Superstitions, old wives tales , taboos, and omens.

[Ms Havisham]

no, but apparently if you pull a guinea pigs tail its eyes will fall out:hihi:

 

Never bend down to tie your laces if you have forgotten to put on your underwear

 

These superstitions have all been translated from Chinese and may lose some meaning along the route

[purdyamos]

I recall once reading that you should always put the lid down on the toilet otherwise all your good luck will be flushed away. I always put the lid down as I dint like the idea of a misty faecal spray circulating the room upon flushing...don't know if that actually happens though or not?

 

The thing about it aerosolizing (?) and spreading around in a six feet radius seemed to suddenly become common knowledge a few years back, but was then outed as a myth as I recall. I keep the lid down to keep the cats out - one is as clumsy as she is curious.

 

 

It is interesting where two groups/cultures have opposing superstitions, such as I was always told a black cat crossing your path was good luck but others consider it bad luck. And though in England I think horseshoes are meant to be positioned in a "u" shape for luck in some cultures you hang them in an "n" shape for luck.

 

I think many superstitions can have an element of self-fulfilling prophecy. If you strongly believe something is bad luck, your mind will fill with dark and negative thoughts and fears, if good luck then you'll likely become optimistic. In a roundabout way, our mental states have a subtle but pervasive effect on how things can play out. If you feel nervous you're more likely to be forgetful or have an accident, if you're confident and positive you're more likely to attract favours and goodwill from those around, for instance.

 

I remember reading Wild Swans years back, and the origins of Feng Shui were explained. I can't remember exact details now, but it made perfect sense in the baldest terms of climate and geography, orienting things to maximise light in the winter, keep the heat out in summer, protect the food ('wealth'), have the latrine downwind of the kitchen, etc. Then there were more ingenious ones that wouldn't be so obvious but would have a positive psychological effect. I'm sure there's some rule about not having a mirror near the bed, but anyone who's caught sight of themselves just as they've woken up would understand why that might have an impact on your self esteem.

 

I think a lot of old superstitions probably started off with some obscure practical relevance in a bygone age, even though they'd now seem bizarre.

[whosewho]

If you say goodbye to a friend on a bridge you will never see them again!

[CarolW]

Shoes upon a table

A spider's been killed

Someone broke a looking glass....

 

There's a full moon shining

And some salt's been spilled

You're walking on pavement cracks.....

 

Don't know what's going to come to pass.....

 

Now you know the Devil's got your number

You know He's going to find you

You know He's right behind you

He's peering through the window and

He's creeping down the hall........

 

From "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell

[artisan]

The lad with a hole in his pocket feels cocky all day.

As true today as it ever was.

[the_rudeboy]

If you say goodbye to a friend on a bridge you will never see them again!

The chances of this are significantly increased if they jump off.

[artisan]

The chances of this are significantly increased if they jump off.

 

I was just thinking of this.

Why would you be saying goodbye to someone, while stood on a bridge?

 

Unless that bridge was a gangway to a ship. in which case, in early days, the person was probably to be gone to foreign climes, and be gone for ever.

 

Or even earlier, the division of counties (rivers usually), when serfs used to run away for better conditions.

[Plain Talker]

My mother's mother was very superstitious.

 

She would iron the fold-marks out of the sheets before she put them on the bed, because they made a cross-shape, and she believed that the next person to lay in that bed with that marking on the sheet would die (scratches head in an incredulous manner)

 

She wouldn't allow knives to be crossed, as it "meant cross words would be exchanged"

 

f you dropped a piece of cutlery, it was bad luck to pick it up yourself, someone else was supposed to do it... (that's just barmy)

 

if you put your clothes on inside out or back to front, you had to leave them like that... "Change your clothes, you change your luck...!"

 

there's others I remember being mooted...

 

throwing salt over your shoulder if you spill it... You can't take salt from one house to another... (eh? what?)

[whosewho]

Maggy Thatcher doesnt work for me because you should use full names, hence Margaret Thatcher, which would actually mean she has 16

 

but oh well, its Friday the 13th this week, anyone looking forward to it? I am, 13 is lucky for me, and so is 7 (best of both worlds) cause its my birth day/month

 

I think that Thatcher sits very comfortably with the rest of the people in that list.

 

Also have you never heard:-

 

"It will be worse for you and me,

As bad as it could be,

If 13 forms the shortened name,

And surname begins with T"

[artisan]

My mother's mother was very superstitious.

 

She would iron the fold-marks out of the sheets before she put them on the bed, because they made a cross-shape, and she believed that the next person to lay in that bed with that marking on the sheet would die (scratches head in an incredulous manner)

 

She wouldn't allow knives to be crossed, as it "meant cross words would be exchanged"

 

f you dropped a piece of cutlery, it was bad luck to pick it up yourself, someone else was supposed to do it... (that's just barmy)

 

if you put your clothes on inside out or back to front, you had to leave them like that... "Change your clothes, you change your luck...!"

 

there's others I remember being mooted...

 

throwing salt over your shoulder if you spill it... You can't take salt from one house to another... (eh? what?)

 

They believed in all that crap though PT.

I used to live over in Hull, for a time down the famous Hessle Road.

The old fishermens area.

Superstition down there was rife.

To say the word 'rat' inside a house was deadly.

When I first arrived I said that word to describe some one and the entire house went silent.

It was carefully explained to me that it was not a word for gentle company down Hessle Road.

Shoes on the table, you name it, it was bad news.

But better people you could not find in the entire world.

 

Their lives were ruled by chance, and they took those chances.

The superstition was their way of offsetting that chance.