Beware of what we teach our children.

In a world where there is the school, the library and the internet with their sources of various kind of knowledge, it is surprising to find that there are still so many people who stick to myths and superstitions learned from their old parents.

One of them is the 'Touch wood' belief that whatever had been mentioned by someone could come to pass. To overcome such a possibility, they touch wood while sounding those words.

Another myth that is still strongly held onto is the belief that bad luck comes to those who cut their finger-nails at night. I received an angry stare from a woman when I enquired her what was wrong with that action. She believed that the spirit will not find or recognise the body again after the night's sleep. How ridiculous can such a belief be! Apparently, there are other things that are not to be done at night. Only the other day, one lady said,"It's alright to cut the plant with its yellowing leaves since it is still not dark yet." As I did not know her well, I just pondered on her words. Something to do with spirits again, I suppose.

Another woman I know would never allow anyone to talk about death in her house. However, she is most inconsistant. There were a number of times she mentioned that unspeakable word. Once, I could hold my tongue no longer and told her that she just voiced the word 'death'. Upon hearing that, she got up, glared at me and walked away in disgust.

Upon enquiring the husbands of such superstitious women, I was given to understand that it was the fault of the parents. It was a 'Don't do this.' or a 'Don't say that.' due to some superstition the parents had a strong belief in.

Well, it looks like such parents are good at teaching as no matter how much their husbands or wifes ridicule them on the matter, the belief persist. Apparently, resisting can only cause them to persist even more. Eventually it is the othe half who desist righting the beliefs of such people. Superstitious persons are too well taught to be uprooted from the myths that they live with.