Silly Superstitions

Mike said:
Do you have any?

When I was a wee boy, many, many years ago, my granny
stopped me from putting my sock and shoe on one foot
while the other was still bare!

"Bad luck", she said, socks first on both feet then shoes.

I have stuck to that system all of my life.

Mike.
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Go check the barns in Portland, Maine and West Virginia, there abouts. Farmers freshen up the odd symbols on their barns for many years.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/hex-s...nia-mountain-mama-in-2022--27162403993238517/
 

BC Flash said:
The only "superstition" I follow: no sweeping on New Years Day (Chinese) - I love a reason NOT TO CLEAN HOUSE!
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Hah!

Now, diverging...

We bought a robovac about 18 months ago. They are quite the thing, for many reasons. There is intense competition driving price down and the products are surprisingly good. They are NOT like regular vacuums, but do a "good enough" job, and they do it every day at the same time if you want.

We have cats who shed, so I *do* want...
 

Pappy said:
Just a couple I still use. Won’t walk under a ladder and knock on wood. My wife won’t pick up a coin, on the ground, unless it’s heads up. Me, I don’t care if it’s standing on edge..I’ll pick it up.
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Yes!

In fact, it's extremely bad ju-ju to NOT pick up coins/money!!!

It's also bad luck to not clean your plate or to otherwise throw away food.
 
Pepper said:
Those rituals are OCD. I used to not step on the cracks in the sidewalk. If, when going down the hallway I bumped a shoulder I'd have to bump the other shoulder on purpose. I outgrew these habits.
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LOL I remember I used to think . step on a crack you break your mother's back when I saw cracks on the sidewalk. I never took them seriously but they would run through my mind 😃
 
Pepper said:
I was taught not to say aloud good things because I would give it a Kinehora, which my people pronounced 'Kunahura' and means
"Kinehora is a contraction of three Yiddish words: kayn ayin hara, literally “not (kayn) the evil (hara) eye (ayin).” The kayn comes from the German for “no” and the ayin hara from Hebrew. The evil eye is one of the world’s oldest and most widely held superstitions. Its place in Jewish lore is rooted in classical Judaism and Jewish folk religion dating to the Bible, the Talmud and rabbinic Midrash. There’s a rich history, particularly from the Middle Ages onward, of often bizarre and elaborate folk practices—invocations such as kinehora being a rather tame example—aimed at thwarting the malicious intent or effect of the evil eye."
https://momentmag.com/jewish-word-kinehora/
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When i took a Mexican Folk Medicine Course in College in the 90s the prof talked of similar belief---he cautioned us against telling parents their baby or small child was handsome, beautiful, smart or talented--because there is a folk belief that evil spirits will be come jealous and harm the child. What is more they will not feel kindly towards you for invoking that jealousy.
 
Most superstitions are a result of people making erroneous cause/effect connections. Best example that comes to my mind was my Hindu first MIL fussing at their resident Parrot for singing--saying the bird was causing the rain that usually did indeed follow. Thing is my in-laws' farm was almost right on Equator in Guyana, S. America--epic tropic heat most of the time. But as anywhere the air temp and pressure changes as rain systems move in, no doubt the bird like many humans in such climates, felt some relief when rain was approaching and sang its joy.

But not all of them are errors---it's wise to check out any ladder or scaffolding before walking under---could be dangers to you or if you stumbled/bumped something a danger to someone working.

i've said before superstitions are born of same human curiosity and need to 'understand/explain' events as science was. People observed and made deductions---some were so consistent as to become the foundations of astronomy. And surely some religious dietary restrictions sprang from observations, because in pre-refrigeration days they made a lot of sense. But some were more like my MIL's.
 
We had a Marine in our air wing support group that wouldn’t change his socks from the time he got his orders until after the mission was completed. If he came into a meeting at pre dawn and took off his boots, someone always had a bottle of cologne to throw in his boots, so when he put them back on, he smelled even worse. That only happened twice and after that, he never took off his boots again.
 
Nemo2 said:
Something to do with the Knights Templar and the Cathars IIRC.
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The story that I heard about why Friday the 13th became thought of as unlucky comes from the Christian religion. For example, in the Bible, Judas, a person who is said to have betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest at the Last Supper. Also in the Bible, many unfortunate things happened on Fridays. So it made sense that people who read the Bible got nervous around Friday the 13th.

People who are super afraid on Friday the 13th might have a condition called triskaidekaphobia, which is a fear of the number 13. For most people though, being afraid of Friday the 13th is just a superstition, something that we can have fun pretending to fear because we know, well, there’s really nothing to fear. But if you want to cross your fingers just in case, that’s fine too! And if Friday 13th freaks you there's not long to wait for your spooks. January 2023 has a Friday 13th.
 
Tossing your hat on the bed, bad luck
Knock wood
Never give a knife as a gift unless the receiver gives you some money in exchange, any amount.
Never give a wallet as a gift without some money in it.
Never give pearls as a gift; they bring tears.
Dropping silverware: knife=man, fork=woman spoon=child
 
**I still put on socks first and take off both shoes before socks.
**Always knock on wood
**This one has waned a little. Used to hold breath when driving pass a cemetery while looking straight ahead. :ROFLMAO:
**Still spin around when I cross paths with a black cat
 
Our superstitions center around the New Year. On New Year’s Eve, we always leave money outside and bring it in the next morning (to keep money coming into the house throughout the year.) On New Years Day we have pork roast, sauerkraut, and black eyed peas for good luck.
 
My mother generated some of her own superstitions, one of which had OCD overtones. You know how many people try their house door lock when leaving to make sure it engaged? Usually it’s one or two tries, then done. Well, my mother would try the closed doorknob for as many times as the number of years that she was married!

Weird, huh? This took some time as my parents were married for a lot of years. Their marriage wasn’t an especially happy one, either…🙀
 
When walking on a sidewalk, I won't consciously step on a crack. My late husband used to laugh at me, saying I was always doing this little dance down the sidewalk, avoiding cracks.

I won't put a hat on the bed. Never, never, never.

My grandmother had a lot of superstitions. She thought that seeing a penny and not picking it up meant you didn't want good luck.
 
My sister told me that my mom had a superstition that said you shouldn't wipe off a table into your hand. Know how you wipe a table with a wet cloth and then sort of sweep all the crumbs and stuff into your other hand? That will bring you bad luck, especially financially. It's like giving yourself the crumbs of life; like literally asking for second-best.
 
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