Spit Three Times Over Your Left Shoulder

    The custom referred to in this title is the Russian response to a compliment or positive comment and is intended to ward off bad luck.  This is one of the many superstitions found in Russia.  Innocent words or actions can be considered a threat that must be remedied by performing specific rituals.  Superstitions are found in all societies, but in some they may be taken more seriously than others.  For the international marketer it is not just idle curiosity to know a culture's superstitions.  If you are not aware of the culture's superstitions, you run the risk of making terrible mistakes.  For example, the Principal Financial Group has as its logo a triangle, a rather innocuous symbol in the United States.  But in Hong Kong or Korea a triangle is considered a negative shape.

    As you read some of the following superstitions think how a company could unintentionally create a negative advertisement, packaging, or product by not being aware.  Or think how you might inadvertently give the wrong impression.

• Red is popular in Denmark, but represents witchcraft and death in many African countries.
   

• Don't stick chopsticks vertically in a bowl of rice in Japan, because that is done at Japanese funeral dinners to mark the dish that belonged to the dead person.  It is considered a terrible gesture and is believed to be bring bad luck.
   

• Give only odd numbers of flowers to people in Russia; even numbers are for funerals and the dead.
   

• In Russia, never shake hands or kiss over a threshold.  Step inside first, or risk offending your host and also Damovoi, a house spirit that lives on the threshold and can bring bad luck.
   

• In Japan it's important to marry someone with a compatible blood type.
   

• In India, witchcraft, or baanaamathi as it is called, is real among some simple villagers.  Baanaamathi can manifest itself in several ways.  A buffalo may suddenly go into fits of rage, or a crop may abruptly wither.  When this happens, villagers try to find whoever performed the baanaamathi and expel him or her from the village.
   

    Before you leave this Crossing Borders feeling smug, consider the urban myth that continues to circulate in the United States: A businessman meets an attractive woman in a bar.  She buys him a drink.  The next thing he remembers is waking up in an ice-filled bathtub.  "Call 911 or you will die" reads a note on the wall.  He examines himself for injuries and discovers a row of clumsy stitches on his back or a plastic tube or duct tape.  One of his kidneys has been stolen, presumably for sale sale on the black market.  This organ-napping  rumor has been circulating for several years.  New Orleans and Las Vegas often are named as the cities where the fictional crime takes place.  Do people believe it?  Deluged with inquiries, the police in both cities have had to issue statements assuring nervous tourists that the rumors lack even a kernel of truth.

Sources:
Dave Carpenter, "Old Superstitions Retain Hold on Citizens of the New Russia," Associated Press, June 12, 1997; R.J. Rajendra Prasad, "India: Blame it on the Sorceror," The Hindu, Marcch 19, 1997, p. 16; "The Kidney Heist," U.S. News & World Report, October 27, 1997; and Paul Sieveking, "Strange but True: For the Japanese, Love is in the Blood Romantic Types," Sunday Telegraph (London), January 1, 1998.