch down, and if you pull its stomach down toward the ground, it will try to arch its back upward."

"There is no use trying to use reason against this tendency in Thai people; it won't work. Instead, you have to use threats and trick warnings instead of stating things directly."

"The three types of threats that work best are those involving ghosts and other frightening things, those that involve being struck by lightning, and those that concern personal or family decline."

"Ubai can also be categorised according to the age group of the people to whom they are directed. There are trick warnings for boys and girls, others for teenagers, and a third type for pregnant women."

"It's important to understand the social context in which they developed. In the old days, communities were organised largely in villages in which everyone was related and knew each other. Everyone made their living the same way, as farmers.

All the tools used in daily living were home-made, and water travel was most common. I became interested in ubai because I come from a country background. I heard many ubai myself while I was growing up. Then, while working with the

Office of the National Culture Commission, I got the idea of collecting them and explaining the meaning hidden inside each one. It took me years to do this for the 200 of them I collected."

"In the countryside, children were warned if they tried to ride a dog, lightning would strike them. Rural households raised dogs to guard the property, and children liked to play with them. Sometimes the children tried to climb on the dog's back and pull its ears. This hurt the dog, and sometimes the child would be bitten."

"Adults knew that, by nature, children were afraid of thunder and lightning. If they told youngsters not to harass the dog because it might bite them, the children wouldn't believe them. They would probably think the dog would not hurt its owner. After all, if they had played with the dog since it was a puppy, why would it bite them now? But if you told them lightning would strike them, they got scared and listened."

"Girls often heard that if they went to sleep in the early evening, at around five or six o'clock, and didn't wake up again until after dark, a ghost would come and carry them off. The hidden intent here was to keep them from sleeping at a time of day when it was their duty to help mothers in the kitchen."

"Girls were forbidden to do more things than boys. For example, they were told never to play with a mortar and pestle by pounding into an empty mortar, otherwise their breasts would droop!" "Naturally this was more to do with the fact married women traditionally did not wear bras! However, the reason behind scaring girls in this way, was to stop them from pounding when there was no nam phrik or other food in the mortar.

Pounding an empty mortar would mean chips of stone would be knocked loose and settle in the bottom-and the noise was irritating to adults."

"Another ubai concerning mortars and pestles was: 'Don't use a mortar and pestle to pound curry paste and then stir the curry pot with the pestle, or you'll marry an old husband.' The reason for this one was that, after the curry paste has been pounded it had to be transferred to the curry pot using a spoon. The paste that adhered to the pestle had to be scraped off with the spoon, but it was tempting to take a shortcut and stir the pestle in the curry."

"If the pestle was dropped when they were doing this it could shatter the pot, which was made from ceramics. Then the family would have to do without a meal."

Mr Sujit went on to explain that there were also ubai concerning menstruation. Girls were told, if they went to the ubosot of the temple while they were having a period, it would bring bad luck to them and their families. "In those days there were no sanitary napkins," he said, "and it was feared the floor would be stained."

There were also trick admonitions for boys. For example, they were told bad times could be expected if they combed their hair at night without first running their fingers down the teeth of the comb three times so it made a noise.

"The reason was that people normally do not comb their hair at night unless they are going out. If a boy was going to gamble or drink with his friends, he wouldn't bother to comb his hair. If he stroked the comb his parents would know he was sneaking off to visit a girl! In the morning, when everyone went to work in the fields, it would be known whose son had visited whose daughter the previous evening. If the girl was from a family whose behaviour the boy's family didn't approve of, they would forbid him to go again. But if they liked the family, they would encourage him by telling him that if he went to visit the girl, he should bring along some fruit for her parents."

"There were many ubai for pregnant women. For example, they were warned if they walked over the long rope used to tether a water buffalo while it was eating grass, her baby would be as dark as a water buffalo. The intention was to keep her from tripping over the rope and suffering a possible miscarriage."

"A pregnant woman was also told she shouldn't attend cremations because a ghost might enter her womb. If she absolutely had to go, however, she should wear a belt around the hem of her blouse to prevent the ghost from getting in."

"The reason behind this ubai was that cremations were open, with the remains burned on an open platform. Sometimes the coffin would break open and the corpse would roll out, presenting a horrifying sight that people of the time thought was harmful to pregnant women."

