Indians are a superstitious lot.
The list of things you’re not allowed to do on specific days can be much longer than the list of things you actually can do.
Don’t cut your fingernails after 12.
Don’t cut your hair on Tuesday.
Don’t wear new clothes on Saturday.
Don’t even buy new clothes on Saturday.
I very rarely listen to that one.
Tonight’s lunar eclipse has gotten my grandmother into a tizzy.
I can’t watch the eclipse because it might ruin my eyesight. We have to put a special grass over any leftover
food, or it will be inedible after the eclipse. And tomorrow, I have to wash my hair before I’m allowed to eat anything.
My grandmother has tons of these rules.
Rules about when to take a bath. Rules about when to cook certain foods. Rules about when you can enter temples or when you can go out to eat. Rules about feeding animals or even going to funerals or weddings.
Everyone’s allowed a few idiosyncrasies, I guess.
And in a strange way, I’m touched that my grandmother cares so much, that she’s so worried about my well-being that she insists I take a bath in the wee-hours of the morning.
So tomorrow morning, I’ll be up bright and early, taking a shower before I’m allowed to eat any of this not-contaminated post-lunar-eclipse food.
-June 15th
The list of things you’re not allowed to do on specific days can be much longer than the list of things you actually can do.
Don’t cut your fingernails after 12.
Don’t cut your hair on Tuesday.
Don’t wear new clothes on Saturday.
Don’t even buy new clothes on Saturday.
I very rarely listen to that one.
Tonight’s lunar eclipse has gotten my grandmother into a tizzy.
I can’t watch the eclipse because it might ruin my eyesight. We have to put a special grass over any leftover
food, or it will be inedible after the eclipse. And tomorrow, I have to wash my hair before I’m allowed to eat anything.
My grandmother has tons of these rules.
Rules about when to take a bath. Rules about when to cook certain foods. Rules about when you can enter temples or when you can go out to eat. Rules about feeding animals or even going to funerals or weddings.
Everyone’s allowed a few idiosyncrasies, I guess.
And in a strange way, I’m touched that my grandmother cares so much, that she’s so worried about my well-being that she insists I take a bath in the wee-hours of the morning.
So tomorrow morning, I’ll be up bright and early, taking a shower before I’m allowed to eat any of this not-contaminated post-lunar-eclipse food.
-June 15th
Don't buy clothes on a Saturday?!
ReplyDeleteViolated. So. Many. Times. Squared.