A childhood belief about people

I think it was my neighbor who told me that you had to hold your breath when passing a cemetary or something bad would happen (die, bad luck, possessed, etc). The bad part was that there was a small graveyard between my house & my bus stop that I had to pass every day, twice a day. I faithfully held my breath every time. Until we went to visit one of my mom's friends...who lived across from a very large graveyard. Obviously I had to breathe; and nothing bad happened. So I decided not to believe it anymore.