"Belts were scarce and expensive in those days. They were made one at a time by hand. Some households didn't have any at all. A pregnant woman often had to borrow one from a neighbour. If she requested it, she would be asked what she needed it for. When she answered she was going to a cremation, she would be warned to stay away."

"Sometimes she had to go from house to house before she was able to get one, and each time she would be given the same advice until she eventually changed her mind."

"Some ubai were directly concerned with agriculture. One warns that if a mango harvester [a long pole with a basket at the end used to gather the fruit from the tree] is made from a type of bamboo called mai phai luak, the mangoes will be wormy."

"Here the actual reason for not using the wood was that it was very thin and brittle. If it broke, it could cut the hands of the person doing the harvesting."

"Another agricultural ubai was more complicated. During the rainy season, rivers and canals would flood. Then, with the coming of winter, the water would recede and the banks of these watercourses would be rich with natural fertiliser. Rural people liked to grow long beans, cucumbers, and gourds there, putting in trellises for the vines to climb on."

"As soon as the fruit began to form on the vines, fathers would tell their sons to go out into the fields and find some land snails. Then he would say to bind them together in groups of three using tawk, a thin skin taken from the bamboo plant that can be used as a kind of temporary twine."

"The tawk had to be threaded through the snails by cutting off the ends of the shells and passing it through all three. While doing this, the boy had to hold his breath. Then the threaded snails had to be hung from the supporting poles of the trellises. If this was done properly, the boy was told, the vines would bear good fruit. Looked at superficially, it's hard to see any connection. But after several days, the snails would begin to putrefy and flies would come to eat them and lay their eggs. The flies and maggots would confine themselves to the dead snails and not disturb the fruit, which would mature healthy and undamaged."

"The reason the boy had to hold his breath while threading the snails was that they have a strong, unpleasant smell, and if he got a whiff of it he might not do a good job."

Mr Sujit said these old tricks involving ghosts, thunder, and matters concerned with the kitchen and the fields don't work any more.

People want straight explanations for things now, and the traditional ubai have disappeared almost completely from Thai life.

But on the other hand, he added, a different type of irrational belief is gaining ground. "Worshipping plants that have unusual or suggestive shapes, appeasing supernatural beings that are supposed to be able to confer good luck, avert danger, or cure diseases, and similar phenomena are finding a growing number of believers." he said.

"All this goes to show we Thais are still as stubborn as ever in the way we think!" he said. "We're not as easy to frighten as we used to be, but we're more ready than ever to believe all kinds of groundless nonsense!"

[coventry]

Katanya, thanks for that post, very interesting. I think it goes to show why Thais are so good at telling lies. Having been lied to as children they obviously think it's okay as they become adults.

Edited March 25, 2009 by coventry

[njpski]

Thanks, Katana (I hope I spelt your name correctly), it is fascinating to see fables, superstitions explained. I can think of examples from other cultures such as plants with special properties (four leaf clovers), mythical beings (santa claus), amulets (st christopher medals) which are designed to modify behaviour and bring luck.

Stories about the tooth fairy must have been told to wall street bankers when they were children as they grew up to be economical with the truth.

I don't think it is purely a Thai thing unlike some!

[Orac]

My wife had our baby a week ago and has been sleeping in the front room for the last five nights with her family support group (I am not to be trusted with the newborn yet!)

This morning I got up to find that they have moved her wooden 'bed'/rack into the kitchen and put a metal sheet under it covered with hot charcoal which they believe will make her produce more milk. I will try and take a picture later of this apparent torture but have been banned from the kitchen for 'insulting the family' by laughing at them.

[katana]

Thanks, Katana (I hope I spelt your name correctly), it is fascinating to see fables, superstitions explained. I can think of examples from other cultures such as plants with special properties (four leaf clovers), mythical beings (santa claus), amulets (st christopher medals) which are designed to modify behaviour and bring luck.

Stories about the tooth fairy must have been told to wall street bankers when they were children as they grew up to be economical with the truth.

I don't think it is purely a Thai thing unlike some!

Yes, those kind of trick teachings to enforce good behaviour in children aren't specific to Thai culture eg in Germany in times past, children were warned of the harkemann, 'a sinister weed-and-algae-covered creature who lives beneath the dark waters' who would pull you into the river with his 'harke' or rake if you got too close to the water's edge!

[coventry]

I don't think it is purely a Thai thing unlike some!

Who said "it is purely a Thai thing" ?