John Bingham wrote:

juansweetpotato wrote:

taabarang wrote:

StroppyChops wrote:It's my understanding that many Khmer don't understand how pregnancy occurs, and are highly sceptical when informed. Is this so?

The local rural schools have introduced sex education classes at the grade school level. It's the usual basic stuff about Mr. Sperm meets Ms. Egg, but exactly what facilitated their roundez-vous remains a carefully guarded mystery by a shy and giggling school marm. I really doubt that there is anyone that naive who doesn't know, but if there is they're probably in Cambodia.

Haha!
And Ireland. I was at art school with someone who was a district nurse in Ireland in the late 80's early 90's, she said that several people came to her asking why they couldn't get pregnant and looking for help. One of these couples was fairly overweight and it was discovered they were fucking in the belly button Another in the ass!! Nothing quite like a good Catholic education, ay Bingham?

That's part of an old joke you dipshit. There are no districts in Ireland. Nothing like a bad comprehensive education is there? Semi-literate rascist twat.

She was Irish and a friend not heard that 'old joke', she was deadly serious. Apparently you are too . Get over it.

@Samouth. I can understand that doing certain things at night are believed to be dangerous - hammering nails or cutting your nails in the dark can lead to accidents.

What about fertility ? I'm sure there must be at least 100 different ways to make sure you have a baby ? (Whatever they are, they seem to be working. )

In our village, married women go to the temple and pray to Buddha for a child(konsoum))and sometimes they go to a kru khmai to prey, but the nature of the prayer is unknown to my sources.

Pregnant women must:

get out of bed 1st in the morning
finish eating rice before husband
not shower at night

and 1,000,000 other things.

Eating egg yolks with sugar is supposed to give baby white skin was the latest one I heard at the weekend.

#monthsofthisshittogo

love reading these, i love cambodias little beliefs and superstitions, the sillier they are the cuter they are, i'm prone to do them as well, ones in england like walking under ladders (i work on construction sites so this can be very difficult sometimes) walking over 3 drains, opening umbrellas indoors, putting new shoes on a table, braking a mirror, black cats crossing your paths, throwing salt over your shoulder if spilt, and probably my favourite two which ill elaborate more for the khmers on the forums...

Touching Wood..
if i was to say something, to express that ive been experiencing good luck and/or something that hasn't happened yet, for example "ive never had a khmer girl steal from my room" i would then fear that ive "tempted fate" and the chances of it happening are now more likely, so i would then shout out "touch wood" and tap on the nearest wooden surface to cancel it out and prevent it from happening... this is from old english folklaw from pagan times when people believed that there were good and evil spirits, fairies and mystical creatures that lived in the forest, people would knock on the wood when requesting good luck and also to distract the evil spirits from hearing their speech/thoughts/wishes and intervening with them with their bad intentions and bring bad luck.
in modern times if wood is not available people would jokingly often tap their Head (a mild insult in england is to say someone is stupid they might say "as thick as a plank"[of wood]) so touching their head is like the same as touching wood whilst also joking calling themselves stupid.. another is to touch his manhood (penis area) as slang for the penis when aroused is called having "wood" so again is jokingly referred to as that as a replacement

Another is Saluting a Magpie.. (a magpie is a black and white bird found in england)..
if youre going about your day and you spot a magpie that is alone, then you must Salute him and quote the phrase "Good morning Mr. Magpie, how is your wife today"... this is done because seeing a lonely magpie is seen as an omen for bad luck, because magpies mate for life, so if you see a magpie that is alone he has either never found a mate or has lost his mate, so in order to not bring on the magpies omen of bad luck you would greet him with a "good morning mr magpie, how is your wife today" to make out that the magpie still has his mate and isnt alone..
this superstition comes with an old rhyme and is normally recited if you see 2 or more magpies and the number of magpies you see brings different kind of luck...
One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told...

the very first written version of the rhyme was found in a note around 1780 from in Lincolnshire (my county/province) where the lyrics actually were "one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a wedding and four for death"


thought some people might find them last 2 interesting

If a pregnant lady sees a lot of a beautiful child while pregnant, her baby will resemble that child.

Who could forget this beaut?


[The Old Forum link removed.]

Samouth, if you think of any more I would love to hear them. They are very interesting to me. This also got me thinking about the whole reincarnation thing. Do Khmer's generally believe that when a baby is born it can only have been a Khmer or Buddhist in the previous life, or does it not specify between races/origins? I was just wondering as I brought this up with my girlfriend, and she was unsure. Just wondering what the feeling is when a barang is thrown into the mix. Pretty strong feelings about other pregnancy things, but this didn't seem to bother her in the least.


@Kampong Spooner, I feel your pain brother.

Interesting post Jamie. Was trying to write a similar one but you did a much better job. Never knew all that about 4 for death either. I would have thought there would have been more feed back from the Khmer members on the UK stuff?

Of course this isn't a belief just parents trying to stop their kids from learning about the birds and the bees. My gf's mother told her that she would get pregnant if a boy touched her. Needless to say she ran away from plenty boys and actually came at one with a knife haha before she figured it out. She never told me when she did figure it out though. It was at least into her mid teens.