Lucky Pants!
It is time for my annual Lucky Pants Post! I am putting it up early so you beat the rush to the Great Wallmart to bag your boxers. A couple of years ago Ar Yang took me shopping in Nanning for these to ensure my good luck and I still have red stains on my cheeks (embarrassment, not….)….
Ben Ming Nian, or Lucky Zodiac Undies, are a must for anyone who is celebrating their birth year as a Bull in China. Happy Niu (cow) year!!
If you are not a Bull you don’t NEED any lucky pants, but it couldn’t hurt.
I was in a rural area this weekend and learned of a few more superstitions: You never break anything at a potential parent-in-law’s first meet-up because it signals a possible break up in the future and they won’t serve you chicken wings because it might instill a sense of flight in the bridegroom.
And about LUCKY PANTS!: You are supposed to have a healthy supply of these every twelve years and wear them EVERY DAY (pray that they are color fast fabrics: see above) and they will reportedly protect you from ill fortune.
Now if you look closely at the picture above you will see that there is a Chinese symbol on them. It is actually “GOOD LUCK” written upside down. Upside down it means: ” GOOD LUCK is coming” (I heard that)!!
I came across a couple of great stories while researching this post:
One mistranslation for a popular Christmas movie changed “You will get a pink slip for Christmas” (Guess the movie? Know the album?) to “You will get red underpants from Santa Claus” Thanks to the translator’s error, viewers happily envision the hero in a pair of red underpants, not realizing he was fired for Christmas.
And in India a man allegedly prevented a train disaster by waving his red underpants in the air. (Don’t visualize!): Nimai Das was relieving himself near the tracks when he noticed that a part of the track was missing. Shortly afterward, he saw an approaching train.
According to The Indian News Source Sify, he stripped and began waving his red underpants frantically to stop the train. He caught the driver’s attention (imagine that) and the train stopped just a few meters ahead of the broken line.
Maybe he was born in the year of the Bull…??
After this was published the first time many people pointed out to me that I was #1 in Google for months as Professor Lucky Pants. That tag best belongs to a couple of my old poetry professors most certainly born in the year of the dog 😉
China Astrology Asia cartoons humor Luck Resolutions Humor Folkways Folklore Superstitons Chinese Zodiac Year of the Dog
10 responses so far
I got one of this but i’m so not going to wear it..lol..
I think I need to go to china town and get myself some lucky pants!
(hopefully, you’re not speaking bull … fnarr!)
I was born in the year of the ox and happen to have 2 pairs of these boxers, courtesy of my mother-in-law. I had to wear them for my wedding day!
I have the girls’ version of this, only whenever I wear it, Stick asks if I want to get lucky! 😛
Ha…And mom is hoping for what???
Sounds like a post to me 😉
Oh my ….. this made me laugh ( the visual of the guy waving his red underwear to stop a train). Thanks for the fun post! Cheers!
Well a grandson of course.
Although my wife would actually prefer a girl once she comes to America and gets pregnant.
Cool post!
It made me think a little, this is actually my brother’s year too.. I can’t wait to tell him about your article tonight! Sure will have some laughs on our dining hall!
It’s funny really.. and I’m still trying not to visualize the Indian who used his red underpants to wave at the train… whew!!! I wonder…. ooops!
Nice site!
I’m hoping my wife doesn’t make me wear these when my year comes around (I’ve got a while). Though she has told me that most of them are poorly made and will bleed in the wash…but maybe that’s just the quality of underwear in Shenzhen.