Family beliefs rituals and myths
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Beliefs :
• Belief is the state of mind in which a person
thinks something to be the case, with or without
there being empirical evidence to prove that
something is the case with factual certainty.
• Another way of defining belief sees it as
a mental representation of an attitude positively
oriented towards the likelihood of something
being true.
• In the context of Ancient Greek thought, two related
concepts were identified with regards to the concept of
belief: pistis and doxa. Simplified, we may say
that pistis refers to "trust" and "confidence",
while doxa refers to "opinion" and "acceptance".
Beliefs in China
 China has been a multi-religion country
since the ancient times.
 According to a latest survey, 85% of
Chinese people have religious practices
and only 15% of them are real atheists.
Buddhism
It is being brought into 2000 years ago ,it is accepted by
more Chinese people and developed into three sections.
o Han: With 8,400 temples and 50 thousand monks, it is
the largest branch on the mainland.
o Tabiten: As the second large sect, it has 3,000 temples
and 120 thousand monks
o Southern Buddhism: Having 8,000 monks and 1,600
temples, this sect has the smallest scale.
Confucianism:
It is not a real religion ,it is just an ethical system which
is used to develop people’s thoughts to educate common
people. Confucianism has worldwide influence. In many
countries and regions of world such the UK, USA,
branches of Confucius Institutes are established in
recent years to spread Chinese culture and expand the
language.
Taoism:
Taoism, with more than 1,800 years’ history originated in
the Warring Period and came into being in Eastern Han
Dynasty (25 - 220). Now about 300 Taoist Temples are
scattered around China, in which about 30 thousand
Taoists lived in. Around 5 Taoist schools exist in the
country and two main sections are included in Taoism.
Rituals:
 A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures,
words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place,
and performed according to set sequence.
 Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of
a community, including a religious community.
 Rituals are characterized but not defined by
formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance,
sacral symbolism, and performance.
Japanese beliefs
o If you hiccup a hundred times in a
row, you will die
o If you don’t eat all your rice during
meals, you will go blind
.
o Hide your bellybutton when it is thundering, or else the
god of thunder will eat it.
o Do not whistle at night unless you want a snake or a
ghost to pay you a visit.
o The number 4, pronounced as “shi” in Japanese, is
considered unlucky since the Japanese word for
“death” is pronounced the same. Many Japanese
elevators do not include the number 4. The number 9
is also unlucky because it is pronounced “ku”, also the
pronunciation of the Japanese words for agony” or
“torment.”
o The number 7 is a lucky or holy number for the
Japanese as well as many other cultures. For
example, the seventh day after a baby’s birth is a
cause for celebration, and the Buddhists believe in
seven reincarnations.
o Do not lie down after a meal or you will turn into a
cow.
o If you sleep at night with your head facing north, you
will have a shorter life. Japanese corpses are laid in
that position during their wake.
Most bizarre rituals in world:
Birth
o
In Muslim shrine in India, there is common
practice to toss newborn babies off the side of a 15meter tall temple. Observed for half a millennium, this
ritual is believed to strengthen the children, give them
good luck well into adulthood as well as “courage and
intelligence.”
o It’s worth mentioning the babies do not fall to the
ground (naturally), as followers are standing by with a
large sheet to catch them.
 Marriage
o The history of certain wedding customs are bizarre in themselves. The
idea of a “best man” originated from the German states, where available
women were not always great in number and many bachelors opted to
kidnap a bride prior to her wedding night. The groom-to-be chose a
friend, usually one trusted and strong, to defend her from other suitors.
o In Scotland, however, the bride faces a whole different ball of wax before
she can walk down the aisle. The practice of “blackening the bride”
involves covering her with some nasty smelling things like eggs, mystery
sauces, molasses, flour, whatever else the bridesmaids can dream up to
take the pressure off of them … she must taste delicious by the end, I
have to say.
o The tradition varies from region to region, but for the most part, the bride
or groom is covered with something smelly or sticky, bound, and driven
around or left tied to a tree or lamppost. Actually, given some of the
drunken-induced rituals we see in American bachelor parties, I suppose
this isn’t that bizarre. At least you won’t catch a Scot marrying a dog
 Food
o In a world filled with such dangerous delicacies, it’s amazing we
can still find rituals surrounding food designed to induce such
pain. In this case, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival in Thailand
takes the cake (SIDENOTE: there is no actual cake).
o In September or October every year, Thai people in the southern
city of Phuket refrain from eating meat for nine days. The festival
highlights, however, are its incredible masochistic rituals: men
and women puncturing their cheeks with spears, knives… almost
anything you can imagine, they’ve shoved through their bodies.
