How To Have Good Luck Around The World

by Jessica Festa on

Do you carry a lucky penny or have a rabbit’s foot attached to your key chain? For some new ideas on how to keep your luck running high, here are good luck rituals from around the world.

Bury A Llama Fetus In Bolivia

Walking around the Witches’ Market in La Paz, Bolivia, you’ll see myriad mummified llama fetuses. These aren’t just for decoration, but are actually a good luck charm from ancient Andean culture. Before a new house is built, a llama fetus is buried under the foundation to help give the owners good luck.

Paint Your Door Red In China

In China, it is thought that painting your door red is not only welcoming, but will also bring good fortune and happiness. In Feng Shui, it is believed the door is the mouth of the house, and a bright red color can draw positive energy to the home. There are many other rituals for good luck in China, such as keeping a paqua, or small octagon mirror, above the bed or by the front door to keep bad energy away from your home and out of your dreams. Moreover, having a water source on the property is thought to bring wealth and happiness.

Throw Your Old Appliances Out The Window In Italy

Traditionally, throwing your old appliances, clothing and housewares out of the window on New Year’s Eve in Italy is thought to bring good luck for the future. According to Walks of Italy, the thought is that you are letting go of the past and ridding yourself of any negatives you may have experienced. While the custom isn’t practiced by everyone anymore due to safety reasons, there are those who are still keeping the tradition alive for the country.

Some other good luck practices in Italy include tossing coins on the floor or under your bed, exchanging sweets on New Year’s Eve and lighting a Christmas log on the last day of the year to ward off evil spirits. Additionally, at weddings the groom will often carry a piece of iron in his pocket during the ceremony to keep evil spirits away, while the bride may rip her veil a bit to bring the couple good luck.

Toss A Baby From A Temple In Southern India

Yes, you read that right. In southern India, it is an age-old tradition to toss a baby off a 30-foot temple balcony, to be caught on the ground by a giant blanket. The ritual is said to bring the newborn good luck. According to Ian Garland of the Daily Mail, the practice was banned by the Indian government in 2009 but returned in 2012 to the Nagrala Village, as many locals believe it is their religious duty to carry out the ceremony.

A less shocking ritual in India is people exchange sweets for good and prosperity when they visit a home during a festival.

Have A Young Boy Roll In Your Bed Before Your Wedding In Singapore

In Singapore, there are many good luck traditions that revolve around weddings. First there is an chuang, or the setting of the bed. Before the wedding, a prosperous man will come to help determine where to place the marrying couple’s bed. A young male relative will then come and roll on the bed, to bless the couple with fertility. Foods like green beans, red beans, oranges, dates and other fruits are then scattered around the bed for good luck.

There is also shang tou, or hair combing, that takes place on the eve of the wedding. The hair of the marrying couple must be combed four times, usually by a female relative. The first round of combing represents the continuity of marriage, while the second stands for a harmonious union into old age. The subsequent stoke is a blessing of fertility, and the final combing is a wish for prosperity in a long-lasting marriage.

Wear Yellow Panties On New Year’s Eve In Colombia

While it may sound funny, Colombians like to ensure good luck for the entire year by taking some precautions on New Year’s Eve. They first ensure good fortune by wear yellow underpants. And to help bring even more luck, they consume 12 grapes at midnight on the special day. Additionally, Colombians don’t “pass the salt” to other people, as they believe this brings misfortune.

Burn A Chameleon If You’re Unmarried In Morocco

For unmarried women in Morocco, it is often believed that burning a chameleon in a glass will erase their bad luck, and increase their chances of getting married. Likewise, before a wedding ceremony the groom will often send his bride-to-be gifts, such as boxes of milk and Henna plants, to bring good luck for a happy and successful marriage. Also in regards to weddings, the woman getting married, who is traditionally expected to visit a hammam to be purified, will be soaked with water seven times by her close girlfriends, in order to bring good luck to her new life.

It’s not just brides and grooms who participate in good luck rituals. If you have a turtle in your garden or your home, and you keep it, you will also be brought good fortune.

