Very Superstitous

There are little things I noticed about China that had my head scratching. Why do doorways have a block you have to walk over? Do they really believe in evil spirits? What up with this Moon Festival I keep hearing about? Turns out they are based on the ancient Chinese religion. I am sure there are a bunch more I am unaware of at the moment but these are some of the things I now know. 

Doors have a big block of wood to walk over because hundreds of years ago it was believed it would trip up demons and evil spirits. It very well could because dang I was tripping on those a bunch when I first arrived. (Wait, am I an evil spirit?) They are in every store in the old market and when we went to Jing An Temple they were straight up hurdles. It makes sense, it is a holy place and bad spirits have to stay out. My thought every time I see these though is, "What about those who are handicapped?" I asked that to my friend and she was stumped. Hopefully there will be more doorways here accessible to those in wheelchairs. At Jing An Temple they have elevators for those who can't walk up the stairs but every worship room has the big block so...good luck. 

You can see that in front of the prayer pillows there is a cement block to walk over. 

I lit incense and prayed at the temples. You can see the big tower there. People threw in coins into the holes, the higher the better off you were!

 

Speaking of temples there is a huge Buddhist temple in Jiaxing that I really want to go to. Some temples will give their guests vegetarian food when you leave and that one gives out vegetarian food (you know I want some free food). Some do have restrictions such as you can't enter the temple unless you are also vegetarian, or at least have had no meat in 24 hours, and some say that if you are on your period you can't enter. (How would they know though?) 
Back on track, my friend said that we can only enter in the day and to avoid coming at night. I thought it was because it was closed to the public during the time BUT NO. It is believed that good spirits visit the temple during the day and bad spirits can come by at night. You can see an example of this belief in Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
One question I had was why were food left on the altars and how often do they change out the food? The answer is food is left by worshipers to have it blessed in the mornings and at night they will bring it home to eat it. So the food is changed often. 

One interesting superstition came about from my student. I have a first grade boy that has one of his ears pierced. I thought nothing of it, it happens in the states to look cool. That is not the reason he has his ear pierced. This boy's parents thought that he was too handsome and perfect which means that the universe would try to counter this by making his life a little hard. His parents fixed this issue by piercing one of his ears so that he wouldn't be "perfect" thus saving him from hardship. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up otherwise known as the Moon Festival. There is moon goddess named Chang'e (or Chang'o) who is the goddess of growth and healing. Some people compare her to Mary in the Christian religions. We have a co-worker who is supposed to give birth around that time and in her farewell card a bunch of people wrote something along the lines of, "May the moon look over you!" They even got her earrings with moons on them. 
During the Moon Festival people make moon cakes. I actually got a box from a parent for teacher's day. 
During this time people will light lanterns and send them down the river to keep their beloved dead at peace. The reason is that the moon comes in cycles and it reminds people that there is a cycle to life. People will light candles, incense, and buy jade rabbits and statues of Chang'e during this time. It is customary to eat moon shaped foods too such as melons or crescent shaped dumplings (Chang'o Chinese Goddess of the Moon). 

Sources:

Ch’ang-O Chinese Goddess of the Moon, orderwhitemoon.org/goddess/Chango/index.html. 
             Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.
All other information comes from my co-worker buddies who I am not sure want to be cited so I am just writing this instead. :)