The belief is that the Chinese gods protect followers from pain
and suffering; it’s remarkable how few, if any, people bear scars
following the festival.
 Death
o Very few outsiders have had the chance to observe this firsthand.
In Tibet, it was once a common funeral custom to dissect the
body and place the pieces on a mountaintop. I suppose, in a
sense, the majority of funerals throughout the world are a waste
of resources and space: we have elaborately-carved coffins,
bizarre locations for our ashes (low Earth orbit being one), even
specialists to beautify the body following death.
o As most Tibetans follow Buddhist traditions, the goal is to provide
resources to the world, even after death, i.e. offering the
“unneeded” body to vultures. When China first stepped in and
quelled most of the local practices, sky burials, as they are
known, were illegal. Since the 1980s, however, it is still possible
to observe a jhator with the permission of the family
Myths
The word "myth" is derived from the Greek word mythos (μῦθος),
which simply means "story". Mythology can refer either to the study of
myths, or to a body or collection of myths. Myth can mean 'sacred
story', 'traditional narrative' or 'tale of the gods'. A myth also can be a
story to explain why something exists.
“A myth is any traditional story consisting of events
that are ostensibly historical, though often
supernatural, explaining the origins of a cultural
practice or natural phenomenon”
Buddhist mythology:
Operates within the Buddhist belief system. It is a
relatively broad mythology, as it was adopted and
influenced by several diverse cultures such as of
Gandhara. Later on, it also came to incorporate aspects
from countries such as China and Japan. As such, it
includes many aspects taken from other mythologies of
those cultures.
Buddhist “nirvana” is the same
as Christian heaven
Most mainstream Christian sects view heaven as a place
where personal identity will be maintained and where the
ultimate desires are met. The basic definition of nirvana
involves the loss of personal identity and the cessation of
desires. And this is not just a semantic argument.
Etymology speaks volumes on this topic. While nirvana
means “extinguishing” (as of desires), heaven means
“sky” or possibly “bliss” (experts disagree). In any case,
they are not the same thing.
The Buddha was a god, and/or
Buddhists pray to and worship a god.
Wrong, and wrong. The Buddha himself was a person.
More importantly, he never claimed to be anything more.
Siddhartha Gautama did, however, achieve
enlightenment. Buddhists follow a path and do not
worship a god.
Buddhists believe in
reincarnation
Some Buddhists believe in reincarnation, most don’t.
Most do believe in rebirth, which is a whole different
story. Reincarnation refers to a constant identity that
travels from life to live. Rebirth does not imply a
carryover of memories or emotions, but rather an
essence of “tendencies,” a word sometimes interpreted
as “karma.” Modern literature and that great abyss of
misinformation known as Hollywood are mostly to blame
for this one.
Popular myths parents
tell their children
1. Maghrib k Time Perfume Lagane Se Jin Chimat Jaate
Hen
2. Jhoot bolne se naak lamba ho jata hai
3. Payr jhoolne say shaitan jhoola jhoolta hay
4. Joota Ulta rakho.. yeh asmaan ko gali deta hai
5. Koi so rha ho to oper se nahi Guzartay, Kadd Chota
reh jata hai.
6. Kawwa bolay to ghar me mehmaan aaty hain
7. Maghrib ke waqt nhi sotay...Jin bhoot guzar rhy Hotay
hain
8. Agar koi jhoot bolta hay tou uski zaaban kali ho jati
hay.
9. Zyada sheesha nahi dekhte, nazar lag jati hai