Carry A 5-Yen Coin In Your Wallet In Japan

While 5 yen ($0.06) may not sound like a lot of money, this coin, pronounced “go-en” in Japanese, is close to the pronunciation for the words for destiny, karma or good luck. It is also the only coin with a hole in the center, making it easy to turn into a charm. In Japan, many people carry it in their wallet or purse, or wear it on a ribbon or chain for good luck.

Another way to procure good luck in Japan is through Daruma dolls. The papier-mâché figures are egg-shaped, and bare the likeness of Bodhidharma, the monk credited for founding Zen Buddhism. The dolls are sold with blank white eyes, and locals will add the first pupil when a goal is set and the second when a goal is achieved. Moreover, the dolls are considered a symbol of good luck by the Japanese.

Get A Tattoo In Tahiti

The word “tattoo” actually comes from the Tahitian word tatu, so it’s no wonder that this form of body art is so important to the culture. In fact, getting a tattoo is a ritual to bring luck and protection, as the tattoo represents your history, family background and often includes symbols that represent good fortune.

Another good luck ritual in Tahiti occurs during a wedding ceremony. This is when the priest will offer a blessing with a sacred auti flower and coconut milk. While doing this, the priest joins the bride and groom’s hands together and reads from a certificate of tapa cloth, usually made from a hibiscus tree.

Hold Lead And Boiling Water Over Your Head In Turkey

In Turkey, one way many people rid themselves of bad omens is through the ritual of lead pouring. To begin, the lead-pourer melts a tablespoon-sized piece of lead in a pan, while the person who is looking for good fortune sits with a cloth on their head for protection from the hot metal. From there, a small pan of boiling water is held over the person’s head, while the liquid lead is added. Most times, a prayer is chanted during the ritual. When the lead hits the water, it immediately turns solid, absorbing the person’s bad omens.

Another good luck tradition is to visit a special church that is open for just one day a year: April 23. Aya Yorgi, a Greek Orthodox church, receives hundreds of people on that day annually. These visitors tie multi-colored threads to trees at the bottom of the hill leading up to the church, in an attempt to bring good fortune.

Wear Baboon Skin On Your Head In Tanzania

According to Fair Travel Tanzania, who kindly interviewed the Hadzabe tribe in Tanzania, Africa, there is a ritual performed to help hunters who do not have luck catching animals. First, the elders advise them to wear baboon skin on their head and body, while putting beads on their shoulders. This is done at night, either under a baobab tree – the most sacred tree for Wahadzabe – or in the camp where they live. The whole community participates by singing and dancing and smearing the unlucky with herbal medicine to clear their misfortunes. Then, elders take the bows and arrows of the participants to bless them: “Haine (or God bless) these bows and arrows and make them shoot better,” is repeated over and over again. The unlucky also get to chew herbal medicinal plants, and should be good and ready for hunting the next morning.

Play Traditional Instruments For Friends And Family In Aruba

In Aruba, they try to ensure good luck for the new year through a ritual known as Dande. The tradition has been going since around 1880, right after the slaves were liberated. Groups made up of five or six people visit the homes of their families and friends, wishing these loved ones good luck and happiness for the upcoming year through music. Traditional Aruban instruments, like the tambu, wiri and raspa are played, along with the cuarta, guitar violin or the accordion to produce the upbeat rhythms of Dande. Lyrics for the songs usually incorporate well wishes for each person present. After the music is over, the head of the household will offer the performers a drink. What’s really interesting is the tradition is very local to the culture, as no other islands in the Caribbean participate in Dande.

8 Of The Manliest Competitions Around The World

by Dan Morgridge on

Males are naturally drawn to competition. Whether for food, mates, territory or just for sport, often you’ll find men ready to accept a challenge at the drop of a hat. But every sport has its place in the pecking order, and while the world’s fastest tandem bicyclists are no doubt phenomenal athletes, they’re not likely to cause people to turn and whisper upon entering the bar. The following contests are some of the best measures of manliness – some are displays of strength or athleticism, some a mastery of technical skills. Some are simply a display of sheer will (and or gluttony). Whichever may be true, these are some of the world’s best ways of answering the question: “Who’s The Man?”

