7 Meanings of the Myth of Prohibition of Cutting Nails at Night, Short Life to Bringing Disaster

Kapanlagi.com - In Javanese astrology, cutting nails, both fingernails and toenails, at night is considered a taboo or better to be avoided. Those who do this are believed to experience bad events that will happen to them.

Actually, the prohibition of cutting nails at night is not only known to the Javanese people. This taboo action is also still believed by some people in several regions of Indonesia such as Kalimantan, Riau, Bali, and Makassar, with different myths according to the local language.

1. Short Lifespan

In some regions of Indonesia such as Java, Kalimantan, Riau, Bali, and Makassar, cutting nails at night is considered a forbidden myth because it is believed to shorten one's lifespan or bring early death.

2. Bringing Misfortune

Another meaning of the myth of cutting nails at night is that it invites misfortune. The misfortune that occurs can affect oneself or other family members.

3. Bad Omen

Some myths state that long nails bring good luck, while broken nails can be a bad omen. Cutting nails at night is also often avoided because it can become one of the bad omens.

In some cultures, there is also a belief that nail clippings should not be left in an open place as they can be used by supernatural beings to cast curses.

4. Beauty

On the beauty side, there is also a myth that cutting nails at night or on certain days will make them grow faster or stronger.

Although many of these beliefs have no scientific basis, nail myth beliefs remain part of the culture and traditions of communities around the world.

5. Worsening Relationship with Parents

In addition to the mentioned above, cutting nails at night is often believed to strain the relationship with parents. Indeed, this is just a myth and cannot be scientifically proven.

6. Dangerous

Avoiding cutting nails at night is often believed to be an effort to minimize actions that could potentially bring danger to oneself or others.

7. Logical Reasons

Warisman Sinaga and Ramlan Damanik in the book Hata Tongka: Form and Function as a Means of Shaping the Character of the Batak Toba Society (2021) explain that cutting nails at night in the past was prohibited because people had dim lighting. Some of them even had no lighting like oil lamps.

On the other hand, electricity had not yet developed and spread to various parts of the archipelago. Therefore, cutting nails at that time was feared to cause injury to someone's hand. Especially at that time, there were no more modern nail clippers. Based on other sources, it is explained that people in the past used knives or razors.

KLovers, those are a series of myth meanings of cutting nails at night. Of course, this is only used as insight and knowledge. Whether to believe it or not depends on the individual views of KLovers.

(kpl/ums)