Chinese superstitions

Nowadays, many of us who are in Hong Kong won't believe any superstitions, but for the elderly, they do.

So I want to show some of Chinese superstitions to you all to see wherther you all have those in your country or not.

Just like Westerners believe that the number 13 brings bad luck, the Chinese is believe that the number 4 (as well as 14) has a bad connotation. This is because for Chinese, the number 4 (si) and “si,” which means “death,” are pronounced the same. On the other hand, just as 7 seems to be the designated lucky number for the Western world, the Chinese believe that the numbers 8 and 28 bring good luck. It is the same concept with the number 4!

The other one is about gift. Chinese believe that you should never EVER give a clock as a gift to a friend. The Chinese sound for clock is zhong. For most Chinese, one should never give it as a present because the pronunciation of “giving a clock” (sung zhong) to a person is the same as sung zhong, which means to bid farewell to a dying person on his or her deathbed. If you really want to give a clock as a gift to a friend, you should ask her to give back you a dollar as it just like she buys it herself. But we surely seldom give a clock as a gift.

Although many of us don't believe in these superstitions, we still don't do it in our life. But I think this kind of superstitions are quite interesting and now I want to hear about yours!