Highland Games (above)

An event with origins that predate recorded history, the Highland Games were purportedly a large influence on Pierre de Coubertin’s creation of the modern Olympic Games. Consisting of traditional sports like the caber toss, stone put and sheaf toss, the games also showcase other feats of strength; the Maide Leisg consists of two men pressing the palms of their feet against each other and attempting to lift their opponent out of a sitting position using only the staff that they grip between them. While still very traditional in garb and style, the games have spawned numerous offshoots across the world. You could attend the largest Scottish games – held in August in Dunoon, Scotland – with some 3,500 other spectators. Or take a trip in July to Linville, North Carolina – their Grandfather Mountain Highland Games has some 50,000 visitors each year.

Arm Wrestling Championships

One of the most iconic images of male competition, two men arm wrestling is the best way to settle matters of pure machismo without resorting to blows. Although little can be added to such a pure sport, there are nevertheless modern tweaks that have created a field of competitors worthy of their own governing body and world championship series. World champions like John Brzenk use a variety of grips to turn the tables on their opponents – and sometimes experience outweighs young guns. At 47, Brzenk looks just a little older than when an audience caught a cameo of him in Sylvester Stallone’s 1987 arm-wrestling movie “Over the Top.”

Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

While appearing to be a simple hot dog stand on Coney Island, Nathan’s Famous is the host to the highest-profile eating competition in the world. Featuring men and women attempting to eat as many hot dogs and buns as possible within ten minutes, ordinary-looking people have consumed ungodly amounts of food. The current rivalry between Japanese eating legend Kobayashi and American Joey Chestnutt has proven especially heated, with Kobayashi being banned from competition due to contractual disputes; he had two judges record him eating in time with the competition at a different location. Chestnutt won the official contest by eating 62 dogs but Kobayashi claimed to have eaten 69.

National Finals Rodeo

An overall display of cowboy knowhow and mastery of semi-wild beasts, the National Finals Rodeo is possibly even more American than apple pie. Held annually in Las Vegas, the event draws almost 170,000 fans over its ten days of competition. With contestants scoring in fields as diverse as Team Roping, Steer Wrestling and the ever-famous Bull Riding, the winners are determined by overall purse winnings throughout the year. The “World All-Around Rodeo Champion Cowboy” is the individual who earns the most money in purses in at least two different categories through the year – that title currently belongs to Ryan Jarrett, a native of Georgia (and only the second champion in history to come from east of the Mississippi River).

Iron Man World Championship

One of the most grueling physical activities a person can perform, the ironman truly measures an athlete’s all-around skill. Created to settle a dispute between athletes (truly a competition about competition) the championship course and event hosted in Hawaii consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a final run of 26.2 miles. Current champion Craig Alexander of Australia also holds the world record – an impressive eight hours, three minutes and fifty-six seconds.

Skeleton Luge

Combining the precision of bobsledding with the gutsiness of extreme sports, Skeleton has exploded in popularity after being reinstated to the Winter Olympics. Invented in 1887, the first skeleton riders were merely soldiers tobogganing headfirst. The dangerous variant took its name from a modified sled invented in 1892 – L.P. Child’s bare-bones frame (originally called “The America”) was compared to a skeleton, and the rest is history. Today these daredevil sledders take on the same tracks as luge athletes, except for the fact that they are travelling headfirst and at speeds approaching 90 mph – almost as fast as the heavier bobsleds.

Iditarod

The Iditarod is the ultimate dog-mushing race, and while the trip from Anchorage to Nome requires only a standard level of physical fitness on the part of the humans, they must still survive freezing tundra winds, traverse heavy snows and care for a pack of dogs that will ultimately decide the fate of their victory. Of course, one thing separates the Iditarod from most of the other competitions here – there is no gender divide in the competition. What’s more, women have shown they have just as much fortitude and skill in the wilds of Alaska as the men. Libby Riddles was the first woman to win the race in 1985, followed shortly by four-time winner Susan Butcher in the 1990s.

