厄年（やくどし）
Unlucky Age

With yakudoshi (unlucky age), there is a great risk of encountering misfortune or spoiling one’s health, so it is the age when one must be careful. Theyakudoshi age is determined by adding one year to the actual age, which occurs for men at 25, 42 and 60, and for women at 19 and 33. The ages of 42 for men and 33 for women are considered to be particularly bad years, and are called "great calamity". This may be just a superstition, but because there have been many occasions when these ages have actually corresponded with turning points in people’s health or jobs, many people of those ages go to Shinto shrines for exorcism.
- Bunka Language School website


oh wells.