Some Javanese Supernatural Believes

I was visiting my Javanese friend in Jogjakarta and she has many gadgets in her house. So I decided to scribble down some of her advices while she was lecturing out directly from her memory:

 

·         When your dog is howling in the middle of the night, there is a spirit in the vicinity.

·         When your dog is whining with its head bowed and its furs stood up right at night means there is a ghost; possibly previous owner of the house in the house.

·         When there is a butterfly or moth flying into your house at night, means the deceased are visiting.  

·         When you approach a road junction at midnight, you ought to produce a sound of clearing your throat “Ehem!” three times. This is to give notice to the spirits in the vicinity so as not to bump into them.

·         You must have a house warming party or a thanks giving party before moving to a new house to thank the spirits or watcher of the house.

·         Avoid building your garage too far away from your main house as that only invites wandering spirits.

·         You should put a broom and a pair of scissors under the pregnant woman and toddler’s bed to ward off bad spirits such as a Kuntianak.

·         A pregnant lady should carry along a small folded knife so that the mother and the baby will not be disturbed by spirits.

·         Avoid keeping any form of cemetery soil in your house because this only invites the dweller of the cemetery to stay with you.

·         Keep red onion, red chilli and turmeric on your main door to protect you and your family from spirits and black magic.

·         Put some red onion, red chilli and green peas under your safe or drawer where you keep your money to prevent a Toyol from stealing from you.

·         Put a pair of grandfather’s pants under toddler’s pillow to prevent the toddler from disturbed by bad spirits.

·         Use black dog’s blood to cure spirit possessions.

·         It is forbidden to pull eyebrows on a Friday Kliwon because this will attract spirits.

 

 

I might have missed out a pointer or two, but no worries; once you are in Java, the kind hearted folks will remind you about all of the above again. You know you have broken some type of taboo when people around you stare at you J.