World’s Strongest Man

There are few spectacles on earth quite as masculine as the World’s Strongest Man competition. Owing some debt to the Highland Games, the strong men will even compete in a caber toss now and then. But other feats of strength have been designed for pure machismo – carrying the frame of a car over a set distance, or tossing kegs over a steel wall. And while being able to squat a certain amount of weight will win you a medal at the Olympics, there’s something much more impressive about seeing a man pull an airplane over his shoulder.

The Golden Gate Bridge Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary With Lots Of Sparkle

by Jessica Marati on

Few American landmarks are as recognized, photographed and beloved as the Golden Gate Bridge, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this weekend with a full slate of free performances, festivals and fireworks displays around San Francisco and the Bay Area.

The weekend’s festivities were the highlight of a full year of celebrations, which included exhibits, lectures, performances, concerts and film screenings dedicated to the iconic landmark. One thing visitors shouldn’t expect is unrestricted pedestrian access; city officials learned their lesson from the bridge’s 50th anniversary celebrations, when more than 300,000 people crowded the main thoroughfare causing the center portion of the bridge to flatten out.

In appropriate fashion, the bridge also received a touch of “sparkle” for its 75th, in the form of a new art and science installation called Solar Beacon, which opened on Sunday. According to the Los Angeles Times, the installation involves a set of remote control mirrors positioned on top of the bridge’s towers, which have the capacity to reflect narrow beams of light across the San Francisco Bay. The installation will also be participatory; residents are invited to log onto Solar Beacon’s website and input a particular place and time, and the project will direct the light’s beam there.

%Gallery-156316%

[flickr image above via Argent_G37S]

Hippie-Inspired Pop-Up Hits Vancouver, Canada

by Jessica Festa on

Swallow Tail Secret Supper Club is well known for hosting lavish and unusual pop-ups. And to help welcome the warm weather, they are hosting a “Summer of Love” pop-up restaurant on June 3.

The hippie-inspired event will feature a multi-course feast of Persian delicacies, and guests are asked to wear pieces like flowing skirts, flowers in their hair, wooden beads, linen and sandals. When you arrive to the designated park, you can relax on your blanket in the sun until you hear the music beckoning you to the hidden lounge. Follow it, and you’ll be greeted with soft silk pillows for a Roman dining experience, and spiked tea made with elderflower, fir tip and arbutus bark. There will also be a wine pairing upon request.

“The energy of spring is a perfect match for the lively flavours of the Middle East,” says Robin Kort, owner of Swallow Tail Secret Supper Club. “There are so many exciting flavours: tart, spicy, refreshing, floral and sweet.”

As usual, the location of the pop-up will not be disclosed until after the booking is made.

Tickets are $79 per person. Email robin@swallowtailtours.com for more information or to book.

Grilling Around The Globe: A Memorial Day Photo Tribute

by Laurel Miller on

Where there’s smoke, there’s barbecue – and there’s no better time than Memorial Day to light that grill. This year, instead of the same old, same old post on burgers, food safety and how not to burn the patio down, I thought I’d offer a photo tribute to grilling in all of its glorious permutations around the globe.

I confess to taking some liberties, and adding a few methods that don’t call for an open flame. The Hawaiian imu is a familiar site to luau lovers; it’s a pit filled with hot rocks that effectively roasts the food (in this instance, pork). The curanto from the Chilean archipelago of Chiloe is also Polynesian in origin (hailing from Easter Island, or Rapa Nui) and operates on the same principle, but also includes shellfish and potato cakes called milcao and chapaleles. Spit-roasted suckling pig, whether it’s Filipino lechon or Cajun cochon de lait, by any other name would taste as succulent.

Argentina remains the indisputable holy grail of grilling but plenty of other countries utilize fire –indirectly or not – to cook food, including Japan, Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam and Australia. Enjoy the slideshow and don’t forget to wipe your mouth.

%Gallery-155880%