Ancient Superstitions
Ancient China for Kids

A superstition is a belief people have that is not based on any knowledgeable explanation, but people believe it anyway. The ancient Chinese had many superstitions.

Here are a just a few of them:

• The ancient Chinese invented umbrellas. One superstition the ancient Chinese believed about umbrellas is that you can never open your umbrella inside your house. If you do, this will bring bad luck into your house. If someone opened an umbrella, either on purpose or accidentally, the women grabbed their brooms and swept the bad luck out the door immediately!

• Speaking of doors, the ancient Chinese believed the front door of their home should always face south. This brought benevolence into their home.

• If a bee entered your home in ancient China, it would bring good luck as long as you allowed the bee to leave alive. If you killed the bee inside your house, you would have bad luck. This was also true of ladybugs.

• On Chinese New Year Eve, parents encourage children to stay awake as long as possible, because an old ancient Chinese superstition said the longer children stayed awake on Chinese New Year Eve, the longer their parents would live.

• The ancient Chinese kitchen god was a bit of tattletale. Each year, right before the new year, the kitchen god was suppose to report all the behavior of the household to his boss, the Jade Emperor. The ancient Chinese believed if you left sweets as offerings for the kitchen god on the kitchen hearth right before he gave his report, his report would be glowing! The Jade Emperor would reward the family's good behavior with good luck. Since the kitchen god could not eat these treats, the family could eat them after they were offered to the kitchen god.

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