Superstitions

RAINBOWCOLOURS

New Member
Superstitions, like most folklore, are sometimes useful, sometimes ridiculous, but always interesting.

For example, did you know that you are in luck if a buzzard lands on your house on a Monday, you’ll receive money soon.
But don’t cross a river on Monday–that’s unlucky.
To avoid toothaches, never wash on a Tuesday.
And to ensure a long life, don’t rub soap on your skin on a Friday or get a haircut in March.
But whatever you do, never sneeze on a Sunday, or the Devil will be with you all week.
But do thank your lucky stars once in a while–that’s a sign of good fortune.

I received the above today in one of my incoming e-mails from 'The Old Farmers Almanac':-
http://www.almanac.com/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Therefore, on this same subject of superstitions I have also found some more out of curiosity:-

ACORN
An acorn should be carried to bring luck and ensure a long life.
An acorn at the window will keep lightning out

AMBER
Amber beads, worn as a necklace, can protect against illness or cure colds.

AMBULANCE
Seeing an ambulance is very unlucky unless you pinch your nose or hold your breath until you see a black or a brown dog.
Touch your toes
Touch your nose
Never go in one of those
Until you see a dog.

APPLE
Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.
An apple a day
Keeps the doctor away.
If you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.

BABY
To predict the sex of a baby: Suspend a wedding band held by a piece of thread over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in an oval or circular motion the baby will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy.

BASEBALL BAT
Spit on a new bat before using it for the first time to make it lucky

BED
It's bad luck to put a hat on a bed.
If you make a bedspread, or a quilt, be sure to finish it or marriage will never come to you
Placing a bed facing north and south brings misfortune.
You must get out of bed on the same side that you get in or you will have bad luck.
When making the bed, don't interrupt your work, or you will spend a restless night in it.

BEE
If a bee enters your home, it's a sign that you will soon have a visitor. If you kill the bee, you will have bad luck, or the visitor will be unpleasant.
A swarm of bees settling on a roof is an omen that the house will burn down.

BELL
The sound of bells drives away demons because they're afraid of the loud noise.
When a bell rings, a new angel has received his wings.

BIRD
A bird in the house is a sign of a death.
If a robin flies into a room through a window, death will shortly follow.

BIRTH
Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
is fair and wise, good and gay.

BIRTHDAY CAKE
If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake with the first puff you will get your wish.

BLARNEY STONE
The Blarney Stone is a stone set in the wall of the Blarney Castle tower in the Irish village of Blarney. Kissing the stone is supposed to bring the kisser the gift of persuasive eloquence (blarney.)

BLUE
To protect yourself from witches, wear a blue bead.
Touch blue
And your wish
Will come true.......

http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html
 

Mama San

Administrator
Rainbow wrote....

BABY
To predict the sex of a baby: Suspend a wedding band held by a piece of thread over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in an oval or circular motion the baby will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy.


BABIES? :)

Heaven help her if she is carrying twins, triplets, etc., etc.!!:D

God bless,
Mama san
 

RAINBOWCOLOURS

New Member
Hi Mama san

You wrote:-

'Heaven help her if she is carrying twins, triplets, etc., etc.!!'

Yes - I agree with you - it would come as a total shock! lol!

My life is quite hectic at the moment, so I do not have much time for in depth internet research, but I did find this Old Wives Tale, which reads as follows:-

'Pick up a single key. If you pick it up by the round part you will have a boy. If you pick up the long narrow part you will have a girl. If you pick it up in the middle twins are on the way!'

Therefore with this one you just ask someone you know who is pregnant to pick up a key, which you have already laid on a table, or whatever, without telling them the reason why.

Reference:-
http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/pregnancy_information/old_theories.htm

Warm wishes

Rainbowcolours
 

GlimmerMan

Huge Member
I'm like Billy in Predator - afraid of no man!

"There's something waiting for us Major... and it ain't no man!"
 

RAINBOWCOLOURS

New Member
I suppose those who believe in certain superstitions and depending on the type of superstition, where say that superstition might act as a form of warning then in turn those same people might actually develop a sense of fear of what might happen in their lives.

Yet what are the origins of superstitions, and where they originally meant to induce fear, and/or was it just simply a case that certain people began to observe/notice the continual connection between certain events?

