Western people have an interesting belief in touching wood to avoid being jinxed when they say certain things. I've found it to be rather amusing at first, but I've found that I've picked up the habit myself lately! It's quite different to the Chinese tradition really. Because we all know that we are not supposed to say bad things that might happen. For example, if you say something like: "But what if I get hit by a car?" You are sure to get told off by your parents. As a child, we didn't understand what was so bad about giving these hypotheticals. In Western culture, it seems to work quite the opposite way. You are meant to touch something made out of wood if you say something good about yourself! For example, this most typically happens when you say something like: "Hey! I haven't been sick at all all year!" At that point, you have to touch wood! The superstitious belief seems to be that, by saying that, you are jinxing yourself to get sick soon! Whether that's true or not, is, of course, very questionable. I've simply picked up the habit now, and I was even thinking of getting a wooden decoration to hang in the car! Becasue I tend to say things like that on the road a lot, and there is nothing made out of wood in a car! haha --

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