Name : Ayu Nuri Fransiska

NIM : 16020154018
Class : Western Culture and Society

The Social Norm of Yawning

One cultural norm that I want to try doing it with the right thing consciously is
covering mouth to yawn in the public. When I am really tired of getting my busy activity,
sometimes I usually yawn in the public with no covering my mouth unconsciously, but
sometimes no. I think it needs the strong aim for changing this completely, because it is like
kind of discipline lesson which people usually cannot do because of less knowledge. The
main reflection that I get is people will not see me with shockness when I can manage my
yawning through covering my mouth, and I will not feel ashamed because my bad habit is
changed.
I have the funny story in the last week, when I was joining the first meeting with my
ESC group of this semester. One of the male members, I am sorry I cannot describe him
specifically for keeping his identity, has ever yawned once in our meeting. I felt pity of him,
because the other members laughed him while he was yawning in front of us without
covering his mouth. Luckily, he was an innocent man, so he did not take a rude of it. Besides,
he also produced the strange sound like 'whoa' with the strong volume, and it made the other
members became shocked suddenly. I think it was of his unconsciousness and he need more
knowledge of its right manner. In that time, I keep my mouth for not appearing my laugh,
because I felt pity of him. Then, I decided to give him some knowledge about this after the
meeting was finished. I used my memory in the past about my spiritual teacher saying as a
reference for giving him precious massage. I told him that when we yawned, we should cover
our mouth, because according to Islam teaching, the ghost/evil will laugh us and it will make
our status became debased of them in that time. In the next meeting he could control his yawn
by covering his mouth, and I was little bit satisfied enough of it.
In brief, we should keep this cultural norm of covering our mouth to yawn in the
public, because it has three positive sides for us. The first is we will safe by God, for avoiding
us from the ghost/evil who want to be debased our status. The second is we can feel like not
ashamed, because we will not get the shocked reaction from people surround us, like laughed,
judged, etc. The third is we will not disturbance the people who do their activity by hearing
our yawning sound or getting our exhaled breath, and it can make us to show our politeness
to interact with the others in the public.