All are told to be very careful about their health and daily conduct when they approach their calamity age so that whatever might befall them will be lighter and easier to bear.
When one in any yaku age is laid down with sickness for two or three weeks and recovers, the whole family rejoices that his calamity year has ended with such slight illness and holds a celebration of Yaku-otoshi (calamity dropping). Losses of little amounts of money, insignificant injuries, and such minor ill fortunes are welcomes as yaku-otoshi, when they happen to men or women of yaku ages.
This belief of having calamities at fixed ages is not without ground. These ages are important stages in the life of both men and women, physically and mentally. So the belief is to warn them of their danger years and so that they may be careful.
In the old days, yaku age persons used to throw away some of their clothing or other articles in the distant fields or mountains in the belief that they might carry away their calamities.