Superstition is a much simpler matter: everything is connected to everything in ways unbeknown to us. We can only witness the results of these subterranean currents and deduce the existence of such currents from the observable flotsam. The planets influence our lives, dry coffee sediments contain information about the future, black cats portend disasters, certain dates are propitious, certain numbers are to be avoided. The world is unsafe because it can never be fathomed. But the fact that we - limited as we are - cannot learn about a hidden connection - should not imply that it does not exist.
http://samvak.tripod.com/supers.html

The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs

THE true origin of superstition is to be found in early man's effort to explain Nature and his own existence; in the desire to propitiate Fate and invite Fortune; in the wish to avoid evils he could not understand and in the unavoidable attempt to pry into the future. From these sources alone must have sprung that system of crude notions and practices still obtaining among savage nations; and although in more advanced nations the crude system gave place to attractive mythology, the moving power was still the same; man's interpretation of the world was equal to his ability to understand its mysteries no more, no less. For this reason the superstitions which, to use a Darwinian word, persist, are of special interest, as showing a psychological habit of some importance. Of this, more anon.

The first note in all superstitions is that of ignorance. Take three representative and widely different cases. The first is a Chinaman living about one thousand years before Christ. He has before him the "Book of Changes," and is about to divine the future by geometrical figures; the second is a Roman lady, bent on the same object, but using the shapes of molten wax dropped into water; the third is a Stock Exchange speculator seated before a modern clairvoyant in Bond Street, earnestly seeking light on the future of his big deal in Brighton A. The operating cause here is a desire to know the future, and, so long as man is man, so long will he either rely on the divinations of the past, or invent new ones more in keeping with mental science. But ignorance exists in several varieties, and one of them has to do not with the future, but with the well-established present; in other words, an accepted doctrine may be based on a misinterpretation of the facts. As Trenchard remarks in his Natural History of Superstition, "Man's curiosity is in excess of his capacity to interpret Nature and life." Thus early man attributed a living spirit to everything--to his fellows, to the lower animals, to the trees, the mountains, and the rivers. Probably these conclusions were as good as his intelligence would allow, but they became the mental stock-in-trade of all races, and were handed down from one generation to another, constituting a barrier to be broken down before newer and truer ideas of life could prevail. And the same contention applies equally to the superstition of the moment. The woman who will not pay a call unless she wears a particular amulet, or the man who starts up from a table of thirteen, his face blanched and his blood cold, are just as truly, though not in the same degree, the victims of ignorance as the animist who tried to propitiate the anger of the spirit of the stream. Ignorance is the atmosphere in which alone such superstitions can live.

Allied with ignorance is fear, which is the second element calling for notice. Fear, too, has its varieties, some of them both natural and justifiable. If I visit an electrical power-house and know nothing of its machinery and appointments, I am very chary what I touch and prefer to keep my hands to myself lest I make a mistake. Rational fear, however, is the offspring of a reasoned knowledge of danger. It is irrational fear which forms the bogey of superstition. The misfortune of early man was to have experiences more numerous and subtle than he could understand; to his power of analysis they were altogether unyielding; and yet his unrestrained imagination demanded a working theory of some kind, and he got one, grounded in ignorance and fear. An earthquake is a phenomenon calculated to strike terror into the heart of all but the strongest man; no wonder then that the primitive mind invented all sorts of ideas about spirits of the under world, and ascribed to gloomy caverns the possession of dragons and other fearsome enemies of the race. The thunder, the lightning and the tempest; the blight which spoiled the sources of food; the sudden attack of mysterious sickness, and a hundred other fatalities were to him more than merely natural forces busily employed in working out their natural destiny; they were Powers to be propitiated. That is the third note of the superstitious mind; its effort to propitiate intelligent and semi-intelligent forces by suitable beliefs, rites, ceremonies, and penances. Where ignorance and fear beget a sense of danger, knowledge, even defective knowledge, is always equal to the task of inventing a way of escape.

But if these be the prime origins of superstition, what are the secondary origins?
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/osc/index.htm
 

KimonoSoul

Wacky on the Junk
When I was a kid, my great grandmother used to yell at me for rocking an empty rocking chair with my toe. She always said it was bad luck to rock an empty rocking chair. I think I heard/read somewhere that doing so supposedly invites "evil spirits" to have a seat. Anybody ever hear of that?
 

ORANGATUANG

Wildfire
Nup i think some of those unexplained things that happen should be just that left unexplained you shouldnt root around with the unknown as an friend found out many moons ago she and her sister were fooling around with one of those 'spooky' boards and ever since then its been bad news ....
 
Top