In Part 1, we explored some of the most familiar superstitions and folk beliefs found in Western culture. In Part 2, we’ll continue our journey through curious customs, traditions, and rituals passed down through the generations.
Digging deep through childhood imagination to reach the other side
Here is a Western folk belief that may leave Chinese readers laughing and crying at the same time: when American children dig a deep hole in the backyard, their parents might jokingly tell them: “You’ll dig all the way to China!” The phrase is so familiar in the English-speaking world that generations of American children have grown up hearing it.
How many have squatted in their backyards, gripped a little shovel, and dug away with all their might, half-seriously imagining that if they just dug deep enough, they could tunnel straight through the Earth and pop out in China on the other side? Of course, the Earth does not work that way. If you could somehow dig straight through the planet, you would almost certainly not emerge in China. Depending on where you started, you might find yourself somewhere in the vastness of the Indian Ocean. So why China? The answer has less to do with geography than with imagination.
For centuries, China occupied a unique place in the Western imagination: distant, mysterious, ancient, exotic, and seemingly beyond reach. It stood at the far end of the Silk Road, at the edge of the known world, and in the stories surrounding Marco Polo, as a remarkable and almost fantastical destination. So when an American parent tells a child: “You’ll dig all the way to China,” China becomes more than a place on a map. It becomes a playful name for the other side of the world — for somewhere impossibly far away, somewhere different from everything familiar.
Ancient wedding customs serve as protective strategies for brides
Something charming about this little piece of Western folklore. It is a kind of “superstition” born from geographical misunderstanding, cultural imagination, and childhood innocence. It rests on the fanciful idea that the world has another side just waiting to be reached if we are determined enough to keep digging.
And perhaps that is why the saying has endured. It expresses, in miniature, a very human impulse: the feeling that the world is full of hidden places and possibilities just beyond our reach. In that sense, it shares something with wishing on a shooting star or tossing a coin into a fountain — the belief that if we perform one small act in just the right way, perhaps the world will open a door for us.
A famous rhyme in Western weddings goes: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” On her wedding day, the bride is traditionally supposed to carry each of these four things. Something old represents her connection to the past and her family’s continuity. Something new represents her hopes for the future. Something borrowed is traditionally borrowed from someone happily married, so that a little of her good fortune might rub off on the bride. Something blue represents purity and faithfulness, though some traditions also hold that it helps ward off evil and misfortune. Each item has its own meaning, forming a kind of protective charm for the bride as she begins her new life.
Throwing bouquets originated from chaotic historical attempts to seize fortune
Then there is the wedding bouquet toss. The bride turns her back to the guests and throws her bouquet over her shoulder; whoever catches it is said to be the next person to marry. Today, the custom looks playful and romantic, but its history may be considerably less romantic than the tradition suggests. In medieval England and parts of Europe, wedding guests believed that obtaining a piece of the bride’s clothing — or something belonging to her — could bring them good luck.
The bride’s wedding attire was thought to carry some of the happiness and good fortune surrounding the occasion. The practice could become surprisingly aggressive. One person might tug at a piece of her clothing while another tried to pull away a flower from her hair. Before long, a bride could find herself surrounded by guests eager to take home a little piece of her good fortune. Imagine being the bride, surrounded by a crowd of people reaching for your dress, your veil, or your flowers; you might understandably want an escape. So, according to one popular explanation for the bouquet toss, the bride would throw her bouquet into the crowd so that, while everyone scrambled to catch it, she could make her escape.
Today, the bouquet toss looks like an innocent wedding game, but beneath the romance lies a much older human impulse: the belief that happiness and good fortune can somehow be transferred from one person to another. The bride’s bouquet became a convenient substitute for the bride herself — a small object everyone could chase without chasing her. What looks today like a charming wedding tradition may therefore have begun, at least in part, as a clever way for a bride to protect herself from guests trying to get a piece of her good fortune.
