The Most Dangerous Games: The Nail Cutting Ritual, Or, Why You Shouldn’t Cut Your Nails At Night

Previously: The Journey Of The Spirit Ritual.

Have you ever heard that you shouldn’t cut your nails at night? If you do, it’s said that you might invite something… untoward into your home or life. Or, viewed from another perspective: Have you ever heard that cutting your fingernails at night might allow you to see a ghost?

The former positions cutting your nails at night as a superstition — a taboo to be avoided, so as to keep you safe from the dangers of the other side. The latter, however, positions cutting your nails at night as a ritual — a practice to be performed in order to give you access to the other side.

For that reason, I’ve come to think of it as the Nail Cutting Ritual. You may feel differently, though, depending on your point of view.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

The version of the ritual/superstition we’re going to look at today is Thai in origin, although similar superstitions exist in a number of other Asian countries, regions, and cultures — among them Korea, Japan, the Philippines,  and India. Precisely why you’re meant to avoid cutting your nails at night might differ from place to place, with the consequences holding varying degrees of severity; sometimes it’s said to invite bad luck or ill fortune, for instance, while others, it’s said to bring about a death in the family.

In this sense, it’s got a few things in common with the idea of whistling at night: It might allow you to peek beyond the veil… or it might bring you ruin. Pick your poison, as they say.

The superstition of not cutting your nails at night seems to have been passed around for some time in Thai folklore; these days, it’s generally accepted that the real reason for the warning was, historically, safety: A lack of light due to limited or no electricity and a lack of tools beyond actual knives meant that cutting your nails could, in fact, be quite dangerous at the best of times — and under these conditions, nighttime was very, very far from the best of times.

In its ritual-based format, however, the practice of cutting your nails at night in order to see ghosts saw a spike in popularity among the Extremely Online crowd in the mid-2010s through to the early 2020s. It’s a simple ritual to perform, too, which no doubt has contributed to its popularity — especially as interest in ritual games has grown globally and rules for these types of games has spread widely. (Thanks, internet.)

So, if you’re feeling daring: Here’s how to play the Nail Cutting Ritual.

But, as always… play at your own risk.

Players:

• One Principal.

Requirements:

• A pair of nail clippers or nail scissors.
• A piece of black cloth. (See: Additional Notes.)
• A time-keeping device.
• Somewhere safe to sleep.
• A sense of bravery.

Instructions:

Cutting Your Nails:

1. Begin on any day.
2. Keep an eye on your time-keeping device. Wait until it is between the hours of 10pm and midnight.
3. When the time is right, take the nail clippers or scissors and use them to cut your nails.
4. When you cut, you must do so in a particular fashion.
   • First, on your right hand, cut your nails in this order: Pinky finger; then thumb; then ring finger; then index finger; then middle finger.
   • Then, on your left hand, cut your nails in the same order: Pinky finger; then thumb; then ring finger; then index finger; then middle finger.
5. When you have cut the nails on all of your fingers in this manner, gather up the clippings, place them in the center of the black cloth, and fold the cloth up. Do NOT allow any of the nail clippings to escape from the cloth.
6. Bring the bundle of cloth and nail clippings to the westernmost area of your playing space. Place the bundle here. Make sure that wherever you put it down, it is unlikely to be disturbed.
7. Now: Go to bed. Sleep, if you can.

Cutting Their Nails:

1. Sometime in the night, you may hear a sound drifting up out of the darkness: The sound of nails being clipped. They are not your nails. You are not doing the clipping. But someone — there, in the darkness — may be clipping their nails. If they are, you will hear it.
2. You may open your eyes if you like, and look — but look carefully. While you look, remain still. Remain silent.
3. Let them clip their nails in peace.

Burying The Nails:

1. The next morning, retrieve the bundle of cloth and unwrap it.
2. Inside, you will find a small pile of nail clippings.
3. This pile is NOT the pile you placed in the cloth the night before. These nail clippings did NOT come from your own fingers.
4. Thank your visitor for their time.
5. Then, bury the nail clippings they have left in exchange for your own in the ground.
6. Do NOT simply throw them or the cloth away. Do NOT burn them or the cloth.
7. Bury them.
8. Bury them… or else.

Additional Notes:

There is no specific location in which this game must be played; however, most players attempt it within their own homes. Your home is, therefore, the recommended location.

The black cloth should not be a new piece of cloth. It should be old — something that has been used before, for something else. It is not important what it was used for, or why — only that it have been useful, previously.

When you bury the nail clippings you have been left the next day, you need not bury them near your home; nor need you bury them far away from your home. You may bury them anywhere, so long as they are buried in the ground — in the earth.

Regarding The Time:

The time-keeping device is solely for making sure that you begin the game between the hours of 10pm and midnight.

Do NOT attempt to begin this game OUTSIDE of those hours.

At best, you will simply not achieve the results you desire.

At worst…

…Well.

There are reasons many say that you should never, ever cut your nails at night.

You don’t want to find out what those reasons are the hard way, now, do you?

***

Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!

[Photos via candoyi, дмитрий1511, StockSnap/Pixabay]