Superstitions

Annie (at A Stitch in Time) is on hiatus this week, so instead of "funnies," I'm going to talk about superstitions.

Let's begin with Friday the 13th.  Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day by many Westerners.  Paraskevidekatriaphobics (say that three times fast, heck say it even once since it's a real mouthful) are those afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.  If you're into other long words no one can pronounce, try triskaidekaphobia, which means fear of the number 13.  A fun fact is Friday the 13th occurs during any month that begins on Sunday.

These fears are part of our upbringing, our own experiences, and irrationality brought on by our surroundings.

Possibly my favorite is a black cat crossing my path.  Why make sure a black cat doesn't cross your path?  It's said that you will have bad luck all day.  Some people believe this superstition arises from old beliefs in witches and their animals, which were often said to take the form of black cats.

Apparently, bad luck comes in threes. Although there seems to be many explanations, Folk Lore Thursday offers these explanations:

There’s not only bad luck in threes but ‘deaths come in threes’. Three candles burning in a room is bad luck and three knocks in the room of a dying person is a harbinger of death. Breakages and tipped over glasses of water come in threes. Three butterflies on a leaf is considered bad luck as is hearing an owl call three times. Then there is the disheartening saying for any woman with many sisters or close female friends: three times a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Further:

‘Three strikes of a match’ is a well-researched superstition of threes, originating from war time. While the background to the superstition is agreed, there’s still debate over which particular war started the superstition.  The bad luck of ‘three strikes of a match’ comes from trench warfare. If a match is alight long enough for three men to light their cigarettes, this is sufficient time to be spotted by the enemy, pin-point their position and launch an attack. On the battlefield, forbidding ‘three strikes of a match’ sounds like sound advice, rather than a superstition.

The web site Phrases.org.UK offers this:

Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish match king, certainly did not create the superstition, as it has been alleged, but he made the widest possible use of it to promote sales. People, innately superstitious, did not mind wasting a match. After all, there might just be something in it! Certainly there were millions of pounds of profit for Mr. Kreuger who thus, by fostering for his own purpose a realistic wartime precaution, was able to increase his sales manifold.

Closely following the above three things going bad at once, is the number 666, often thought to be the sign of Satan and the end of days.

Another superstition is don't walk under a ladder or you'll have bad luck.  Personally, I believe anyone walking under a ladder needs to have their head examined.  How insanely idiotic can the person be who does this?

According to folklore, breaking a mirror is a surefire way to give you seven years of bad luck.

I hate to admit this, but my grandmother believed you should never open an umbrella in the house.  Opening an umbrella indoors is supposed to bring bad luck, though from what I could find, the origins of this belief are murky.  Legends abound, from a story of an ancient Roman woman who happened to have opened her umbrella moments before her house collapsed, to the tale of a British prince who accepted two umbrellas from a visiting king and died within months.  Like the "don't walk under a ladder" superstition, this seems to be a case of a myth arising to keep people from doing something that is slightly dangerous or stupid in the first place.  If only I could ask my grandmother why she abided by this belief.  Maybe it wasn't superstition at all, but common sense.

If a bird flies through an open window, it is widely believed to be bad luck, often signaling a death in the family.   I remember one year when I was putting my window air conditioner in the office window, a bird flew in.  The only bad luck I had was all the bird poop I cleaned up for days after trying to harness that poor, scared bird, while trying to keep my two fur babies from finding it.

They may be cute, trendy, and great for people who can't be bothered to water their plants on a regular basis, but according to the principles of feng shui, spiky plants like cactus and thorny acacia are bad luck and can lead to discord in your home.  It's a good thing I'm not into feng shui because I've killed many cacti (and succulents, too) over the years.

Apparently, if you’re using your rocking chair, no problem.  However, Irish legends state that an empty rocking chair invites evil spirits into a home. And if it’s rocking on its own, apparently you need to look out! The evil spirits are already there, and death could be lying in wait.  If MY rocking chair is rocking, it's because one or the other unnamed gray occupants of my home have just heard me coming and have decided to jump down, run, and hide.

Are you superstitious?  I didn't mention the good superstitions, but those abound, too.  Please let me know in your comments what your thoughts are on superstitions as we celebrate Friday the 13th.