Taking A Picture With Just 3 People is Cursed: Would the Third Person Die?

Last Updated on 2021-01-28 , 6:58 pm

How many times have you found yourself taking a picture with just 3 people? We’ve all been caught in this situation one time or another.

Taking A Picture

You pose to take a picture with your other two friends, and JUST when you’re about to click, someone comes up to you and says, “Eh, eh, you siao or what?! How can you take picture with three people only! Then one of you will die leh. Come come I stand with you guys and save you.”

You might even wonder if it’s a cursed picture.

And there goes one otherwise perfect picture of you and your best friends. Now you have another guy who’s not even supposed to be in the pic. The memory is there, but it’s kinda spoilt, isn’t it?

Is it A Cursed Picture?

Some people say that the person who stands in the middle of a picture of three will die first. Let’s take a look at what historians have to say about that.

For starters, this superstition is actually part of the great Asian heritage. Japan and its neighbours in Asia (including us!) believe that it is unlucky and deadly (literally) to snap a picture in threes, but much of it is just hokum.

It still doesn’t stop people from having second thoughts while taking a picture with other two people. You wouldn’t want some part of the curse to be true and end up in a coffin now, right?

A writer for LA Times once wrote about the three-in-a-pic, saying that in Vietnam, the superstition has its roots in paganism, local tradition, and ancestor worship, as well as a mix of Confucian ideology and Buddhism.

Japan has even featured the superstition/curse in its anime, although this time it’s not a person who dies, but a goat instead. It returns to haunt an estate in the animation of Urusei Yatsura.

To top it all off, there are even some tribes in Africa that believe that using cameras can steal your soul.

Well, those days it was all about cameras. But what about the fact that we hardly lug cameras around, and take loads of selfies with pals using our smartphones?

Here’s how the evolution of taking photos with a smartphone instead of a camera is killing the myth. Believe it or not, the younger gens aren’t really bothered by this superstition anymore.

If at all, you would find that it’s your Ah Ma or dad (and you probably) who still think about the curse, and distance yourselves from a picture with three head-counts.

What do you do if you still wanna take a pic with your pals, want to stay safe? Try to get an even number of people into your pic. In other words, make a 3 into a 3+1.

How do you do this, exactly? For one, grab the closest person next to you and tag them into the photo so you’re all safe.

And if that can’t be done, stage a photo bomb. Make sure there’s someone (or more!) who’s somehow snapped in the picture with you to cancel out all the bad vibes.

After all, it is always, ALWAYS better to be safe than sorry!

But remember: the “curse” is with a camera. You taking a picture with a phone? Then there’s no curse.

This is how to argue with superstition, no?

Featured Image: Tom Wang / Shutterstock.com