☆ENGLISH ONLY☆コミュのGift taboo

Japan has a lot of gift taboo. For instance, you shouldn't send handkerchief because it mean 'I don't wanna see you again.'. This mean come from Japanese Kanji. Do you have any gift taboo in another country? I want to know.

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[1] mixiユーザー 07月11日 16:37

Wow, I had no idea handkerchieves were taboo gifts. How do you write handkerchieves in kanji, anyway? The only way that I know of is ハンカチ, which is in katakana.

[2] mixiユーザー 07月11日 16:39

umm...dead fish wrapped in newspaper?

[3] mixiユーザー 07月11日 16:47

I would happily accept dead fish wrapped in newspapers as long as they're fresh. Makes good sashimi, don't ya think? :)

[4] mixiユーザー 07月11日 19:04

as long as they person handing you them isn't from palermo eh? :D

[5] mixiユーザー 07月11日 19:09

I also did not know that! At my wedding, one couple gave me a beautiful hankerchief...

I cannot think of any gift taboos at the moment, but I will try!

[6] mixiユーザー 07月11日 19:20

could it be that with the advance of modern times these taboos have faded into history and have become superstition rather than culture?

i don't know, i just feel that a lot of gift taboos are gone now that people have more open minds. just something to chew on :)

and regarding gift taboos of another country: well... over here in singapore there are many races, and i'm chinese, so i only know certain chinese gift taboos. i personally don't practise them because i feel that it's superstition, but i believe some people still are very mindful of them.

clocks: you aren't supposed to give clocks to people because it connotates death. 'giving a clock' is called 'song zhong' in chinese, and the sound of those words are synonymous to that of 'sending off the coffin during a funeral procession'.

there is something about the giving of money during a funeral too. normally you will give a token to the bereaved family, and the amount isn't supposed to be an odd number? something like that, i can't remember if the token isn't supposed to be even or odd. it's something i heard, but i've never practised it before.

[7] mixiユーザー 07月11日 19:57

In North America, do not give Fruit Cake for Christmas :)

[8] mixiユーザー 07月11日 20:10

LoL Fruit Cake.. Nobody likes Fruit Cake.. But that doesn't make it Taboo >.< Hahaha..

America has no such Culture... lol... We will take damn near anything... Except Fruit Cake... *gag*

[10] mixiユーザー 07月11日 22:39

Hmm when I was in Japan I got a hankerchief from my homestay family. Maybe they didn't want to see me again?

[12] mixiユーザー 07月11日 23:09

Giving handkerchiefs does not imply that you do not want to see the person again, although in Japan people give handkerchieves as a farewell gift.

I have received as a gift a certain type of flower bouquet that is supposed to be for a Buddist alter or someone's grave. It has happened to me twice. I said thank you but wanted to say I am not dead yet!!

[13] mixiユーザー 07月11日 23:16

I myself have received a couple of hankerchiefs from my penpal, and since we still write to one another, I can only assume she wants to share Japanese culture with me. :)

[14] mixiユーザー 07月11日 23:22

Come to think about it, it might be taboo to give black picture frames in Japan. They are usually used to frame the pictures of dead people.

[15] mixiユーザー 07月11日 23:30

in Japan, anything used to separate things such as knife, scissors or whatever is not appropriate as wedding gift. it reminds you "separating" then.
also, flowers are common gift for everyone but you are not supposed to send a pot plant to people hospitalized. Since pot plant takes root in soil. nobody wants sickness enroots in own body. especially, you should not bring cyclamen to hospital. its pronounced "Shi-Ku-Lamehn", Shi sounds similar to death and Ku sounds same to pain.

[16] mixiユーザー 07月12日 00:39

I heard comb(japanese: ku-shi) is toboo too. the reason is same as Shi-ku-ramehn, ku means pain, shi means death.

[17] mixiユーザー 07月12日 01:42

ジャイ子さん，

Thanks for the information. I had no idea pot plants were taboo for hospital in-patients. That makes sense, though. I asked a friend about it. He says it's because taking root (根付く) sounds the same as getting glued to the bed (寝つく). I'm like, aah!

[19] mixiユーザー 07月12日 09:41

I don't know if it is true for all Chinese, but I know that Cantonese people don't give clocks as presents because it means that you want to send them to their grave (Grave sounds similar to clock)

[21] mixiユーザー 07月12日 17:57

Do not give anything that comes in 4's or 9's (for the same reason mentioned above).
I almost gave my Grandfather in Japan a bouquet of 4 flowers (one for each of my family members) but the girl selling the flowers was quick to point out my mistake.

[22] mixiユーザー 07月13日 00:31

Is that thing about 4's and 9's all that common? I personally care, but my wife insists that not too many people do anymore these days. For instance, she says she doesn't think twice about sending a bouquet of four flowers to someone in hospital, and she is much more Japanese than I am...

She sure gets me confused.

[23] mixiユーザー 07月13日 13:59

>>だいはど
It seems common as there being no 13th floors in buildings in North America (not sure about Europe).
But, I guess times are changing.
I suppose the important thing is to be able to see from the receiver's perspective.

[24] mixiユーザー 07月13日 15:12

Talking about 13th floor in western countries, I vaguely remembered that someone told me some hospitals in Japan don't have 4th floor. Is that true?
Well in Hong Kong, there are actually some flats skipping every floor number containing 4 (so you won't even see 14th and 24th floor there), but they're extremely minority.

[25] mixiユーザー 07月14日 00:54

マーキー，

Thanks for the response. I totally agree with you - it's about how the recipient takes it. The problem is, it's hard for me to keep that in mind all the time. :*(

I'm not sure how common it is to not have the 13th floor in the U.S. now. The office building I am in does have it, so does the highrise condo a friend of mine lives in.

タクト，

Reminds me of the condo we used to live in in Japan, which did not have the fourth floor. In fact, it didn't even have room #4 on each floor. The room numbers went like 101, 102, 103, 105... Our room was 505, which was really the fourth room of the (physically) fourth floor!

[26] mixiユーザー 07月15日 00:04

Funny that you mention that as me and my Japanese wife talked about this. I understand that in Japan giving expensive gifts is the norm. If you do that in Holland it is seen as bad taste. We also do not give white lilies as they are send when someone dies.

[27] mixiユーザー 07月16日 06:38

In Russia you shouldn't give even number of flowers, because even amount is for the dead.

[28] mixiユーザー 07月16日 11:57

We don't have this problem in Canada. The only thing that matters is individual taste.

[29] mixiユーザー 07月18日 20:07

well it's not exactly the same, but in portugal there used to be a suprstition that we should not write a personal letter with red ink. because the other could interpret it as a death threat. Maybe this happens in other countries too? But currently, I think absolutely no one cares about that anymore. This is just something I was told when I was little, and starting to write my first penpal letters...

[31] mixiユーザー 07月21日 11:15

In America, it's customary to give *ME* many, many gifts.

Or else the underpants gnomes will sneak into your room at night and steal all of your underpants. And then they'll make fun of your embarassing baby pictures and post them on the internet.

Ahahahaha, just kidding. :-P

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