Unlocking secrets behind broken glass and indoor umbrellas
Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven years of bad luck. The precision of that number is rather impressive — not merely “you’ll have bad luck,” but seven years of bad luck. Why seven? The ancient Romans believed that human life went through a complete cycle of renewal every seven years. A mirror reflected the soul, so breaking it meant shattering the soul itself, which would take a full seven years to recover.
Opening an umbrella indoors is another well-known taboo. The most common explanation is that, in ancient times, umbrellas were ceremonial objects used by royalty and aristocrats to shield themselves from the sun. Opening one indoors was therefore considered an insult to the sun god — or to the house’s protective spirit — and might provoke divine anger.
A horseshoe hanging above the front door is a common protective charm in Western homes. It must hang with the opening facing upward, forming a U, so it is said to “hold” good luck and keep fortune from spilling away. If the opening faces downward, all the good luck leaks out. This follows the same logic as the Chinese New Year custom of hanging the character 福 (fortune) upside down, creating the pun “福到了” — “fortune has arrived.”
Protecting the soul through gestures and everyday blessings
Crossing one’s fingers is one of the most common Western gestures for wishing for good luck. Two fingers cross to form a cross; even before Christianity arrived, the crossed shape was believed to be a gathering point for benevolent spirits, capable of sealing a wish and preventing evil spirits from stealing it away. Today, the gesture has become secularized to simply mean: “I hope this comes true.” But deep down, it remains an ancient hand gesture for warding off evil and protecting a wish.
Whenever someone sneezes, people nearby will often say: “Bless you.” The origin of this habit is more serious than most people imagine. Ancient people believed that a sneeze was the moment when the soul attempted to fly out through the mouth or nose — or, conversely, an opening through which evil spirits might enter. According to one old belief, the danger was that the soul might leap out of the body during a sneeze, so someone had to hurry and call it back with a blessing before it got away.
Another widely circulated explanation traces the phrase to Pope Gregory I. It is said that during the plague outbreaks of the sixth century, he instructed people to pray whenever they heard someone sneeze. Whether these stories are true or later embellishments, the words “Bless you” survived. Today, the plague is ancient history, but the phrase remains on the lips of English speakers everywhere as a familiar little courtesy, said without realizing that they may be performing a thousand-year-old ritual for spiritual protection.
Customs are part of human nature
When we look at all these customs, we may find that East and West observe different taboos, but the underlying impulse is remarkably similar. Chinese culture has its own rich collection of customs surrounding luck, misfortune, protection, and life’s unseen forces. Some of these may seem familiar to Westerners, while others are distinctly Chinese. What may surprise Chinese readers, however, is discovering that Westerners have their own versions, too — many of them just as curious, specific, and deeply rooted in tradition.
In the face of an uncertain destiny, we all want to reach out and grasp something solid. We give the anxieties in our hearts a visible shape — number 13, black cats, spilled salt — something we can recognize and try to guard against. And we give our hopes a tangible action — a wish upon a star, a knock on wood, crossed fingers. No matter how advanced science becomes, it still cannot predict every twist and turn of tomorrow. No matter how clearly we understand the world, when someone spills salt, a hand may still instinctively reach over the left shoulder and toss a pinch behind them.
These little customs may not be signs of ignorance after all. Perhaps they are expressions of reverence — a recognition that the universe is vast, that life is unpredictable, and that we do not control everything. So generation after generation, people pass down these small rituals, offering a respectful greeting to fate. Easterners do it, Westerners do it too, ancient people did it, and we still do it today.
Different customs, different symbols, and different stories exist, but underneath them all is the same human heart — hoping for good fortune, fearing the unknown, and wondering whether forces in this world exist that we cannot see. Perhaps that’s why these little rituals have survived for thousands of years: we may change our clothes, our homes, our technology, and even our beliefs, but the human desire to reach beyond what we can see remains the same eternal hope. Maybe we’re not so different after all, believe it or not.
See Part 1 here
Translated by Katy Liu and reviewed by Tatiana Denning
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